Hi POR,

your first photograph looks like it was taken in bad light conditions. The camera got too less light and increased the exposing time. For this reason, your picture is a bit blurry and also, which is maybe even more bad, noisy.

There are many things which can be done with your photograph, but nothing will make it better.

O personally would recommend not to use it, or, if possible, use it in a small size.

Hi
Many years ago I got married and the photographer did not do a great job of the photos.
He was not a professional but rather a guy who had his own ideas about what he could do with Photoshop etc.

So now I have GIMP on my Linux PC and I am trying to edit them so that they are presentable.

I have attached two examples from two different photos he took on the day to illustrate.

For me the quality of the image in 'Bad_wedding_image.jpg' looks terrible, were as in good_wedding_image.jpg it look fine

Essentially I want to make Bad_wedding_image.jpg look like good_wedding_image.jpg

Is there any way I can do this in GIMP ?

Any hints and tips, or even a pointer to a tutorial would be handy.

I am not an expert, but I thought to give this repair a shot. It still needs some work, but this is how I got this far, and what I did wrong. First, I turned down the contrast (-8), and the Red (-5) and Blue(-9) Then ran Despeckle. IN G'mic, I ran Smooth Skin (3.30) (You can turn the colours up a notch later) I sharpened the eyes, eyebrows, mouth,hair and nose with the Sharpen tool(Use a soft brush set about 40% ) I also put in a layer and added a catch light to his eyes. (zoom in to the eyes and paint several pixels white: then use a little Gaussian blur ) Then I over did it. I ran Gmic anisotropic (Amp 140,Sharpness 68,Anistopy 0.17). It was too much for this picture. What I should have done instead, and did later, was follow this tutorial on Wavelet Decompose. (http://blog.patdavid.net/2011/12/getting-around-in-gimp-skin-retouching.html) I love that plug in! I was able to remove small blemishes and had a lot of control over smoothness.I was also able to sharpen each layer just a little .If I hadn't run Anisotropic it would have retained more detail and it would have turned out much better. I think you will find Wavelet decompose helpful for future projects. One of my favourite tricks is to use a hand tint technique to fill in colour , like the wall in your picture. It is also a great way to change colours on anything. Use your Color Picker, or the colour of your choice, and lay out the layers as described in this tutorial: http://emptyeasel.com/2008/10/24/how-to-digitally-color-a-black-white-photograph-in-gimp/ and paint over any area you chose.You don't have to desaturated the picture: Just paint right over the section you want to colour. You will need to try different layer modes to get what you want. I also think every picture benefits with a subtle vignette. With most pictures it is darker around the edges, but if I have a winter picture with snow I find white around the edges and a little darker in the middle makes pictures pop. I hope this makes sense and some of this helps you out . Happy Gimping!

I am not an expert, but I thought to give this repair a shot. It still needs some work, but this is how I got this far, and what I did wrong. First, I turned down the contrast (-8), and the Red (-5) and Blue(-9) Then ran Despeckle. IN G'mic, I ran Smooth Skin (3.30) (You can turn the colours up a notch later) I sharpened the eyes, eyebrows, mouth,hair and nose with the Sharpen tool(Use a soft brush set about 40% ) I also put in a layer and added a catch light to his eyes. (zoom in to the eyes and paint several pixels white: then use a little Gaussian blur )
Then I over did it. I ran Gmic anisotropic (Amp 140,Sharpness 68,Anistopy 0.17). It was too much for this picture. What I should have done instead, and did later, was follow this tutorial on Wavelet Decompose.
(http://blog.patdavid.net/2011/12/getting-around-in-gimp-skin-retouching.html) I love that plug in! I was able to remove small blemishes and had a lot of control over smoothness.I was also able to sharpen each layer just a little .If I hadn't run Anisotropic it would have retained more detail and it would have turned out much better. I think you will find Wavelet decompose helpful for future projects. One of my favourite tricks is to use a hand tint technique to fill in colour , like the wall in your picture. It is also a great way to change colours on anything. Use your Color Picker, or the colour of your choice, and lay out the layers as described in this tutorial: http://emptyeasel.com/2008/10/24/how-to-digitally-color-a-black-white-photograph-in-gimp/ and paint over any area you chose.You don't have to desaturated the picture: Just paint right over the section you want to colour. You will need to try different layer modes to get what you want. I also think every picture benefits with a subtle vignette. With most pictures it is darker around the edges, but if I have a winter picture with snow I find white around the edges and a little darker in the middle makes pictures pop.
I hope this makes sense and some of this helps you out . Happy Gimping!

