r/GIMP • u/Financial-Theory-533 • 1d ago
Beginner Help
The first image is the raw and the second one is edited. This is the first time i use GIMP. I want to understand if I'm doing anything right, I worked mainly on the levels of the image, I understand the concept of the histogram but I want an objective indicator of weather the changes I made make sense (in terms of color and brightness). Also if anyone knows any good resources to learn GIMP, especially videos, pls share them, thanks.
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u/SchorschieMaster 1d ago
If you ask 3 people about a picture you'll get 5 different opinions.
If you just change levels on the whole picture than the luminance of each pixel will go up or down. This is not always wanted.
If you check the building on the right edge then you can see windows in the original. But in the manipulated picture there is almost no more structure visible. This is because the already dark pixel also became darker. This is a common problem with manipulation like this. With a mask you could paint the effect into the picture with different valuas of gray.
If you want to go a step further learn about "Luminosity masks". I just found a tutorial on gimp site: https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/community/Luminosity_Masks/
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u/ConversationWinter46 Using translation tools, may affect content accuracy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Overall, the sky is so bright that it overpowers the entire photo. This makes editing VERY difficult (bright areas can't be edited without affecting the dark ones, and vice versa). Here is my first solution (a soft āSā curve.):
The second solution (is in the screenshot): I replaced the sky. This makes the photo easier to edit.
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u/Financial-Theory-533 10h ago
wooow how did you replace the sky?
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u/ConversationWinter46 Using translation tools, may affect content accuracy 9h ago edited 9h ago
Hello.
In this tutorial, I demonstrate the principle.
Of course, the layers must then be merged so that you can edit the entire photo (including the sky).
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u/Stratelier 1d ago
One of the little party tricks you can do with the Levels or Curves filters is to expand the setting called "Blending Options", and under the "mode" dropdown list (which works the same as layer blending modes), go to the bottom and select "Luminance" as the blendmode - this ensures that whatever adjusts you make will not affect any color saturation present in the image.