Making Mosaics

Last week I showed you the background photos I have been collecting and a few of the ways I have been using them.   I was asked how I make the photo mosaics and although it really isn't difficult to make photo mosaics, if you are new to the process it might seem complicated at first.  There are many online programs that can be used to edit the photos and create mosaics, but I thought I would share how I go about making them.   


I upload my photograph into Picnik which is a free online photo-editing program (you can read about it here).  I then do some basic edits (which you can see over on the left side of the screen).  I often, but not always use "Auto Fix" depending on whether I like the results or not.  I also straighten the picture, and adjust the exposure as needed.  I almost always crop my pictures and for pictures you are going to use in a mosaic they often need to be square.  You can do all this on the basic edits tab.  

Once you have cropped your picture then click the "Effects" tab (along the top).  For backgrounds I sometimes like to either soften the picture so it is a more uniform texture or change the colour (which works best for neutral coloured pictures).  

You can see "Tint" down the left side and then adjust until you find the colour you want.  Of course I had to make the ice turquoise because turquoise is such a lovely colour.

You can add text now or wait until you have finished your final mosaic depending on the look you are going for.


If you only want a simple mosaic with no more than four pictures then you can use Picnik.  However, if you want a more complex mosaic like I used for my WISH Wednesday mosaics (which you can see here) then I like to use Big Huge Labs.  


If you decide to use Picnik to make your mosaic, then look over on the left of side of the screen - it shows you all the shapes of mosaics you can use (the ones on the white background are free and the more complex ones on the light blue background you have to pay for).

If you want to make a bigger or more complex mosaic then go to Big Huge Lab.  I believe you have to open an account (which is free) to use Big Huge Labs, but I can't quite remember as mine is always signed in.   Although there are a lot of  fun features on this site, "Mosaic Maker"  is what you need to create your mosaics.   You can see near the top of the screenshot from Big Huge Labs that I have selected "1+3 right with shadow" as my mosaic layout.  If I had selected "square tiles" then I could have made a mosaic with up to 36 photos in it (6 x 6 photos - just in case you needed help with the math).  For some of the mosaic designs you can select if you want to have spaces between the pictures and what colour the background should be.  

When you have finished uploading your photos then press "create" and you can see the mosaic you have made.  Here is my finished mosaic:

Then you put it back in Picnik and add text.  You can see down the left side of the screenshot the different fonts and you can adjust the size and colour in the floating box that appears on the right side of the screen.  One tip I have is that if your text is long then you will have to press "enter" where you want the words to break and go to the next line as they appear in one long line unless you do that.  

And here are the finished products in all their glory.  Definitely words to live by!


A mosaic using Picnik:

and a mosaic using Big Huge Lab:

If you use a different system to make mosaics I would love to hear about it as I'm always trying out different programs.

Picture Improvments with Picnik

I want to thank all of you for your kind words welcoming me home from my summer of traveling.  While I'm very happy to be home (picture me drinking straight from the tap and eating peaches and plums with joy), it has taken me a bit to adjust to getting back into work, getting back into a new routine, and getting the house organized after a wild and crazy spring - okay and let's face it - getting back into cooking and cleaning because I didn't do that for the seven weeks I was away!   


I love looking back at the photos I took in Bangladesh and India and I have spent countless hours making a photo book out of them. I've also been playing around with some of my favourite photos using Picnik, a free on-line photo-editing website which is a source of endless fun for me.  I should say that a portion of the site is free and that is all I use because I'm cheap like that, but there are other wonderful features if you are willing to pay.  In case you missed my earlier posts about the virtues of Picnik, you can read them here and here - and yes - even here.


Picnik has so many different ways to edit and apply effects that I love to try different combinations.  What I do with each photo isn't always exactly the same, but in general I make the following edits:

• use auto-correct to do the initial adjustment
• lighten the exposure 
• bump up the colour a few notches
• straighten the photo (my eyes must be crooked as so many of my photos are slanted - thank heaven for Picnik to fix them up)

And the following effects are my favourites.  I have listed them in descending order from the one I like and use the most, to others that I try.  I also sometimes do more than one effect on a single photo:

• Cinescope (you can uncheck the box so you don't have the letterbox effect with the black lines top and bottom)
• Cross-process (you can use the slide to decrease the amount of effect you want to apply to the photo)
• 1960's (you can uncheck the box so you don't have rounded corners)
• HDR-ish (I definitely move the slide over to minimize the effect of this one)
• Lomo-ish (again I move the slide over to minimize this one as well)

Have a look at the changes I made to my photos below.  In each case the first photo is the original photo and the second shows the changes I made using Picnik.

PHOTO #1 ORIGINAL



PHOTO #1 EDITED USING PICNIK



PHOTO #2 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #2 EDITED USING PICNIK

PHOTO #3 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #3 EDITED USING PICNIK

PHOTO #4 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #4 EDITED USING PICNIK

PHOTO #5 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #5 EDITED USING PICNIK

What do you think?  I'm in love with the last one and am thinking of printing it to put up in our family room.  Anyone else tried on-line photo-editing programs like Picnik?

Birds on a Wire

I got lucky a few days ago and found some birds flying around and sitting together chummily  on a wire.  The really lucky part was that I had my camera with me and I was able to pull off the road and take these photos.  Now that's my idea of fun!

