Image Help! Great resources for image editing

Have you found yourself in a situation where you needed or wanted to edit an image, or even create one, but didn't know where to start? Maybe you're looking for a great editor to use with your students. Lucky for you there are multiple free resources that are yours for the taking, and lots of tutorials on how to use them.  I think it's a great idea to use free resources when possible in the classroom because students can easily use them at home. I've featured a few of my favorite (FREE!) resources and tutorial videos.

GIMP - GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is free piece of software that is very capable of doing some major image creation and editing. It is often described as a free alternative to Photoshop. There are a ton of tutorials and help for Gimp online. Visit the GIMP site here to download the program.


Video: Let a photo flow into the camera - GIMP tutorial
More Resources: GIMP Tutorials

Pixlr -Pixlr is definitely one of my favorite web-based image editors. There are several versions depending on the type of editing you want to do. The Pixlr editor is the full photo editor that I have found to be quite good for many image edits. Pixlr express offers some quick edit tools in an easy format and Pixlr-o-matic offers some quick vintage effects for your photos. If you want to create your own image you will want to use the full Pixlr editor. One of my most favorite features of Pixlr is that you can create a free account and save your images in your Pixlr library. This means if you working on an image and have to leave that computer, you can save your image in your Pixlr library and easily pick up where you left off on any other computer.

Video: Pixlr Tutorial: How to Make a Banner (using layers, style options, and free transform)

FotoFlexer - FotoFlexer is great for quick and easy changes to photos. For more info check out the post I wrote about FotoFlexer here =)


Video: FotoFlexer Tutorial

Virtual Tours with Photosynth Panoramics

I want to share a super cool tool that I have come across that provides a great platform for virtual tours. It's fast, easy, and would be wonderful for classroom tours and creating virtual field trips. Microsoft Photosynth is a free tool that I have known about for a while, but recently I found an aspect of it that makes it even better to use than before (at least to me =).

Photosynth's purpose is to stitch together pictures in order to create virtual environments. This can be done by making a regular synth or a panoramic. See this page for more of an explanation of the difference. My new (to me) finding is the panoramics. They create a smooth environment where you can rotate 360 degrees around a room or space. See some awesome samples here or check out my (not quite as cool but still neat) panoramic below.

There is one little bobble in this panoramic with the trees in sky, but I thought overall it did great, 

and I literally did this in no more than 2 minutes!!

1. To get started with Photosynth you do need to create an account using a Windows Live ID (you can also create a Windows Live ID from this page). Just go to Photosynth's main site and click Create Account at the top of the page.
2. Once you have an account you have a couple of options on creating your Panoramic. You can either use pictures taken from a digital camera and upload them using Microsoft's Composite Editor. After creating your Panoramic just click the Publish to Web button to have it publish to the Photosynth site.
   
   OR - If you have an iPhone or iPad - by far the easiest option is to download the FREE Photosynth app (they say a Windows Phone app is coming soon, but for you Android users that just went awwww try using this app instead (thanks Ricky!)).
   The iPhone app for Photosynth is so easy to use (it is what I used for the panoramic above). You just launch the app, tap to start, and then start moving your phone, holding still briefly when you want it to snap a pic (the Photaf app for Android looks to work similarly). Easy peasy!!
3. When you're done making your panoramic it will publish to your Photosynth account and you can view it there by logging in. You can also choose to make your panoramic listed or unlisted (use this option if you don't want people to be able to search and find your panoramic), add highlights, and share your panoramic through email or Facebook.

I hope you try it out and have some fun!