For years I've used Adobe Photoshop to do some basic image editing. I even went so far as to buy a Wacom tablet one time, but never got around to really teach myself to use the pen instead of the mouse; I eventually gave the tablet away to a good friend though.
You see, Photoshop is a great program. It's really the best image editing software in existence and if you master the use of layers, filters, masks and color schemes, there really is no limit to what visuals you're able to create; if you can picture it in your mind, you can create it in Photoshop. Even if you can't draw or paint, you can create wonderful images in Photoshop by combining existing images into a whole new creation. Now I never rose above the rank of amateur, but Photoshop was good for making anything at all. Web graphics, photo enhancement or complete digital paintings; I understood how all that worked. Here's something I did in like a half hour on a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do, must be 11 or 12 years ago already...
Took a bad picture of myself walking on a beach on Ameland:
Downloaded a royalty-free picture of a nice blue sky from somewhere... I don't remember where: must have been Pixabay or Deviant Art or something like that:
Dowloaded a picture of birds flying:
And combined all three into this post's cover image, indulging some fantasy I've always had about flying away someday.
Not very pretty or imaginative, but it's just to show how versatile this software is; bear in mind that I'm an amateur with no artistic talent whatsoever. Still I'd like to create some simple graphics of my own, so I can bring some more visual appeal to these daily posts, simply because you deserve that and because I always liked doodling in Photoshop anyway. But... I don't have Photoshop anymore. They went the way of subscription where you have to pay a monthly fee, which I refuse to do. Also I don't want to use an illegal copy of Photoshop 6, the last none online version.
That's why I will now try to hop over to GIMP; it's free and open source and capable of reproducing Photoshop's basic functionalities like layers, masks and basic filters. I already made some very simple graphics for my posts on Steem's hard fork, and I realized it's going to take some getting used to GIMP after having had the luxury of using Photoshop in the past.
Luckily there's tons of resources online to help me out here. I already found a video tutorial I'm going to follow and after I've done that I'm going to try to recreate the image I made more than a decade ago; if I can manage that, then I'll be very glad. It would be awesome if GIMP turns out to be a viable substitute for Photoshop! I'd also love to hear from any of my readers if they have experience with GIMP and if they think it comes close to Photoshop's brilliance. Or if you know of any tutorials or instruction videos I should read or watch. I'll let you all know what I think about it in a couple of weeks I guess; It's something I'll have to fit in an already full schedule so it's gonna take some time.
GIMP 2.10 Basics: Complete Overview Tutorial for Beginners 2018
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