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
<
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/productreviews/gr/Photoshop.htm>*, 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
<
http://graphicssoft.about.com/u/sty/galleries/hdr-images/form.htm>*
in the *HDR
Gallery <
http://graphicssoft.about.com/u/sty/galleries/hdr-images/>*.
--
:-)~MIKE~(-:
here is the full text if needed, ( I don't know where the page I stole it
from is:)
*HDR photography
<
http://graphicssoft.about.com/u/sty/galleries/hdr-images/>* has become
very popular over the last few years and I'll show you how to make an HDR
photo in *GIMP <
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/freesoftware/fr/gimp.htm>* in
this step by step tutorial. If you're not familiar with HDR, the acronym
stands for *High Dynamic Range
<
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/hdr.htm>* 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
<
http://registry.gimp.org/node/6708>* 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
<
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/productreviews/gr/Photoshop.htm>*, 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
<
http://graphicssoft.about.com/u/sty/galleries/hdr-images/form.htm>*
in the *HDR
Gallery <
http://graphicssoft.about.com/u/sty/galleries/hdr-images/>*.
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