GIMP color restoration

YOU’LL NEED THIS

GIMP 2.1 OS: Windows 7 or newer

OVER THE PAST YEAR OR SO, we’ve featured a variety of image manipulation tutorials that have covered a range of tasks. These programs are often powerful tools, but they also tend to cost a fair amount. Our go-to photo-editing program is usually Adobe Photoshop, but this can be a pricey tool, particularly if it comes as part of a subscription to the Adobe suite. However, there are plenty of alternatives, such as GIMP, that offer a similar outcome for free.

Although it doesn’t have the most instantly appealing name, GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Granted, this application doesn’t have the finesse and the overall shine that Photoshop does, but it’s still a useful program, particularly for those on a budget or just starting out. If you’re unsure on what path you’d like to take in design, whether that’s as a hobbyist or if you want to take the commercial route, then GIMP is a great free starting point.

In this tutorial, we will be using this program to restore and recolor old black and white photographs. This is a common practice that can truly breathe life into old pictures. It’s a great skill to learn and apply to some old family images of your own. –SAM LEWIS

1 PAST TIMES

Kicking things off, you need to have a starting image. As we said earlier, using an old family picture could be a solid place to start as you can get to see or imagine how life used to be back in those times. If your photo is in the original black and white format, it can often be hard to imagine this.

>> For our example, we will be practicing using the free image licensing site, Unsplash [ www.unsplash.com]. If you also don’t have a personal image you can use, Unsplash is very handy for testing out our tutorials.

>> With our image selected, we need to open this up inside the GIMP program. There are a few ways to do so; File then Open, CTRL+O, or you can use the old faithful drag and drop method. We’re going to be using a photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash. This image features two photography pioneers from Kodak Australasia, Thomas Baker and JJ Rouse [ Image A]. It’s also a sepia tone image so before we begin, we actually need to take away the color before we can add it back.

>> Head to the top and click on the colors menu and select hue-saturation. A pop-up window will open revealing a variety of color settings [ Image B]. Slide the saturation all the way to the left to remove the color and this will leave you with a black and white photo. Of course, if you are starting with a black and white image, then you can skip this step.

2 DIFFERENT TONES

Now we’re ready with our image, we need to bring the color in, or re-imagine it. To make things easier and more organized, split the image up into parts that will feature the same color. The first thing we will tackle is the skin tones [ Image C]. Websites such as Color Hunt [ https://colorhunt.co/] make finding colors

and palettes easy, so we chose our skin tone palette from the site and added it into our document.

>> For each segment, create a new layer. When making the layer, a pop-up will open, so select ‘overlay’ in the mode section. This will allow the detail to show through the color we are going to paint on. Sample one of the skin tones using the color picker tool in the top left section of the workspace. This tool can also be used by pressing the ‘O’ key [ Image D].

>> In this new layer, we’re going to start by using the brush tool to paint an outline of the areas we’re focusing on, then we will fill in this gap by increasing the brush tool size. Take your time to work around the image. We started on the hands and then moved onto the face—be careful to not go over any facial hair or the eyes, as these will be two separate layers.

3 LAYERS UPON LAYERS

GIMP works in a similar way to Photoshop, in that you have the majority of your tools towards the left-hand side of the artboard and your layers are located on the right.

>> To help through this project, make sure to label all of your layers [ Image E]. This will make sure you keep the colors separate. Also, keep altering the brush settings. You can change the opacity to weaken or strengthen the color you’re applying. The same can be said for the brush hardness. It’s best to use a soft brush when working around the edges of different colors where they meet.

>> Another point to mention is that when selecting your colors, try to be as accurate as possible, or period correct. This is quite tricky and of course, if the image is your own, it will make this a lot easier. If not, find images on Google of something similar; hair colors, clothing items, materials, and more to replicate them in your image. Work your way around the picture bit by bit and gradually it will all come together.

4 SPLASH OF COLOR

This is by no means an easy process but, with these tutorials, you can understand how to alter these images and hopefully use this skill to bring some life into some personal images of your own.

>> Our image still maintains the ‘old style’ as the overlay mode keeps the grainy detail [ Image F]. This is what you want to try to retain, as you aren’t aiming to completely modernize these old images, just add a splash of color that gives them a new dimension.