Creating Light Leaks on Photographs using GIMP
Light Leaks are a product of film in the camera being exposed due to a hole/gap in the cameras body letting in light. It is sometimes used aesthetically in photographs creating a sense of vividness or soft blurs of colour – usually red. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create these light leaks in the GIMP!
Making light leaks on Photographs in GIMP
1. Starting & Quick Masking
- Firstly open your image that you’ll be applying the light leaks.
- Using the Quick Mask we can select the areas where the light leaks will be, go Select –> Toggle Quick Mask (Shift + Q).
Starting and Quick Masking (Click to view larger)
2. Using the Gradient Tool:
a. Radial & Linear
- Grab the Gradient Tool: FG Only – White and either Radial or Square Gradients.
- Now, using the gradient mask around the edges of your image in the places you’d like to have the red/orange.
- As shown below, it is ideal to use both Linear and Radial to precisely mask:
Using the Gradient Tool - Radial and Linear (Click to view larger)
b. Square
- If you are in a rush – using the Square Gradient is ideal and covers each edge.
- You may need to zoom out a bit to apply the gradient mask evenly:
Using the Gradient Tool - Square (Click to view larger)
3. Applying the Quick Mask
- Now to get your selection, go Select –> Toggle Quick Mask (Shift + Q).
- You now have your selection and can apply curves to it: Colors –> Curves:
- As shown below: Bring up the brightness on all (RGB/Value), then RED increase, GREEN decrease, BLUE decrease:
- If you’d like to experiment with colours simply go Colors –> Hue/Saturation and shift the HUE!
Adjusting the Brightness - Curves (Click to view larger)
- RED – Increase
RED Channel - Increase (Click to view larger)
- GREEN – Decrease
GREEN Channel - Decrease (Click to view larger)
- BLUE – Decrease
BLUE Channel - Decrease (Click to view larger)
That’s it!
Final Product
This technique of quick masking can also be applied to any gradient colouring you choose to do with a soft graduation/diffuse on an image, so keep it in mind as a simple trick to enhancing images.
If you get stuck anywhere just comment below!
If you’d like to use these photographs please Contact Me!
Please comment below if you have any questions and I’ll answer them ASAP!
All images on this site are copyrighted© – All Rights Reserved.
Written by Mike
Michael Scott is the publisher and photographer behind Scott Photographics! He is very passionate about his photography and enjoys sharing the best of his experiences for others to enjoy too! Contact Mike via email!Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Links 11/6/2010: GNOME 2.31.3, $100 Android Phones | Techrights
- Creating Light Leaks on Photographs - GHUJ – Gimp Tutorials
- Creating Light Leaks on Photographs | checkwebdesign.com
- Textures, dodging and burning in The Gimp « Serenblip's Blog
- Photoshop??????????? | DigiTechLog Dot Com
- 40+ Best GIMP Tutorials of 2010 | Scott Photographics | Free Photography, GIMP & Photoshop Tutorials
Hi! I absolutely love what you’ve done with this photo and the light leaks. I’ve tried several times to follow the tutorial, but instead of lighting the edges it turns the center the hints of red that I want on the edges. Also, in your tutorial it shows the edges being rounded for the color effects and I can’t get mine to do that. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Megan,
you might have some troubles with the Gradient/Blend Tool – check settings: White, Reverse(I use both directions for different angles), Radial. Also check out my gradient lines, that should achieve the rounded edges. However the selection is feathered so it doesn’t matter too much what shape it looks.
If those do not work you could try another method:
Duplicate layer, set top layer to color, then adjust to desired colours, and use a mask White, and use the gradient tool with FG: Black to leave only the corners in that colour.
If that isn’t the problem, then comment below or email me!
Thanks,
Michael
Thank you so much!
If been looking for something like this for ages!
Always great to hear, thanks Lea!
Thank you so much for doing this! Although I have found that to colour a certain area, sometimes you need to invert the selection, not sure if that’s because I did something wrong, but i don’t really mind (:
I’ve been using it way too much so quickly!
Thanks!
Great to hear Georges!
4 words: YOU. ARE. THE. BEST :) ;)
Hi!
Thanks for sharing this trick. :)
But I have a problem with saving the photo. it doesn’t save it as a jpeg… do you know what I can do??
Hi Rike,
Sorry for the late reply! In the past I have been able to save things as .png files first, then I would reopen it and save it as a .jpg.
Let me know if you are still having troubles.
Mike
this was great great help! however, i have a question. since uploading it as an .xcf file won’t work, what can i upload it as? i’ve tried png and a few others, but even if they do work, it doesn’t show the light leak layer, but the original image. any help? thanks. :)
Hi Caroline,
I have not experienced this before myself? Why is it not possible for you to save it as a .jpg? Does an error message appear?
Regards,
Mike