patndoris TechnoGeek

I don’t want to admit how old my photo editing software is.  For my quick fixes, I use Photoshop Elements..ahem..2.0 and according to the About screen it is from.oh I dunno..let’s go with.2002. Yes, my trusty software is almost 10 years old.  For my general crop and straighten, or simple fixes, it’s just fine.  But when I want to do something a little more interesting (which translates to something I never learned how to do in Photoshop Elements) I turn to a web based application called Picnik. 

I remember when I first purchased Photoshop Elements.  I read how you could do almost everything in it you could do in Photoshop.  I even bought a couple of books about using it.  Them there books still sit on a bookshelf.  I never used them. And I never learned to use the program to is full potential.  I only learned the basics.  For anything more complicated - I’d Google and attempt to follow the directions as best I could (sometimes with less than stellar results).  Then a co-worker mentioned Picnik.

I gave the website a go and I was hooked. I’ve been using Picnik for about 2 years now, and I must say - I adore it.  From the Picnik website:

Picnik is photo editing online, in your browser. It gives real people photo editing superpowers. It’s fast, easy, and offers tons of powerful tools, artistic effects, stickers, frames, touch-ups, scrapbooking tools, and more. And that’s all for free.  There’s even more available for Picnik Premium members: More tools, advanced effects, seasonal content all year long and more!

The real beauty of Picnik is it’s simplicity.  You don’t need to understand lots of complicated terms or remember crazy keystroke combinations.  Everything is clear and simple.  You just choose what you want to do - and Picnik does the rest.  Picnik also offers browser extensions for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.  They offer helpful tutorials and have a forum if for some reason you need additional help.

The Premium membership is currently $24.95 per year.  Considering that Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 runs $99.99 for the latest version - I consider Picnik a great investment.  I can get 4 years of Picnik for the price of just 1 version of Adobe Photoshop Elements.  And I’m betting that even at upgrade pricing on Adobe, Picnik still wins hands down every time!  With Picnik you have ever changing new and update features without the hassle of updating software since you do the editing in your browser.

You can share your Picnik creations to Myspace, Photobucket, Yahoo Mail, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook.  And of course, you can simply save them to your computer to do what you want to with them.  Picnik keeps a history of your photos so they are available when you want them.

Started in 2005, Picnik was purchased by Google in 2010.  With the support and backing from one of the biggest names around, it has to be good! So go have a little fun.  It’s a beautiful day for a Picnik, give the free version a try and let me know what you think.