picnik-ing :)

For my second emerging technology, I wanted to do something fun and exciting. I figured picniking would be something I could use frequently. I love pictures of anything and everything, but especially of my friends and I. Picniking is a simple, fun, and easy way to turn any old picture into an object of your creativity :)

Picnik is a website that allows you to upload photos and edit them online. Most of the effects that can be used on picnik are free, although you can upgrade to premium for a certain fee per year. I, personally, have not upgraded because I feel like there are more than enough free options for me to choose from.

You can use picnik for simple photo editing like cropping, resizing, and red-eye fix, but it can also be used to add fun frames, text, colors, and "stickers." Another great aspect of picnik is that once you are done editing, you can save the photos to your computer, publish them on sites such as myspace or facebook, and even print them.

The first time I used Picnik was a lot like the first time I used podcasting. I tend to just go for things and learn how they work by playing around with my different options. Picnik is a website where I think it is best to learn this way. It is especially easy because if you make a change you don't like, you just hit cancel and it goes away - a great feature! Picnik is definitely user friendly, the buttons are easy to understand and so are the directions provided on the site. They also have a FAQ section that is helpful for new users.

Here is a link to a video tutorial of how to operate picnik. It is a little long, but is very helpful and shows how to work different aspects of picnik.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpaFKFq49OI

I am also going to walk you through editing a photo, using one of my own pictures as an example.

1. Create an account. It is free, and takes only a couple minutes to register.

2. Upload a picture that you would like to work with. On the main screen, there is a button that says upload photo. Click this button. You will then be able to choose a picture from your computer.

Here is my original picture, a photo of my friend Adrie and I in Spokane, Washington:

3. When you upload your picture, picnik automatically takes you to the "edit" tab at the top of the screen. There are options such as: crop, rotate, resize, exposure, colors, sharpen, and red-eye fix. For this picture, I chose to use the crop feature. I also went under the colors tab and warmed the temperature to make my picture brighter. I then went under the exposure tab and moved to a higher contrast to sharpen the difference between us and the backround. If you click the autofix button, picnik automatically changes your picture to what it thinks looks best.

4. After you do all the technical, and somewhat boring, fixing of your picture - it is time to have some fun. Clicking on the create tab at the top of the screen takes you to where you can change effects, add text and stickers, add frames, and touch up. There are many effects that you can add to your picture. Here is a short list (there are also more effects if you have premium) : orton, black & white, sepia, boost, soften, night vision, 60's, HDR-ish, heat map, tint, duo-tone & doodle.

5. You can choose an effect or you can leave your picture as-is. I chose to use the black and white effect.

6. When using the black and white effect, you can bring some color back into your picture if you want. Using the paint mode on the left hand side of the screen, I chose to "paint" the flowers back yellow. Since the flowers are small, I used zoom (bottom right hand corner of the screen) to make my picture bigger.

7. I then made the paint brush smaller and drug it over the areas I wanted to be in color. You can also do this as a reverse effect (having mostly color and having only certain areas black and white). After I was finished, I zoomed back out so I could finish creating.

8. After picking an effect, you can add text. To add text, you type your text in the box and pick a font. Once you type your text and hit the "add" button, you can resize the text and also change the color.

9. Now you can add "stickers." There are hundreds of stickers to choose from on picnik, anywhere from basic shapes to drawings to icons. You can change the sticker color and place it anywhere you want in your picture. I chose to add a heart to my picture.

10. I then added a frame. Some options are rounded edges, polaroid, and drop shadow. I chose to add a polaroid frame. If you add a polaroid frame, you can change the backround color to the frame.

11. The touch up tab can be used to whiten teeth and fix blemishes, among other things.

12. The sanbox tab changes pixels on the picture. I did not do this, because it makes your pictures look distorted and I wanted to keep the clear quality of mine.

13. When you are done creating, it is time to save and share. Choose a file name and save it to your computer. You can also email your picture, print it, email it to a website, or add it to social networking site like facebook and myspace.

Here is my end result:

Picniking gets easier as you go. All you have to do is upload and let your creativeness come out. Picnik is a great tool to use for fun, when you're bored, or just to make your pictures better in general. I had a lot of fun with picnik, and I think you will too :) so go to http://www.picnik.com/ and start editing your photos!