Because of the good response to my post on photo editing I thought I would post a very basic tutorial on how you can improve your Etsy Shop Photos with the free software Gimp.
Please keep in mind that this is a very basic tutorial and there are a lot of other features that can help you improve your photos.
This technique will work much better if you do some planning beforehand when taking your pictures. This just adds that little extra and brightens up the photo.
First you need to download Gimp and install it. Then choose the photo you would like to edit and open it up.
This is what I started with.
I then select "Colors" and from the drop down menu select "Curves"
This is what the Curves tool looks like when you open it. The light grey peaks in the background will be different for each image you open. Generally my photos need to be lightened up a bit. If you just use brightness and contrast you risk making the photo look really washed out.
If you pull up on the middle just a bit it will lighten up the midtones. This is the one I play with the most. The top point I usually move to the left a little bit and this will lighten the highlights. In this step you need to be careful about overdoing it. Watch the white areas of the photo to make sure you aren't moving this point too far. The bottom left point controlls the shadows. Generally I move it to the right, which darkens the shadows and can help create more definition in the photo. It helps from making the photo look washed out. Each time you pull up a new photo you will probably have to adjust each point differently depending on the lighting you start with. You don't always have to move all the points and probably will use the middle point the most.
Once you are satisfied with the result, click okay and your adjustments will be saved.
Now I go to the "Colors" tab and adjust the "Levels" If you are happy with your photo, you may not even have to do this step. Play around with it and find what works best with the lighting you have in your picture. (just make sure to save the photo seperately so you dont loose your original)
This is what the levels tool looks like, each time you open a new photo the black graph will change and basically shows you the distribution of light in your photograph. You controll the shadows on the left, midtones in the center, and highlights on the right.
I don't really use any specific formula to figure out where to move the arrows. You can see that I am adjusting the arrows directly below the "Input Levels" graph. Once I have played around with it I usually come up with something I am happy with. Again, avoid washing out the photo with to much highlight or darkening the photo too much. If you move the far left arrow to the right it will darken up some of the shadows and can help you regain definition you have lost by lightening the photo.
Once I am happy with the results I click okay and my adjustments have been saved. If you have messed up, don't worry. You can click on "Edit" then "Undo" if you accedently change something you don't like.
To save the file go to: File then click: Save As
Once you have selected the folder where you would like to save the image Click in the"Name" field and name your image. Make sure that you put the file extension .jpg after the name of the image so that you can upload your photo to Etsy. For example below I named my file "Necklace" so in the name field I typed "Necklace.jpg". Once that is done click "Save".
Once that is complete a window comes up asking you if you want to export the file. You do, so click "Export"
When the "Save as JPG" window comes up, I always move the "Quality" up to 100. I am not really worried about the file size because I resize my images to 430px by 430px and haven't ever had problems loading the file up on Etsy. Then click save and you are done :)
Here is my final result:
Let me know if you have any questions 🙂 This is my first tutorial so hopefully it is somewhat helpful.
Learning a ton from these neat articles.