How to Edit Photos in Picnik
Editing photos in Picnik is easy and enjoyable. Picnik is a free online photo editing application for which you don't even need an account. All you do is go to the website, open up the application, import a photo from your computer or from any of a number of supported photo sharing sites at which you have an account, and edit away--all within your Internet browser! The only drawback to the program is it tends to sit very heavily on your RAM, slowing down your computer and sometimes freezing everything up for short periods. Still, Picnik is, hands-down, the very best free online photo editor out there. Its editing features are seemingly endless once you start exploring.
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Things You'll Need
- Computer with at least 512 MB of RAM
- Internet access
- Web browser
- Photos on your hard drive or on a photo sharing site
Instructions
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1
Go to the Picnik website and click the "Get started now!" button at the center of the screen. The photo editing application takes a few moments to load, during which the usual "Loading application..." messages are eschewed in favor of cute phrases like "Laying blanket..." and "Blooming blossoms..."
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2
Upload a photo from your computer by clicking the "Upload Photo" button. In the dialog that pops up, navigate to a folder containing a photo you wish to edit. Select a photo. The photo will upload to the Picnik application.
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3
Alternatively to Step 2, you can open a photo from an online photo sharing community with which you are already registered and have photos stored. Choose from Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Photobucket, Myspace, Webshots, or Freewebs. You will have to provide Picnik with your user name and password to import photos from one of these services. It is safe and secure. Your photo albums will appear. Choose one, and then choose a photo. Your photo will then load in the Picnik application.
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Edit your photo! From this pane (the Edit pane) you can click auto-fix, rotate, crop, resize, exposure, colors, sharpen, or red-eye. Try these features on for size. They are easy to use, and you have great control over what goes on with your photo. You can undo anything, so go crazy.
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For more effects, click the "Create" tab above your photo. From there, select effects, text, shapes, touch-up, frames or advanced. Some of these features are paid features only. You can access the paid features for $24.95 a year but you don't necessarily need it. There is plenty to do with the free version of Picnik.
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Save your photo. Click the "Save and Share" tab above your photo. From there you can elect to save to your computer, email the edited photo, print the photo, add it to a Flickr slideshow, email it to a website, or send it to any of the photo sharing applications mentioned in Step 3. You can even decide the new file name for the edited photo (original remains unchanged), the dimensions, the format, and the file quality and size.
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Tips & Warnings
Have fun! Picnik is, as stated in the Introduction, the very best free, online photo editing application on the planet. It contains more free features than anything else like it, is extremely well integrated into all the photo sharing sites, operates right within your Internet browser, and is very easy to use.
As stated in the introduction, make sure you have plenty of RAM available when you use Picnik, as it can slow things down quite a bit.
