Screw Photoshop! Hello, Picnik!

Flickr managed to seduce me from keeping my photos on my website, but Picnik takes me all the way. See, normally I upload my raw pictures to the PC, fire up Photoshop to do my crops, color balances, and edits, and then painstakingly save each photo, finally uploading the finished product to Flickr for the world to see. However, Photoshop is a HUGE program, and, as the last version I purchased is several years old, I am always loathe to get in there with the monstrous kludginess.

This year, after taking some photos in San Antonio and capturing the Blue Angels from Angel Island, I decided another approach was in order. I uploaded the raw images to Flickr, then fired up Picnik.com, a site that claims to be a free online Web 2.0 photo editor. In literally seconds, I was pulling in my Flickr images, and editing, faster and better than Photoshop ever let me do. Cropping? Definitely. Color and contract balancing? Count on it. Best of all, an "auto-fix" feature that corrects my horrific raw photos to sensational pieces.

For instance, here's a raw photo:

Now, check it out after Picnik does it's work:

Gotta say, I'm very impressed. Oh, yes, did I mention...FREE? :-)

Comments

Loyalty Review: Kohl's Yes2You

As some of you know, I've spent over 15 years in the customer loyalty space. So, when I come across a new retail loyalty program, I can't help but see the pluses and minuses. After this many years, it's kind of ingrained. Periodically, I'll share my thoughts with you. Today, it's Kohl's turn under the scope. Let's have a look, shall we? I've divided the review up into three sections: what's good about the program, what's bad about the program, and what I'd change about it. That last one has some actual value: I charged hundreds of dollars per hour for loyalty program consulting, and had over a dozen clients, before I moved to JustAnswer FT. But, being a pandemic and all, I'm giving it away for free here. Kohl's, you're welcome. Here we go! The Good Sign up is opt in Seems odd to praise Kohl's for this, but in department store loyalty, this is a rarity, and a smart one. It means the customers who are opted in are already prime...

Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 1

I recently started rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation from the beginning. I have nothing but fond memories of the original run in the 1980s, given how excited I was for a new Trek series in my lifetime (I had only reruns and the movies to stoke my Trek interest), and it recently occurred to me that, while I diligently consumed every TNG episode, I had not experienced the series since it's original run. Why did I do this? Well, a few reasons: With the triumphant return of Sir Patrick Stewart to the smaller screen as the venerable Jean Luc Picard , I thought it would be interesting to contrast this version with the previous, and see how far he has come. It would add color to the character, as well as Sir Patrick. Frankly, with the COVID19 lockdown, the series I have binged upon have been intense, dark, and disturbing. Combined with the activity of the world, including insane politics, homicidal police who seem to view people of color as "prey," rather than their ch...

I Shed A Tear For Movie Theaters

Atom Films had an article that really hit me hard. It seems that Scott Gustin , who covers entertainment, went to the opening of Avengers: Endgame a year ago, in Los Angeles. Like all of us, he had been waiting for this film for seemingly forever, but Scott did something I bet none of us did: he recorded the sound of the crowd reacting to the film. Cool, right? Now, take a moment to visualize a year ago. No people trapped in their homes, worried about illness or financial uncertainty the likes we've never seen. Responding to Trump's latest with a roll of the eyes, rather than a frustrated scream. No overwhelming frustration leading to riots at state capitals . And no horrific illness, robbing us of friends and family, in a wave not seen in a century. No, in this time, early April of 2019, we were watching Trump still bitch about his border wall. Over in Ukraine, a country most of us hadn't really thought about, they were electing a comedian as president, and we...

Tretakoff Musings

Search This Blog