Monday, July 13, 2009

Picture this

I'll be the first to admit that my photography is similar to that of an 11 year old given free license to a click-and-crank camera at a wedding. You have seen many examples of it's hideosity {um, hum... that's a word}. But I've decided to start to care and take it up a notch. You fine people are worth it.

At Blissdom in February, I got a great coupon for a free upgrade for a year at picnik.com. And it sat in a stack of other very important coupon/ notification-ish thingies in a special shelf beside my phone in the kitchen. Do you have that shelf, dish or drawer? It contains only the most pertinent information that is never used: oil change coupons, Sunday School helper lists and a stack of rubber bands from the mid nineties.

So, I found it tonight all stained with water and some sort of spaghetti or salsa bits on it and decided to give it a try- before it expired like every other coupon in that stack.

For the record, I am NOT very good at this, yet, but I had a great time playing around with it.

Here is the picture my mom wanted with my kiddos and our nephew {her 3 grandsons} at the beach on the 4th of July: Then I added a little fade-aroo {I'm sure that's what they call it} for an old fashioned look:I am most excited about this feature- the pencil sketch- even though this didn't turn out exactly like Bob Ross would have sketched it with the sun's brightness around their eyes. But isn't that fun?Then I went with a little text just so we could remember what the heck was going on. There are a ton of other cool features to frame, pixelate, fade and mutate your pictures in any way possible. I'm sure I can destroy a few if they just give me a chance.

Do you edit your pictures? Do you share on flickr? Are you a kodak junkie {I'm not thrilled with their new black background... just me?} Or what's your favorite method?

14 comments:

Emily said...

picnik is so much fun! there are a lot of cool applications on there. i love your pics!

Sabrina said...

I have issues finding the time to download my pictures of my camera, much less edit them! But when I do get further than just transfering from my sd card to the flash drive, I will upload to walmart. From the I can share the pictures with family. I could do some editing, but usually I don't. I like it because I can also order pictures and pick them up later. If there is a really good one, I might try to get the red eye out! I am not sure how other working moms do it. I guess they just don't sleep???

Ivy said...

I need to learn how to edit my pictures...but I don't! I just point, click and upload:)

pcb said...

I use Picasa for most editing and love that they now have a retouch feature. To get pencil sketch and other fancy filters, I use an old program, Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

pcb said...

I use Picasa for most editing and love that they now have a retouch feature. To get pencil sketch and other fancy filters, I use an old program, Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

Love my 2 BoYs! said...

Hey there,

The prayers are MUCH appreciated!!
Thats a sweet pic of your boys. I used pinik to do the collages on my previous post. I also like a website called photoscape. I downloaded it to the computer so all my pictures are automatically there and you dont have to upload each and every one! I love playin around will all this computer stuff.... although I used to be a scrapbooker and have fallen way behind on that!

~Jennifer

Hollie and Janie said...

they look great! i'm gonna have to check out that program!

Anonymous said...

Hillary, I love the charcoal look! Have got to get that framed!! Like the text on their too....Could we put the text on the pencil one??
Thanks for the great idea...
Luv, Mom

Lori said...

So cool! I've heard other bloggers talk about that program but haven't gotten around to checking it out myself. I'm a shutterfly addict and make a photo book for each season. I keep an extra copy of each pic I take on there, which gives me peace of mind. Happy photo-taking! ;)

Susannah said...

I'm with you! I'm not so good at pictures, but I love this cool idea. Is there a cost involved? Love the pics!! :) Hope ya'll have a great week!

Rebekah said...

do I edit? I am fool about this! I use Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS2. I have been at it for almost 4 years now and have to say I am getting pretty good at it. Not as good as some but alot of that stuff they do today are just actions. I do most of mine manually. You can see tons of my work on photobucket.

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b106/nathanielsmom110100/

Jenn McPherson said...

That is a cute, cute pic!! Love the pencil one! Listen, editing pics is crack for some...I see people destroying their pretty little family in photoshop! ha!! I say if you like it, who cares!!

~k said...

i love picnik! My faves are gritty and cross process!

Jennifer said...

Great picture!

I've heard of picnik, but I've never used it. I do basic editing like cropping and adjusting the color in window's photo gallery and use Gimp to do some more complicated stuff. After editing, I order most of my prints from Shutterfly. I like to order from Shutterfly but I don't really like their editing feature. I take a ton of pictures and print out most of them!

I'll have to go check out picnik...sounds neat Thanks for sharing!

Post a Comment

You're leaving a comment? Thanks!
You make my day!
I'd hug you, but this screen makes it a little awkward.
xoxo,
Hillary

Blog Widget by LinkWithin