Picmonkey replaces Picnik

Hello!

Long time no post, sorry! I've been sorting out some personal issues.

Many of you will know I love manipulating photos. I was gutted when Picnik closed (apart from the nice full refund when it shut down, ha!)

But, fear not fellow photo-fiddlers! (Try saying that when you've had a few!) There is a new photo editing website on the block - Picmonkey. Best of all, it's totally free at the moment.

It comes from the people behind Picnik, so if you were able to navigate your way around Picnik, Picmonkey will be a breeze.

I thought I'd show you a few photos of myself which I've edited and how simple it is to use. This isn't a tutorial as such, I'll just show you before and after shots and tell you what I changed.

Before. I look gormless, as usual!
After
So what did I change?

  • I lightly airbrushed my cheeks and eye bags
  • I used the blush boost feature to make my blusher look smoother
  • I used the eye brightener to enhance the catchlights in my eyes
  • I used the mascara feature to enhance my upper eye lashes (if I use it on the bottom lashes it looks too unnatural and spidery.)

All of the 'touch up' effects are found by clicking on the lipstick icon on the left hand side of the website.

Using the edited photo above, I also used the Daguerrotype effect, which is found by clicking on the chemistry bottle icon on the left hand side of the website. (Not to be confused with the Daguerrotype frame effect which includes a rough effect and frame, which is found in the frames icon on the left of the website.)


It's basically a nice, flattering black and white.

Here is a photo of the Daguerrotype frame so you can see the difference.

Disapproving Leah is disapproving

There are dozens and dozens of effects available on Picmonkey. What are you waiting for?! Go and have a look yourself!

It looks like other features like collage will be available soon, and I won't be surprised if there's a premium service coming, where all the best features are chargeable. I had a premium subscription to Picnik so if Picmonkey does bring out a premium service I'll pay for it as I'm always faffing around with my photos.

As much as I love Instagram (and I do love it) I will always want a bit more from photo manipulation. Of course, for sharing photos with various social networking sites in a few clicks Instagram can't be beaten, but I think a bit more work is worth it for the results.

I'm not being paid to plug Picmonkey, by the way (I wish!)

That's all from me. Have a great weekend! 

In tomorrow's post I'll show you how to use Picmonkey effects to edit scenery photos. Sunday's post will show you a range of frames you can use in Picmonkey.

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