Photography Notes: Editing Tips

When I started this little photography series a month ago, I'd planned to show you some photo-editing tips using a free program called Picnik. In the last week or so, Picnik has announced that they are discontinuing service April 1st. : (

I'm still going to show you how to use Picnik today, because it is a great way to get used to tweaking your photos even for just a couple months and I think you could transfer what you learn. I will be on the lookout for a comparable replacement and hopefully share with you in the future. Maybe I'll even share about Photoshop Elements...

So I love to use Picnik for casual editing because it is so user-friendly and it's esp. nice for blogging, because it automatically re-sizes pictures, making them easy to quickly upload.

So first, go to www.picnik.com. You find a screen like this.

Click on the "upload a photo" button and locate your picture file you want to edit.

My photo shows up like this. It needs to be rotated. The rotate feature is under "Basic Edits".

I also often use the "Straighten" pictures to right pictures that are slightly wonky.

My next step is usually to go to "Sharpen" and adjust the "Clarity". Here I adjusted to 23%, which is kind-of high. Usually 12% or 15% is a enough to crisp the image just right.

Then I go to "Exposure" (also under "Basic Edits"). Here, it's just time to play around. For this photo I put my Exposure to 4; Highlights to 11; Shadows to 0; Contrast to 19. Usually I do a little less highlight and contrast.

Now go to "Effects". My go to effect is "Cross Process" When you first click on it, your photo will look like this.

So I fade Cross Process down to 91%. This is about right for most images to brighten them and add a little drama without turning them yellow.

Sometimes, I'll use the "Vingette" effect. But take the size down to 32%, Strength to 0% and Fade to 73%, for just a touch of framing.

Since we're here I'll show you how I add the white border for my picture gallery.

Go to the "Frames" tab under "Edit" and choose "Border". The Border color is auto-black, so click on the color square which will open up your color options from which you can choose white.