PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies

in producing principled and competent military officers

HEADQUARTERS
ACADEMIC GROUP, PHILIPPINE MILITARY ACADEMY
Department of Information Technology
Fort General Gregorio H del Pilar, Baguio City

LE03 – Cropping, Resizing, and Color Adjustments (14 Dec 23)

Part I. HANDS-ON PRACTICE: Perform the following instructions. (Points

allotted: 70/100)

DIGITAL B&W CONVERSION

1. Using GIMP, open a JPG file (Limit the image size max of 2mb only), and
perform the Black and White Conversion using Desaturate. Keep a copy of the
original jpg file and rename it to “Original-BNW.jpg”. It will also be submitted
later.

Desaturate (GIMP)
Perhaps the easiest and most straightforward path to a grayscale image is using
the Desaturate command. It can be invoked from the GIMP menu:
Colors → Desaturate…

There are several options available from this menu:

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

Each of these options (Lightness, Luminosity, Average) will generate a grayscale

image for you, but the difference lies in the way they interpret the image colors into
values of gray.

No one of these methods is necessarily any better than the other objectively for your
own conversions. It really depends on the desired results. However, if you are in
doubt about which one to use, Luminosity may be the better option of the three
to more closely emulate the brightness levels you will perceive.

2. Save the converted Jpg file using the name: 4CL<YourLastName>-BnW.JPG

and make sure that you have a copy of the original file.

COLOR ADJUSTMENTS

How White Balance Effects Photos

Most light appears white to the human eye, but in reality, different types of light,
such as sunlight and tungsten light, have slightly different colors, and digital
cameras are sensitive to this.

If a camera has its white balance set incorrectly for the type of light it is capturing,
the resulting photo will have an unnatural color cast. You can see that in the warm
yellow cast in the left-side photo above. The photo on the right is after the
corrections that are explained below.

3. Correct Color Cast With Pick Gray Tool

If you have got a photo with a color cast, then it will be perfect for this activity.

3.1 Using GIMP, open another JPG file (Different from the file use above and
again limit the image size max of 2mb only), and perform Color Adjustments. Keep a
copy of the original jpg file and rename it to “Original-adjustment.jpg”. It will also be
submitted later.

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

3.2 Go to Colors > Levels to open the Levels dialog.

3.3 Press Pick Grey Point, which looks like a pipette with a gray box next
to it.

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

3.4 Press somewhere on the photo using the gray point picker to define
what is a mid-color tone. The Levels tool will then make an automatic
correction to the photo based on this to improve the color and
exposure of the photo.
If the result doesn't look right, select Reset and try a different area of
the image.

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

3.5 When the colors look natural, press OK. With the image that you
open, adjust accordingly and save the new image using the file name:
4CL<YourLastName>-GreyTool.jpg

While this technique may lead to more natural colors, it is possible that the
exposure may suffer a little, so be prepared to make further corrections,
such as using curves in GIMP.

4. Adjust Color Balance

4.1. Using the image output in 3.5 4CL<YourLastName>-GreyTool.jpg, Go
to Colors > Color Balance to open the Color Balance dialog. You'll see three radio
buttons under the Select Range to Adjust heading; these allow you to target
different tonal ranges in the photo. Depending on your photo, you may not need to
make adjustments to each of the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights.

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

4.2 Select the Shadows radio button.

4.3 Move the Magenta-Green slider a little to the right. This reduces the
amount of magenta in the shadow areas of the photo, thus reducing the reddish
tinge. However, be aware that the amount of green is increased, so watch that your
adjustments don't replace one color cast with another. Do the same for the other
colors, as needed.

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

4.4 In the Midtones and Highlights, adjust the sliders accordingly to get the
most natural color results possible. Save this new image using the file name:
4CL<YourLastName>-ColorBalance.jpg

5. Adjust Hue-Saturation
5.1 Using the image output in 4.4 4CL<YourLastName>-ColorBalance.jpg,
Go to Colors > Hue-Saturation to open the Hue-Saturation dialog. The controls
here can be used to affect all the colors in a photo equally, but in this case, we only
want to adjust the red and magenta colors.

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence

PMA Vision: By 2028, the PMA shall have reached the international standards for military academies
in producing principled and competent military officers

5.2 Choose the radio button marked M and slide the Saturation slider to the
left to reduce the amount of magenta in the photo.

5.3 In this photo, magenta saturation is set to -10, and the red saturation to -
5. You should be able to see in the image how the slightly red color cast has been
further reduced. Save this new image using the file name: 4CL<YourLastName>-
HueSaturation.jpg

The photo isn't perfect, but these techniques can help you salvage a poor-
quality photo.

6. Submission of Output:

At this time, there should be three (3) output files in this Activity.
1. Original-BNW.jpg
2. 4CL<YourLastName>-BnW.JPG
3. Original-adjustment.jpg
4. 4CL<YourLastName>-GreyTool.jpg
5. 4CL<YourLastName>-ColorBalance.jpg
6. 4CL<YourLastName>-HueSaturation.jpg

PMA Core Values: Honor, Patriotism, Professionalism, Commitment, Excellence