Do you ever look at your pictures and think – it’s a good picture, but it just NEEDS something…
Yeah, me too..ALL the time. Unfortunately not all of us can afford photoshop, but there IS an affordable , fun alternative – Picnik! I heard about picnik right after they launched and it has been a lot of fun to see all the goodies they have added since the beginning. The best part is it’s FREE. There is a premuim membership that is $25 a year, and allows you to do some pretty fun stuff, but all the edits I will do today are available on the free version…
Last week we had a HUGE snowstorm (hey, it’s California – any snowstorm is huge to us!). This was one of my favorite images from the day and my wordless Wednesday picture:
Not a bad picture, decent composition, captures the scene…but it could be better.
I opened up the photo in picnik, and chose the exposure tab. I slid the top slider (exposure) to the right to about 25. Then I boosted the contrast a bit – about 10.
After that, I went to create, then effects, and chose “vignetting” (vin-yetting) – which is really just a schmancy word for “framing”. I didn’t edit it much beyond what the standard setting is, and here is the after:
Much better, don’t you think? It just LOOKS colder in the after picture!
Now it’s YOUR turn!! I have installed this nifty plug in on my blog that lets you upload your own pictures to the comments! Show me your favorite photos and tell us how you edited them…I will post a couple next week and who knows – maybe we’ll have a special drawing!
PS – me and a few of my fellow picture-loving friends will be doing a fabulous one on one wisdom workshop at this years Blissdom in Nashville – You are signed up for it, right? 😉
I took this sunrise photo a few days ago. It was beautiful in it’s original form, however with just the smallest bit of tweaking, I transformed it into a stunner. I dropped the exposure a hair, sharpened and increased the contrast ever so slightly. Also upped the color saturation….all by very small increments. You never want to totally distort the original photo, unless of course you are going for a cool pop art feeling 😉 Trying to download pic..taking way too long. Any suggestions??
.-= janet metzger´s last blog ..Purple Leaf Plum Cowl with Shipping Included =-.
Before photo!! I love the color gradation and the tiny crescent moon!
.-= janet metzger´s last blog ..Purple Leaf Plum Cowl with Shipping Included =-.
I never would have learned about (or fallen in love with) Picnik if it hadn’t been for you! I lurrrrve it.
I’m attaching my favorite shot from our snowstorm this month (hello? We’re in Alabama, so we freak out, too!) I can’t remember egg-zact-ly what I did, but I’m pretty sure, I cropped, brightened the contrast a hair for the colors in his gloves to show up better and I think I focused in on the snow (with some effect that lets you do that and allow the rest to be fuzzy… technical… I know.. something with aperture).
Anywho. let’s see if it uploads here with your fancy pants add on! Love it!
PS- your pic DID look much colder!!
AND… can’t WAIT to see you in ONE WEEK!! YAY!!!
.-= Hillary @ The Other Mama´s last blog ..Why I love Chuck- and Zac Levi, too =-.
Looks great! I bought photoshop with Christmas money, but haven’t figured out how to install it yet! I may try this until I can get the other one straightened out!
.-= Kimberly´s last blog ..It’s Me Again =-.
Looks great! I bought photoshop with Christmas money, but haven’t figured out how to install it yet! I may try this until I can get the other one straightened out!