Category: Local

There is info at the end of this post for any readers not familiar with the tools used to enhance these photos.

The housing market blooms in March too:

Photos taken with a DSLR camera (main benefit is huge zoom lens) and, the biggest difference, GIMP software: Color->Auto-White Balance and Color->Auto->Color Enhance.

GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation  Program. It is open source, meaning it’s FREE and GOOD. Make sure you get it from GIMP.org, not the advertisement that shows up at the top of the Google search. That one has a bunch of license agreements up to and including selling your soul to the devil. The real one scorns license agreements and if you bother to read the developer’s statement, is all about freedom. Get that one.

Because enhancing color on the whole photo made the house’s yellow too bright and dominant, the one with the house and the budding tree first has Tools->Selection Tools->By Color Select then the white balance and color enhance from above, applied to the tree trunk colors, the blossom color and the sky (one color group at a time).

The two daffodil close-ups were not enhanced. The camera seemed to make enough saturation on its own, perhaps because it was zoomed in on one primary subject.

Credit to Leanne Cole for educating about GIMP and photo enhancement.