Photo editing using on-line softwares

This week's assignment is about design and photo editing. I usually use Photoshop for my editing or Picasa if I just want to do some quick adjustments. But for this assignment I get to review some on-line editing tools. We are to find two Creative Commons licenced photos on the internet and use on-line editing tools to make some simple changes. I chose Picnik and Sumo Paint.

The first image I am using isDon't ya think pigs can fly by be_khe on Flickr.

Love me, don't eat me. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.flickr.com

I used Picnik for this photo and applied the following steps:
1. Crop
2. Increased exposure and slightly decreased contrast
3. Applied Soften and Matte filters.
4. Applied text and Drop shadow for frame

Review: Picnik is free to use and very nice and simple for quick edits. If you pay for premium version you get access to additional filters and tools such as curves and levels but it's not really necessary. The nice thing with Picnik is that it integrates with several photo sharing or social networking sites such as Flickr, Picasa Web Album, Myspace, Facebook, etc. Picnik is great if you have a lot of images to edit for a slideshow presentation.

For the second image I chose one of my own image on Flickr

Spring is Here! by Lawrence Wong is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I used Sumo Paint - claimed to be the "Web's Best Image Editor - Hands Down!"
1. Duplicated the image on a second layer
2. Desaturated the bottom layer
3. Erased the leaves from the top colour layer so the only colour left is on the flower.
4. Drew the bee and added text; added outer glow and stroke effects to the text.

Review: Sumo Paint is indeed powerful. It's a web based app that opens into a new browser window and has many tools offered by Photoshop. The interface is instantly familiar to Photoshop users. It's very flexible, allowing multiple layers, effects, brush shapes, and tools pallete very similar to the one in Photoshop. It does have some quirks, especially when choosing colours. Because it's a web based app, sometimes it's not as responsive.