Tanya Merone is a graphic designer based in New York. She professes to be deeply in love with her trade and it shows in the artistry she pours in her work. She specializes in elegant, creative designs – her trademark in the design world. [Read more…]
Top 5 Online Photo Editors
There are many reasons to use an online photo editor. Maybe you can’t- or don’t want to- use Photoshop. Maybe your computer is at the shop and you’re forced to edit your blog post images on an old backup PC. Or maybe you’re on a snazzy new netbook. Whatever the reason, the growing number of online photo editors signifies the growing need for them. To show you the workspaces of my top picks, I’ve used a photo of some cupcakes I baked for a local orphanage:
Picnik
Picnik tops the list for me. It’s quick, easy to use, and powerful. As you can see from the screenshot above, it sports a clear, intuitive interface, and is great for everything from quick cleanups to more complicated jobs. I’ve only ever used their free version, which is powerful enough for me, but they offer a Premium plan from $2.08 (?) a month which includes a lot of extra features.
FotoFlexer
I love how quick and easy it is to upload to FotoFlexer- in seconds I was editing my cupcake photo. Their options are numerous- allowing you to crop, adjust hue, saturation, brightness and contrast, and apply fun “effects” to your photos- including borders, such as the one I chose here. If you’re feeling particularly groovy, FotoFlexer offers animated star “stickers”, and the ability to twirl, bulge or squish your photos. But the best thing about them has to be their “Geek” tab, which features advanced options such as Smart Recolor, Curves, Morph and Webcam (lets you take a photo immediately with your own webcam).
Picture2Life
Getting my photo onto Picture2Life was just as easy- but I will admit I was a little confused by their editing window at first. After a few minutes, however, I began to appreciate the interface, and the way each option is described in very simple terms. I especially like the preview thumbnails that appear with their options, giving you a better idea of how a certain effect will look before applying it. A good place to recommend to mom for her online photo editing needs.
Flauntr
Unlike the other sites here, Flauntr requires registration before you can get started editing your photos. It’s free and pretty painless, though- and what I like best about Flauntr is how you can manage multiple albums with multiple photos right here (and work with your Flickr, Facebook or Picasa files as well). Of all these editors, Flauntr probably has the snazziest interface- and, dareisay the most options? For within Flauntr is stylR, editR, textR, picasR, profilR, mobilR, and printR – all of which allow you to do exactly what they sound like (e.g. stylR for borders and distortions, editR for photo manipulation, etc.)- my favorite of all being picasR, which “makes images resemble classical paintings in color tone and feel. The essence of age old paintings is introduced into your images to create that vintage aura”. Very awesome.
Phixr
This is probably the least sexy of all the services I’ve listed here, but it’s a good, solid one. Photo upload was fast- and options include the usual cropping, rotation, and brightness, as well as some very nice Photoshop-esque filters. Phixr supports posting your photos to Flickr, Picasa, and Twitter- so if you’re not looking to do very advanced photo editing, it’s a great way to make changes to and post your photos online quickly.
Do you use online photo editors?
Friday Focus 07/10/09: Featuring Food
Apologies for posting this a day late, but I will try to make it up to you with yummy-looking websites. It’s a food-centric Friday Focus!
Designs of the Week
The full-width background photo under the earmarked recipe notecard is great. Unfortunately I’d rather that the top navigation wasn’t part of the Flash objects on this site. I like the very subtle grungy texture used here as it does seem to reinforce the seafood/marina feel.
A very green website, both in color and food group. Perhaps the best way to present veggies (and fruits) is to photograph them on a crisp, white background, and that works quite well here.
This is a nicely-designed restaurant site—elegant photography, rich dark hues, and good spacing all over. I like the high-res icons jutting out of both sides of the layout.
Another full-width background photo effect, this time it’s much bigger and has several rotating images. I kind of wish the content below it were longer—more than 3 links each for the new and popular recipes, for example—because you want to give more diverse options to your readers.
This is one of the more “different” designs of the bunch, because of the illustrations, brighter colors, and the overall lighter attitude this site has. But, really, when it comes to food websites, the greatest measure of good design is in the food photography, so make sure you prioritize that!
