15 Fun Online Photo Editors and Tools

This post is for anybody and everybody who wants to turn their photos into something amazing without having to learn complex software or purchase expensive plugins. Welcome to the world of Online photo editing.

For anybody who takes pictures, it is necessary and fun to do some editing. The best way to do this is to have some form of editing software, but sometimes using the software can be frustrating and not all that fun. In the last post, I covered 15 Free and useful software apps for anyone with a creative side. Today, I have compiled another great list of 15 which consists of online photo editors. There are 3 main benefits to using online editors:

1) Conveniently available on the internet and can be accessed from anywhere.

2) Does not drain your computer processing power or memory.

3) Very easy to use and usually provides one click effects and edits.

You will find the list below, and as usual I have included a short description for each site and examples. These sort of sites are not exactly meant for serious photographers like myself, but I will admit that they can be very fun. Some are for fun, but some can be used for serious editing. I have personally tried each one of these sites which is why I have included them. Have fun, and as always let me know your thoughts.

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1) Aviary - This is one of those serious editors I mentioned. This is your online adobe suite all on one site. There are 5 tools on the site including Image editor, image markup, effects editor, swatch editor, and a Vector editor. Just look at what you can do.

2) Dumpr.net - Fun and creative effects. Most are free. They offer a membership for the rest. greedy site owners :( . Still just fun to mess with.

3) FaceInHole.com - This is easily one of my personal favorites. for obvious reasons. Prepare to spend many fun hours on this site. Placing anybody's face in hundreds of different situations. If you don't see one you like, then you can create your own. Not only that, but you can order it on a t-shirt if you like. BTW the picture here is taken from my modeling career. Do not hesitate to call ladies. ;) lol.

4) Funny.Pho.To - Another very fun site with more of a variety of effects including framing, magazine covers, and face transplants.

5) Funphotobox.com - You guessed it, more effects and fun stuff. This site include some fun gif animations as well.

6) HairMixer.com - Do you want to see what you look like with a new hairstyle, or just want to make someone look really freaky. well here you go. the picture says it all.

7) InStyle Makeover : This one is for the ladies who want to see what they look like with celebrity hair and/or makeup. Automatically adjusts to your picture with tons of celebs to choose from. There is even an option to make over your man. (I hope my Girlfriend isn't reading this)

8) Photo505.com : More one click effects, but this site claims to have a new effect added every day. that could add up to a lot of effects.

9) Photofunia.com : more effects with plenty of animations as well.

10) Picartia.com : Use all of your photos to create a huge image mosaic. Always a fun project.

11) Pixlr.com : Advanced online photo editing using layers and custom brushes. Really gets the job done for an online tool.

12) Pizap.com : Let's just say this is a different level of fun.

13) Splashup.com : Another serious photoshop-like editor that offers pixel-level control.

14) SumoPaint.com : This one is really meant for people who like to draw and paint. Plus it edits photos with layers.

15) WriteOnIt.org : This site is mainly for creating your own magazine covers with your custom captions.

So that's it! Don't blame me if you find yourself spending hours on these sites. They are fun.

15 Free Apps for Photographers, Designers, and Artists

Software Development is at a point where for every Commercial Application, there seems to be someone who develops a free similar product. Which basically means there is no need to pay out tons of money to get some useful software. I have compiled here, a collection of 15 amazing apps that are absolutely free. These will be useful for Photographers, Designers, and Animators. As you go through the list you will wonder how some of these are offered for free.

I know some software developers and I know that there are years of work put into some of these. Just imagine spending years of time developing something then just giving it away. There are descriptions for each app along with samples when possible. I can't say it enough, but some of these are just WOW! You can thank me by getting a friend to subscribe to the blog. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.

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For Photographers:

1)GimpShop : (Mac + Win) Maybe you have heard of the popular alternative for Photoshop, Gimp. Well this is a remake of the software in order to resemble the layout of Photoshop. This program can do everything that Photoshop can. Everything. It will make you say "I can't believe it's not Photoshop".

2)Adobe Kuler : (AIR based, Universal) A Great tool to simplify the world of colors. Use it to create color swatches by selecting your own colors or let the software generate its own color theme from an image. This is the kind of simple software that can save you hours of time.

3)Name Changer: I hate having to change the file names of photo sets one by one. This will let you select a batch of files and change all of the names at once and puts them in sequence. Just wonderful.

4)Shape Collage: (Mac + Win) Mostly for fun, but can inspire ideas. Use chosen photos to create a photo collage in any shape or arrangement you want.

5) PosteRazor: (Mac + Win) When you want to print out a picture in poster size, but don't have large paper or don't want to pay for a print. This will automatically split up your image into separate pages of chosen paper size and save it as a PDF file. Then you can print it and place the pages together.

6)TiltViewer: (Universal) Gives a very unique interface for your photo portfolio or album. To see a nice example, click HERE.

For Designers:

7) DrawBerry: (Mac) Create Vector based images in this fully loaded app. Simpler than using Adobe Illustrator.

8)Sweet Home 3D: (Mac + Win) An interior designers best friend. Use it to create top view layouts and then view it in awesome 3D.

9)Lego Digital Designer: (Mac + Win) Every Lego brick at your fingertips. Use it to create 3D models with lego bricks and then have the option of ordering the actual pieces in a kit to build the real thing.

