Life After Picnik

I have just about got over the shock that Picnik will be closing (or technically moving over to Google+ but losing a few bits) and I have managed to look at some other photo editing websites without feeling like a traitor. After all Picnik doesn't close until April 19th so there is still plenty of time. In the meantime there is a Brucie bonus, all features are now free, and *wipes brow* if you have paid for an upgrade you will get a full refund even if you only have 1 day left on your membership.

I have read a couple of other posts about alternatives which I have played around with tried and tested for you. While doing this tough job, I also found a couple of other sites which I thought you might like to consider.

So here is Five Go Blogging's FREE photo editing roundup broken into 2 lists; the first is for one-clickers and decorators and the second is for those who are a bit more technically minded and want to play with levels, layers, dodging and burning.

So for the one-click wonders ;)

Flauntr:
Pros:

• loads of filters and overlays which are super easy to apply with one click
• Easy to apply stickers, drawing and text (although the range of stickers isn't as good as Picnik)
• Adjust you photo to take on the palette and style of a famous painting
• Simple and very easy to use

Cons:

• You need to upload your photos, save them in an album, then click and drag the image into the workspace (it wasn't obvious)!
• No animation features
• No collage feature
• Not able to create layers so you can't merge images

Summary: A simple tool to enhance your images and decorate them.

Pixlr Express
Pros:

• Masses of pre-set filters, overlays and frames, applied with one click.

Cons:

• No decorations or text
• No animation features
• No collage feature

Summary: great for simplicity, filters and overlays but nothing else to sell it!

Pixlr O-Matic
Pros:

• Loads of preset filters to give your images a retro feel

Cons:

• That's all it does, only retro filters.

Summary: Really simple but probably too basic

Befunky
Pros:

• Filters and effects to fill your boots with many times over
• A degree of advanced settings for levels and saturation etc.
• Stickers, text and doodling features
• Additional artistic effects

Cons:

• No collages
• No merging of multiple images that I can see or work out
• No animation
• Text fonts are limited on the free version

Summary: Probably the closest to Picnik in functionality and in that you can pay to upgrade and get additional features.

Phixr
Pros:

• Filters and effects as you'd expect
• Can make collages
• Can do basic merging of photos but can only cut out in eclipse or square cropped sections
• Has stickers, text and drawing functions

Cons:

• Can only upload limited picture size and will resize your image to fit (but quality is still fine for blogs)
• Interface is pretty basic and is certainly not slick
• No animation

Summary: Has a good range of effects, stickers, frames etc and is simple to use but the limit of picture size could be a problem.



And now those of a slightly more geeky persuasion ;)

Lunapic
Pros:

• Has animation features! Sparkling effects, reflections, ripples
• Easy to make slideshows
• Can freeform cut out images and paste onto other pictures
• Range of filters and effect
• Can create a twitter mosaic of your followers
• Has tutorials for the more advanced features.

 Cons:

• Limited image size to 930x930 although fine for blogs
• No decorations other than text
• No click and drag collages but can cut out and paste onto a new image to create merged pictures.

Summary: This looks pretty cool for animated and transitional images but probably not ideal for just adding effects for blog images.

Photoscape
Pros:

• It pretty much has it all (except layers as far as I can see)
• It has the geek factor for fiddling with your levels and curves
• It does collages (yay!)
• It has stickers and text and drawing (but not as extensive as Picnik)
• It has filters pre set which you can then adjust to suit you

Cons:

• You have to explore to find what you need, no easy one-click buttons here
• There isn't a facility to merge photos

Summary: The almost full package on you machine. It has to be downloaded so it sits on your machine as a programme.

Aviary
Pros:

• This looks and feels very much like Photoshop so is definitely one for those of you who are comfortable with some technical terms but, as such, offers a lot of scope.
• It has filters, effects and frames
• You can cut and paste to merge photos

Cons:

• No decorations in terms of stickers
• No animation features
• No collages

Summary: Good as a free photoshop alternative but not for the fun features

Pixlr Editor
Pros:

• Nice interface following the style of the other Pixlr products
• Very like photoshop in the editing features it offers
• Has filters, effects and frames

Cons:

• No decorations in terms of stickers
• No animation features
• No collages

Summary: Good as a free Photoshop alternative but not for the fun features

Fotoflexer
Pros:

• Easy to navigate
• All the toys: collage, layers, filters, frames, stickers, insert a face,
• Glitter text (brought out the princess in me!) and glittery stickers.
• You can paste a whole image onto another
• Using 'smart cutout' or 'smart scissors' on the 'geek' menu you can cutout selected areas to paste onto another image.

Cons:

• Slooooow to upload and apply effects. Don't play with this if you are under time pressure.
• Because it is slow I couldn't actual draw a line, it produced a series of dots instead of a continuous line.
• The slow speed also meant that using the smart cutout I could not easily shade the area I wanted to select so it was very rough.
• No overlays and limited frames and filters.

Summary: Of all the sites I have reviewed this comes closest to meeting my needs which are filters, stickers and other decorations, merging images and making collages. Not 100% there but pretty close. 


I have to admit that I am still undecided. I like Befunky for its simplicity and the range of effects, and I like Fotoflexer for its geek features. Given I used photoshop for photo merging and then add effects in Picnik, I will probably still end up using more than one of these sites to get the 'perfect' image.

There are so many other sites out there that you may prefer but there is only so much photo editing a girl can do! If you find something else that you think we would like to try please feel free to link it up here.

Please note I was a first time user to all of the sites I have featured here so it is possible I missed something or just didn't get it. If I did and you feel something should be corrected please let me know. Thanks x