GIMP

[Beth81]

I recently installed the GIMPshow but I turned around and uninstalled it and installed just the regular GIMP 2.6.4.0 instead. There are 3 boxes that pull up whenever you open the program. Can someone please give me a small step by steo to help me get started with this program. Unless there are easier programs out there to start using.

 

[Captain IK]

GIMP is a very powerful, but non-user friendly program.
I would suggest just playing around with it. That's what I have been doing. Lot's of trial and error.

 

[Samanax]

Grokking the GIMP

 

[Beth81]

Thanks so much Samanax. How in the world do you learn so much about these programs and websites? Tons and tons of research just ends up confusing me in the end. LOL

 

[Eldrich]

How in the world do you learn so much about these programs and websites?

just a tip. i have a word document at home that i paste any websites into that i come across (mostly on this forum), so that I can come back to them later. And I can also annotate the links which is very helpful.

as for GIMP. i'm in the same position you are, good luck, i know i'll need it. Unless i want to break down and pay for something a little more user friendly.

 

[Dao]

Search "gimp tutorial" in youtube may also yield some nice reference videos.

 

[AlexColeman]

Meh.... I just bought CS4, you guys should try a trial, that is what made me buy it.

 

[Mgw189]

Gimp isnt that bad once you get using it. Tutorials on YouTube are very handy for sure. I have about 20 different programs on my computer including PSE4 but it is so much different from other versions I found it hard to use. Play with different settings just make sure not to save over your original.

 

[Eldrich]

i've been playing around with the tutorials on gimps site

GIMP - Tutorials

and they are pretty helpful.

the key is scrolling past beginner, intermediate, and past expert, all the way down to photo editing, those are in some senses the most basic. Also, you kind of have to just click around a lot to find the options, because they're not always labeled the same way in the program as they are in the tutorial.

 

[elemental]

Meh.... I just bought CS4, you guys should try a trial, that is what made me buy it.

As a counterpoint, when I started getting serious about post-processing, I downloaded GIMP to do the heavy lifting. The interface isn't especially user-friendly (but let's be honest, Photoshop isn't either), but I committed to it and learned to do everything I need to. I recently trialed CS4 (and got a license of Elements with my negative scanner), and even after I figured out how to do the things I needed, I wasn't impressed. It definitely wasn't $600 better. Try GIMP, use the suggested resources and others you come across, and see if it ever limits you. I have yet to run into that problem.