How do you achieve clear and crisp?
OMG *looks around nervously* - I don't see any previous posts here other than brianslave68's Welcome post.
Well, ok, I'll go first.
I was admiring maxymama's lovely new summer banner today, and the discussion turned to graphics software and all the things it can do. Rather than reiterate the discussion here, I'll just point you over there: Over there
I'm a novice, just beginning to learn GIMP. And I don't really expect to learn to fly before I can walk. However, when I see icons like this one *points up to icon* by brianslave68, I am - well, blown away by how beautiful it is, but beyond that, I'm flummoxed as to where you begin to learn how to make the image so crisp. Does it start with the quality of the screencap? The software used to create the screencap - the settings on the software? Or is it more to do with how you use filters, effects - and layers, which is an area I've yet to play with really. (Novice, remember.)
In contrast, to illustrate, this image is one I made last weekend when I was just playing with the basics. It's one layer, and all I've done is crop it (not even to the right size, but it'll do for the purpose) and play with levels - and I think the unsharp mask filter.
Here's another try, this one saved as a png file (in case that makes a difference)
Hm. As I see them on the preview, these aren't as fuzzy as I'd expected - I've certainly made fuzzier. Still, while they aren't exactly blurry, neither are they incredibly sharp. So my question is, what would be my first step on the path from the quality in these pics to the crisp quality in brianslave68's icon above, and, say, this one by paddies, which I've been using as my default?
I'm not looking for a step-by-step tutorial, but any gentle push in the right direction - or the right chapter in the GIMP manual - would be very much appreciated!