Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Etceteras: photo effects {goodbye picnik}



Do you use Picnik for photo editing? Picnik is Google’s photo editing tool and many, many bloggers use it for it’s ease of use and variety of editing options. My go-to photo editing tool is Picasa {another Google program} but when I want to do something a little bit more with my photos, Picnik is a great source.

Unfortunately, it was just announced that Picnik is closing in April. Photo editing can be done on Google+ but I have to confess, I haven’t checked out Google+ yet.

In the meantime, Picnik is offering their premium tools free of charge. So if you’re not a premium subscriber, you can take advantage of the fun tools for a few more months.

Here are some examples of Picnik’s capabilities.



I snapped this photo from my backyard - it’s my neighbor’s tree. The photo above is the original photo. Although the sky was really blue that day, my camera settings may have enhanced the blue because that sky looks a little intense.



I uploaded the original photo to Picnik and played around. This effect is called 1960s. I love the calmed down tone in the photo.



Film grain is a fun effect. Before I added the film grain, I played around with the color and saturation.



Adding Duo Tone completely changes the photo. You can’t even tell that there is sky in the background. For this duo tone, the first color is blue and second color is white. The combinations using the Picnik color palette are endless.



For this photo I completely covered the photo in a rectangular shape and added a light shade of peach to the shape. I then made the peach shade more transparent and I loved the result. So soft and dreamy.

Note: the very first photo in this post was edited using the rectangular shape with a medium shade of green and then I used the softening tool on the entire photo. It reminds me of old fashioned wall paper or a table linen. 

I’ll miss the Picnik tools. How about you? Do you use Picnik? I’m going to start researching photo editing alternatives. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.


Thanks for visiting.
Carolyn

7 comments :

  1. I am really going to miss Picnik! I have just started playing around with FotoFlexer.com - it has many similar features. I'm curious to see what your readers have found.
    Kristen
    My Covered Bridge

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  2. I got so use to Picnik.. Will have to try Picasa or use my own camera's editing program..

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  3. I posed the same question yesterday on Facebook! I LOVE Picnik.
    From the answers I got, I am going to have to hop between fotoflexer.com and befunky.com. I'd much rather find one just like picnik. Two others were suggested, but I didn't like them as much:
    lunapic.com
    pixlr.com
    I just noticed someone mentioned something they called "Picasso Google". I didn't see that yesterday (oops) and didn't look at/for it.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'm going to start playing around with some of these and see which one I like. Hopefully, we can all find a good replacement for Picnik.

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  4. I'm so glad you brought this up Carolyn. I love Picnik and have enjoyed using it in conjunction with my Picassa gallery. I'm relieved to see that your readers have suggested a few alternatives. Eager to check out Fotoflexer and befunky.

    Jenn

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  5. I am so sad Picnik is going to be gone, I just got it and figured it out! 1960's is my FAVORITE! Just look at my posts, lol!
    -Kendall
    {songbirdsandbuttons.blogspot.com}

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  6. Hi Carolyn,

    Hang in there, lady. I could not agree more that it's such a bummer to see Picnik go. I'm actually part of a team of former Picnikers. We've launched a replacement photo editor that's just as good, if not better, than your old fave, and it's only 2 weeks new! Check out PicMonkey.com! It was built by a couple of the folks who brought you Picnik so it's sure to feel familiar! Please feel free to send me your feedback, feature requests, and, of course, any questions you have -- I'd love to hear from you!

    Cheers,
    Jenn

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