WORKING IN GIMP

[Kiya]

Its a long time since I did anything in Gimp so looking through my recent holiday photos I wanted to improve some with a nicer sky.

This is one of the Colleseum I've been working on this morning & needed to get some colour into the top arched windows.

With the help of the tutorials from Horus I think its not a bad job.

What you think folks ?

to this

[Grandad]

And you have even cut out the three small square windows so that your sky layer shows through. Well done you But I am getting worried, you are getting too darned good.

[Kiya]

Thanks Grandad and if you zoom in you will see there is even a touch of sky added on the 4th window

[Horus]

Excellent job Kiya, I can't fault it in any way I was about to advise that you got rid of that little bit of building in the bottom right, but when I looked closely ........................... you had already done it! Definately a conciencious pupil, full marks :

[Kiya]

Thank you Horus, it took a bit of time for remembering my way around Gimp but got there in the end

PS: If any time in the future I try to make a DVD is it OK to use copies of photos but keep the original big size ??

[Horus]

Kiya, if I understand your question correctly you are asking: If after making a copy of your original image, which you should always do. Can you then use that copied image and put it onto a DVD at it's original size?

The simple answer would be yes, but it would depend upon what programme you used to make up the DVD as there are lots of them and Windows itself has the ability to make DVD’s in 'WINDOWS DVD MAKER' which should be in your ‘Programmes list’ if you have Win 7 on your PC, although to be honest I have never used it myself, but I will give it a try later if I get the time.

Usually the most important thing is to keep your image size standard if you can as it makes everything look smoother on the TV. So for example if your image is 4000 x 3000 out of your camera you should try to keep all the images at that size, or at a smaller size if you need to reduce the file size to suit the programme. So lets say that for example that the programme will only allow you a file size of up to 5MB per image (although many may have no such restrictions) and your image is lets say 7 to 8 MB, then you could use Elements or Gimp to reduce the image size down to something acceptable to the programme. Also remember that the programme may allow you an unrestricted image size, but may have an upper limit to fit it all on the DVD, although most blank single DVD’s will hold 4.7 Giga Bytes which is a huge amount so is rarely a problem.

Making files smaller will rarely affect the end result as seen on your TV and it will make things work smoother and keep the finished project (output file) smaller. It is often misunderstood to what extent changing an images physical size has on the finished file size and therefore many people would think that if you had an image that was 4000 wide by 3000 pixels high and it had a file size of 8MB and then you halved the size to 2000 wide by 1500 pixels high that it would reduce it's file size to 4MB, it would not! It would in fact be a lot smaller as it would only be 2MB which is a big saving on the original file size, but the reduction in quality would hardly be noticeable.

To explain this I have given you some examples of how it would work: (Get your calculator out )

In an image 4000 wide by 3000 pixels high you would multiply 4000 by 3000 which would equal 12000000 pixels in the full image.

But an image 2000 wide by 1500 pixels high (half the size) you would multiply 2000 by 1500 which would equal only 3000000 pixels in the full image, so a quarter of the size

In an image 1000 wide by 750 pixels high you would multiply 1000 by 750 which would equal only 750000 pixels in the full image, or put another way it would be ¼ the image size but only 1/16th of the file size at only half a MB per image.

Finally always use the ‘Constrain image proportions’ option whenever you reduce an image size so as not to distort the image by squashing it in one direction or the other.

As it looks like you are going to have a play with making your own DVD’s (great idea, always good to learn) you will no doubt have a few more questions along the way, so just ask away.

[Kiya]

Yes Horus you understood my question correctly.

I have it all printed out for further use in the future, wont be for a long time yet though.

Going through some of the photos from my holiday with white wishy washy skies to replace is taking me lots of time

Thank you for all the info & looking at that figures thank goodness for calculators

[Horus]

An easy way to remember it is: each time you half the images dimensions you will reduce the number of pixels to only a quarter of what you started off with.

[Kiya]

Okey dokey thanks, I'll try to remember

[LovelyLadyLux]

Definitely looking good!

[Kiya]

Thanks LLL