Dark vintage look with GIMP

[tingeliM]

This is my first Before-After post.

BEFORE


First I went to the Curves-tool from the color-section and adjusted the RGB (Red Green Blue) like in the following picture (I hope it's alright to post a third image..):



The colors and darkness of a picture affects on the results a lot. If these adjustments don't bring you good results, experiment with the curves! And if you would like your picture to be darker or brighter, you can do that from the general curve (no color). Just drag it from the middle; up for brighter, down for darker.

Then I added the vignette like this:
1. First I created a new layer
2. I turned the base layer (the original photo) invisible by clicking the eye next to the layer in the layer-tab
3. I used the oval selection tool to select everything but the corners of the layer
4. I reversed the selection (Ctrl+I)
5. I used the filling tool and made the corners black
---> Turn the base layer visible again, unselect everything and then select the vignette layer.
6. I went to the filters and to the blurring section to choose the Gauss-blurring where I adjusted the sharpness of the edges of the vignettes to my liking
7. I adjusted the transparency of the vignettes to my liking

I also found this tutorial for making the vignette, if you'd like clarifying pictures. It's slightly different way, but works just the same. ^^

Then I sharpened the image a little, combined the layers, saved and there you go:

AFTER


I hope it's useful and clear enough (like I said I'm a first-timer in this 'teaching'-thing..).
Enjoy and let me know what you think! ^^

[windrider86]

I like what you have done and love the fact that you have shown the curves tool as your tool of choice!

[Boscopix]

I really like this...works well on this picture! Thanks for sharing how you did it

[PowerPix]

Is the dog a Blue Heeler mix?

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Great edit - thanks for sharing! (I wish pse had curves - sigh)

[CapturingLife]

This is so cute. I love the picture itself, and the edited version of the photo.
As I only have GIMP right now, I really appreciate that you explain how to use GIMP to edit the image instead of Photoshop.

Thanks for taking the time to share this!

[mfreg]

o.k., this is probably such a lame question, I'm really trying to understand GIMP, layers, layer masks, links.....arghhh, it's all over my head...and I will try your technique step by step and see what happens, but, here's the lame question....you click the eye in the layers dialog to make the original invisible, do you have to click it again to make it visible or does it show through in one of your other steps ?

even with all the available tutorials, I'm having a hard time grasping this program.

thanks for the detailed info.

regards
mike

[tingeliM]

Thanks everyone! ^^

Originally Posted by PowerPix

Is the dog a Blue Heeler mix?

No, she's a Lapponian Herder. ^^

Originally Posted by mfreg

o.k., this is probably such a lame question, I'm really trying to understand GIMP, layers, layer masks, links.....arghhh, it's all over my head...and I will try your technique step by step and see what happens, but, here's the lame question....you click the eye in the layers dialog to make the original invisible, do you have to click it again to make it visible or does it show through in one of your other steps ?

even with all the available tutorials, I'm having a hard time grasping this program.

thanks for the detailed info.

regards
mike

Oh that's not a lame question at all! I just forgot that from the steps. You can put it back to visible after 5. or 6. by clicking the eye (well the eye doesn't show there at that moment but where it was) again. :-)
GIMP can be a little complex at first. I've learned a couple of things from internet tutorials, slowly but surely. I certainly am not an expert in GIMP though.
I'd love to see your results after you use the curves!
I've noticed that they work very differently depending on the picture. The colors and darkness affect a lot on the result. Every picture I've cross-processed have turned out totally different and I've had to twist the curves in totally different positions depending on the picture. So just experiment if my adjustments don't bring you a desirable result! ^^

[mfreg]

O.K....I know this sucks, yours is so much cooler, I should have trimmed this photo a little more square 1st I think and I should have found a photo with a different background , but I am so excited that I actually follwed your instructions and it WORKED that I couldn't help posting the image. I'm finding so many of the GIMP tutorials are written for older versions and I always end up in the middle of the process and something doesn't "jive"

one question, ( I will play with it and try to figure it out on my own...but ) with a bright background like I have, can you feather the edge of the layer a little so it's not such a "sharp" cut-off ??




this has helped me alot, ..this is so cool.....thank you for taking the time.

regards
mike

[tingeliM]

Originally Posted by mfreg

O.K....I know this sucks, yours is so much cooler, I should have trimmed this photo a little more square 1st I think and I should have found a photo with a different background , but I am so excited that I actually follwed your instructions and it WORKED that I couldn't help posting the image. I'm finding so many of the GIMP tutorials are written for older versions and I always end up in the middle of the process and something doesn't "jive"

one question, ( I will play with it and try to figure it out on my own...but ) with a bright background like I have, can you feather the edge of the layer a little so it's not such a "sharp" cut-off ??


this has helped me alot, ..this is so cool.....thank you for taking the time.

regards
mike

That's great job! Except for the vignette. Actually when I wrote the tutorial, I tried to trase down my own steps and I ended up with that same sharp edge. I can't remember what I did to get it away. I'm gonna figure it out and come back to let you know too!
But the cross-processing worked great in your pic in my opinion!

EDIT// Ok, I found this very good tutorial. I got the same result, without the sharp edge. You should give it a try and ask if there's something you don't get. In my opinion it was pretty clear with good pictures. :-)

EDIT2// I figured out what was wrong. The sharp edge came because the base layer was invisible when we did the Gauss-blur. If you unselect everything after you've filled the edges with black and then put the base visible and then select the vignette layer and THEN do the Gauss-blur, it should turn out normal. But that online tutorial might be better, 'cos there are clear pictures to help. ^^