GIMP Questions

[rottielover]

Hey all,

I found GIMP via some recommendations here on scubaboard, and WOW, I love it!!

I've been playing around in it with some pictures I took at the LDS pool, and I've gotten OK at removing some backscatter with the clone tool, but I can't seem to get the De-speckle filter to work the way that photoshop's seems too on a video I saw... In the photoshop video you move the radius slider to the right till most of the backscatter disappears, then use the slider below until it re-appears then move it back one or two stops to take out most of the back scatter, then use the clone tool to get rid of any major spec's of backscatter. But this process isn't working for me in GIMP and I'm having a really hard time finding U/W photo editing help for GIMP.

Another problem I'm having is that I can't seem to use the selection tools in order to take out a section of the photo to make that selection it's own layer. For example, I can use the smart scissors tool to select out a fish, but then I can't figure out how to get that selection (the fish) into it's own layer.

Sorry if these are stupid questions, but after reading for 2 hours all the help and FAQ's I can find I can't seem to find anything about doing this in them...

Thanks in advance!

 

[rottielover]

Well I tried out a test photo in GIMP to see what would happen, so here goes:

IMAG0067.JPG is the original file. As you can see this is a "target" fish on a pole cliped to the pool. In this picture you can see that the nose of the fish is a bit over exposed, it got a little too much light from the flash since we don't have the flash diffuser for our strobe. You can also see backscatter in the background around the fish.


EDIT0067.JPG is my first attempt. I used a combo of the clone tool and the despeckle filter (finally figured it out after playing with it) to take out the bulk of the backscatter. Then I used the clone tool to take out the pole the fish was mounted on. I also tried to remove the shadow of the fish, but you can kinda tell it's been edited there.

So I guess this just takes some getting used too. But I would still like to know how to take selections and make them a layer so that I can use the layers for my edits.

 

[rottielover]

FINALLY!!!!! I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT!!!!!!!

For those of you that would like to know: Make your selection, then go to the Selection menu option and choose "Float". This will make your selection a new layer after you double click on the "Floating Selection" layer to name it something!

For those of you that Knew how, read my post and didn't respond: Shame on you, I spent over 10 hours looking, hit the end of the internet to find it! :07:

 

[fdog]

I'm very glad that you were able to find an answer. I didn't weigh on with one, because I don't pass opinions about something I have no knowledge of.

I would submit that you are encountering one of the problems with "free" software. PS is the defacto industry standard, and you'd have had quite a few replies within minutes.

All the best, James