My Favorite Five Online Photo Editing Sites
[Note: this is #3 in a series of posts about Web 2.0 apps that actually get used at Blonde 2.0, see the first post here and the second post here]
As more and more social networkers populate the Web scene, more and more photo editing tools are popping up. Who doesn’t like to play around with their own precious image? What better way to do it than to use free tools available online. No downloading, no paying… all the tools are literally at your fingertips. Sure, we already have the basic means to crop, rotate and resize, but there’s something satisfying about taking it further and creating a work of art, so if you’re not a professional graphic designer, you basically don’t need to spend the absurd amount of money (or risk the illegal download) on Photoshop.
While shuffling through the photo editing weeds I came up with a small list of gems. Most of these editing sites will offer such features as special effects, creative looking fonts, some kind of integration or application for your social profiles and my favorite: no registration.
Here are my five favorite photo editing sites:
Picnik launched a couple of years ago and seems to be doing quite well. They offer a huge variety of enhancing tools such as special effects, creative looking fonts, shapes and frames. They’re known for their quick and user friendly interface. Their business model is a Premium upgrade account.
Be Funky is for the those wannabe artists who like to draw but perhaps aren’t too successful at it. They claim that they provide the tools for anyone to achieve “photographically rich and artistic results from their digital images without the need for any technical knowledge.”
Preloader is fun because it’s specifically made for flickr users (that’s me). They integrated their application with flickr so all you need to do is log on to your flickr account through the Preloadr site. They offer tools to enhance your photos’ color, sharpness and contrast.
I’ve seen some MagMyPic’s around and they’re pretty hilarious. If you fancy your photo on the cover of a magazine, this is by far the easiest way to do it. They’ve made the platform fool proof. All you need to do is upload your image, choose from a range of 33 magazine covers to plaster your face on and grab the code. Their business model seems to include the chance for the user to actually buy the printed cover.
What was once called Fauxto is now “Splashup.” This site is great for people who are already familiar with Photoshop. The most complex out of the bunch, they offer quick, flash-based, multi-layer tools. You can utilize Splashup from a variety of social platforms such as flickr, facebook and Picasso.
Tags: be funky, magmypics, photoshop alternatives, picnick, preloader, slashup
