Easy Peasy Altered Images -- Picnik Edition

Here's another easy, free, online image processing utility. My first encounter with Picnik came when I started using Spoonflower to design custom printed fabric like Warm Hands.

It's fun to just play with no particular outcome in mind just to see what you come up with. But sometimes it's easier to start when you have a sense of what's possible. So here's how I used Picnik to create an avatar -- not the blockbuster film kind, but a small image to represent an online identity. This is a process I want to share with a group of art educators I'm speaking to next month, and some young fiber campers I'll be working with this summer.

For this project, I uploaded the JPG image I use for my Google profile picture to Picnik. Here's what came next:

Edit. Select the Edit Tab and click Colors. I chose the Neutral Picker and selected the red in my skin tone. Then I reduced Saturation to -71 and increased Temperature to 47. Then I clicked OK.

Save. I selected the Save & Share Tab and saved the color-corrected image to my computer with a unique name. It's a good idea to keep saving. Even with the Undo tool, you never know when you'll want to go back to an earlier version. After saving to my computer, I chose Continue Editing.

Create. Next selected the Create Tab, where there are lots of fun tools. On my face, I applied Stickers from Loosy Design and Similies. As you work with Stickers, a dialog box will appear to let you flip, change the color, fade and blend. Resize, rotate and move the sticker using the handles on the element.

Effects. Still in the Create Tab, next I chose Effects. I was playing with the idea of going blue for this avatar, so under effects I scrolled down to the selection of tools under Color. I clicked Color > Tint > Apply in Normal mode. Still in Create > Effects, next I selected the DuoTone tool, chose a second color, and adjusted Brightness, Contrast and Fade. Still in Create > Effects, next I scrolled up to Camera . I clicked Camera, Cinemascope and checked Yes to Letterbox My Photo. That's a wrap.

Edit Again. To use this image as an online avatar, I need it to be square, not rectangular. So I return to the Edit menu and select Crop. From the dropdown menu, where it says "No Constraints" I chose instead Square and changed the actual size to 200 x 200. This way, instead of relying on a site's default cropping mechanism, I can choose what parts of the image I want to keep when I go from rectangle to square.

I probably should have flopped the image horizontally to direct my avatar's gaze toward the right-hand side of a web page. Didn't think of that until just now. Oops.

Have fun playing with Picnik and Sporkforge. I'm working on the next phase of my Gimp Learn-Along, and will post again on that soon.

Easy Peasy Altered Images -- Sporkforge Edition

Maybe you read through the first post in my learn-along about getting started with Gimp imaging software and thought, "Forget it -- all I want to do is...." Good news: You can.

There are great, easy-to-use, free image processing utilities you can use online. At Sporkforge I like the Comic Drawing Generator. Just upload a jpg image like this one.

Then Abracadabra Shazzam.

That was a Sensitivity Threshold value of 80, a brightness value of 200, the line option set to thin, and I checked "Apply Color" even though the image was black and white. Click the draw command and wait for the results. Then right-click the new image and save it to your computer.

By the way, this is a 1911 image of a cat on the shoulder of aviator John B Moisant from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs collection.

Here's another image, a photograph of Siberian irises.

 

Abracadabra Shazzam.

 

That was a Sensitivity Threshold value of 35, a brightness value of 200, the line option set to thin, and I did not check "Apply Color" even though the image was color to begin with.

Understandably, there are limits on the size of images you can upload to Sporkforge, and what you can do with them there. But it's a fun way to get started.

There are other online utilities that give you more options and are just as easy to use to explore another day. And I'm working on Gimp, which may have a steeper learning curve but when I get over the hump, watch out!

Observations on Observation

Remember back in olden times (a couple of years ago) when, during the first week of January, everyone rushed to the drugstore to have rolls of film (look it up on Wikipedia) processed after the holidays? Did you hear last year that Kodak no longer makes Kodachrome film? Digital camera technology has changed just about everything related to taking pictures. Just about. What hasn't changed is this:

The greatest skill any photographer can hope to possess is that of observation.

That's from a post called 4 Practice Techniques to Develop Photographic Observation  by Christina N. Dickson at Digital Photography School.

This is right in tune with the exercises I use in my Local Color workshop, where we use digital photography to capture observations, rather than images. I love prowling around with the camera, as if I needed an excuse to slow down and really see what's in my own back yard.

But during the holidays, things move so fast all I can do is occasionally grab the camera, point and shoot. Past practice at observation helps me stand a better chance of capturing the spirit of a moment. When I come back to these hurried photos later, I'm not surprised to see things I didn't consciously notice at the time.

I may crop an image and use fabric paint and markers to make a picture I print on fabric more like the idea captured in my imagination. And for me, there's always stitching. You have no idea how much I can't wait to embroider this thicket of willow. To me it represents the thicket of responsibilities and opportunities that loom before us, and the strength and resolve we need to bolster us until we can spot a rabbit path through it.