carol.gimp.org

• Use XCF Format
• GIMP Red Eye Removal
• GIMP & Reprints
• Improve Clarity
• Re-compose the Sky
• Replace the Sky

Third Party GIMP Photographic Plug-ins & Information

Repaint

• Resynthesizer / removal of objects
• Intelligum

Colorize

• GIMP Colorize Plug-in
• Colorization Using Optimization

High Pass Sharpening

• High Pass Sharpening
• similar information

Panorama

• Pandora
• Stitch Panorama
• Linux Journal

Save as multi-layered xcf

I have been working with computers and photographs since 1998; since that time there are a few things I have learned about working with digital image files. One of the most important things is not to save over your original. No matter if it is a scan or something off from your digital camera, don't save over your original. There are several reasons for this, tradition is one reason; it is a tradition among photographers since the birth of the camera to do everything possible to save the original film negative and to make the alterations on the print or a copy of the negative. Most of the reasons for that practice have translated to digital photography. With digital photography you have file formats that loose information with each new save is another, your own knowledge and abilities which should improve with time and practice and the simple fact that at any given moment the software that handles the file might handle it in a bad way for other software or for the file itself. The simple fact is that they are still learning how to do things -- no matter what the operating system or the image touching application. Give yourself the opportunity to go back to your original and work with that when you learn a better way to do things; you can not do this properly if you made changes to it and did not keep the original.

TheGIMPs native file format is xcf. I usually save an xcf of my images in the same directory as the original, with the same name. I even go as far as to save the original image in the first layer and do my changes to copies of this in the rest of the layer stack. I strongly recommend this sort of behavior.

With that said, here are some tutorials about methods I found to improve photographs throughout those years. I am not a professional and most of what is shown here are things I picked up here and there by reading others suggestions and exchanging information with friends. Seven years later, I am still so glad that I have my originals intact because I am (happily) still learning.