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Free Lightroom alternative: Moving your images from Darktable to GIMP

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This is the final part of a five-part series on the free and open-source Lightroom alternative, Darktable by photographer Chris Parker. Chris didn’t write a post to accompany the fifth video in the series, but we didn’t want to leave the series of posts unfinished, so here we are.

If you missed them, check out parts 1-4, covering Getting started with Darktable, Importing your images into Darktable, Processing your RAW files in Darktable, and Exporting images from Darktable for editing in another application. Another application like GIMP (which is also free and open-source). And that’s what this final video is about.

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How to remove anything from your photos using GIMP

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Removing anything in GIMP is easy when you know the steps… and practice! When planning this GIMP tutorial, I had a choice; simple or complex. Simple tutorials abound all over the internet on how to remove objects of all kinds. I thought to myself, where’s the fun in that! So, I decided to create a more challenging type of GIMP edit where you’ll learn how to remove someone from a complex background!

The video tutorial above takes about 15 minutes to complete. However, the actual edit of removing the subject can be done in 5 minutes or less. You’ll need to first learn the steps, the tools required to achieve this edit, and again, practice! Step-by-step instructions are located below for those that prefer to read. If you’re ready to learn the tools required to remove anything in GIMP, let’s do it!

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How to turn GIMP into Photoshop (sort of) using PhotoGIMP

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This is quite interesting, and not something I’ve come across before, although it appears the idea has been out for a little while now. As more users are starting to use Linux on the desktop, they’re starting to turn to GIMP for some of their photo editing needs (after all, Adobe doesn’t do Linux). It’s a somewhat unfamiliar interface if you’re coming from Photoshop, but this GIMP patch could make life a little easier.

PhotoGIMP is a patch for GIMP 2.10 for Linux which essentially changes the UI to look like Photoshop. It’s not actually turning GIMP into Photoshop. It can’t do that any more than you can turn Ubuntu into MacOS. The changes are only skin deep. You’re not going to get all the latest CC tools, but what you will get is a familiar look and layout to get you up and running as quickly as possible.

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GIMP turns to crowd funding to add updates like high bit depth & layer effects

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GIMP’s often toted as the main alternative to Photoshop for folks who don’t want to spend any money. GIMP has been around since 1995. In the last 22 years, it’s already seen a lot of progress, but it still doesn’t really hold up for most photographers in comparison to Photoshop.

At its heart, GIMP relies on the GEGL image processing core, and while the software is entirely open source, a massive chunk of the work is done by just one man; Øyvind Kolås. It’s thanks to him that GIMP 2.1 will be shipping with a great many new features users have been asking for. But now they need our help.

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This is how Photoshop resizes your images, mathematically speaking

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The mathematical side of photography has always interested me. It can be mostly ignored by photographers, often only required to understand the exposure triangle. For me, though, the maths is part of what initially drew me into photography.

In this video from Computerphile, we learn what goes into some of the calculations that allow us to easily resize our images inside Photoshop with just a couple of clicks. It used to be that there was only one method of resizing images, and it wasn’t very good. Then, as processing power increased, we were able to perform more complex tasks more quickly. So, more advanced resizing methods become viable.

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How to install Photoshop keyboard shortcuts in GIMP

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With Adobe’s long standing global domination and the current buzz around Affinity’s recent announcement of impending Windows versions of their software, it’s easy to forget that there is another application out there that can satisfy the needs of a good number of photographers, especially those who run Linux.

That application is GIMP.  One of the struggles with GIMP, however, is the shortcut keys, especially if you’re already used to working with Photoshop or another application that has a similar default shortcut key setup.

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Photo Editing for Free – Pixls Offers Tutorials for Open Source Software Like Gimp and Darktable

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I am a huge proponent of the open source platform.  Sure, there are two sides to the open source vs. proprietary argument, but it’s still too early in the week to be arguing something that heavy.

There are numerous reasons to use open source software for photo editing.  Perhaps you prefer the Linux operating system, maybe you’re on a tight (or nonexistent) budget, or maybe you just wanna “stick it to The Man.”  Whatever your reason, there are an increasing number of solutions available to you.

This is where Pixls.us comes in.  Founder Pat David started the website as a resource for those looking to use open source editing software.  There are treasure troves of information and quality tutorials for applications like Photoshop and Lightroom yet very little (in comparison) for programs like Gimp and Darktable.  David aimed to change that.

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How To Do A 2.5D Parallax Animated Photo Effect Using Only Free Software

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I had been fiddling with creating these 2.5D parallax animated photos for quite a few years now, but there had recently been a neat post by Joe Fellows that brought it into the light again.

The reason I had originally played with the idea is part of a long, sad story involving my wedding and an out-of-focus camcorder that resulted in my not having any usable video of my wedding (in 2008). I did have all of the photographs, though. So as a present to my wife, I was going to re-create the wedding with these animated photos (I’m 99% sure she doesn’t ever read my blog – so if anyone knows her don’t say anything! I can still make it a surprise!).[Read More…]

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