Playing with digital images.

A little while ago I had a wonderful time teaching teachers how to use digital photography creatively. There is a free program on the Internet called GIMP-click here. When the home page opens- just hit the download button on the header and -away you go. As the teachers on the course came from a variety of schools and taught different age groups it was important to find software which we could all use, but without the huge costs involved with purchasing software. We found GIMP to be powerful enough for experienced users, but stress free for beginners.

So I have promised to share some of the ideas I have been playing with. I thought I would start with a little tutorial in 10 easy stages for beginners, to familiarise you with the basics of how the program works. Then later I will work through the layers menu with you.

So just to get you started and familiarise yourself with GIMP.

(If you click on any of my images, it will enlarge for you)

1. Click on the Gimp icon and open the program.

2. Go to the File menu, and click on New.

3. A sub-menu appears- click OK.

4.On the Toolbar menu -go to the Airbrush symbol and click.

5. In the sub-menu for the Airbrush -- click on pencil sketch and then the colour Blue from the foreground colour palette. Make some random marks.

6. Change the colours of the Airbrush in the foreground colour palette. I suggest you keep to bright primary colours.

7. Make sure the background colour is Black and in the toolbar click on the Bucket. Click on the white spaces in your design. Keep clicking until all your background is black.

8. Your finished design might look something like this:-

9. You can also play with the filters to get different effects. Go to the filters menu and the sub menu -Distort, there you will find the Emboss filter..Play around with the numbers. When you have an effect you like.. save it. I worked on the image until it reminded me of a textured embroidery. You may like to print some of your images directly onto your fabrics.

10. You now have a number of simple routines available to you with this program... over to you to be creative.

I would love to see the work you do... so please post your comments and a link to your blog so we can all have a look..