Meet the Gimp! is a weekly video podcast or tutorial about the Gimp graphics software from the viewpoint of a digital photographer. More information at http://meetthegimp.org

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Episode 033: The Channel Mixer - Monochrome conversion (2)


I promised a better way to convert coloured images to monochrome. And here is the Channel Mixer. It allows you to mix the amount of the red, green and blue channel of an RGB image and change the appearance dramatically. The image to the left is an example that I stole from a terrific website Cambridge in Colour. You see the original (in colour) and some outputs of the channel mixer.

Double Face revisitedThen I tackle the ?double face? from episode 31 again. I convert the new passport image with the channel mixer and get a better skin tone. Adding the same colour tint to both halves of the image and getting rid of the grain by blurring give a better result than before.

But the channel mixer is not the final stop on the road to the ?perfect? monochrome image. Next week I?ll use layers and the curves tool to get an even better result. And then there are duotones and sepia?.

Finally I start a new challenge for you. Do a monochrome conversion with GIMP, post the image in the meetthegimp.org photogroup at 23 and be sure to use the tag ?mtg-monochrome?. The challenge ends March 31 1600GMT and I?ll draw a winner by random choice. No interview partner as a random generator- I?ll go high tech this time. ;-)