Three Photo Editing Tools to Check Out
I just learned about Dumpr from Download Squad. It’s a tool that offers free and pro photo editing options. Checking out this site reminded me to tell you that I’m also pretty fond of some other great web tools that you might not be using.
- A.viary is a hardcore photo editing app, kind of like Photoshop without the price tag and disk install. But it’s way cooler than that. It’s a whole lot of really interesting editing abilities and a whole community of people doing their own thing with the tools that makes this one a great choice. Note: it’s still in an invite-only beta period (when does that end, guys?), but maybe I can score you a few invites, if you’re interested. Let me know in the comments, and I’ll ask the team.
- Picnik is a lightweight photo editing tool that gets me through pretty much all of my needs right now. I use it about twice a day, and have found that it does most everything I need from a photo editor. It’s not really good with batch-based activities, but if you’re into editing things one at a time, this is for you.
- Skitch (the bonus round) acts as a screen capture and annotation tool. It’s super easy to use, has just enough tools to be useful but not so many that you feel bloated and misunderstood. I use it to do lots of odd jobs on capture screens and little images from web pages. Definitely good to have.
More and more, I’m choosing tools and applications that live in the cloud. Why? Because after dropping my laptop the other day and losing every on-disk application, I realized that there are lots of benefits to having my data and my tools available from anywhere there’s a web browser. There are some exceptions, of course, but when I find great web tools, I want to share them.
What about you? What are you using on the web that’s cool?
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I attended the Third Tuesday Ottawa meetup last night where Saul Colt and Mike McDerment of Freshbooks http://www.freshbooks.com. Mark Blevis did a great write up on the event over at http://www.markblevis.com/karma-marketing/, check it out.
Freshbooks is a “software as a service” for doing invoicing an d time tracking. I haven’t tried it out yet (but plan to), but in addition to a great online tool, they have a really unique approach to their business that impressed me.
Worth checking out.
Chris,
Great list. I would love an invite to a.viary as well! Played around with Dumpr this morning, now I am a bit behind on my work..:)
This is a super silly one, really, but I get asked all the time how to make a favicon (the little picture up in the browser address window) for a webpage/blog. This site just lets you upload your image and it kicks one back to you. I refer people to it all the time.
I use Skitch and Picnik and I love them both exponentially. I’ve never tried a.viary but I’ve found that Splashup (it’s in beta but you don’t need an invite) is pretty incredible - it rivals the functionality of photoshop and you can pull in your photos from online photosharing sites.
Oh wow! If you have access to A.viary invites, I would love to check this out. Thanks for the great resources.
You’re bang on with Picnik Chris. That’s what I recommend (highly) to the b5 bloggers. It does just about everything they need. For the Windows crowd I’d also suggest Paint.net. Awesome free app, it’s must install in my toolkit.
Hi Chris, Id really like to try out Aviary, its looks great. If you are able to drop me an aviary invite, that would be awesome. My email is scottpurdie1@gmail.com
The Aviary team have gone full throttle with all the different tools.
Cheers
Scott
Thanks for the neat toys! These will entertain me for a very long time. For a suggestion, I’ve also used Splashup in the past, and enjoyed it. Your post actually comes at a perfect time, since a co-worker was looking to upgrade her Photoshop 3.0 (Not CS3, 3), w/o spending a fortune. She will love this!
Picnik is pretty sweet–lots of functionality–and for free. (it does have paid options) Its a tad slow…but well worth the wait.
I found it easier to use than Skitch…
Okay, I’m coming late to this party, but how did you do that way cool Rubik’s cube-esque graphic? Spill.
Just ignore me. Sheesh. (Dumpr… the site w/ cool photo effects mentioned at the top of your post. Just didn’t make the connection.)
If you can swing it, I’d appreciate an A.viary invite. Thank you for this blog: consistently interesting and of good quality. I really like that.
I think ‘cloud’ working is about the way to go at the moment. My Uni work, and writing is spread over about eight PC’s (all also backed up to an external drive) so I love Google Docs, just because I don’t need to worry about ‘compatibility’. I’m actually considering allowing people to submit (to the ezine I work with) via googledocs, because it’s just that good :D
Another one I recommend to client bloggers (who don’t own their own photo editing apps), is SnipShot.com.
Thanks for the links! Great info that is very relevant to a couple projects I’m working on.
An invitation to a.viary would be awesome as well.
@MR X - not unless you’re willing to give me money. : )
Paid post. That would be IZEA down the street.
I don’t make a dime off my blog, unless you count the expansion into other opportunities.
I have a couple of cool tools to add in:
Photo Resizing:
http://rsizr.com/
http://gui.picresize.com/picresize2/
Colours
http://kuler.adobe.com/
Cheers!
Ever tried GIMP? http://www.gimp.org/ I use the portable app version and take it everywhere with me on my thumbdrive.
love the rubik’s cube! my fastest time is 66 seconds, but that was a while ago. i need to start practicing again. i have a nice collection… it’d be great to get the limited edition chris brogan cube to add to it!
all the best.
Hi again Chris,
Catching up on older blog posts and backed up Reader today - would love a chance to use A.viary in beta if it were to become available.
Thanks,
Another cool tool is also:
I think it has the best tools for painting purposes and its probably the fastest browser based photo editing software available!
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Flagged for future reading. How does one get an aviary invite?
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Skitch is indeed phenomenally useful for screengrabs and quick publishing to the web but I wouldn't call it a *photo* editing tool. Other than cropping, it can't manipulate photos in any way (unless you count highlighting and annotating).
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@Mathew I might be able to get my hands on one, need an email address from you if I can
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Ok I've got a couple!
What did you use to create the “photo on a cube” effect?