Photo Tip Tuesday – Free Photo Editing Websites

Although most photographers try to get “the shot” straight out of the camera (also called SOOC), sometimes you may want to tweak your image in post-production. Whether you want to darken the highlights, add HDR (High Dynamic Range) or remove an unplanned object from the image (like a bird flying by), there are several free websites that allow you to expand your creativity. That’s right; you don’t have to pay for Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom!

Below is a list of free photo editing websites that allow you to alter everything from the brightness & saturation to adding creative Photoshop-style elements.

Be Funky
Be Funky’s approach to design and photo editing is one that keeps you in creative control of your editing and designs. Available with a desktop version, as well as iPhone and Android apps, the program is like a user friendly mixture of Instagram & Photoshop. There are dozens of effects available, including, but not limited to: hue, saturation, temperature, cropping, rotate, exposure, sharpen, color mixer, softening and beautify. You can also remove red-eye, soften edges, move the focus of the photo and add fun color filters to your photos to make them look dramatic, soft, vintage and more.

One of the many benefits of this program is that it imports the font library from your computer. It also displays an array of typefaces that Be Funky has in stock for your creative use. The typefaces are easily categorized by their family type: sans serif, serif, typewriter, display, script, handwriting, pixel, Gothic and featured. Be funky also has numerous textures that you can overlay onto your photo. Dropping the opacity of the texture allow you to blend more with your photos. You can even add bokeh! Texture categories include: bokeh, scratches, light trails, light leaks, fabric, grunge, paint, metal, bricks and paper. If you want to keep it simple, you can use the Collage Maker to build photo grids, photo wraps, Facebook covers, Pinterest images and holiday cards.

Fotor
Fotor is like an online version of Photoshop as well. Using their photo editing suite, you can adjust virtually every part of your image. With basics such as 1-tap enhance, resize, crop, rotate and straighten, Fotor has many unique features. There’s also a large library of filters that include photo effects (i.e. dulled, flash & crisp), AI photo effects (i.e. Pop Art, Expressionism, Sponge & Artist Sketch), Lomography effects, blur effects, photo frames, stickers, text, color splash, mosaic and tilt shift, just to name a few.

If editing one image isn’t enough, you can use Fotor’s photo collages to tell the story. From the collage maker to photo stitching, this feature can add more detail to your image. You can also use the program to redesign your Twitter, Facebook & YouTube cover photo, create a photo montage & Instagram post or even do some basic graphic design!

Pixlr
Pixlr provides an interface that’s easy on the eyes, supports full-screen mode and is simple to use. The position of the tools, layers, and other settings are flexible so you can create your own custom work space. You can make a new image from a blank canvas or upload your own from your computer or a URL, among other sources. Things like layer styles, filters, and image adjustments are supported with Pixlr as well as tools like a red eye remover, clone stamp, color fill, magic wand selection, and crop tool, among others. If you are already familiar with Photoshop, you will find the Pixlr Editor menu options familiar both in layout and in how they work. To use them, you need to have some basic understanding of how image edit tools (i.e., fill, crop, blur, smudge, etc.) work.

The Pixlr Express tool has a variety of one-click changes that are fast and a great choice for beginning editors. Pixlr has one-click manipulation for size, rotation, inversion, as well as for adding instant photo effects and changing saturation, hues, etc. The user interface is very easy to navigate and user-friendly. Pixlr’s tutorials show examples and clear steps to use their tools to get similar results you could get from Photoshop without the intense learning curve.

iPiccy
Between the easy to use interface, the full-screen editing mode, the ability to upload more than one photo at once and results being shown automatically as edits are made, you will find iPiccy very simple to use. Some of the advanced editing tools include curves, dodge, burn, levels, liquify, and clone tool. You can also easily zoom closer (up to 800%) or away from an image by simply scrolling your mouse wheel in either direction at any time while editing. Color settings like converting the image to black and white, applying a sepia tone, editing color vibrancy, adding a color tint, balancing color levels, and inverting colors are allowed, as well as filters like blur, noise and emboss. You can also add effects to soften the image, add a matte look, apply a vintage feel and dozens more. Many tools also let you change the blend mode from normal to darken, lighten, overlay, hard light, difference, invert, multiply or screen.

All of iPiccy’s menu items are easily accessible from the top of the screen so you can find basic and advanced editing tools like a crop, clone, and sharpen tool, among others. iPiccy lets you create an image from scratch or edit existing ones from your computer, a remote URL, a webcam or Flickr. Tools for specific tasks are also available, such as one for a blemish fixer, to make your eyes brighter, to add mascara, to remove wrinkles and many more. You can also overlay images, change the color balance, manage layers, see a history of changes, add holiday-centered frames and add textures.

PicMonkey
PicMonkey works in a similar fashion as BeFunky, with all the menu items to the left of the screen with easy access to all the categorized tools. Specific tools for editing skin are available like a blemish fixer, an eyebrow pencil, a blush booster and lip tint tool. There are also several effects you can apply to an image and PicMonkey lets you paint them on so you can affect certain areas of the photo only instead of the whole image.

PicMonkey also lets you add text, overlay custom images (or ones provided by PicMonkey), apply frames & textures, and browse tools under specific themes (such as school, vampires and zombies). Images can be saved to your computer or Dropbox in JPG or PNG format. You can also share the image on various websites.