The GIMP and UFRAW thread

After reading about PSE... well, I figure a thread dedicated to GIMP tips, tricks and usage would be useful. As - to be honest - it gets a long way towards the functionality of Potatochop but at a significantly better price for the user.

Tip 1 from me:
- UFRAW, as mentioned elsewhere, is a great batch converter. BUT: I can't get it to accept whitebalance any more with version 0.17.
It will correct lenses and all sorts of other stuff, but it can't sharpen. Used with a command line it will process maybe 10 RAWs per minute on my Dell E6400 (dualcore Win7 x64, 4GB RAM, 2.53GHz). And then I can run 2, one per core.
I process through, then check the pics, note the ones I want to spend time on and then open them.

Tip 1a: Windows 7 will not allow you to edit more than say 10 files at once. OTOH, if you select 9 and hit enter, and then the next 9 and hit enter... you'll get an awful lot of UFRAWs opening. One drawback: you will always have the same settings, so if they are wrong on one, they're wrong on all.
This way of working hits RAM hard but not processor as the processor is only needed when opening and closing. So you can work on 3-4 pics almost simultaneously (I find 2-3 is normally "enough").

Tip 2: Dave's Batch Processor
Here: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hodsond/dbp.html
Nice, simple, functional (mostly) for large numbers of shots. It's not perfect, but it can sometimes help enormously.

Tip 3: Bamboo
If it wasn't plugged in when you started GIMP, it won't work. Restart with it plugged in....and per default, opacity is set on pen pressure. I don't like this and haven't found a way to turn it off yet.

Tip 4: Learn your shortcut keys
C is to clone
Shift-C is to crop
R rectangle select
H heal
Ctrl-Shift-V Paste as new
ctrl-shift-s save as
o to pick a colour

shift with a tool means straight lines ONLY
ctrl-shift with a tool that accepts it (i.e. not clone, as ctrl and click sets the source) means only 90 degree angles.

Anyone else for any more? I'll add in teh complex sharpening algorithm later.

Bret

From another thread

help for gimp

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Lite_Quickies/

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

and video tutorials
http://meetthegimp.org/getting-the-old-shows/