GIMP Quickie No. 2 – Creatively Rescuing a Poor Photo

Original Photo

• Shot with a hand-held camera at the Tulsa Zoo through dingy glass in low light.
• Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
• Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-200mm 1:2.8 L IS II USM
• Settings: manual mode, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 800, 200mm, no flash
• Image size: 5760 x 3840 px

Original Snowy Owl Photo

Instruction Conventions

• Layers are added at the top of the Layers list unless otherwise indicated.
• The latest created layer is the active layer and the succeeding instructions operate on it unless otherwise indicated.

Step 1

• Crop to taste. (I cropped this one to 1234 x 1346 px.)

Cropped Image

Step 2

• New Layer (Paper icon at bottom of Layers dialog)
• Layer Fill Type White
• OK
• Layer Mode Soft light
• Opacity 100%
• Layers dialog > right-click > New from Visible

After Brightening

Step 3

• Duplicate the visible layer (from the end of Step 2)
• Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur
• Blur Radius 11
• Blur Method RLE
• OK

Gaussian Blur 11

Step 4

• Layer Mode Grain extract
• Layers dialog > right-click > New from Visible
• Delete blurred layer.

Grain Extract

• Select grain layer.
• Layer Mode Grain merge
• Opacity 80%

Grain Merge 80%

Step 5

• Duplicate the brightened layer from the end of Step 2 and move it to the top of the Layers list.
• Layers dialog > right-click > Add Layer Mask
• White (full opacity)
• Add
• Ellipse Select tool
• Black foreground color
• Create an oval selection around each eye and use the Bucket Fill tool to fill the selections with black.
• CTRL+SHFT+A (to deselect)
• Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur
• Blur Radius to taste, keep it small
• OK

Layer Mask

Sharp Eyes on Fuzzy Owl

Step 6

• New Layer (Paper icon at bottom of Layers dialog)
• Transparency
• OK
• Ellipse Select tool
• White foreground color
• Create an oval selection around each eye and use the Bucket Fill tool to fill the selections with white.
• CTRL+SHFT+A (to deselect)
• Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur
• Blur Radius to taste
• OK
• Layer Mode Soft light

Highlights for Eyes
(Black used to show white areas. Black area is actually transparent.)

Bright Eyes

Step 7

• Layers dialog > right-click > New from Visible
• Remove the background using your favorite tool. (I used the Free Select tool following the method I describe in Which Tool Should I Use to Cut Out an Irregular Image?)

No Background

Step 8

• Create a textured background and move it below the cutout layer. (I used the method I describe in How to Create a Textured Background Using GIMP Filters.)
• Select the cutout layer and blur (Blur / Sharpen tool) or smudge (Smudge tool) the edges around the owl to make it look like not such a sharp transition.

You are under my mesmeric control. Give me all your mice.