My attempts at photo editing sites ...

Hey there blog readers! I know, I know, I was supposed to be posting more regularly ... I'm sorry. But my garage sale is done, so that means I should have more time to post, right?

The reason I am posting today is for that Nebraska Learns class I talked about at the beginning of the month. Nothing like procrastinating - today is the last day I can complete it! ;)

I am actually really enjoying this first "assignment." Our assignment was to play with photo editing sites. For my scrapbooking friends out there, I'm thinking this could do wonders for your already wonderful pages! As I was working on my second picture, I had an idea. There are many pictures - like that particular one - that I'd like to include in my scrapbook, but can't make myself create a whole page for a picture of a flower ... but can you imagine putting this photo of the flower on it? I can. How much cooler would that make the page? I could talk about where I was and why I took the picture and then also how I enhanced it! Sa-weet!

If you have any questions, or would like me to help you play with some of these photo editing sites, please ask. I guarantee we'll have some fun and make some cool pictures even cooler!

The first site I used was Pixlr. I really liked it! It was very easy to use. I am somewhat computer savvy, but I could see those that aren't not having any problems using it. I also loved that you didn't have to create an account with a username and password that you can never remember (mine are almost all the same, which I know isn't safe, but seriously, how are we supposed to remember a different password/username combination for every account we have?); and you don't actually have to upload your photos. At least, I didn't. I was just able to open my photos, edit them and re-save them. How awesome is that!?! I will totally be using this site again.

The first picture is a flower girl at my wedding four years ago. She is my little cousin. This picture actually started out in black and white, so I wanted to see what I could do to it to add a little color - and fun! I've always loved the purple and orange combination, so I knew this was the adjustment I wanted as soon as I saw it. I used the color lookup option and chose the purple/orange option. And then to add a little bit more, I added a vignette filter. I will admit, I had no idea what that was before I selected that option, but again, it looked cool! That's all I ask ... it looking cool!

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I tried out the kaleidoscope filter on my first picture, but didn't like it. And then I remembered I had some flower pictures that would be neat on. This flower of a photo is from my trip to Denver in the summer of 2007 with my family. We visited the Butterfly Pavilion - and I love taking pictures of scenery, flowers, butterflies, animals at zoos, and then I have no clue what to do with them. I could actually see myself putting this edited photo in my scrapbook. I cropped the photo, used the kaleidoscope feature. How fun!!

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And, of course, I couldn't even stop with just two photos. This third photo is also from my trip to the Butterfly Pavilion. It is another flower, if you couldn't tell! ;) I played a lot with sharpening and blurring this photo - but I'm not actually sure which part of that I saved. And then I messed with the curves under the adjustments. Love the neon-ish of this photo! And then I used the pixelate filter. What an awesome assignment - playing and blogging at work! ;)

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The second photo site I used was Aviary. In my personal opinion, I do not like Aviary. I'm sure once you figure out how to use it, you can make some cool creations, but I was too annoyed to give it much of a chance - and that was after at least two hours of trying. I can say for certain that if I wouldn't have had step-by-step instructions through this course, I wouldn't have even known where to start. It took me many tries to figure out what I was trying to do - so far I haven't had much luck attempting to use the Peacock tool. I was able to edit two photos using the basic parts of Aviary - I never was able to figure out the Peacock tool. I finally figured out how to get my photo into that part, but I didn't figure out how to edit it.

The first photo is of seven or so ladies with luggage (Pampered Chef consultants) crammed into one cab (mini-van) on the way to the airport in Chicago at the end of Pampered Chef National Conference 2009. We were so proud that we were all able to fit in one van and save on some cab fare - so we took a picture! The first filter I used was the metal glow. I thought that made the pic way cool! I tried to do more to it, but there wasn't anything else that didn't ruin the look of the first filter.

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Okay, I'm giving it one more try. This image is one from my honeymoon. We went to Kansas City and visited Cabela's while there - yes, that is correct! ;) My brother told us we just had to go! This is a picture of a statue of animals (deer or elk or something) from outside that store. I used the feather tool and offset part of the image and then I also added the erode filter (I think) to the picture. It looks cool to me; and I didn't know how to do that before.

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I do think at least Pixlr could be used at our library. I think kids would have a very entertaining time if they were able to take their own pictures and then edit them. That would have been a great idea to go with the summer reading program that was "get creative." We have computers available for use at our library, we will have to see if we can find a way to incorporate that in - especially since the photos could then be saved and the kids could get them printed somewhere with a color printer. I always think it would be a good idea for the kids to find something on the Internet to do that isn't just games! ;)

I really enjoyed playing with the photo sites. Thanks for reading!

Happy Thursday!