Reflection #6: Editing Images

This week, we were introduced to a photo editing program called GIMP.

GIMP is a software that's similar to Photoshop in many ways, but this one is FREE so, in my eyes, that fact alone, makes this software 1,000 times better than Photoshop (confessions of a broke college student). GIMP is also available to different types of OS like Mac, Windows and Linux. Although the program seems to be pretty awesome, the download process was very annoying. The file is big, therefore, it took me about an hour or two to actually have it on my computer. i do have to admit that my computer is not the fastest machine in the world, nor is my internet connection so i think that played a big part in the whole experience. Nevertheless, i was able to install it properly and get to work. With the help of the professor and his video lessons, i was able to navigate through GIMP without any problems and i managed to do just fine, if i say so myself.

On our class website, we were assigned a homework which consisted of us, changing the appearance of this terrible-looking guy that the professor named, Pepe.

YIKES!... As you can see, Pepe is quite difficult to look at without gagging. Our mission was to turn Pepe into a handsome -kind of- young guy that looked somewhat decent or better in any way than in his horrible picture. Using the tools provided by GIMP, we had to clear up his acne bumps and acne scars from his face, we had to whiten his teeth and also shave his sideburns. It took me about an hour or less to do everything the professor asked us to do. i must say, i enjoyed it very much. I was very pleased with the results that i got and Pepe definitely looks a lot better now. 

Here is a comparison of Pepe's looks before and after GIMP.

Aside from the photo editing homework, we also had another online assignment that required us to look for information about the history of computers or technology in general and choose one topic that we were interested in to produce an essay that we would have to upload to be evaluated.

Because February is Black History Month, I decided to highlight the work of African-Americans in the era of technology and portray their inventions and how much they have affected and influenced the world as we know it today.