Photo Editing is a Picnik

pingg Designer Series: Ashley Mills

While reviewing photos from a recent soirée you may notice that the picture, which was perfect then, seems too dark, has obvious red eye problems and has an unwanted stranger.  We’ve all been there.

Photo-editing technologies have been around for years, but none have been as easy, cool and free, as my newest web app discovery: Picnik.

A free online photo editor with a creative twist, Picnik takes the fun approach to image and photo editing instead of a cut and dry one. I must admit, it was incredibly entertaining to play around with the effects, filters and even holiday themed stickers. Picnik allows you to grab an image from your computer, from a website or any social media network and crop, resize, re-touch or add any one of their many fonts and borders.

A great feature is that Picnik will remember the last image you edited and automatically load it when you return. Even if you accidentally navigate away from the page or lose the connection it will keep track of the last five pictures you worked on and let you undo the changes you made to them at any time. Once you are done editing,  you can easily send your finished photos to all different websites including PhotoBucket, Imageshack, Kodak EasyShare, LiveJournal, Fotopic, and of course Flickr.

For those of you worried about simplicity and ease of uploading, never fear, this site has it in spades.  Picnik is organized so thoughtfully that I was up and editing within minutes. And the best part - once you’re done editing your photos, you can upload them to pingg and custom design your own personalized party invitations and holiday cards for free!