GIMP: Chapter 2

Name:

Courtney Cloud

Student Number:

GIMP: Chapter 2: Improving Digital Photos

PART 1: READ Chapter 2 in the GIMP book, then:

1. Answer all questions below, briefly but completely.
2. Change the color of the answer to BLUE.
3. Copy this information and paste in a new post in your DIGITAL GRAPHICS blog.

1.      What happens to an image when you SCALE it? Does the canvas size change when you SCALE an image?  It makes the smaller

2.      Why should you scale images you take on a digital camera before sending them in email or posting them on the web? So they load faster

3.      Why is it important to make sure the width and height of an image you are going to scale are linked together? How do you do this in GIMP? It would alter or distort the image itself.

4.      What is the keyboard shortcut to UNDO? It undoes the last action done.

5.      What does the SCALE TOOL do? It scales the current layer.

6.      What is the difference between the IMAGEàSCALE from the menu and the SCALE TOOL? It only works on the current layer.

7.      Describe these JPG quality settings: ·         Optimize Reduces file size without losing quality ·         Progressive It is helpful for pictures that are going to be uploaded online. Shows the poor quality photo and gradually changes to high quality. ·         Save EXIF data It is an option to add data about a photo. ·         Comment A place to add text to a photo.

8.      Why would you decrease the quality setting of a JPG image? Decreasing the quality of the image would make it take up less space for memory.

9.      Compare the size of a 95% quality setting to a 100% setting of a JPG image: The 100% setting is three times the size of the 95% setting.

10.  If you save a JPG file at 100%, do you preserve ALL the data in the image? What formats should you use if you want to preserve all the data? No, you do not. A PNG or TIFF would preserve all the data in the image.

11.  Describe what it means when you INDEX a file such as a GIF or PNG file. It means to use a fixed number of colors. It helps make the size smaller.

12.  What is RGB color mode? It uses different combinations of red, blue, and green to create different colors.

13.  What is dithering? It combines pixels of several colors. It creates different effects.

14.  What is grayscale mode? Desaturating an image.

15.  What does interlacing a file do? It makes images load in different ways.

16.  What is cropping? Cropping a photo takes out whatever you don’t want in it.

Briefly describe these file types: NOTE: It is important to learn these types of files to be a proficient graphic artist, so pay attention when you describe these file types.

1.      JPEG Highly compressed and encoded in full color. It is efficient for photographs.

2.      GIF Effective for images with only a few colors. Represents up to 256 colors.

3.      PNG Supports transparency. Can be used for full color images; can be used with indexed images.

4.      XCF Supports layers and can only be read by GIMP.

5.      TIFF Is not supported by the internet. Large files. Can handle 16 bits per color channel.

6.      Raw Used by camera manufacturers.

7.      BMP Microsoft’s Windows Bitmap format. Large files, no advantages over PNG or TIFF.

8.      PSD Kodak’s proprietary Photo CD format.

9.      ICO Microsoft Windows Icon format. GIMP can read these.

10.  PDF GIMP cannot edit these files. They are vector graphics formats, not pixel graphics.

PART 2: GIMP PROJECT: Be sure to save these images in your GIMP folder before inserting them in this document.

1.      Go to the web site for this book: http://gimpbook.com 2.      Look through the menus on the left to see the supplemental information provided for you about the book. 3.      Click on the PHOTOS FROM THE BOOK link, and scroll down to see the images for Chapter 2. 4.      Download and save these images: Red Rock Canyon (the 4th image), Canyonlands (5th image),  American kestrel (the bird), Ethan (the little boy). 5.      With the Red Rock Canyon image, apply the following color techniques as indicated in the textbook on pages 38-50 (try dragging the sliders in each dialog box to see how they change the image, then UNDO to restore the image back to the original), then DESCRIBE what each does:

·         Brightness-Contrast: It lightens and brightens the photo. Uses two siders.

·         Levels: Lightens and brightens the photo. Uses a slider.

·         Curves: Lightens and brightens the photo. Uses graphs and a mobile line.

·         Threshold: Changes the photo to black and white. Slider adds darkness.

·         Desaturation:

6.      When you have applied these techniques to the Red Rock Canyon image, apply THRESHOLD to the image, save it, then insert it here:

7.      With the Canyonlands image, use Rotation to adjust the image as indicated on pages 51-55. Save the rotated and insert here:

8.      With the Kestral image, use the Sharpening techniques indicated on pages 55-59. Save the sharpened image and insert here:

9.  With the little boy, Ethan, image, correct the Red-Eye as indicated on pages 61-66. Save the corrected image and insert here: