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- Aug 13, 2002
- Messages
- 5,703
I wanted to spice up my knife pictures a little to get something like you see from Coop for example. Special features of the knife in larger details (or a few different views of the knife) one single picture. I am just starting so I still need to learn some of the more advanced techniques. But I did learn a few tricks that can you started. Of course I am not aiming at anything like what Coop does. You do have to be a Pro at the actual photography part for that, on top of the post digital manipulations. But hopefully with a digital camera, a light box and a few tricks, you can get a more professional looking picture of a knife you worked hard to make. Be it for a website or just personal satisfaction.
(I hope that some of the more advanced folks will chime in with tricks of their own. Any input is more than welcome and I'll make the adjustments accordingly or translate some of your instructions to a more beginner friendly/visual format if you like.)
What you need:
1)Software For this tutorial we will be using GIMP. It a Free photo manipulation program that runs of many operating systems. http://www.gimp.org/downloads/. Download the version for your particular system (most likely Windows) and install. And don't be fooled by the fact it's free, it is very powerful.
2)Pictures Of course you need a few pictures of your knife. I can't really help you on this step of the process other than to highly suggest that you build yourself a simple lightbox. (There is a model in the tutorial section of my website). You'll have to experiment with different views and different backgrounds. A more uniform background may be easier for some manipulations but again that is something you'll have to play with. (Or maybe somebody will post some advices about that).
We'll start by adding cameos displaying features of the knife blown up.
(Menu commands are in Italic)
Start by launching GIMP and opening our background knife image.
Let's rescale it to something more manageable.
Image>Scale Image... I like to use 800 for width an 600 for height.
Next, we will open the second knife view containing the feature you want to highlight.
(If you want to use the same picture, CTRL-D before resizing will open up a working copy of your original picture)
Let's select the feature we want to highlight with the circle selection tool.
Right click on the picture and drag the mouse to make the circle the size you want. Once done, you can click on the circle corners to resize it and in the middle to move it to cover exactly what you want to display.
Let's copy the selection (CTRL-C).
Click on the main knife picture.
Paste the selection (CTRL-V)
Now left-click on the layer panel
And click on New Layer in context menu.
We now have a layer containing the feature. Rename it by right-clicking on it and clicking Edit Layer Attributes... We'll call it Cameo1
We need to resize it. Right-Click on the layer
And click on Scale Layer.
Enter the size you want here. You may have to play around with it a little to get the right size.
(Remember that CTRL-Z undo any changes you've made.)
Once it is the right size, make sure the layer is active (it should be grayed in the layer toolbar). Click on the Move icon in the toolbar
Then click on the cameo on the picture and move it to where you want it.
Now to dress things up a little, make sure the cameo1 layer is active. (It should be gray in the layer toolbar, if not left-click on it to activate)
On the top menu bar click on Filter>Light and Shadows>Drop Shadow.. and click on OK. (You can play around with the default settings if you want)
Doesn't that look nice?
Now you need to merge the layers. Right-Click on the Layers Toolbar
And click on Merge Visible Layers in the context menu. Then click Merge
Finally a few manipulations to spice the picture a little.
First, let's add a little contrast and light. Click Color>Brightness-Contrast and put 4 in Brightness and 8 in Contrast. (These are some general settings. Remember CTRL-Z will undo anything so play around with these and the next two, saturation and sharpen)
Now for a little color. Click Color>Hue-Saturation and put 10 in Saturation.
And finally, let's sharpen things up a tad. Click Filters>Enhance>Sharpen... and put 14 in Sharpness.
A few more steps
Right-Click on the Layers Toolbar and click on Flatten Image.
Finally click on Files>Save a Copy change the file name and and put 80 in Quality
Final before and after picture.
Of course you can add more than one cameo. Just make sure you do add them all before you do the Merging step and all the ones that follow.
If you guys liked this we'll see about future installments on more advanced techniques hopefully with the help of some of the knowledgeable members here.
