Blue+Spruce+(Linda+Share)

Photo Editing
 * Fiesta 2

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce**

I used the GIMP package to make changes to the digital photos I took. I have done very little photo editing in the past and the GIMP software package is completely new to me. So, I found myself struggling a bit. I searched the Internet for help, and I found GIMP user documentation [|http://docs.gimp.org/en/.] The documentation was pretty helpful, but I still have a lot of questions.

The following pictures are examples of some of the basic photo editing capabilities of GIMP.

This is the first picture I used on the "Digital Cameras" page. I thought the tree looked a little dark. I used the brightness option under "Layers - Colors - Brightness" to lighten it. I think the second picture looks better, but I have to be careful not to make it too light. The third attempt is too light.







I often take pictures with the camera rotated to fit a longer image. I took the following picture with the camera held at a 90 degree angle. I used menu selections "Image - Transform - Rotate 90 degrees" to flip the picture upright.





The next picture needed to be rotated and cropped. The final picture looks much better without the unneeded portion of the driveway.







I used my favorite picture to play with other editing options.



I love this photo in black and white. For this I used the "Image - Mode - Grayscale" options.



For this next picture I chose "Tools - Text". I should have made the text larger. After I scaled this picture down I couldn't read the text very well.



This is better, but I should have made the text even bigger.



This time I used the "Layer - Transform - Flip Horizontally" options. Now the cones face the other direction.



These last two pictures aren't exactly pretty, but I did gain some experience with other options.

In this picture I used "Select - Ellipse Select" and selected a portion of the center of the photo.



Then I chose "Tools - Paint Tools - Eraser" and erased a small portion inside the ellipse. The eraser only erases a very small section on the photo. The erased portion is on the bottom left. The eraser only worked within the boundaries of the ellipse I chose.

Then I chose "Tools - Paint Tools - Pencil" and colored in another small section. The pencil covers a small area. The "Pencil" portion is on the top left.

Then I chose "Tools - Paint Tools - Paint Brush" and colored in another small section. The "Paint Brush" covers a small area. This portion is on the bottom right.

Then I chose "Tools - Paint Tools - Ink" and colored in a small section. The ink option covered a wider area than the pencil" The "Ink" portion is on the middle right.

Then I chose "Tools - Paint Tools - Smudge" and smudged a small area. This also alters a very small area. It is hard to see what I "smudged" in this photo. The smudge is just to the lower left of the paint brush section".

This next picture I call "Big Spot". I was able to extract a portion of the picture. I wanted to add a portion of another picture in the ellipse, but I wasn't successful.



I would love to learn more about photo editing with GIMP. I am not sure what to do with all the layering features. If anyone has helpful ideas or hints, I would appreciate any additional advice or information. I am going to play more with this later, but I should begin the next portion of the project.

Well, that was fun, frustrating and time consuming. I am on to "Teaching and Learning" Healthy Snacking for Kids