how to change colour on picture using GIMP

olias

Hi all, I have GIMP installed on my computer (a free type of photoshop). Can anyone who is familiar with it tell me how to do the following please?

I have a picture of the front of my house which has a front door and built in garage door next to it but seperate. I want to be able to see how both these doors would look with different colours on them so I can make a descision before painting them. I'm not very tech savvie so simple instructions would be great if anyone can help. Thanks.

Olias

paddyrg

Hi Olias not as straightforward as it sounds in afraid, wouldn't be in Photoshop either. It's probably intermediate skill level to get anything like decent results. This is likely why you've not had a load of responses yet - it's a whole involved tutorial, not a few hints or steps to get there.

I'd be inclined to paint some bits of paper or board and see how they look in situ in real life - it'll be more accurate and likely quicker!

olias

Hi, and thanks. I thought it might be, I have searched for online tutorials, but the problem is, without knowing what the technical terms are for what I'm trying to do its difficult to search.

Re the above, if its too difficult to explain, then if anyone can point me in the direction of an online tutorial then that'd be great.

Olias

dogmaryxx

Never used but sounds simple in Gimp 2, no idea if this works in later versions.

Gimp tutorial looks much more difficult to non user.

olias

Hi and thanks again!

Yep it is easy as per your link, but.......... Because the colour on the door(s) I am changing varies slightly due to shading etc (cos its a real pic), the program is only selecting the exact shade to change and so leaving half the door in the original colour.

It seems like what I need is the ability to draw the perimeter of the area I want changing if that makes sense.

Olias

cookie365

I don't know about Gimp, but there's a simple rough and ready way to do this in Photoshop.

1. Create 2 Hue/Saturation adjustment layers.
2. Fill the layer mask on the first one all in black except for where the house door is, keep that white
3. Fill the layer mask on the second one all in black except for where the garage door is, keep that white
4. In the Hue/Saturation palattes for each layer, tick Colorize and play around with sliders to experiment with different colours.

Does Gimp have adjustment layers with layers masks?

paddyrg

cookie365 wrote: »

Does Gimp have adjustment layers with layers masks?

It has layers and masks, but not adjustment layers per. se. In this case that's not a problem, we can simply change the layer mode, but pulling a decent mask/selection isn't something the user is confident in, let alone the more intermediate steps of layers let alone understanding masks.

GIMP is actually rather good and powerful. Photoshop is unquestionably better for many power user things, but the pricing is not welcoming, GIMP is certainly worth the money. Alas GIMP isn't always intuitive (mind you sometimes Photoshop isn't either), so going from no experience to pulling layer masks with different layer modes then adjusting curves is just too much of stretch in one go. Even most regular GIMP users will never touch layer masks. I doubt if all Photoshop users do either TBH, they're a slightly abstract concept!

cookie365

The advantage of Photoshop is that once you know what tool to use, it's simple to google a good quality step by step explaining how to use it.

http://designshack.net/articles/graphics/a-complete-beginners-guide-to-masking-in-photoshop/

I think Photoshop Elements has layer masks now, and they still do a full functionality trial, so the op could use that.

demystified

OP, its easy to do what you're asking but kind of hard to explain, you need to mark out an area as a selection and then fill that area with a colour overlay, with say 50% transparency, as a rough and ready sketch. Try googling for Photoshop tutorials rather than Gimp as they're rather similar in function

paddyrg wrote: »

GIMP is actually rather good and powerful.

Yes it is, the amount of times I hear people complaining about it though, probably because of this -

Alas GIMP isn't always intuitive (mind you sometimes Photoshop isn't either)

If you understand Photoshop you can pick up Gimp very quickly, but for newbies its daunting I imagine. (Had to be trained to use Photoshop)