ASCCA Online Courses

Frank O’Loughlin

Last Monday I participated in an online course on Gimp photo editor. I haven’t been game to try this previously as my memory is quite poor and I find it hard to remember much from courses. My motivation for trying this course is seeing what people can do with photos that aren’t up to scratch and need some touching up to make them look presentable.

It was a 3-hour course on the basics of adding a layer to a photo and making alterations to the original photo. The presenter Gene Martin also presented the course I did last year on Photo albums. Gene methodically took us through the process of Levels in Gimp and some tools to use to make alterations.

I found it a bit hard to keep up with the information but as Gene showed us how to use the Gimp manual, I have been practicing mainly using the manual as I’ve already forgotten a lot of the topics covered in the class.

I won’t go into any more detail about the course, but I’ll attach a photo that my wife took a couple of years ago (yes she’s a Cats supporter) of a decorated lounge room window with the Azalea bush covering some of the window. I have used the clone tool to paint out the Azalea bush from the window to give an example of cloning out unwanted objects in a photo.

It’s a very basic attempt at cloning as you and our readers will see, however, my main objective in writing this report for PC Update which I know goes out to all members is to say I found the ASCCA courses I have attended very useful and would certainly encourage other members to take them if there’s something that they would like to learn. My challenge now will be to remember to practice with other features of Gimp (there’s virtually unlimited features) Gimp is a free similar version of what most people know of Photoshop.

David Stonier-Gibson has been alerting members of these courses in both PC Update and Yammer which I see as another example of the club’s motto of Members Helping Members. The various SIGs offer members help with demos and information and this is another example of how the club benefits its members.