Cameras have come a long way, but photo editing was something which became commercialized only 10-15 years ago. When we had no means to edit a photo, we saw posters and ads made on a painter's canvas, creative photographers edited or manipulated their photos by piecing two negatives of different shots together. At the dawn of Digital photo editing, we saw some amazing creativity on magazines, banners and posters. But still the layman had no idea what digital processing/editing was.
And then almost 10 years ago, when Photoshop was available commercially, people realized the power of a photo editing tool. As years passed by, countless photo editing tools became available. But at the same time, they were being sold at a higher price.
With digital cameras making the scene, almost every person developed a hobby in editing their own photos, and social networking sites gave them the opportunity to showcase their work.
But after shelling out for an expensive digital camera, the consumer is forced to shell out some more money to buy these digital editing softwares, putting the hobby on hold. But there are a few free websites which offer some amazing tools for photo editing. Here’s listing out a few.
Website: www.pikipimp.com
Pikipimp is targeted for the social networking users. It’s just the perfect site to edit someone’s picture into something hideous and funny.
What we found good: You can change any person’s look using the preloaded 'elements', otherwise known as filters or effects. There are a handful of fun effects like beard, hair styles, eyes, ears and many more. And for the naughty people out there, there is a kinky effect - bikinis (I’m really curious to see how people make good use of this effect).
What we found bad: It is ONLY for editing photos for the social networking sites, so enthusiasts and professionals can find themselves a bit disappointed.
Website: www.fotoflexer.com
The User Interface (UI) of fotoflexer is easily one of the best UI's seen in a photo editing site. A very clean and easy to use flash based UI, makes it the ultimate site for novice photo editors to learn the basics. Personally, we found fotoflexer the best photo editing site. There are so many good features on this site, we would have to write a special review for it.
What we found good: The simplistic buttons and menu will let the users do some fun work from the start, without spending most of their time trying to find out what a specific tool is meant to do. From adding text to glitter to photo effects, fotoflexer does most of the best of editing with the click of two buttons, for which other sites and tools may have a complex procedure.
What we found bad: The only thing that this site was missing was the marquee and the magic wand tool.
Website: www.lunapic.com
Lunapic may not appeal to users at the first look. The homepage gives a feeling that this site would not be good at all. But as they say, never judge a book by its cover. Lunapic is the perfect photo editing site for amateurs and professionals alike.
What we found good: Lunapic is all about the tools and effects provided on the site. By just looking at the arsenal of tools and effects on the site, any person’s imagination will start to work and will be busy for hours in editing various photos. Lunapic provides tutorials in the form of forums. This is a very good idea, because imagination has no limits and various users keep posting walkthroughs about something very creative.
What we found bad: Not all effects are good looking and cannot be aligned as per choice, for example - lens flare.
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