Sunday, April 22, 2012

Photo Editing Options....

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I have sat at this computer every day this week, began to write my post on all of the reasons I have been MIA, but I just seem to run out of time before I finish the post. The short story is that we are in the process of moving and I have spent everyday going back and forth from place to place. I drop the kids off at school in the morning, go to the old house to do more packing and cleaning (not to mention there isn't internet there anymore), get the kids off the bus after school and drive back to the new house. Then I spend the evening unloading the car and organizing, {I don't do dinner}but the dishes always have my name on them, {kids} bath time, and then bedtime (unfortunately not mine). That in itself has been consuming every second of my day. Then I had some mishaps {bruises and burns...hmmm} in the past week, and pure exhaustion at the end of the day. I either can't seem to sit still long enough, or stay away late enough,  so I'll write more about all of that in the next post or two. Another reason, is that my computer broke a few weeks ago, and I didn't get a new one till this week, and {man} I have a lot of catching up to do!! What I thought I would talk about today, with the close of Picnik, is all of the {free}options we still have!!

1) Google+ Creative Kit: Google+ Creative Kit is powered by Picnik. It has the look of Picnik, although I have found that it doesn't include all of the editing options that Picnik did. In fact, it is lacking quite a bit. Another thing that I have found is that it will not "save a copy", even though it gives that option. You are only able to "replace the original". Saying that, you can still produce a well edited picture in my opinion. Here is a before and after of a picture I edited using Google+ Creative Kit {I will show the same picture for each option} To use Google+ Creative Kit, log into your Google+ account and click on a picture. At the top left, you'll see Creative Kit.

Unedited



2) PicMonkey:  I started experimenting with PicMonkey yesterday, and I really like it right away! It's super easy to use, and maybe named different, has a lot of the same features and effects of Picnik. It was created by 2 former Picnik engineers, so there are similarities. At this time, you can't upload from facebook, or any other site, just your computer and you also can't save to PicMonkey, but that's not a deal breaker for me, and at this time it's is all free. Like Picnik, there will be a cost for some of their features.




BeFunky: It's really a toss up if this is my favorite, or PicMonkey. I think that it depends on what you are wanting to do. I found that BeFunky has SO many great effects and great editing tools. If PicMonkey did 1/2 of what BeFunky did and BeFunky just has a few more things...it would be perfect! It's free package include plenty for great editing, and lots of fun features. It has a couple of premium packages, the lowest cost being about $2 a month (if you pay for the year). The things that {I} feel are missing, are probably in their premium package! I really like their variety of {free} effects, but I don't feel like there is a great variety of fonts, or things such as labels, shapes, and things like that besides using speech bubbles. Other than that, it's a lot of fun and also allows you to upload from other websites and as long as you register (that's free) you can save your photos to their gallery and share.


Photobucket: I have used Photobucket to for image hosting, but never for editing. It also is free, and I'm sure if I would play with it a little more, I would find that it does the things I need or want. I think I would have to actually use a photo that needs more, to really see what it does and how easy it is. But it was easy to  have fun with this photo.


So that is just to name a few, and here are some other things I was able to do with these sites....









If you wondered about the burns I mentioned at the beginning her is a little Instagram pic...love that site too!!
FYI...it only takes about 10 seconds for a lawn mower to get HOT! Don't try to lower the lawn mower once you have started mowing (it was probably just the mower I was using!)

Day 2: not looking as bad as it felt....

Day 4: looking bad and feeling bad....


Then, 2 days in a row, I fell down the stairs {not even the same stairs!} I'll spare you the pictures of those bruises ;-)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope this will help you explore your options in photo editing!

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