How to Do Selective Color Correction GIMP Freeware

GIMP Image Editor

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Adobe Photoshop is one of the world’s most popular software programs but it is expensive and not affordable for the casual digital photographer. GIMP is a powerful image editing program available for free at http://www.gimp.org/. It has many of the same features of Photoshop and is easy to use. In this article we will discuss how to perform a selective color correction using the Fuzzy Select Tool and the Curves palette.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

GIMP 2.0 or later running on a PC Computer
A copy of an image for experimentation

Step1

Original Open your saved file in GIMP. From the toolbar, select the FUZZY SELECT TOOL which is the third tool from the left in the top row. In this image, we will change the green flower bud in the center to a blue bud. Zoom in on the flower bud to make it easier to select.

Step2

Select the image section Click on the flower bud and you will see some wavy lines surrounding parts of the bud. Hold down on the shift button and continue to select parts of the bud that are not enclosed with wavy lines. This photo example shows the bud after seven different clicks.

Step3

Quick mask to confirm selection You can use the QUICK MASK tool to make sure you have the entire part of the image selected that you want to color correct. The quick mask will mask out everything that is not selected. Click SHIFT+Q to toggle into and out of quick mask mode.

Step4

Color Curves palette Once you have made your selection, exit quick mask. Next, select COLORS/CURVES to bring up the curves palette. Since we want to change the bud to Blue, select BLUE from the CHANNELS drop down menu. Manipulate the curve until you get the exact color that you desire. Then click OK and save the image.

Step5

Final image The final image has the color adjustment only to the part of the image we selected. You can use this method and the quick mask method to make selective color corrections or other corrections to any part of an image.

Tips & Warnings

When downloading GIMP, make sure you download the help system. It is a separate download and also free. The FUZZY SELECT tool is similar to the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop, but you can not add and subtract selections with a RIGHT CLICK like you can in Photoshop. You must use SHIFT and CLICK to add to the selection.
Always work with copies of your images to preserve you image archive