How pretty is that lettuce as a frilly background! Brings way more to the table than any other Photoshop brush, no? I would’ve liked a little more tweaking on the navigation but on the whole this is a nice, clean site. Very easy on the eyes.
We get a more hip atmosphere from this site, but the food photos are still front and center. Great JavaScript effects, typography, and color scheme.
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Kristin Pishdadi
Kristin Pishdadi, Chicago based photographer and designer, drops by to let Devlounge go “behind the camera” and get some insight on designing and photography.
Devlounge: Hey Kristin, thanks for putting the camera down for a sec to answer some questions with us. For anyone yet to see Low End Theory, mind introducing yourself and giving a brief background about your site?
Kristin Pishdadi: Hi. My name’s Kristin Pishdadi, I’m 25 years old and live in Chicago with my husband and two kids.
My site “Low End Theory” is a continuation of my old site which was titled “The Love Movement”. Both titles are inspired by the titles of two albums by “A Tribe Called Quest”. The names have no significant meanings. I am just a fan. J .
LET has been online for a little over a year now. It’s been a fun journey from the beginning. I’ve met a lot of great people along the way and learnt a lot about myself in the process.
DL: Mainly you are a photographer. How’d you get involved and photography, and what camera do you use?
KP: I’ve always been very artistic. I paint, draw, and play 4 different musical instruments. Initially, photography was a hobby, but it quickly turned into a passion.
I used to work as a freelance designer but drifted away from it because I just wasn’t enjoying it as a job anymore. When I decided to take a shot at photography as more than a hobby I signed up for some workshops and classes to help develop my photographic style.
My primary SLR is a Canon 20D, but I also have an older Digital Rebel, along with a big variety of film cameras.
DL: When taking pictures, any specific characteristics you try to focus on capturing?
KP: I try to focus on color and composition. I don’t photograph anything specific but I do make it a point to keep a camera with me 24/7.
You’d be surprised at the number of times I have driven along and seen something I had to photograph. I’ve always turned around and gone for the shot.
DL: At the same time, you use your knack for photography and deliver some beautiful sites. LET was recently featured very high in the CSS Reboot. What goes into redesigning a site, especially one like LET which has been redesigned so frequently (thanks to your extensive site history, we can see a great progressions in design.)
“You’d be surprised at the number of times I have driven along and seen something I had to photograph.”
KP: I’ve been designing for a long time. Unfortunately I did not jump on to the web standards bandwagon when I should have. When I first started LET it was to teach myself CSS/XHTML. The progression of what I have learned along the way is very obvious if you view the screenshots of my site.
The Reboot design was adapted partly from my last design. The last design worked well for my site, and I wanted to keep with a similar structure and keep my site recognizable to my visitors. The header took a big change and the page structure was flip flopped, but I kept all of the content organized the same way to make it easy for people to find what they were looking for.
DL: Do you prefer leaving images untouched, or cleaning them up here and there in photoshop before publishing them?
KP: I prefer leaving them untouched. I shoot in RAW format and usually don’t touch anything besides the levels & the white balance.
DL: Any other hobbies or interests you have that you wouldn’t mind sharing?
KP: I’m a tomboy of sorts. I’m a gamer and I’m into dsm’s.
I used to play and travel to lan parties with an all girls CS team, but I’ve moved on from PC gaming to the xbox 360. Anyone out there who wants to play with me, feel free to add “kpishdadi” to your friends list.
We’ve also got a project DSM we’ve been working on (-for the last year-) since last year. It’s a 98 Eclipse GSX with an upgraded turbo and lots of other goodies.
DL: Finally, you are greatly respected by many of the most popular bloggers. This shows a lot in a blogging / designing web mostly dominated by males. Any advice you can give, especially to females, to help get them involved in designing?
KP: Dive in! It’s easier than you would expect it to be. Feel free to ask me for help too. I don’t mind helping anyone who asks.
DL: Thanks again Kristin. Keep up the consistent great work.
KP: You’re very welcome. Good luck with the new site, it’s coming along great.
Kristin’s work is currently being featured in a Chicago Based Photography Show, open through July 2006. For more information, visit the gallery’s page.
