Today I’m going to show you how to add Glossy or Shine effect to an image with GIMP. This can be used on Jewelry Photographs, Metal, Lamp and Candle Photographs to increase shine of certain areas.
Let’s say, you took a picture of something may be a Copper Horn like on above image, and there’s not enough shine on it. You can use GIMP to add shine to those kinds of images. GIMP is an open source photo editing software and can be downloaded free of charge on GIMP official site.
The picture at the top is combination of source image I used in this tutorial and end result. I made an animated .gif image out of it so you can see the deference. Here is the step by steps tutorial to do it.
Open up GIMP and open image file you want to edit. Go to File -> Open. Now we need to create a new brush. We’ll use it to add gloss to our image.
Create a New Brush with GIMP
From the GIMP, click Window -> Dockable Dialogs -> Brushes. It’ll open brush dock on the right side. At the bottom of brush dock window, click empty sheet icon to create a new brush. ‘Brush Editor’ dialog box will open (See below image). Give your brush a name and change the values as follows, (Only change following, leave others as it is)
Shape: Click Diamond icon
Radius: Set it to 75. Size of the brush will change.
Spikes: Set it to 4. Design of the brush will change.
Aspect Ratio: Set it to 1.7
Angle: Set it to 35
Close the ‘Brush Editor’ dialog box and new brush will be available in your brush dock.
Create a New Layer with GIMP
Now we need to create a new layer to apply shining effect. Go to Window -> Dockable Dialogs -> Layers. Create a new layer by clicking empty sheet icon at the bottom of Layers dock. It’s open ‘New Layer’ dialogue box. Give it a name and select ‘Transparency’ as layer fill type and hit ‘ok’. New layer will be displayed on Layers Dock on right side. Click it and change the color to white from color Toolbox on the left side. You can change the size of your brush at bottom of the Toolbox window.
Pick a suitable size (100, may be) and click (no more than 1-3 clicks) on the image where you want to shine. You’ll see changers right away. If not, increase the brush size. Now if result is still not enough for you, right click on new layer and select ‘Duplicate Layer’. It’ll bring more shine to your image. You can make any number of duplicate layers as this. Each layer will add more shine to your image. So don’t overdo it. Try to make it more realistic.
