Sunday, September 16, 2012

GIMP Tutorials - Lessons for photo editing in high school and middle school

I have been very busy in and out of the classroom so far this new school year.  My favorite part has been the time I've spent with Digital Media courses at our high school and middle school.  Somehow they managed to schedule both classes at the same time of the day!  Since I can't physically be at both of them I have been using video tutorials as one way to assist the classroom teacher and instruct the students.

First, here are the related lessons.

Below you'll find the tutorials for GIMP, a free image editing program.  I hope these could be useful to anyone who might be "flipping" a tech course or possibly for an online course.

Update 10/4/2013:  I posted the most popular tutorials on YouTube and have them in this Playlist now.
  • Introduction to GIMP - Brief explanation of what the program is like, how to navigate the multiple windows and how to open files
  • Saving files in GIMP - Some of this is specific to our network, but I talk about saving as jpeg.
  • Paint Brush and Clone Tools - I explain how to use the Paint Brush as a line tool and how to erase parts of pictures using the Clone Tool.
  • Drawing with the Selection Tools - GIMP doesn't have a tool to draw shapes, for example, but this shows how it can be used to accomplish the same thing.
  • Using Layers in GIMP - This is probably the best feature of GIMP and the one students have the hardest time with. 
  • Using the Text Tool in GIMP - Text in GIMP is pretty easy, but students need to understand Layers first.
  • Combining Images in GIMP - This shows how to take parts of one image and paste it into another for simple special effects.
  • Neon Logo Tutorial - My version of a popular logo effect that I learned from a couple YouTube tutorials
And here's a quick talk about learning software in general.  I address the difference between learning the software and learning how to learn new software.

17 comments:

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  2. Thank you for the help in my digital imaging class. I am using your very informative videos and assignments for my multimedia classes. I was wondering though, if you know that there is no audio on your "neon logo" and " combining images" videos? Thank you.

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    1. I'm glad you found these helpful! Actually I did know I had no narration on the neon tutorial. It was due to some limitations of equipment the day I had to put it together. As for the other one, I played it at both SchoolTube and YouTube at the links above and it did have audio. Let me know if you're still having trouble getting it to play.

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    2. You are so right! Thank you Mike

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  3. Hi Mike, like Nancy, I have found these very helpful and plan to use some of these in my computer graphics class, if that's OK. Was this for a semester class, or quarter? Thanks!

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  4. I'm glad you found them useful! At our middle school this was a quarter class. At the high school it went for a semester, so it included a lot more.

    Have you seen the page on the blog for comics? We used those in our high school class too. Also, be sure to check out my recent posts on Adobe Spark. That would be my go-to tool for a middle school Digital Media class now.

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  6. Hi--I think your tutorials have been a great help in my 8th grade multimedia basics class. However, I'm having difficulty with getting any sound in the video? Any suggestions?

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  9. background removal service The features that you can expect to find within your basic photo editing software is the ability to crop the photo, re-size the picture, remove red-eye and blemishes, as well as a whole host of other features. The color of the photo can be changed and special effects can be added, but these depend on the software package you are using.

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  11. great job Mike. Its really impressive for beginner's who want to lean photo editing. keep it up bro.

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  12. Yes! GIMP is an excellent name in the world of photo editing. GIMP is the most powerful free photo editor that can completely replace Photoshop. One of the main advantages, except all of the above mentioned, is that the program supports RAW files.

    Thanks for sharing this important article with us.

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  13. Thanks for this tutorial. GIMP is a great photo editing app. The best part which I love about it is that it is open source software. It gives a very good satisfaction and gives a way for other also to improve it.

    It's free!

    GIMP has great functionality and it provides the same powerful image tools that photoshop provides, but with the added benefit that GIMP is free.

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  14. Thanks, Mike, for sharing your knowledge with everyone. No doubt novice designers can learn photo editing by following your article. GIMP is widely used for photo editing.

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