A note: the picture is in no way meant to be a finished product. It is more an example of "over doing" things.

Hi
Many years ago I got married and the photographer did not do a great job of the photos.
He was not a professional but rather a guy who had his own ideas about what he could do with Photoshop etc.

So now I have GIMP on my Linux PC and I am trying to edit them so that they are presentable.

I have attached two examples from two different photos he took on the day to illustrate.

For me the quality of the image in 'Bad_wedding_image.jpg' looks terrible, were as in good_wedding_image.jpg it look fine

Essentially I want to make Bad_wedding_image.jpg look like good_wedding_image.jpg

Is there any way I can do this in GIMP ?

Any hints and tips, or even a pointer to a tutorial would be handy.

A couple more hints I have found helpful when I am working with dicey photos: Blurring the background slightly or using a selective focus helps make the main subject seem sharper. Rather than trying to lighten a photo, use a vignette or two. In this case, you may consider a vignette over his face, and add another over his face and body. to lighten those areas. And don't restrict yourself to white/black. A golden color rather than white can make a photo more magical.Rather than black , pick a background color and use a darker version of that color. Have fun

First photograph really looks like it is taken in bad light conditions. I am not a professional in fixing photos nor am I going to give you any kind of a suggestion about fixing them. I just wanted to tell you that after your editing is done you can create a wedding website and store your wedding photos in a great way. There are many options available for creating websites. You can also visit http://webeminence.com/websitebuilder-com-review. So that it will become a nice memory for you.

Hi
Many years ago I got married and the photographer did not do a great job of the photos.
He was not a professional but rather a guy who had his own ideas about what he could do with Photoshop etc.

So now I have GIMP on my Linux PC and I am trying to edit them so that they are presentable.

I have attached two examples from two different photos he took on the day to illustrate.

For me the quality of the image in 'Bad_wedding_image.jpg' looks terrible, were as in good_wedding_image.jpg it look fine

Essentially I want to make Bad_wedding_image.jpg look like good_wedding_image.jpg

Is there any way I can do this in GIMP ?

Any hints and tips, or even a pointer to a tutorial would be handy.

Here's one I use a lot. End result looks somewhat like a painting, but not unpleasant. First used the clone tool, set at 12% and cloned from the right cheek mostly, where there are no large dark speckles. This is to lighten the dark speckles and shading around the eye, lip and under the jaw, which will give worse effects in Smoothing. Then copy, in GMIC run dream smoothing at 1 iteration. Once you see how it looks you can back and clone more as needed. Make new copies as needed. Your original was poor exposure AND an extreme blow up IMO.Took me 20 minutes? to get my result, more time it could be better, I use this a lot so there is the learning curve for you.

Hi
Many years ago I got married and the photographer did not do a great job of the photos.
He was not a professional but rather a guy who had his own ideas about what he could do with Photoshop etc.

So now I have GIMP on my Linux PC and I am trying to edit them so that they are presentable.

I have attached two examples from two different photos he took on the day to illustrate.

For me the quality of the image in 'Bad_wedding_image.jpg' looks terrible, were as in good_wedding_image.jpg it look fine

Essentially I want to make Bad_wedding_image.jpg look like good_wedding_image.jpg

Is there any way I can do this in GIMP ?

Any hints and tips, or even a pointer to a tutorial would be handy.

Typed out the how and lost it trying to post.

Typed out the how and lost it trying to post.

OK, worked to lighten the dark spots on the face, because in dream smoothing it will cause unwanted "paislies", which look bad on a face if too drastic. Make a copy of original. second layer. Use clone tool at 12%, #2 brush and cloned from the lighter smooth area along the right cheek and face. Lightened the dark areas under the jaw, right eye, nose lip area etc. and the sideburns. Ran dream smoothing, GMIC. Work back and forth making new smoothing until you like it. Then unsharp mask. Took longer trying to post this than it did doing it. I do this type of thing a lot, there is a learning curve but simple once you know how.