Of course, I had to play around with them in Picnik (an on-line photo-editing program which you can read me extoling the virtues of here, here, and here).  I'm curious to know which photo you like the best - both in terms of bird composition and photo-editing.

This last photo is straight from the camera so you can see the colour of the sky on the day I took the pictures.  It's a pretty nice colour without any editing.

Friday Photos - Birds on a Wire

One of the things I was looking forward to doing in September (here's the complete list) was taking photos of birds sitting together on a wire and I finally got my chance.  

Over the past few weeks, as I was driving to and from work, I often noticed large flocks of birds sitting cozily on a wire or swirling overhead.  It would drive me crazy because there I would be in the car admiring the birds while my camera was sitting at home.  I finally got smart and started taking my camera with me every day just in case.   I was rewarded this week, when I stopped at a red light, to see these birds sitting together on a wire.   I quickly snapped some photos while the light was red and was smiling all the way to work.  Of course, I played around with the photos a bit on Picnik as well.

I'm often extolling the benefits of using Picnik, an on-line photo-editing program, on your photos (see here and here), so I thought I would throw in one photo to show the before-and-after shots.

If you see a crazy woman at a stop light rubbernecking at the birds and snapping photos, please just smile and wave at me!

A Field of Prickly Beauty

I've been trying to master the art of giving a vintage look to photos using Picnik, an on-line photo-editing tool.  As I've mentioned before I really like using Picnik to clean-up my photos before they go on the blog - just to auto-adjust the colour and sharpen the image a little (you can read about it here).  This time however, I was aiming to create the retro kind of photo that I have seen around blogland.

I started off with only a little bit of a retro look.

And slowly got more and more faded looking.

Don't you just love weeds.  Wait did I just say that - okay - let me qualify.  I love a field full of wildflowers (or in other words weeds).
 

I'm loving the sun-washed, vintage look.  Do the photos look old and faded enough?

But then again I also love the original rich purples and greens - although the contrast with the vintage ones is a bit hard on the eyes.  

Which do you prefer - the vintage washed-out look or the unmanipulated photos???

*****

Just a reminder that there is still time to enter my Summer Giveaway (ends July 13th).  You can find the details here.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

How to Improve your Photos with Picnik

 
I think Picnik, the on-line photo editing site, is the best thing since sliced bread.  It really is amazing what it can do to improve your photos and I've only been using the free section of the website!  Before I put any photos up on the blog, I first put them through Picnik.  I'm sure some of you have discovered Picnik already, or use similar programs, but for those of you who have not found Picnik, I thought I would introduce you to it.  

Here's a basic overview of what you can do (I'll demonstrate with some of my photos as we go along).  

First go to the website http://www.picnik.com/app#/home. When you are on the "Home" tab, you can upload photos from your computer. 

You will automatically be on the "Edit" tab when a photo has been up-loaded.  The first thing I always do is click "Auto-fix" on the left side.  I would say that it improves about 90% of the photos.  Some don't need it and others it makes them worse by changing the colours from what they should be.  If it makes the photo look worse, then you can always click "undo" over on the right.

The next thing I do is decide if the photo needs to be cropped or rotated.  The rotate function is brilliant if you are a bit cock-eyed when you take photos and the horizon isn't level (tell me it happens to you too). 

  

Then I decide if I want to adjust the exposure or colour.  You can also re-size the photo and get rid of red-eye. 

Then I sharpen the photo.  Initially, I was sliding the sharpen button all the way over - I mean, who doesn't want a sharp photo - but my daughter told me that you can over-sharpen photos.  Who knew?  If you are getting white lines around things in your picture, you have over-sharpened it.  Now I usually do about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way along the slider and the effect is much better.  I also zoom in to check how sharp it looks.


Just remember that if at any point you don't like how you changed the photo you can just press "undo" on the right side.


Once you have done the basics to make the photo purty, you can do more creative things with Picnik.  When you click on the "Edit" tab along the top you can add text, put a frame around the photo, do different effects, and add stickers.  There are both free features and some that are labelled "premium" which you have to pay for.  Although I haven't paid for a subscription yet, I find there are still lots of features that are fun to use for free.  I may up-grade some day as it is still very reasonable.

My favourite things to use in the "Edit" section is putting frames around photos.  It was literally months before I discovered that you can combine frames for an even more interesting effect.  For example, I have started using a white border around my photos, followed by a drop shadow.  You have to do the frames one at a time and press "apply" after each one.  I used that effect for the mosaics at the beginning of this post.


When you are finished with editing your photo you will need to save it.  I just change the name by adding a letter after the number so I know which ones I have edited (and how many edits I have done by which letter I am on).


The other feature, I have used a little bit, is under the "Library" tab.  Here you can make small collages.  To do so, you need to click on the "start" button, that has a little ladybug beside it, on the left side.  Then select "Make a Collage".  Select the arrangement of Basic collages that suits the number of photos you want to use.  Then up-load your photos (you can only do 5 photos at a time if you are using the free version) and drag them in to the blank collage frame. The collage frame can be altered in size, dimension, and colour and size of frame.  Then all you have to do is save it when it is finished. It took me several months to discover that you can make a collage, save it, and then go back to the frames and put a frame around your whole collage.  

It really is a picnic using Picnik (you knew I had to say it).