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The SITS Girls

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Spring into Action: Free Photo Editing & Collage Sites

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Photo editing gets a bad reputation. Some may try to convince you that a true photographer would never edit their photos. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear someone say, “That picture is obviously Photoshopped”! Probably not anything good.

The truth is nothing will turn a bad photo into a good one. If it’s too dark or too bright, there’s not enough information to salvage. If your subject’s not in focus, no amount of sharpening afterward will change that.

A big part of photo editing is choosing to let it go. Hit delete. Sure you may have 10 great pictures of your Aunt Sally’s new dress, but the internet only needs to see one, maybe two unless they’re all from different perspectives.

Editing a photo via software is little different than developing your own film except the software makes it easy. Posting photos straight out of the camera is fine, but chances are your photos may benefit from exposure or color correction, straightening and/or cropping.

Hover over (or click on) the example below to see how minor corrections can impact the final result. I straightened it out, cropped it and corrected the underexposure.

03-23-11 - Cranes at a School

Free Online Editing Tools

Even if you have editing software installed on your computer, using an online editor can be handy, especially when you’re composing blog posts or sharing photographs when you’re away from home.

There are a number of fabulous, free photo editing tools available for you to try! The list below includes the more popular ones along with links to basic editing tutorials for the tool.

If you’re using computer software to edit your photos, there are likely dozens of books, websites and video tutorials dedicated to help teach you how to use it. For a clean edit, you’ll want to learn where in the software or tool you can tweak the exposure, contrast/brightness, color (hue/tint/saturation) and sharpness.

Google is a great place to find what you’re looking for. If you need any help, leave a comment indicating the software you’re using and I’ll reply with some links to basic image editing tutorials for that tool.

Blog Boards and Collages

“How did you create that photo collage!?” I see this question posted almost as much as I see collages. Photo collages or “blog boards” made with software or online tools are a quick way to share several photos arranged appealingly. It’s really not some big, technical secret that only the in-crowd get to enjoy.

ANYONE can create a photo collage in minutes.

Free Online Collage Makers

  • Big Huge Labs’ Mosaic Maker. Though inappropriately named, this is perhaps the most popular and easiest to use free online collage maker. You can choose from seven layout designs and customize the look before selecting the images you want to use. Not all layouts work well with all images, but I’ve had pretty good results overall. Here are a couple examples:Humane Society of North Texas - 12/30/06Pics From 03/05/06
  • Photovisi. This is a free tool, though you need to register to unlock some of the features. They offer about 80 different collage layouts, most of which resemble a digital scrapbooking page.
  • Picture 2 Life.This tool will also allow you to edit your photos and add some effects to them. They have a collection of about 200 collage layouts to choose from.

Free Photoshop Templates

There’s a thing in Photoshop Elements called Clipping Masks, which make it easy to save and distribute collage templates for use. The CoffeeShop Blog contains a plethora of goodies for the software, including a whole section on Storyboard Templates. Rita at CoffeShop details how to use clipping masks to work with the templates.

You may also be interested in learning How to Create Your Own Storyboard Template.

There are lots of free resources. You can find them by Googling the name of the software plus “blog boards”, “storyboards” or “collage templates”.

About Tracie Nall

Tracie lives in Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and more books than her shelves will hold. She spends her days writing and editing. Many of her words end up on her blog, From Tracie. Find Tracie on Twitter @FromTracie and on Instagram where she takes pictures of things that are yellow.

Reader Interactions

Comments

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  10. Juliet says

    Just as an update, I think Picture 2Life may be out of commission. The loading is endless, so they are experiencing and/or ignoring their server issues. I will try another site for collages, thanks for the info!

  12. Brittany Stewart says

    Thank you for this!! I’ve been wondering what I’m going to do without Picnik!
    I use the google plus photo editing, but it doesn’t quite have everything I need.

  13. Dianna says

    Late to the party, but SO excited to see this post! I’m heading off to check out the Piknik tutorial.

    Now I just need a Photo Organizing fairy to visit my home,and we’re all set.

  14. Jennifer says

    I tried out Rita’s Coffee Shop Template and loved it! Learned a lot just from putting pics in a template. Thanks for these resources!

  15. Mimi @bigguysmama says

    Thank you for the great links! I downloaded Photoscape and use that ALL the time! Free and easy! What could be better, right? =) I’m going to check out some of those sites! Thanks.

  16. Tina says

    I have had Paint Shop Pro for several years and I use it a lot for various things. But I discovered PhotoScape quite recently and fell in love with it. So easy to learn and use compared to PSP (though PSP will do much more than PhotoScape). I do digital photo editing for my Michael Jackson photo blog on Tumblr, as well as create digital collages and other digital images for my Art blog–all of which I have been using PhotoScape for. It’s just so easy and fun to use. I recommend it for anyone who wants a free program that is very versatile and easy to learn. They have video tutorials for lots of their features as well.

  18. Chaplain Donna says

    I really appreciate these resources. As some of you know I just purchased a new camera and began using it this week. I stumbled up Microsoft photo editor that came with my computer and used it. Now I am going to try the free tools and editors mentioned in this post! This is very timely, it just makes me excited! Here are the latest pictures I took. They are beginner, so please be gentle: http://wp.me/p1tCFa-3t I can not wait to hear your feedback!

