Perfect photograph is every photographer’s(or you can say everyone’s) dream. But what a person can see through naked eyes, no lens in world can capture the same. So the thing is raw pictures cannot be as perfect as reality. That’s why we need a photo editing tool. There are several such tools available in market. But currently I am enjoying working with Picnik. Picnik(https://picnik.com/) is an excellent online service provided by Google(you can find it in more >> even more section in Google). It has several features like editing photos, creating collage, making slide shows etc. One might ask when we have a powerful tool like Adobe photoshop, why we need this. The answer is simple, Adobe Photoshop is paid software(unless you are using a crack) and you need to pay good amount of money. Undoubtedly photoshop is far more evolved and superior product. But if you are getting basic feature of photo editing for free then why to go for Photoshop. That’s where Picnik scores. Let’s go over the details:
Registration and Membership: Registration is simple and fast. Just enter basic details like username, password and email id. That’s it. Start uploading the photos and get on the job. There are two modes of membership: free and premium. Free membership has few limitations like the maximum photos you can upload at one time(5 pics) also there are few effects and seasonal themes which are available for premium members. Editing tools are free and no upgrade needed. But if you want to enjoy the premium features you can also upgrade to premium membership at USD 24.95 for 1 year. I am a poor man and am enjoying free membership. Still I haven’t felt any need to upgrade to premium membership.
Photo Editing: The tools here are good combo for amateurs and expert photographers. It has basic features like Autofix which will adjust the brightness and contrast of and you will get slightly improved image at a Button Click. For cropping the picture you can use the various inbuilt ratios and scales. Free tools coming with MS windows provides rotate functionality but in Picnik apart from rotate you also get features like flipping the picture both horizontally and vertically. Also if your picture is tilted you can get it straightened with the angle you want. Apart from these basic features it also has some advanced features like changing exposure, color, sharpness and red eye reduction. Histograms for the editing can come handy for photo editing experts. One thing I miss in tools is some kind of photo stitching tool.
Creating Effects and Shows: Once you have your photo ready after editing, you might also want to give some special effects to it. There are several textures and frames provided which you can add to your photo. Along with that you can also add text and stickers to your photograph giving it the kind of look you want. Also there are seasonal themes available like you have your new year’s pic so you may want the same to have ribbons and balloons in it. So you can add a New Year theme and give desired effect to it. Likewise they have themes for various days(Valentine’s Day, father’s day, holiday greeting cards etc). You can also create a slide show with different effect using the photos you uploaded. Created shows can be sent to email or can be embedded to any site you want. Imagine you created a show and embed into your Facebook profile…Sounds interesting isn’t it!
Creating Collage: Here multiple photos can also be clubbed together to create a collage. Readymade templates are available for putting the pictures and creating collage. For free membership you will be able to create a basic collage with maximum 4 photos only. Good collages are available in premium membership only. Also there are Fancy Collages where you can create really funky collage. Most of them are kind of frames only but few of the templates are worth a note and are really good.
Apart from these features there are features like importing the photographs from sites like facebook, picasa, my space etc. Also there are plugins available for firefox, IE and chrome. Once you install this plug-in, editing the image is just Right Click Away. If while browsing through a site you like the photo and you want to edit it, all you need to do is right click the image and Edit in Picnik. All these add-on make Picnik a powerfull set of tools.
So on a whole Picnik is great site to edit and create your own photos. Do take a look. Its worth a visit.
Happy Editing!