Lesson 3: The basic workflow in Digital Photography

These are the basic steps when editing an image taken with a photocamera -- or to be precise, with any device capable of producing digital image files. Let us start exploring the GIMP's tools.

Rectangular and mirroring transformations
Rotation
Cropping
Fixing the Red-Eye
Save it!

Taking it logically: what the intention is

So the basic work may seem to be done at this point. I shot it, i made the basic post processing, now my image seems acceptable. Now or later i will want to use my image. To sum up the steps:

  1. open the XCF in GIMP,
  2. change the image size if needed,
  3. do the sharpening,
  4. export to the appropriate file format.

There are two cases for using the image:

  • case 1: to use digitally: email, webpage, internet, or just seen on digital devices,
  • case 2: to print.

In case 1, as we saw in theory, resolution does not matter, since in digital devices it is an easy job to control the projection size when showing an image on screen and the only thing that counts is the image size. By principle an image is shown on a "pixel-per-pixel" basis on a screen, but we easily control the projection size through the software (like we have seen in GIMP for example). If the projection size is too big for a given number of pixels per unit of measure, the image gets "pixelated" losing its consistency. The same natural principle of optical detail holds true when printing. So in terms of optical quality and as for the number of pixels per length unit, there are limits to the physical size we can print. So here the relationship between the image size and the resolution comes into play.

Case 2: Getting ready for a print


Case 1: Getting ready for a usable image file

Let me say that i want to use the image on the web, or to email it to someone to see. Normal monitor sizes do not exceed 1900px wide or 1200px high, hence a width of 1200 pixels would seem right to enjoy viewing a photograph. A bigger size would be unnecessary, and still a bad way to fill up mailboxes and servers. So i just have to change the dimensions of my image: i have to scale it down.


Sharpening

Finally, we come to the last step: saving to a usable digital image file.

Saving for quality: creating a TIF image file
Saving for file size: creating a JPG image file
Saving for transparency: creating a PNG image file

Other file types?

Of course there are many more of them. These file types appear to be the most basic ones, widely supported on all platforms, rather enough to get your job done, whatever this may be.

Final note:

At closing your image, GIMP will ask you if you want to save. You might not want to do so! If you have properly saved at the right moment after finishing the basic work - that is to say before scaling and sharpening, if needed - that was enough. If you do save again, this will be a "scaled-down and sharpened" version of your image! You might want this only in case you have the specific intention to do so -- and of course you still have the option of saving an extra XCF.

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