Gimp is a useful programme as it allows you to use it for multiple purposes. At the moment, I only use it to colour pictures that are black and white or to turn coloured images to black and white, which I will explain how to do.
Using Gimp allows me to relax and expands my creativity. I often use it to change the colour of clothes or the background, but I also change all of the colours in a picture. For this tutorial, I will use an image of Jane Seymour I found on the internet.
Instructions on how to use Gimp
First, you need to choose an image. The picture can come from the internet, and you can paste it onto a new layer, or you can choose one on your computer. If it’s one you already own on your computer, you can click ‘open as layers’ and find the photograph that you want. Since I’m using one from the internet, you need to go to edit, then paste as, before selecting a new layer.
To select the first colour you want to use, you need to click on ‘foreground and background colours’ and use the foreground colour for all of your layers. First, I’m going to start with the skin. You can take the tone you want from other photographs if you have them loaded on your screen. You will need to click on the eyedropper to do this, which is beside the HTML notation. Once you click on a colour, it will display the colour in ‘current’.
Press OK when you are happy with the colour before clicking on layer, then new layer. Make sure that the layer is a foreground colour, so it will appear on top of your image.
Next, add a layer mask by right-clicking on the layer you want to add a mask to. Make sure that it is on black for full transparency. This will place your layer behind your image.
Before you colour your image using gimp, select the eraser tool and choose the size you want. Then, on mode, select overlay so that you don’t erase the image.
Otherwise, this will happen when you begin erasing…
You can undo any mistakes you made by selecting edit, then undo eraser. You can choose the size of the eraser you want to use with the up and down buttons so you can colour a smaller or larger area.
On Gimp, you can also adjust the size of your image with the percentage at the bottom, which can make your picture bigger or smaller, making it easier to work with. For each new colour you want to add, you need to add a new layer, so follow the steps that I talked about previously and watch your image come to life through colour. The best part about colouring your image with Gimp is that for me, it feels more natural to use than Photoshop. When I last used photoshop, I couldn’t work out how to do something like colouring a picture if I haven’t done it for some time.
For some of my backgrounds, I add a new layer (either white or black) but don’t add a layer mask, which is what I did for my Katheryn Howard image, as you can see below. I made the background darker so that you could see her better. For Jane Seymour, I chose to have a lilac background and erased where she was. If I didn’t erase it, it would look like this:
In the end, I only wiped the lilac from her skin so that Jane Seymour stood out more. It makes her dress look nice.
If you are happy with the image you are left with, you can export it if you don’t want to alter it by clicking on file, then export as.
Would I recommend using Gimp?
I find that Gimp is easy to use when you want to change black and white images into colour as I can’t remember how to do it on Photoshop, which makes it more natural for me to use. It also helps me to relax as I use Gimp often, so I would recommend others to use it if they want to change black and white photographs into colour. I’ve done this a few times. I think you’ve seen Jane Seymour enough on this tutorial, so I’ll show Catherine Howard instead.
Have fun using Gimp!
