I mentioned in my last post that I’m a point and shoot kind of photographer.  I love to take pictures, but I’m not really well practiced enough to use an SLR style camera.  I currently am using the Canon Powershot S5, which is as close to an SLR as you can get with a point and shoot camera.  I still have great features, but automatic everything!  I hihgly recommend it to everyone that is looking to move into a higher class of camera, but doesn’t want to go for a complete SLR model.

Enough about the camera! Let’s talk pictures and photo editing for a quick minute here.  If you want the best snapshots to print and hang on the wall you sometimes have to make a few little adjustments here and there.  Not everyone has PhotoShop on their computer, nor the time to learn to use it.  Honestly, I have PhotoShop on my computer, I know how to use it, and I still would rather use Picnik for photo editing!

Let’s start with the best feature of Picnik …. its FREE!  Compared to photo editing programs like PhotoShop that cost hundreds of dollars, free is a pretty nice feature.  Secondly, I would say the best feature of Picnik is that it’s fast!  you open your photo, click what you want to do and ZAP! it’s done.  It really is that easy.  You can crop, resize, adjust, correct red-eye, and add fun features.  And if you’re using Flickr, Webshots, or Picasa, popular online photo storage sites, you can edit your photos right from your account in just a quick click.

There are  a few premium features available for a paid membership to Picnik, but don’t worry it’s not going to break the bank.  You can upgrade to premium for only $24.95 per year.  Still much cheaper than buying a fancy editing program and then taking the hours of time to learn to use it the way you want.

I use Picnik with my Flickr account on a regular basis.  Here’s some before and after for you to compare.  Each only took me a few seconds of editing in Picnik!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

You can see a huge difference in the before and afters. Making a few quick photo tweaks, especially if you’re going to use your pics online, will make a huge difference in the final result. Okay, I’ll stop talking now so you can go play with all the cool features in Picnik

Posted on September 28th, 2008 by loretta