Please point out any errors or things you think are not clear and could be made better.
I hope this has been helpful to some of you. More in the weeks to come.
PS: Not sure if this was the right place to post this but it's the place I hang out on the forum so please move it if I made a "faux pas".
(I hope that some of the more advanced folks will chime in with tricks of their own. Any input is more than welcome and I'll make the adjustments accordingly or translate some of your instructions to a more beginner friendly/visual format if you like.)
What you need:
1)Software For this tutorial we will be using GIMP. It a Free photo manipulation program that runs of many operating systems. http://www.gimp.org/downloads/. Download the version for your particular system (most likely Windows) and install. And don't be fooled by the fact it's free, it is very powerful.
2)Pictures Of course you need a few pictures of your knife. I can't really help you on this step of the process other than to highly suggest that you build yourself a simple lightbox. (There is a model in the tutorial section of my website). You'll have to experiment with different views and different backgrounds. A more uniform background may be easier for some manipulations but again that is something you'll have to play with. (Or maybe somebody will post some advices about that).
We'll start by adding cameos displaying features of the knife blown up.
(Menu commands are in Italic)
Start by launching GIMP and opening our background knife image.
Let's rescale it to something more manageable.
Image>Scale Image... I like to use 800 for width an 600 for height.
Next, we will open the second knife view containing the feature you want to highlight.
(If you want to use the same picture, CTRL-D before resizing will open up a working copy of your original picture)
Let's select the feature we want to highlight with the circle selection tool.
Right click on the picture and drag the mouse to make the circle the size you want. Once done, you can click on the circle corners to resize it and in the middle to move it to cover exactly what you want to display.
Let's copy the selection (CTRL-C).
Click on the main knife picture.
Paste the selection (CTRL-V)
Now left-click on the layer panel
And click on New Layer in context menu.
We now have a layer containing the feature. Rename it by right-clicking on it and clicking Edit Layer Attributes... We'll call it Cameo1
We need to resize it. Right-Click on the layer
And click on Scale Layer.
Enter the size you want here. You may have to play around with it a little to get the right size.
(Remember that CTRL-Z undo any changes you've made.)
Once it is the right size, make sure the layer is active (it should be grayed in the layer toolbar). Click on the Move icon in the toolbar
Then click on the cameo on the picture and move it to where you want it.
Now to dress things up a little, make sure the cameo1 layer is active. (It should be gray in the layer toolbar, if not left-click on it to activate)
On the top menu bar click on Filter>Light and Shadows>Drop Shadow.. and click on OK. (You can play around with the default settings if you want)
Doesn't that look nice?
Now you need to merge the layers. Right-Click on the Layers Toolbar
And click on Merge Visible Layers in the context menu. Then click Merge
Finally a few manipulations to spice the picture a little.
First, let's add a little contrast and light. Click Color>Brightness-Contrast and put 4 in Brightness and 8 in Contrast. (These are some general settings. Remember CTRL-Z will undo anything so play around with these and the next two, saturation and sharpen)
Now for a little color. Click Color>Hue-Saturation and put 10 in Saturation.
And finally, let's sharpen things up a tad. Click Filters>Enhance>Sharpen... and put 14 in Sharpness.
A few more steps
Right-Click on the Layers Toolbar and click on Flatten Image.
Finally click on Files>Save a Copy change the file name and and put 80 in Quality
Final before and after picture.
Of course you can add more than one cameo. Just make sure you do add them all before you do the Merging step and all the ones that follow.
If you guys liked this we'll see about future installments on more advanced techniques hopefully with the help of some of the knowledgeable members here.
Please point out any errors or things you think are not clear and could be made better.
I hope this has been helpful to some of you. More in the weeks to come.
PS: Not sure if this was the right place to post this but it's the place I hang out on the forum so please move it if I made a "faux pas".
Last edited:
Hopefully the next one.
