The Gimp is an outstanding image editing program available for free. You not only save hundreds of dollars in software costs, but can save potentially thousands of dollars by doing your own product and marketing photography.
I’ve been using the Gimp for over 10 years. My most common application for it is reducing the size of digital images to make them easy to email.
Here’s what I do: 1. Transfer the image to my computer. 2. Sharpen the image by 40 percent. 3. Scale the image to 640 wide (the height is automatically adjusted) 4. Save as a new jpg file choosing 75% quality level. The resulting file is about 30 kbytes, small enough to send by email, even with a modem, and the image quality is excellent. Here’s an example:
Of course the Gimp offers thousands of additional features that enable you to do virtually anything Photoshop can do. The manuals are all online so you can read them and see samples, tutorials, even videos of the Gimp in action.
Here’s another common application of the Gimp which has saved me thousands of dollars.
I do my own product photography. I have over 100 images on my websites that would have cost anywhere from $300 to $1200 each with a professional photographer. Though my results are not as good, they are good enough for my purposes.
I use a run-of-the-mill digital camera with the built-in flash. I tape a piece of toilet paper or paper towel in front of the flash to diffuse the light a little. The background is not critical because you can just erase it in the Gimp.
My products are rectangular so the sides are not parallel in the original image. No problem. The Gimp has a “perspective tool” in the toolbox that allows you to stretch the image until the sides of the product are parallel. (In the old days, pro photographers used enormous cameras with tiltable lenses to accomplish the same thing.)
The Sharpen filter is extraordinary for sharpening up details without adding noise to the image. I use a 40 percent sharpening effect in almost all of my pictures.
Like most image editing programs, the Gimp allows you to zoom way in, feather in areas, clone other areas to correct blemishes, take out dust or scratches, etc. You can spend hours or days making a photo perfect, or spend a just a few minutes and make it really good. One important tip: try to make the photo as perfect as possible in the camera – you’ll save hours later.
The Gimp is an example of open-source software. Open-source software is a collection of outstanding computer programs being produced by volunteers all over the world, distributed for free. I’ll have more on this in later posts.
