its a picnik

As most of you know I love taking pictures. And I recently got my first DSLR (a Nikon) which took my interest to the next level. While I began researching more about how to take a good picture, I kept running into how to edit pictures. From professional photographers, to the Mom next door who just wants to crop or edit the exposure, and everyone in between… it seemed like everyone was doing it! Although still on the quest of learning how to take the perfect picture, I was intrigued with the editing process.

So I started researching which software to buy. And let me tell you there is software ranging from $100.00 bucks to several hundred dollars! And some of it looked very complicated. For this Mama, who just wants to slightly edit her shots (and maybe have some fun sometimes) I didn't want to spend top dollar or a lot of time learning.

And that's where Picnik comes in. It's a super duper easy program to use, it's very affordable (they have a free option,too), and so much fun! In the paid version I have I can:

• Crop

• Fix Exposure

• Fix Colors

• Black&White

• Sepia

• Cross Process

• Highlight the Eye Color

• Edit Wrinkles Away (I've not done this!)

• And tons more!

Here are a couple of pictures to show you a few of the edits you can do within your paid picnik account.

This is the orginal:

I simply took that picture, cropped it tight around his face, fixed the exposure, and used the eye bright feature. (you can see this same photo without the eye bright that I posted a few days ago.)

This one I did the same crop and exposure fix, but took it to the extreme and really played with it. I don't normally do anything this edited, but for the sake of showing what you can do I also did the following: changed the eye color, added mascara to play up the lashes, and added the cross process feature.

(by the way, if you were to use the eye color feature i would be advised that'll take a lot of practice, a really good mouse, and a steady hand. i have none of the three, so that is why it doesn't look as perrrty as it should.)

Here I took the second picture and simply turned it into a black and white shot.

And again the second picture using the 1960's editing feature. I think this one is my most favorite.

As you can see, you can do a lot with editing…and picnik has made it super easy and super afforable.

I love my picnik account!

Happy editing.

(This was not a paid review… I love the tool, thought someone might be interested, and it's a great excuse to show off my adorable baby at the same time!)

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