Gimp 2 For Photographers, by Klaus Goelker

Over the years, I have come to terms with the fact that I can't draw to save my life. I can't draw my way out of a paperbag. I failed art in secondary school; I think I am the only person to have failed art.

However, I'm not too awful at taking pictures. I've even had some of my pictures published in print and used by others. Yet when it came to manipulating the images as all my [t:digital photography] friends seem to do, I tried a few things in the Gimp and made a hasty retreat. Some people advised me to use Adobe Photoshop, but that costs money and - frankly - I'm not going to buy a program that I may procrastinate against using, especially when there is an open source equivalent that costs... nothing. Spending more money isn't an incentive to me.

When I started SecondLife I got faced with the same problems with the Gimp, but I tried a little harder and became familiar enough with layers and transparencies to make some clothing, but I wouldn't even claim intermediate status. Fortunately, I got my hands on Gimp 2 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software, and while I'm still not as proficient as I want to be, it is because I lack practice.

This book is a wonderfully illustrated workbook; 183 pages divided into 4 main sections (plus an Appendix). It also includes a CD with the Gimp (2.212) and plugins - for Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X. In reading and working my way through the book, I feel confident that my low ability with graphics has become a bit higher - and while I haven't done anything noteworthy with any of my images, I would not want you to sit around waiting for this review (I'm that bad!):

The first chapter covers the basics. The Gimp is introduced to the reader, and instructions for installation from the CD and the internet are covered. The introduction on digital image editing covers the basics, which I found were worth reading. When it comes to digital photography I've learned a little by doing it, but found some holes in my knowledge that the were filled in here. I've read about the RAW image format but my Canon Powershot SD200 3.2MP Digital Elph is... embarassingly... without RAW. I didn't know that it would be useful. Oops!

In the second chapter, RAW almost bit me again - but I borrowed some RAW images to play with and navigated my way through the basics of using it in the Gimp. The basics of working with images in the Gimp were easy to follow - things which I used to fumble through I became a bit more proficient at. Rotations, setting image size and resolution, changing the image view size (zooming), cropping an image were pretty easy. Printing photos is also covered. There's some great stuff about working with scanned images as well - such as the mysterious Gaussian Blur I had been playing with. I had no idea what it was for. Correcting colors, removing color cast, spots, dust and scratches is also covered.

Chapter 3 covers masks and filters - methods of editing only sections of an image based on different methods of selecting the sections. It sounds very complicated in one sentence, I suppose; the book covers it much better than I could. Removing red eyes is also in here, which can come in pretty handy.

Working with layers, different levels of a photograph, was worth the entire book for me. I'd bumbled my way through before on my own, but some solid direction was definitely in order. Methods of removing converging verticals (including avoiding them in photographs) are done using layers as well. There's a really cool method of freshening up a dull sky I wanted to try out, but the weather has been uncooperative. Adding text, lighting effects and shadow layers and many other uses for layers are covered in this chapter.

Chapter 4 deals mainly with black and white images, including the conversion from color.

The Appendix has tips and pointers to further resources, as well as a listing of what is on the CD.

Overall, this book is a very practical workbook which depends on the reader's completion of tasks; reading it will not teach you how to do any of this - you have to do it. This means you should set aside a bit of time to do each section; reading it is easy but results will vary based on your own experience. The book is well written, and the color illustrations assist a lot.

I've had both the Gimp and a digital camera for years, but only after working through this book did I manage to connect the two in ways other than minor touchups (usually abandoned in frustration). The mysteries of graphics and digital photography have retreated and the mechanics of the digital manipulation have been revealed in a very practical way by 'Gimp 2 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software'. Will it make me better at editing digital images? I would like to believe it has already; unfortunately I may not become as good as the author but I understand the basics better, and Gimp is now a much more useful program on both my Linux and Windows machines.

The book is, of course, much better than this lowly reviewer when it comes to explaining all of this - and it's humble enough to submit itself to the amateur photographer in such a way that the only thing that can be reasonably accepted is better image editing. How much better, I expect, is up to the reader. What you will get with this book are a basic understanding of how to edit digital images and perform basic and advanced editing based on your own ability. If you want to draw stick figures, this is the wrong book. If you want to work with practical images which you scan in or which you have photographed while spending less money on software, this book is a steal for less than $20 - especially considering you don't have to spend money on the software.

If you have a slim budget and want to develop your amateur photography to a higher level using software which is freely available and which is open source, 'Gimp 2 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software'is for you. It will take you through the basics of using your camera, scanner and the Gimp and allow you to do editing of your images which can enhance them based on your own ability and practice. It gets a KnowProSE.com rating of 8 out of a possible 10; it would be rated higher but the reviewer's own experience with digital images is too low to do so credibly. I'm happy to tip my hat to the Klaus Goelker for making digital editing much more accessible for someone who failed art in Secondary school.