How to edit pictures without Picnik

How many of you get so sad when you go to Picnik.com and see this:

As soon as I heard this announcement, I started searching for another option and I am excited to know that for me and all the other people online who just don’t understand Photoshop (I’ve tried to learn, really, I have!) there will not be an end to editing pictures! Yipee! Here are my findings:

The first site I found was Foto Flexer.

This site is actually a great option. If you have ever uploaded pictures to Photobucket, the dashboard on FotoFlexer will look very familiar.

Pros to FotoFelxer:

- You can Edit, Crop, Add Text, Adjust Color and Make Collages of your pictures. Everything I ever did on Picnik was available with Fotoflexer, at least on the surface it looks as such.

- It was kind of nice seeing new fonts to choose from, as they vary from the ones on Picnik.

- Overall, it was easy to navigate and in the short time I spent browsing, I was pleased with the options.

Cons to Foto Flexer:

- They are still developing the “frames” functions, so that is not available yet.

Creating a collage was not as easy as it is in Picnik- you have to upload each picture individually, rather than dragging and dropping photos and rearranging them with a click of a button.

- The site was very plain- which was kind of intimidating to me for some reason. I feel like the fun, big type of Picnik makes it appear easier to use or something. FotoFlexer looks a little less inviting- if that even makes sense!

I continued my search and the next site I browsed was Google+.

I signed up for Google+ a long time ago and just didn’t get it. I get emails all the time saying “So-and-so added you to their circle” and I usually say, “What does that even mean?”

In digging a little deeper, I found that Google+ is actually quite nice. Kind of.

I just barely touched the surface of what it had to offer and it has a lot of great ideas.

Pros to Google+:

-It’s another way to connect with your friends and blog readers.

- Picnik is on Google+. (What?! Did you read that wrong?) No really, the functions and look and buttons and everything from Picnik are on Google+ because Google bought Picnik. (I actually heard that the reason they are shutting down Picnik is so more people jump over to Google+ since Google+ is Picnik and more.) Here is a short tutorial about using Google+ for photo editing:

1. Log in to Google+

2. Follow Somewhat Simple on G+. (Ok, not necessary, but totally appreciated!)

3. Click on the “Photo’s”  tab

4. Click on ” Your Albums”

5. Choose the album of your choice or upload a new picture.

6. Once you’ve chosen the picture you want to edit, click the “Creative Kit” link in the top left.

The Creative Kit should say “Welcome to Picnik!”

Everything is there, crop, exposure, add text etc. So have fun with it and then click “save.”

Easy peasy!

Now let’s talk about the Cons:

1. It’s another social network tool that I don’t have time to learn. I don’t want or need another platform. (Just so you know, I said the same thing about Pinterest this time last year and I was dead wrong, so this could very well be the case with G+ too!)

2. Learning something new is time consuming AND dangerous! I spent hours browsing and “cleaning things up” and today I have almost 700 pictures from blog posts that I wrote while on Blogger that have been deleted. I’m not kidding. 700 PICTURES, gone. So if you are browsing my site and notice a grey box with an exclamation point where the picture should be, I’m working on it. Grrr….

3. The biggest con is that G+ doesn’t let you create a collage of photos. They dont have that option at all. (I’m sure they’ve got to add it in the future, but who knows when that will be done?) But you can always make your collages on Pictures2Life- it’s free and has a ton of templates!

Overall, G+ is great, but the last Photo editing option I’m sharing today is FABULOUS!

PicMonkey is still a work in progress, but it is being built by some former Picnik employees, and so far I LOVE IT!

Follow them on Facebook to stay informed about all the developments and keep your fingers crossed that it all is up and running SOON!

…

So, there you have it.

Pretty pictures won’t die when Picnik goes away. This makes me happy!