Graphics+Activity+1

Image homework using GIMP – Amy Carter First, let me preface this description by saying that I have NEVER used Photo Shop, Photo Bucket, Gimp, or any other “fancy” graphic manipulation program. So, you are witnessing my maiden voyage. I wish I could have figured out some fancier tricks, but I guess that comes later. Secondly, this IS me. I have straightened my very curly hair, and am making a funny face at my daughter. My husband snapped the picture at just the right time. Steps for my image… So, things I learned…
 * 1)  The HARDEST part (that had me pulling my hair out) was trying to figure out how to resize my 1.1 MB image down to Dr. Smyth’s requirement (30-100KB). I know how to do this in Microsoft Office Photo Editor, but I wanted to learn it in GIMP. After much searching, viewing a few tutorials on YouTube, and finally calling an art teacher friend, I went to Save As, Select File Type, chose jpeg, hit save, and then adjusted the quality slider bar until it was within the required range. I was assuming once you hit save, that was the last step – didn’t realize the quality slider comes on the next screen. This took me at least 30 minutes to figure out. I know Dr. Smyth said to look at presentation 2 for help, but I still had trouble.
 * 2)  Then, I had fun exploring the filters. I tried adding borders (slide – looked like a filmstrip), coffee stains (looked gross), applied Gaussian, cartoon, cubist, canvas, etc. Too much, really. I ended up using cartoon, reducing the mask radius, and then applying the newsprint distortion. I adjusted the Colors (brightness and contrast) to make the picture look more “cartoony”.
 * 3)  I tried to move the clock and replace the pictures behind me, but I hit my level of competency and gave up, afraid I would go bald.
 * 4)  I experimented with layers, finally just duplicating the same picture on another layer and using the move tool to make it look like double vision. It made me a little motion sick to look at it, so I took the layering off.
 * 5)  Then I went to save again and realized that all those changes really increase the size of the picture, and mine was now over Dr. Smyth’s limit by 14KB. I was about to throw the whole thing away and start over, and then realized something really cool. You can pull up your undo history, and remove some of the effects pretty easily. Turns out when you “merge” some of them when saving (or “flatten”) it also helps reduce the size.
 * Start small and watch how much you add so that your image doesn’t turn into a beast.
 * When adding layers or borders, remember to click on the right layer when you select the tools. I would want to move my image but would move the stains around instead, because I had not chosen the right layer to use.
 * Bring up the undo history rather than trying to “fix” something you did an hour ago.
 * Did I mention the start small? I spent so much time trying not to go over 100KB. My original image went from 1.1MB to 49KB, so there is a distortion right there with the quality. That wasn’t any kind of “artistic” effect.
 * Image manipulation is time consuming! I have a whole new respect for my students who turn out amazing images using Photo Shop. It took me the first hour to figure out how to reduce the photo size! (Remember, I’m a graphics novice.)