  19. Great Digital says

    nice post..I appreciate it..For opportunities closer to home, begin your search by looking into your college’s network for alumni and affiliated companies who might be hiring interns. Or simply scour online job-hunting websites and local classified for firms looking for a summer worker. If that search turns up no results, then take matters quite literally into your own hands. Nothing speaks more about your determination than actually visiting local photography studios and galleries on foot, with a resume and your portfolio on hand.

  20. Janene says

    I’m really late today because Tuesday is one of my work days and I NEVER get on the computer . . . but I just had to try making a collage! I love it! I wish I had been able to get better pictures, though. 🙂

    I’m enjoying all of the great tips! Thanks so much!

  22. Web says

    I recently started learning on photoshop CS5 the one think I really would like to know how to do is to display my recipes Iike it was a recipe card. Any idea of free online app to do that?
    I will give the exercise a try. I didn’t read yesterday’s post yet so time to catch up. Great free resources.

  24. Jennifer says

    FastStone Image Viewer is also a free editing software that you can download to your computer. I have Lightroom, but I use FastStone almost always for cropping, resizing and adding text to my photos. It is super quick and easy to use.

  25. trininista says

    I need to make a mood board for an assignment due on Thursday. This post is so timely! Thanks! I love collages though, just never had the time to do one. Now I just might…

  26. Turtle says

    I’m just catching up to this challenge, so I’ll use two recent posts to comment on… In a recent post – Bustin Out” I posted some pics from a very out-of-the-box perspective for me. I didn’t even look at what I was snapping – just worked with the angles a bit and shot.

    My last post is about macro shots…also a very interesting perspective, but for me, one that always requires editing! I do about 80% of my editing in iPhoto, and then move anything I want to work on further to Photoshop. It did take a few classes in PS to really get to where I knew what I was doing, but it was definitely worth it. And, if you’re a student, you can get a really good educational discount!

    Can’t wait for the next post/challenge!

  28. Michelle says

    I love using Picnik to edit my photos, but I’m certainly going to check out the other free links too. Thanks for the great photo tips!

    Peace. 😉

  30. kirsten says

    Cool! Hope I have some time to do this tomorrow. I was going to blog my results from the last challenge but hadn’t had the time.

  31. MamaRobinJ says

    Awesome post – this is so great, thank you! I’ve only just worked up the nerve to start taking more photos and playing with them. I just don’t know how! Any resources for Pixelmator? Will definitely play around with the ones you’ve noted here too.

  32. Jenny says

    I didn’t get to take any photo’s yesterday… I took my son outside to play and it totally exited my thought(s). I could prolly do it today! 😛 We’ll see…

  34. Katybeth says

    Thanks the resources are very helpful. I usually use Picasso for my collages but wouldn’t mind branching out. I own photoshop and photoshop books and promise I will watch the videos….I would love the results but still can’t seem to find the path that leads me to them. So darn complicated (for me). IPhoto editing program keeps getting better but what you can do it still pretty elementary.

    Katybeth

  37. Kimberley says

    I have Adobe Photoshop CS5 but have no clue how to use it yet lol My go to for editing is Picnik, I LOVE this program! It’s free but well worth the small fee if you sign up for the premium version. I did not even think to check to see if it made collages though, and it does! Can’t wait for little man to nap later so I can get on there and get my collage on!

  38. thatgirlblogs says

    I use Photoshop Elements 9, but in a pinch I go to Picnik. I can’t tell you how many people I have mentioned Picnik to… then wish I hadn’t because they overedit their photos to crazy levels. Holga, Lomo, Blur until I don’t know what it’s a picture of anymore — so thanks for mentioning the light hand!

    • Lynda says

      When I first started editing my photos, I overdid it. It’s really easy to go overboard before you learn how to use the tools. 🙂 I look at some of my older photos and shudder at the processing.

  40. Tara says

    I have used some of these sites before and am excited to check out more of them. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to use the photos I took in a post.

  44. Trish says

    Im so inspired to play with my photos more, thanks so much for the links. Here we are only 2 posts in to this & I have gained so much already. I will also be checking out Simones link as well!!
    Cheers

  45. Jinny says

    Thanks for the great online resources Lynda…and Simone, thanks for telling us about Photoscape. I’m gonna be checking them all out to find my favorites! 😉

  46. Simone says

    You forgot Photoscape! Photoscape is a free downloadable photo editing programme that is SO easy to use; you can edit photos in batches and apply watermarks, frames and filter effects, add text, speech balloons, and create all kinds of collages in hundreds of different layouts; resize photos and adjust exposure etc.
    I have Photoshop and love it for fiddly designer-y stuff, but photoscape is the one I turn to for every blog post. I get so many comments… wow how do you do your collages? Where did you get those borders…?

    Here’s a post I did with a bit about how to use Photoscape and the link to the free download… (its an excuse to get you to come over and visit me…!)

    http://www.greatfun4kidsblog.com/2011/01/blog-tips-and-tricks-for-delicious-blog.html

  47. Emily Heizer Photography says

    That’s a subject I like! Nothing new, but a different perspective is awesome and I’m glad to hear all of the different websites for blog boards! I’m sure everyone will LOVE the links!