Learning Basic Photo Editing for Political Purposes : Phase 2 : Picnik
By Ghost32
My first foray into basic photo editing for political purposes involved a little photo capture and editing program called Snagit. However, my advice to one and all regarding that program: Snagit? BAG IT!
While I did sucessfully add dialogue balloons to a couple of photos and roughly edit the text already existing on a third, Snagit has major integrity issues. It brought along six infections, three Adware and three Funware parasites. It showed an undue interest in my email password. Most damning of all, it refused to leave my computer when I told it to go.
Oh, it's gone now, but I had to run System Restore to get rid of it. Control Panel commands had no effect on it whatsoever.
Next!
"Next" turned out to be Picnik, one of two editing programs referred to me by awesome Hub friend Becky Katz as favored by her favorite photo editing whiz. That sounded like a lead worthy of instant trust.
Yes indeed. Here's how it went at picnik.com.
First of all and most important: You don't have to download Picnik. The site simply welcomes you and you do all your editing right there at their home base. I'm liking that. The steps:
1. I didn't have the latest Adobe Flash Player version, so a click or two (from Picnik's startup page) got that installed on my computer. Which is good. Needed it anyway.
2. Simple, easy, and fast upload of a photo from my Pictures Library.
3. Add text to the photo: Lots of cool fonts to choose from. The only trick I had to figure out was the need to enter only one line of text at a time. Hit ADD and that will post to the photo in a box you can drag around with the mouse for positioning.
4. Very easy color palette handling. Default text color is white but very easy to change.
5. Saving the edited photo to the computer is simple and spelled out for you.
There is one detail worth mentioning: The photo I saved turned up in Documents rather than in Pictures. I'll have to see if that was carelessness on my part or...:)
Hm. It's already 1:00 a.m. One more edited photo and we'll call it a wrap for the night.
This time, I did the same thing--added text to the photo--but then took it a step further. Added a dialogue baloon for "Smart bird!" There are lots of dialogue balloon shapes to choose from.
One hilarious occurrence (I'm easily amused at this hour of the night): When I added text to the balloon, it kept disappearing behind the balloon. Until I finally realized, no, that wasn't it--I just hadn't added any color to either the text or the balloon, and white on white doesn't exactly contrast all that well!
Saving the photo to Pictures instead of Documents turned out to be possible...but not desirable. The photo "closes" when it goes to Pictures (no idea why) and won't reopen unless/until you advise the computer which program you want to use to do so.
Huh?
Yeah, that's kind of how I felt. Just save the thing to Documents and don't worry about it, all right?
So far, I'm liking Picnik photo editing software just fine--even the free version, which is what I tackled tonight.
Next phase: Pixlr, the other recommendation from Becky.
Remember in November!
Comments
Heh! Should have guessed Katy was your expert at this. Tell her thanks!
Yes indeedy, you're on to something with adding text to photos. Those are hilarious, and on target with their message. I can just see one with a limbo dancer reading the news of Obama's 38% approval rating, and asking the question ....
'How LOW can you go?'.
That's an awesome idea, Jim. Might have to try that sometime.
I've been using an ancient version of PSP (Paint Shop Pro) since the '90s, and stayed with it even when newer version came out with bells and whistles I knew I'd never use. I've never had the urge to add dialogue balloons, but could if I ever do.
Only problem is the version I use is no longer available, so if it AND my back-up copy ever bite the dust, I'll *have* to find an alternative. Picnik sounds like a good candidate. Thanks, Ghost! Thanks, Becky!
Your welcome JamaGenee
JamaGenee: I truly understand the "If it works, don't fix it" mentality. Planned obsolescence in a mostly throwaway society can really such.
Still use Works exclusively; refuse to use Word.
Hi Ghost32,
How are you? How's your wife doing? Pam, right?
I love PICNIK. I wrote an article on it about a month ago. It is a great program. I have paid the monthly $4.95 fee for the added features which are awesome. Have fun with it!
Sharyn
Hi, Sharyn's Slant--and thanks for checking in!
I am most excellent, and Pam (yes, Pam) is hanging in as usual.
Picknik really is cool. Since writing this Hub, I've moved on to (and settled in with) Paint Shop Pro X4--which I'll be purchasing shortly, as the Free Trial period wears down. BUT I do feel Picnik has the coolest Text tool out there. That monster-y script on the first photo--how awesome is that?
Becky Katz 5 months ago
Katy is my photo editing whiz. I asked her for one that was good for adding text to a picture. She gave me these two. They are both safe. She has used them both on mine and her dad's computer's for over a year with no bad effects. Whether they will do what you want is the question. She said these were the best for adding words though. These kids like to play with these programs. LOL