GIMP neon line emphasis
YOU’LL NEED THIS
GIMP 2.1 www.gimp.org OS: Windows 7 or newer
THERE ARE AN ALMOST INFINITE range of uses for image editing applications. For many, the ability to make minor edits such as adding filters, color adaptations, and the odd manipulation is sufficient reason to invest in some software. On the other hand, a more powerful application, such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, gives the user more scope to edit imagery and create pieces of artwork. Photoshop is now on a subscription-based payment plan, which may be a financial barrier to the beginner or more casual user, however, GIMP is not only free, but it’s a great starting point to get into more advanced areas of image manipulation. Test the waters and see whether this is a hobby you enjoy—and even if you could turn it into your profession..
In this tutorial, we’ll be creating artwork using neon lines to enhance a photo. This technique has been used for video thumbnails, posters, flyers, album artwork, and banners. Like most tutorials, you can use these skills to your own advantage and apply them to other media. You can use any image (within reason) for this tutorial, although it does help if you have a subject focal point as this is what we will be emphasizing using these neon lines. As usual, we are using a royalty-free image from Unsplash, specifically an photo by Andre Tan. We are going to take his PC setup photo and add some attention-grabbing effects to it. –SAM LEWIS
1
FOR THE EXPOSURE
The first thing we always have to do is to bring our image into GIMP and rename the file to something applicable. We renamed our layer to ‘PC Setup Background’. It’s important to keep your layers organized in photo editing software.
>> To make our neon lines pop more, we are starting by editing this background image and darkening it a little to mute the colors. This will create greater contrast between the original image and the neon colors that will make it stand out. If we ever need to go back and edit the original image again, we make sure that this is duplicated, locked, and hidden.
>> Now, select the main layer, then go to the color tab at the top and click on exposure [ Image A]. Then when this window appears, reduce the exposure a fraction to darken your image.
2
NEON LIGHTS
Now that our image is set up and ready to go, we can start to have a bit of fun with it. What you have to think about here is what part of the image you want to bring the attention to, as this will be the part we want to highlight with neon.
>> Once you’ve figured this out, choose a color. We opted for neon pink, but you could equally use green or orange. Create a new layer for your neon lines and then use the brush tool to paint over the lines you want [ Image B].
>> Follow the edges of the main shapes to create this image. You don’t have to be too accurate, the hands-on element brings in a neon paint effect to the image. As you can see, we followed the edge of the monitor, the PC, and some of the important PC components. We used some straight lines but followed these focal points loosely.
3
DUPLICATE THE LAYER
Once we’ve finished drawing lines, we need to duplicate this layer and rename it. This layer will be where we get our glow from. After duplicating the layer, bring this ‘glow’ layer below the original neon lines layer. Select the original layer and head to the color tab at the top.
>> In this dropdown menu, select desaturate, then desaturate again, and hit OK. This will technically be our neon tubing. We are desaturating this layer as the color will be coming from the glowing layer behind.
>> Finally, on the original neon lines layer, we need to head back to the colors tab [ Image C], and curves and then bring this curve to the top left to create a gleaming white effect.
4
LET IT GLOW
We’re now set to create our neon glow. On this glow layer, we need to blur it for the color to bleed underneath the neon tubing effect we have just created on the upper layer.
>> To do this, head to the filter tab on the top, yes that’s right, not the color tab for once. Once in this filter tab, click on blur and then select the gaussian blur [ Image D]. This adds weight to the neighboring pixels in the blur and is where the glow for our neon lines will come from.
>> Every image will be different, so play around by increasing and decreasing the X&Y sliders—you will see a live preview of how your image will look. Equally, you can go back to your original image and darken it again to create a greater contrast.
5
LEARNING YOUR LINES
To complete our artwork, we are going to add some extra lines on some other items in the background. Of course, this is optional, but we wanted to add some glow to the leaves behind the PC. Not to detract from the PC, our main focal point, we decreased the size of our neon lines. We then repeated the whole process and just like magic, we were finished.
>> This process isn’t difficult, it takes time to figure out what you want to draw and how to emphasize the main subject. Once that is done, you can apply the glow effect for an eye-catching image [ Image E]. You can transfer this skill to many different images, the rough effect adds a playful nature and also draws your eye to the most important part of the photo.