Correcting Photographs of Paintings with Gimp

I'm a new Gimp users (2.2 on a PC) who's very impressed with the
program. Most of what I'm used to doing in Paintshop Pro (PSP) I find
I can do in Gimp very well. I have one awkwardness that I hope
someone can help me with.

I take photos of my wife's paintings quite regularly and need to
correct for perspective distortion because I don't get the camera
exactly centered on the painting.

In PSP there's a very hand perspective tool that allows one to
identify four corners of an object - a rectangle originally, but a
distorted trapezoid in the image. Activating the tool makes the
object a rectangle which I can then crop to get a clean image.

Is there a way of doing the same thing relatively easily in Gimp?

I know that I can use the path tool to create the boundaries of my
object and then can transform it visually to a rectangle (using
guides), but I'd love to have something easier than that, that makes
the edges exactly horizontal and vertical.

Thanks

Apologies folks - I thought I was posting to a different group.
Please ignore.

On Aug 18, 8:37 pm, AEngineer wrote:
I'm a new Gimp users (2.2 on a PC) who's very impressed with the
program. Most of what I'm used to doing in Paintshop Pro (PSP) I find
I can do in Gimp very well. I have one awkwardness that I hope
someone can help me with.

I take photos of my wife's paintings quite regularly and need to
correct for perspective distortion because I don't get the camera
exactly centered on the painting.

In PSP there's a very hand perspective tool that allows one to
identify four corners of an object - a rectangle originally, but a
distorted trapezoid in the image. Activating the tool makes the
object a rectangle which I can then crop to get a clean image.

Is there a way of doing the same thing relatively easily in Gimp?

I know that I can use the path tool to create the boundaries of my
object and then can transform it visually to a rectangle (using
guides), but I'd love to have something easier than that, that makes
the edges exactly horizontal and vertical.

Thanks

"AEngineer" wrote
On Aug 18, 8:37 pm, AEngineer wrote:
[Photos of artwork] Is there a way of [correcting
perspective] in Gimp?
Apologies folks - I thought I was posting to a different group.
Please ignore.

Well, if you used a large format camera then getting the camera
parallel to the artwork is a lot easier and you wouldn't have to
use Gimp[??].

"gimp [ ?][Colloq.] 1. lame ..."

I take it Gnu doesn't have a marketing department?

* * *

Even with a P&S it isn't that hard to get the camera and A/W
parallel. Camera on a tripod, a/w on the wall, a knotted
string and 9th grade geometry will solve the problem

After it is all figured out then put spike marks on the floor
(a bit of sticky tape is usual) for the tripod legs, mark the
wall with a cross with centering marks or locations to attach
a marked card/sheet/board, and make up a string and bob for
setting the camera height.

This is the way copy photos were made in photo studios for over
a century.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:
"AEngineer" wrote
On Aug 18, 8:37 pm, AEngineer wrote:
[Photos of artwork] Is there a way of [correcting
perspective] in Gimp?
Apologies folks - I thought I was posting to a different group.
Please ignore.

Well, if you used a large format camera then getting the camera
parallel to the artwork is a lot easier and you wouldn't have to
use Gimp[??].

"gimp [ ?][Colloq.] 1. lame ..."

I take it Gnu doesn't have a marketing department?

* * *

No, but the pricing is fairly attractive.

BTW, if AEngineer does get an answer to his question, I hope he'll drop
by and share it.

Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:

Well, if you used a large format camera then getting the camera
parallel to the artwork is a lot easier and you wouldn't have to
use Gimp[??].
(. . .)
Even with a P&S it isn't that hard to get the camera and A/W
parallel. Camera on a tripod, a/w on the wall, a knotted
string and 9th grade geometry will solve the problem
(. . .)
This is the way copy photos were made in photo studios for over
a century.

Bravo for giving the guy a large-format-camera (or any camera) solution
instead of berating him for posting to the wrong group
or even just ignoring him!