How-to Edit Photos Online: PicMonkey

Remember when Picnik went bye-bye? Remember hearing my cry of anguish on April 19th when they shut their "doors"? Remember when I skipped and jumped and hoorah-ed for joy when I found a super fun and equally cool replacement for Picnik?

Well for reals, it all happened.

So like FOREVER ago, I said that I would do a little How-to on my new favorite online photo editing program. Well I finally got my act together and here is my first little intro to PicMonkey.

This site really is amazing. If you don't have a photo editing program on your computer, or you sometimes don't understand all your photo editing program has to offer (ehem...that would be me), this is the place to edit your photos.

Well, heck, this is the place to have lots of fun editing and making tons of fun photo projects. For example, this site is where I made this...

There is so much you can do on this site, but let's start with the simple:

How-to Edit Photos in PicMonkey

First got to PicMonkey.

This is what the main screen looks like:

 

Click on "Edit your photo".

Pick whichever photo you want to edit.

I picked this Ah-dorable picture of Little. The first thing you will see is this menu for "Basic Edits".

I like to play around with Exposure to make sure that my photo is not too bright OR that it is bright enough. This photo was a little too bright, so I moved the slider under Brightness until it had the look I wanted. Then I click "apply".

Then I went to the color edit. To enhance the color I moved the saturation slider. You can see the orange is a little richer. Then again click apply.

Now the fun BEGINS!

Let's go over to the effects menu. Click on the little potion bottle and start playing. Just click on different effects and just click cancel to try another one.

I went through a couple of effects just to show you the fun things you can do.

My favorite effect is Cross Process with the green undertone.

I played with the Dusk effect.

They have a fun Camera-like section. I LOVE Time Machine.

Daguerreotype was fun. I actually moved the Fade slider a little to have a faint color pop.

Then to kick it up a notch I used the paint option to highlight different parts of the photo to really enhance specific colors...

Then I went more traditional. I picked the black and white option.

The effect was just okay for me.

Then I found the Film Stock effect under Tri-X.

AND BOOM!

Then I was super happy. So when you find what you like then click "Save" all the way down at the bottom.

Save your newly edited photo to your computer.

Enjoy your new PROfess looking photo.

There is tons of other things you can do in this program. I will put together another tutorial for you soon.

Potpourri

Ya know how in Jeopardy Potpourri is the category that is full of randomness...welcome to the post of randomness. A little what I am doing now and what we did recently...oh and don't forget a wee bit of crazy.


What we have done

Young's Dairy/Pumpkin Patch

Went to this farm about an hour away...it was initiated because it was a nice day to dabble in the whole photography thing...photography thing trumped by farm fun and BLUE ice cream.

       

Wanna Be Photog

I still did manage to get some cool photo shots amidst our farm fun and impromptu trip to the Air Force Museum. Again...notice the absence of Jack. He is just not having this whole photography thing.

Air Force Museum

Spencer has wanted to take the kids here for awhile. It is by the farm AND it is free so as in the words of Spencer, "That is a great price" so we went. The boys LOVED it.

What we (I) am doing

Living in a Hot Mess

Oh the mess. The humanity of it all. I live in filth for a good cause, right? That is what I tell myself to make myself feel better. I am pretty sure we haven't eaten a meal at the dinning room table for a week. Gasp! Slowly but surely all my plans are coming to fruition. Goodies bag- 90% done. Thinking chair- DONE (now hopefully I can keep the boys off it). Joe's shirt- done. Mailbox- done.

Side note...see what I mean about the plastic table cloths. Sure the thinking chair would have been a little neater with fabric...but that would have cost an arm and a leg. Two red plastic table cloths and some black duct tape...oh and don't forget the packing tape, does the job just marvelously.

Photography

I think one of the new "in" hobbies to adopt is photography. While I don't condone following the crowd...I am one of the cool kids so I kind of have to live up to my cool kid status by also adopting this new hobby.

Truth be told I have always liked taking pictures. The scrapbooker in me saw a new scrapbook page layout at every new step of our lives. In the absence of the funds to scrap, the loss of my sewing machine for crafting, and the addition of a fancy camera several months ago it was really quite inevitable that I turn to photography.

So here are some photos of my favorite subjects--my boys.

Notes:

I do have photoshop, but have not really learned to use it yet so these photos are unedited.

Cole is the main subject because he has crossed over to the easy age of photographing.

With the writing of this post I am in no way saying that I am the bomb diggity at this, just sharing the joy.

Nice Day and Dabbling at Photography

It was a nice day today and so in order to make up for our jammie day yesterday I told the kids we were going to the park. Couldn't decide which one, but finally settled on driving by one that we used to go by a lot that had recently been under construction. Boy was I happy we went there. Locals...VICTORY PARK is new and fabulous. We had a great time. I took the new camera and snapped until my heart's content. I think we got some great photos of the boys.