The Picnik is over…

…or at least it will be, soon. If you, like me, are already a big Picnik user, you’ll know by now that Google are closing it down in April & integrating some (not all) of it’s features into Google+ in an attempt to force more people to use their facebook alternative.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll resent this sly move & try to find an alternative rather than be forced to use a platform you weren’t going to use on it’s own merits (although I did try, when it was new, for about a week…).

After perusing twitter links &, ironically, Google searches, I’ve found two online editors that certainly aren’t Picnik, but could fill the void somewhat. Below is my original photo of Suspence which I’ll be using to demonstrate what these two programs could do.

Exhibit A: Pixlr Express.

I think this is what I’ll be turning to, at least initially. The Pixlr Express interface is nice & clean & the functions are smooth & easy to use. I really like the overlays & you can easily adjust the basics like brightness/contrast.

It has plenty of nice filters to choose from & many, many, many more borders than I can ever imagine utilising, but it doesn’t have some of the things I really love Picnik for, like airbrushing which I often use as a kind of more specific focal soften (where you can focus on one area of the picture & it blurs the rest)… speaking of which, Pixlr Express doesn’t even have that. Here’s my Pixlr Express’ed Suspence;

As you can see, I really went to town with the effects, normally I wouldn’t edit a picture this much, with overlays & filters & a crazy border, but for the purposes of this demonstration I decided to click a whole bunch of things & hope for the best.

Exhibit B: BeFunky.

Yeah… the name is a bit of put off right there, but I have been using the app version on my iPod so I thought I’d give the web version a run too.

The interface is… juvenile I guess, and you won’t be able to ignore the advertising easily, or their bold attempts to get you to upgrade at every turn, but if you can get past that there are some nice effects to be had in just a few clicks, it differs from Pixlr Express in that it has some arty effects in addition to photo filters, I’m not a huge fan of those but they can be fun to experiment with. BeFunky have stickers too which I know some people loved to utilize on Picnik.

My BeFunky’ed Suspence:

Special mention: Sumo Paint.

I couldn’t find another online editor that will help you fake the depth of field like Picnik (Why I don’t know, nearly every image editing app for the iPhone or iPod do it almost as a default), but Sumo Paint at least lets you try with it’s Linear blur filter.

Sumo Paint looks & is much more complicated than Picnik ever was, and I honestly think if you’re going to take the time to learn & use Sumo Paint that it would be more worthwhile to learn & use Photoshop or it’s free equivalent Gimp instead. I can use Photoshop & I like it, but it really does take a lot of time & effort to get a photo looking as good as Picnik did with three or four clicks, which is why I am so damn bummed about it closing in the first place… I might not want to be forced into the realms of Google+ just to access the Picnik features I love, but, after all this, it might happen anyway.

More online editors to try for yourself:

FotoFlexer

Phixr

Big Huge Labs

Lunapic

Feel free to let me know about any others you’ve tried or like in the comments – believe me, I want to know!

A little from column a, a little from column b…

I thought I might combine two topics into one post today, the lovely Lola Nova you see, put me in mind of people who can “pull off” yellow hair, and Kate & Claire would like to learn how to do photo mosaics… so…

I present a photo mosaic of yellow haired beauties!

I used picnik, because I luffs picnik, and although I have a premium account, you can make a mosaic like the one below without paying a cent. You can also use the mosaic maker over here for free.

Go to picnik, click ‘collage’.

Under the ‘Basic’ tab, click on the last option, the four large squares together like a window, you can select how many columns & how many rows you would like at the bottom of the menu on the left, obviously here I’ve gone with 3 columns & 2 rows. You can mess about with the spacing too there, background colour, proportions or “Kookiness” which means throwing the pics out of line & rotating them randomly.

I had already uploaded the pictures I wanted to use, if you haven’t yet just click “Upload Photos” down the bottom there & choose your pictures from your computer. Hold down the crtl key to select multiple pictures at once.

Drag & drop your pictures from the bottom row into your collage. Depending on the proportions of your pictures & the proportions of the boxes in your collage, a vital piece of the picture may be cut off in this step – to move your picture all you have to do is right click on it & hold the button down & move it until it’s in the right position.

In my Punky collage I edited each pic separately & added the text for the months & just uploaded them like this, for this one though, I added the text to the finished collage.

When you’ve got your collage looking how you want it, click done on the right at the top. You’ll be in the ‘Create’ tab, click ‘Text’, then click in the text box to write. After you’ve added the text you can keep it selected & use the Text Properties box to change the colour, size or font.

To rotate the text, click on the circle at the centre top of the white box surrounding it. When you’ve added all your text, click the Save & Share tab up the top and… Save & Share!

Nothing too earth shattering there I know, but it’s fun!

How to make purty photos in a few easy steps...

Right. So. I have been lucky enough to be told lately by several lovely visitors to my blog that my photos are all purty like & although I have shared my "secret" already, it was just a brief thing & undoubtedly most people missed it or hadn't passed by then...



So, I'm here to point you in the direction of a magnificent piece of FREE photo editing goodness that can do the most amazing things to your photos, & is fun into the bargain.



Picnik.



Now, I don't think I really need to go on all that much more about it - now you know you'll already be on your way over there to play (hope you have a free couple of days - you'll want to do every photo on your computer, probably twice) but I'll share a couple of examples of the fun can be had, in case you need any more encouragement....

In the case of the above photo, the 'After' is actually what I saw on the day, but my photos looked much lighter & washed out. All I had to do was darken the pic a little & up the contrast & the amazing scene I saw at the beach was restored...

Halloween effects! Get in quick if you want to play with these!

I have found a few favourite effects that I quite like & I'm sure you will too - that's the fun of it, really, the experimenting! Add a few things at once, play with the contrast, the colour, the temperature, add just one filter, flip it, add frames... the possibilities are endless.

Do I sound like I'm getting paid by these guys?! Yes, probably... I only wish I were (hint hint Picnik people!!)! I'm just a happy customer, sharing the love... Now off you go & make me wish I'd kept it to myself by making your photos look WAY better than mine!