The Merits of Airbrushing

Have you ever created an AI image that you loved in every way except for maybe one or two small issues? Happens to us a lot even when running the latest AI models. Rather than toss the image or accept the defect, though, we often fix the issue(s) using airbrushing. What is airbrushing? It’s basically blending colors from one part of the image to another. For this example, we'll use the free, open-source image editor known as GIMP (Gnu Image Processing Program). We recently posted a surfing creation ( https://budgetpixel.com/p/14864 ). To make this image, we generated several (our usual process) and picked the one we liked the most. However, that one had an extra ankle strap: Surfers always attach the tether to the trailing foot, not the leading foot (and certainly not to both feet), so anyone who's surfed more than one day will know this image is inaccurate. So let’s airbrush that strap away! First, let's zoom in on the leading foot using ‘+’ in GIMP: Next, let's pick up some neighboring flesh tones using the eye dropper tool (press 'o' in GIMP), and then apply them to the dark pixels using the airbrush (press 'a' in GIMP). Note that we've chosen a brush size of 9 pixels in this example: Rinse and repeat: Now let's do the same with the sides, this time picking up the gray colors with the eye dropper: Almost done... As we get close to finishing, we switch to a smaller brush size (5 pt instead of 9 pt but the actual size you choose will be based on the resolution of your image): Final polish: Let's zoom out to view the finished product, which doesn't have to be perfect because we generally run our images through a final Clarity Upscale before posting: In the beginning, it may take some time to become comfortable at airbrushing, so maybe start with very small defects and then work your way up. But rest assured, it gets faster and easier. If you've been working with graphics for a while, you may pick it up even faster. @DavidP read an earlier version of this tutorial and mastered the technique in less than a day. Feel free to practice on this image even. The cleanup described here took about 5 minutes for me (not including the time to take screenshots and type this tutorial). And now, just to be complete, let's put the airbrushed image through a Clarity Upscale at medium strength: Hard to tell that leading strap was ever there, right? ☺️ Final thoughts: GIMP is free, and airbrushing is a useful skill for an AI creator to know. To reiterate: Just alternate between the eye dropper ('o') and airbrush ('a') tools while adjusting brush size to the regions you want to blend. Good luck! 👍