Gimp - basic question

WooPeeA

I'm new in gimp, I cannot find how to change contrast, gamma and brightness of the picture...

I know how to use filters, effects etc.. but cannot find those 3 basic options.

I use GIMPshop, version 2.1.

Mr. Grieves

Not sure about 2.1, but in 2.4 all those options are under "Colours".

I love the Gimp but it takes ages to learn how to do anything, even simple things, in it. It's not very intuitive at all.

democrates

Right click on the image then select 'tools'..'colour tools'
You'll find a bunch of very useful options in there
Eg 'Levels' and click on 'Auto' to let gimp automatically correct colour, contrast, and brightness.

The 'Hue, Saturation, Brightness' is particularly useful for desaturating some channels but not others, while 'colour balance' is a boon for compositing where the source images are so different that a simple cut and past of a masked region looks out of colour kilter.

Aside from window sprawl, one of the issues people have with gimp is the sheer complexity, but over time as you keep at it you'll find it helps you to become very adept at post processing, then there are plugins, and scripting which I've not bothered with.

Same goes for photoshop, you'll get out of it what you put into it and the variety of user skill is there to see in the results. I'm probably an average gimp user myself and not an expert, it's free (and GPL licensed), and does what I need. I've briefly used photoshop but am resistant to shelling out cash, booting MS Windows, and learning another interface.

That said, given the amount of time it takes to learn from scratch and how much time is spent post processing, people with a lot of experience using both might argue that the money for photoshop is well spent. I can't argue against that, and can only say I'm delighted using the Gimp.

WooPeeA

Thanks.