Gimparoo!

In the Script-Fu menu, there is an option to add a bevel, but I’ve found it to be lacking, so I found a better way to create a bevel which I’m sharing with you here.
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In place of actual content, I have rearranged my existing content to make it more accessible. I hope you like it.

Okay, last time I showed you how to bring out detail in highlighted areas. Today, I’m going to show you the opposite, bringing detail out of darkened areas. I’m also going to show you a different way of creating this luminosity mask that I think is a little more versatile. If you’d like to see the Photoshop way of doing things, the tutorial I’m adapting is from planetphotoshop.com and is called The Shadowy Face of the Luminosity Mask.

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This is part one of a two part series on luminosity masking. The original Photoshop tutorial can be found on planetphotoshop.com and is entitled: Recovering Lost Highlight Detail, by Jim Patterson. Luminosity can be utilized for a great number of color and shade adjustments. Jim covers the basics, which should give you a good idea of the types of things you can do.

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My very first tutorial was an adaptation of a Photoshop tutorial on how to make one of those trendy violator badges. Well it turned out pretty ugly looking because the GFig plugin for the GIMP doesn’t anti-alias the lines. Much discussion was had on whether or not I should include Inkscape tutorials on this blog to make up for the shortcomings of the GIMP, and I decided that I would give it a shot.

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Today I’m going to touch on some very simple yet extremely effective things you can do to make any photo look better. This is an adaptation of the Photo Edit 101 tutorial done by Worth1000.com user Dallas_TX.

You can use these basic guidelines to enhance just about any photo. In the future, I’ll use this post as a reference on what to do before starting whatever it is I’ll be writing about that day. So, anyway, let’s get started. Pick an image you want to enhance and open it up. I’ll be using another CC licensed image originally posted by flickr user Munzerr.

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Note there are several updates to this entry at the bottom.

Today’s tutorial is an adaptation of Christopher Phin’s Fake Model Photography tutorial for Photoshop CS, and it’s all about faking tilt-shift photography.

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What I’m wondering is, should I include Inkscape as a tool for the tutorials on this blog? It’s another open-source application which does vector paths a lot better than the GIMP’s GFig plugin and I could make things like the Web 2.0 violators look a million times better. I’d still try to do everything here with the GIMP whenever possible, only using Inkscape when I felt it could accomplish the task in a way the GIMP could not.

I don’t know how to do one of the fancy polls, so just post a comment with your opinion please. Thank you.

Update: It seems like the overwhelming majority would appreciate some Inkscape content. Havoc makes a very good point though. I’m a very busy guy. I’m a husband and a father. I have a full time job, and I am also taking a couple of courses at the local University. My time is Precious. However, one of the benifits of my job is that when things are going well, I can pretty much research and do what I please. I’m not terribly familiar with Inkscape, but since people (including myself) feel that it is a valuable addition, I will make an effort to include it when appropriate. After all, one of the reasons I started this project is to learn new things. So far, there’s really only been one post where it would have made a difference in my opinion, so there may not be much call for it.

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate the input.

For today’s adaptation, I’m not going to single out any one particular tutorial because there are many good ones, and they’re all a bit different. If you want the Photoshop method, I advise you to do what I did, and google it.

So, here we go.

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Holy moly. I checked my blog stats on a whim, and for a minute, I thought maybe I had somehow logged in as someone else. Right now I’m sitting at 1,801 hits, and at this rate, it looks like we’ll hit 2,000 before the day is done. (My previous high was 39. As in, less than 40.) I believe I have Ubuntu Blog and Planet Ubuntu to thank, so, thanks!

I hope you are all finding something useful. Keep in mind I just started this blog recently, so after a while there will be a lot more material. I would love it if you would recommend some tutorials you’d like to see adapted. It’s helpful to know what people are looking for. Before today, my most popular posts were the ones regarding Web 2.0, but now it seems most are checking the Lomography adaptation out.

I seriously almost cried when I opened up google reader and saw my blogs’ name right up on top. I even took a screenshot.

Thanks again for visiting. I hope you’ll stick around. I should have some new content for you very soon!

Update: Just cracked 2,000 visitors. Thanks everyone, you’re seriously making my day.