Giving credit where credit is due: I did not come up with this method. All the while your original image remains blissfully unchanged on its layer. The images are combined in overlay mode: dark parts with light, light parts with dark. The basic technique is to create a layer above the image that contains a B&W negative of the image. You can of course modify your image directly in GIMP to decrease contrast, but the advantage of the contrast mask technique is that it allows you much more precise control, and gives better results. This may be necessary to obtain a decent print, because prints on paper do not have as much dynamic range as a monitor if you don’t control the contrast, detail in the highlights may blow out and detail in the shadows can block up and become muddy or even black.
A contrast mask allows you to reduce overall contrast, simultaneously bringing out more detail in highlights and shadows. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to do create a contrast mask for your image in GIMP.
Jeschke and may not be used without permission of the author. Text and images Copyright (C) 2002 Eric R.
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