I’m Going On a Picnik…Wanna Come Along?

It’s been said time and time again…“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

And for me and others who sell products online it’s the difference between selling a design or keeping it in your inventory. I love to take pictures and that is a good thing because in order to sell anything online you really need a picture. Now with all of the fun photo editing tools online, the stakes have been raised so to speak. No longer is it just okay to have a picture, but quality is a big factor as well.

Please understand…I do not consider myself an expert by any means, but I would love to share the fun I have while taking and creating my pictures, let you in on my secrets and show you just how much you can change the personality of a plain object with just the click of a mouse.

Come with me on a Picnik!

The back story of the design is long…so I’ll save that for another post. For now lets just say, there was a need, I had they idea and then “ta daaaaa!!!” 🙂

 Taking the picture…this one was taking outside in the late afternoon, in the shade on an old funky blue shutter I have hanging on my fence. I use it for a lot of my pictures. It fits my theme and I love it. (by the way, this shutter was free, sweet hunky hubby brought home for me one day while out working…said it was in somebody’s trash pile!) Wow…their loss my gain!

I set my non fancy digital camera on the macro mode (macro is usually represented by a flower shape on your camera) and that’s all I usually do, macro, aim and click.

Transfer from camera to computer and then log into Picnik. Upload my picture and get busy…

This first picture represents what the photo looks like before it goes into photo morphing.

Sometimes I will crop in my camera’s program, but if not then I will crop here on Picnik in the “Edit” tab. Then I hop over to the create tab and begin my Picnik. I usually like a very thin border around my pictures. So the first thing is selecting the “Frames” and choose the “Border” and apply.

Second I like to go over “Effects” and apply the “Vignette” effect, choose the shade and fix just so.

Third I go to “text” and add my “rustique art”.

and last I go back to “Frames” and choose the “Drop Shadow” effect.

and this is my finished picture…

But this time I thought that I would do the first three steps and make a change. I wondered what my picture would look like in a sepia tone? 

This time after I applied the “Vignette” effect, I went up to the “Sepia” effect and applied. I didn’t move the tones…just left it as it was and then did the other steps.

and this is what is looked like…

Before you begin to think that this take too much time…I’ve done it so many times the from the time I take the photo to the last step and save…it takes 10 to 15 minutes top. It’s like anything else, the more you use a program the more familiar you are with it the more proficient you will be.

I wanted more for this picture…I wanted an old faded sepia with some depth…it needed a boost…and that’s what I did. 

Back to the “Effects” after the application of the “sepia” effect, I went to the “Boost” effect and….

this is what I got…

I really like this last one the best because it pulls out the design from the shutter and gives it dimension.  It also captures the old vintage look that I was going for.    

I realize that this photo is not professional…and I’m okay with that.  I see that the right side is a bit unfocused and I’m okay with that.  

This was fun to do…I achieved the look that I was wanting and had fun at the same time.  

So now it’s your turn to go on a Picnik and have some fun with your photos.