In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to edit a photo using GIMP. This method will allow you to maintain complete control of the edits at all times. Often times a I have found that I will make an adjustment to a photo, think I like the adjustment, continue to edit the photo, and 30 minutes later realize that edit I made ruined my photo. The worst part? There's nothing I can do at that point to take my edits back, shy of starting completely over. I have found that manipulating layers, layer styles, and layer masks as much as possible is generally favorable to editing the photo directly in any way if at all possible.

Oh, and I also threw in a pretty cool way to manipulate curves to help point out shading. Let me know what you guys think. What would you have done differently?

http://gimpedblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/ ... art-2.html

the face shading is something new to me, I can see how it can help give depth to a photo

I can't for the life of me recall where I saw that trick, but it definitely can create a pretty cool reference when used correctly.