Enhance photos for your projects in no time

I had to make several slide presentations for my student presentations this semester, and I wish I knew these two internet based image edition apps to enhance the images and drag the attention of the audience with them. Let’s have a look.

Photoshop Express Editor and Pixlr.com are totally free and online image editors that can help you if you don’t have a professional edition software as Adobe Photoshop or if you want to edit on the go from another computer. In this post I will point out their relevant features and give you my opinion for both.

Example Photo: Aurora Borealis above Norway. Credit: Orvill Aakra

Photoshop Express Editor is a very basic version of Photoshop. It is very user friendly and has some of the effects and features that the full version has, like Pixelate and Crystallize. I think that it is great for a very quick edition because it has only few presets of each effect. If you don’t want to think about which percentage of exposure you must use, but instead choose between 6 fixed options, this is the one for you. My favourite adjustment is the Sharpen tool. Unfortunately it only works with JPEG formats.

Example Photo: Aurora Borealis above Norway. Credit: Orvill Aakra

Pixlr Express (Efficient) is the equivalent to Photoshop Express Editor and I must say that it’s allot of fun! It support many types of formats, it is intuitive and very easy to use. You still don’t have to think about very advanced stuff but gives you more range of action and detailed control. My recommended feature is the Color Splash where you can turn the photo to black and white and only bring out the color you want to emphasise. (Upper Photo)

Example Photo: Aurora Borealis above Norway. Credit: Orvill Aakra

Pixlr-o-matic (Playfull) is the second option of Pixlr.com and it is like going to the photo studio to play around with your paper photos not worrying about damaging them. Almost like a mobile app (and in fact a mobile app for Google Play and Apple App Store), you can add filters overlays and borders with the sensation of revelling actual paper photos with chemicals.  Recommended if you want to play around with your fotos!

Example Photo: Aurora Borealis above Norway. Credit: Orvill Aakra

Finally the most powerful of all is the Pixlr Editor (Advanced). It is very similar to Adobe Photohop, you can have layers in a online version and that is very impressive! Although it is not as intuitive as the 3 past editors, it has very precise tools. The language selection is great, but the text size makes it hard to read when you have been working for some time. It has tons of effects and offers a customised edition for every option. History revision and the ability to work with many picture formats makes it the best option if you need a more specialised edition.

All the editors have a mobile version except the Pixlr Editor (Advanced) and I totally understand why. But I would recommend to give Pixl.com a try, because it has an style for every user without being too complicate. I’m sure you can make stunning images for your slide presentations, blogs, handouts and webpages, dragging the attention of your audience with your pictures.