When flickr added Picnik to the list of available services, I was intrigued. Any ‘real’ photographer is going to have ‘real’ photo editing tools. Why use an online editor? Personally, I don’t use photoshop. I rarely edit film photos and for digital pics I use Picasa. I’ve been happy with it, but there are some limitations. Picnik offers more choices than Picasa does. Not only are there more options, but there is also a greater amount of control over the various effects.

The Basics
The photo on the left is an original cameraphone picture. It’s fine as-is, but I wasn’t happy with the floor showing in the bottom right hand corner. In about thirty seconds, I cropped the picture, sharpened the focus, enhanced the colors and straightened it a bit. This sort of quick and easy editing is perfect for snapshots that don’t warrant a lot of time or effort.

Premium Stuff
In addition to the basics, Picnik offers premium effects that mimic different film types. Normally, I’m not a fan of ‘fake lomo’ type stuff. If you want it to look like film, go buy some film and shoot. Mamirosa gifted me a three month premium trial and I’ve been enjoying it much more than I expected. A little goes a long way, but it is fun to experiment with different looks.

Here is another camaraphone picture. The original [left] is fine, but adding the Holga-ish effect draws attention to the pattern without the distraction of color.

flickr + picnik = true love forever
The best thing about picnik is being able to edit my many, many camera phone pictures without having to download them/edit/upload. I send them to flickr directly from my phone and anything that cuts down on the time I have to spend on the computer is a good thing. Fewer steps means more time for other things. The only issue that I’ve had so far is that when I edit a photo in flickr, the premium services are not available. I am prompted to upgrade. This isn’t a problem because all of my flickr photos are available through the picnik website. I can make changes, add them to sets, edit tags and privacy all from picnik.com. Not bad!

See my photos on flickr tagged with Picnik!

cameraphone [sidekick3] original and edited

When flickr announced the new option to edit photos using picnik, I was excited. I very rarely edit photos I take with film, but often lighten or brighten my cameraphone pics to make them easier to see. Since I send them directly to flickr, I have to download them and fix the exposure and then replace the old photo with the new one. I don’t have time for that. The first few times I tried it, the whole process was painfully slow and I gave up. After giving it a second try, I’m pleased to say it was much easier and faster. I took this picture with my phone in the store last night. The light was terrible and I didn’t use my flash. But I was able to fix it in less than thirty seconds. Nice. Now, if only I can get the new uploader to work for me….