Going on a Picnik - a picnik.com

In recent months I have been using picnik.com to improve and sometimes play with my pictures. I have a little point-and-click camera that meets our needs for cost, size, and convenience, but I like to try to dress up the photos a little. There is a for-sale version of Picnik with extra features, but right now I enjoy using the free version.







Here are a couple of "before" pictures of a beautiful teen friend. (I share these with permission, but have hidden the faces of the other girls whose parents I did not contact). I zoomed in on her while taking a group picture of last Fall's American Girl Club. These pictures are some of the very first I ever touched with picnik.com.





I thought she looked so pretty and dreamy in these pictures. Then I uploaded them to picnik.com and started playing with various effects, including Black & White, Vignettte, Orton-ish, Focal Zoom, Focal B&W, and probably a few I've forgotten. Here are the results:

I like the way Focal Zoom picks her out of the crowd.

This is my favorite.

Here is a picture of Earthgirl and Granddaddy with one of his antique tractors. As you can see, it's a little blurry, and other vehicles show in the background. But I loved this picture!








And here is the "after" version in 1960's. This effect does not work well for obviously modern pics, but here, the tractor, the denim, the styles all were there in the 1960's, so the effect works. (my opinion, but then I am not an artist...)



And this is my favorite "after." The vignette border minimizes the other vehicles, and the B&W with a little color added in gives a vintage look I just loved.

I want to use the effect called Pencil Sketch, but so far the have not had the right picture. Mon Cheri has a wonderful set of pictures, including my fave, the RAIN picture, that uses Pencil Sketch beautifully. Maybe I need to go to France to get the right picture.