For Animators:

10) Blender : (Mac + Win) Can you say "No way this is Free!" Very Powerful app for 3D Design and Animation. Even if you don't animate, you will definitely want to check this out.

11) Daz 3D studio: (Mac + Win) This goes Beyond animation. You can create amazing portraits like in a virtual photo studio. Has tons of free model downloads so you can use it just like a model. A Must Download for the sake of creativity.

12) Scratch: (Mac + Win) Developed by the genius people at MIT, a great app which can help you create simple animations and games. It is idiot proof, so even I can make my own game.

13) Flaex: (Mac) Takes Flash files and picks it apart. Saves all of the sounds, images, frames individually. Very useful.

For the Rest of you:

14) SketchBox: (Mac) You can make layered sticky-notes with text and drawings. good for quick notes and ideas.

15) Top Draw: (Mac) Use you JavaScript language to produce images at random. It can make some great looking original, abstract, images.

Don't Forget to Comment...

Building your Website

Recently I have been looking into making my photography website, so I constantly search around to check my options. Most photographers out there have those really slick sites made with flash animation. At this point, as a photographer, you have to have a nice site. There are a few options out there:

1) Hire a web designer to create a unique site for you and then sit back and enjoy.

This is by far your best option, but it is the most costly way to do it. Generally getting a site professionally designed can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over 30,000. Your best bet is to search on sites for freelancers.

I recommend - Elance.com A database of qualified freelancers in many fields

Craigslist.org This is a more budget friendly source to find cheaper help

2) Learn the skills and do it yourself.

This option basically depends on your patience and time. If you have some skills and want to build on them, then it can be worthwhile to take this route. Not only will you save money, but you will add to your arsenal of digital skills. There are plenty of resources online to help you learn.

3) Take the simple route and use a website builder.

Most web hosting services also offer a free website designer program to get you started. This is the cheapest and least exhausting way to go. The site posted here is just amazing.

Free Website Design - Wix.com This is one of my recent online discoveries and was sent from above. It allows you to build a website using a simple drag and drop method. They have a bunch of themes that can be altered and also have flash based sites. If you choose to use the free account, then the site will have a simple banner along the bottom advertising wix.com. really not a big deal. If you upgrade (and pay them) the ads are gone and you can use a personal domain. They take care of the hosting. This is one site I guarantee will become popular.

This is also how I created my header for the blog. just thought it was fun.

These were just a few steps to help get you thinking. comment below for any questions. thanks for reading.

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Join a Fun Group

It's a beautiful summer and we should all be out having some fun. Sometimes when I find a hobby or interest, I have trouble finding people who share the same interest. After all doing something is much more fun with a group who enjoys it. Stop searching around and asking people you know if they want to do something you love. Just join MeetUp.com and find a group right in your neighborhood.

This site is pretty well known, or so I thought. I'm surprised at the number of people who haven't heard of it. I searched for a photography group and found a dozen right in my area. They schedule photo shoots with models and full setups. It's fun and I can learn from others who are more experienced. My suggestions for groups are photography, hiking, running, board games. Just type in your interest and you will definitely come across at least a few groups. They even have a polyamory group in SoCal. I swear I didn't search it up it just came up on the home page. LOL. Let me know if you join any groups, cause others may be interested.

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Just To get you started, these are some groups in my area:

The Los Angeles Drinking & NOT Driving Group

The Burbank Scrabble Meetup

Los Angeles Audio Improvisation Lab

Blind photographers

I am a decent photographer and so are the group of people on the site I will share with you today. The only difference is they can't see because they're blind. BlindPhotographers.org is a site which showcases galleries of photos taken by some very talented photographers who are visually impaired. They all come from different backgrounds and have different reasons on how they lost their sight. Some of them can see to a certain degree which ranges from just seeing blobs of colors to only seeing dark and light shadow. This is truly amazing and inspires me as a photographer and as a person. I highly recommend browsing through the photos in their gallery or on flickr. I have no idea as to how they can achieve such awesome photos without really seeing what they are capturing.

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Update!!!!!: Here is a wonderful mini documentary which includes interviews with three of these blind photographers.

Obscura from Damon Stea on Vimeo.

Want Your Photos in a Gallery? Join This Project.

I like to think of myself as a decent photographer and hope for the day that I can have a few prints hanging in a gallery somewhere. Well here's my chance to have 24 pictures in a gallery. kinda. 

Art house Co-op is a great website where artists come together and can participate in organized projects. It is an awesome site to explore and find some fun projects, but going back to the main point of this post, there is a very huge project that anybody can participate in. It is called "A Million Little Pictures" and gives a thousand people the opportunity to fill up a disposable camera with 24 pictures and have them hanging in a gallery (even though it will be next to 23,976 other peoples pictures) . Just go and sign up for the project and you will receive a disposable camera in the mail, then go out and take pictures of pretty much anything that documents your life. It costs $18 bucks to join, which is not bad considering a disposable camera is around 9 dollars and the other nine gets your pictures hanging in an art gallery. Once satisfied, have the prints developed as 4x6 prints and send back to the project organizers. check the site for all the details. 

I've already signed up and am proud to say California has the most sign ups meaning that we get to host one of the exhibitions.

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