If you are looking to do HDR i strongly suggest DarkTable heck i would strongly suggest it for photography workflows in general. Gim is great for some deeper manipulation, but for a Darkroom stype process Darktable is fantastic. I would put it in a close contention to lightroom. On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 11:25 AM, Michael Havens wrote: > These are instructions for Gimp but they do not work because (I guess) it > was written for an earlier version of Gimp > > If we were working in *Adobe Photoshop > *, we > could easily increase the contrast of the image using one of several > different types of adjustment layers. However in GIMP we don't have the > luxury of such adjustment layers. However there's more than one way to skin > a cat and this simple technique for enhancing shadows and highlights offers > a degree of control using the layer opacity control that was applied in the > previous step. > > > Go to *Layer *> *New Layer* to add a new layer and then press the *D* key > on your keyboard to set the default foreground and background colors of > black and white. Now go to *Edit *>*Fill with FG Color* and then, in the *Layers > *palette, change the *Mode* of this new layer to *Soft Light*. You can > see the *Mode *control marked in the accompanying image. > > Next add another new layer, fill this with white by going to *Edit *> *Fill > with BG Color *and again change the *Mode *to *Soft Light*. You should > now see how these two layers have considerably strengthened the contrast > within the image. You can tweak this though by adjusting the opacity of the > two layers if desired and you can even duplicate one or both of the layers > if you want an even stronger effect. > > Now that you know how to create HDR photos in GIMP, I hope you'll *share > your results > * in > the *HDR Gallery > *. > > > -- > :-)~MIKE~(-: > > here is the full text if needed, ( I don't know where the page I stole it > from is:) > > *HDR photography > * has become > very popular over the last few years and I'll show you how to make an HDR > photo in *GIMP > * in this step > by step tutorial. If you're not familiar with HDR, the acronym stands for *High > Dynamic Range * and > refers to producing photos with a wider range of lighting than a digital > camera can currently capture in a single exposure. > > If you've ever taken a photo of people stood in front of a light sky, > you'll probably have seen this effect with the people appearing to be well > lit but the sky being near to a pure white. > > If the camera produced a photo with the sky appearing with its true color, > you would see that the people in the foreground looked too dark. The idea > behind HDR is to combine the two photos, or indeed many more photos, to > create a new photo with both the people and the sky correctly exposed. > > To make an HDR photo in GIMP, you need to download and install the > Exposure Blend plugin produced originally by JD Smith and further updated > by Alan Stewart. This is quite a straightforward plugin to use and can > produce a relatively good result, though it's not as rounded as a true HDR > app. For example, you're limited to just three bracketed exposures, but > this should be sufficient in most cases. > > In the next few steps, I'll run through how to install the Exposure Blend > plugin, combine three different exposures of the same shot into one photo > and then tweak the final photo to fine tune the result. In order to make an > HDR photo in GIMP, you'll need to have three bracketed exposures of the > same scene taken with your camera mounted on a tripod to ensure that > they'll align perfectly. > > > You can download a copy of the *Exposure Blend plugin > * from the GIMP Plugin Registry. > > After downloading the plugin, you will need to place it in the *Scripts *folder > of your GIMP installation. In my case, the path to this folder is *C:* > *Program > Files* > *GIMP-2.0* > *share* >*gimp *> *2.0* > *scripts *and you should > find it to be something similar on your PC. > > If GIMP is already running, you'll need to go to *Filters *> *Script-Fu* > > *Refresh Scripts* before you can use the newly installed plugin, but if > GIMP isn't running, the plugin will automatically install when it's started > next. > > > This step is to simply let the Exposure Blend plugin do its thing using > the default settings. > > Go to *Filters *> *Photography *> *Exposure Blend* and the *Exposure > Blend* dialog will open. As we're going to use the plugin's default > settings, you only need to select your three images using the correct > select field. You just need to click on the button beside the*Normal > Exposure* label and then navigate to the specific file and click open. > > You will then need to select the *Short Exposure* and *Long Exposure* images > in the same way. Once the three images are selected, just click the *OK *button > and the Exposure Blend plugin will do its thing. > > > Once the plugin has finished running, you'll be left with a GIMP document > that consists of three layers, two with layer masks applied, that combine > to produce a complete photo that covers a wide dynamic range. In HDR > software, *Tone Mapping* would be applied to the image to strengthen the > effect. That isn't an option here, but there are a couple of steps that we > can take to improve the image. > > Often at this stage, the HDR photo can appear a little flat and lacking in > contrast. > > > One way to counter this is to reduce the opacity of one or two of the > upper layers in the *Layers *palette, to reduce the effect that they have > on the combined image. > > In the layers palette, you can click on a layer and then adjust the > *Opacity *slider and see how this affects the overall image. I reduced > both of the upper layers by 20%, more or less. > > The last step will increase contrast a little more. > > > If we were working in *Adobe Photoshop > *, we > could easily increase the contrast of the image using one of several > different types of adjustment layers. However in GIMP we don't have the > luxury of such adjustment layers. However there's more than one way to skin > a cat and this simple technique for enhancing shadows and highlights offers > a degree of control using the layer opacity control that was applied in the > previous step. > > > Go to *Layer *> *New Layer* to add a new layer and then press the *D* key > on your keyboard to set the default foreground and background colors of > black and white. Now go to *Edit *>*Fill with FG Color* and then, in the *Layers > *palette, change the *Mode* of this new layer to *Soft Light*. You can > see the *Mode *control marked in the accompanying image. > > Next add another new layer, fill this with white by going to *Edit *> *Fill > with BG Color *and again change the *Mode *to *Soft Light*. You should > now see how these two layers have considerably strengthened the contrast > within the image. You can tweak this though by adjusting the opacity of the > two layers if desired and you can even duplicate one or both of the layers > if you want an even stronger effect. > > Now that you know how to create HDR photos in GIMP, I hope you'll *share > your results > * in > the *HDR Gallery > *. > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. Stephen