Online Photo Edit Tools: Pixlr.com

The problem with Web images is that many are DirtyDogs.

Now Dirty Dog images are not bad per se; just wanting in style and polish. They are produced on  smartphones or even SLR cameras in which the camera automation has been “tricked into” giving you an “okay” picture. But  on closer inspection they turn out to be  Dirty Dogs – too dark, tinted by incandescent lighting, color-shifted, needing cropping, etc. The following slideshow reveals how easy it is to produce a Dirty Dog image.
 
So the problem is how do you clean up a Dirty Dog image- especially when you need to do it immediately and online?

Dirty Dog Clean-up Duty

There are a series of best practices that can reduce Dirty Dogs. First and foremost, be aware that simple picture taking rules – get in close to the subject, use a tripod for action shots, use Flash and an umbrella for fill lighting and many others can reduce the number of Dirty Dogs that you will bring home when you open up and examine your latest photo efforts.But your source of images can be quite broad and so inevitably a few Dirty Dogs get through.

So the second line of defense against Dirty Dogs is what ThePhotoFinishes is all about – using photo editors like Artweaver, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Photoscape to polish your images. But even after doing all the photo edits, a few Dirty Dogs inevitably sneak through. So now you have to do an immediate image edit online. And the good news is that there are a lot of very good, free online image editors.
Now many of these online image editors have particular features that I like and cover in their review. But Pixlr stands out for three reasons:

1. First, Pixlr can be used in full screen mode with nothing in the way like banner ads;
2. Second, Pixlr emulates the Photoshop interface reasonably closely. This means that people who have learned Photoshop [or conversely want to] have many of the key Photoshop editing tools in Pixlr;
3. Third and most important, Pixlr runs pretty quickly even handling large-size files.

So this review will look at how well Pixlr handles our Dirty Dog images.

Dirty Dogs Cleaned-up Using Pixlr

There are three Dirty Dog image types that predominate. First, are underexposed images abound because most camera sensors average the brightness-contrast for the complete image leading to slight or even pronounced under-exposure of an images main subject. Fortunately, Pixlr has a wide range of tools to fix these problems.

Adjustment | Levels command produces an exposure correction.

In this case the Adjustment | Curves command allows us to control highlights which are downplayed  while the shadows are brightened. This is the same basic Curves command used in Adobe Photoshop which almost all photo editors have at their disposal for making fine-controlled adjustments to exposures.

Color Shift Adjustments

Color shifts occur all the time on rainy days, photos in shadows and especially snow and beach shots if the day is overcast.Look for low contrast and cool-to-blue tinted images like the following:

There is a blue-gray cast to this low contrast shot, yet the eyes saw richly warm crown brush. So first using the Adjustment | Levels command warmth was added to the overall image using the Red correction setting. Then the Lasso tool was used to select just the crown brush. To  this selected area the Adjustment | Hue & Saturation  command was used next as seen in the screenshot below:

Here the Saturation level was increased substantially. Note the corrections are only applied to the lasso-ed crown brush. Next the Hue was changed slightly to give a stronger yellow/orange tinge. Finally, the Lightness setting could be used to brighten the crown brush. But in fact the better tool to use is the Adjustment | Exposure tool which applies non-linear adjustments – corrections in the midtones and shadows. 

Suffice it to say the color Adjustments available in Pixlr meet a broad range of Dirty Dog situations for quick online correction.

Downsize & Crop Oversized  Images

By far the most frequently occurring Dirty Dog images are the ones that are way too big for website usage – even smartphone cameras produce 4000×3000 images or larger. And to add insult to injury, the main subject of the image is lost  in the background. Here smartphone cameras are directly responsible, because so few cameras offer effective zoom in capabilities.  So lost in the pictoral Dirty Dog desert is the real subject which you are going to have to zoom in on  while resizing the photo.

Give credit where credit is due – Photoshop was the first photo-editor that combined cropping and resizing the image at the same time while providing Rule of Thirds Guidelines. But look what Pixlr delivers in the screenshot below:

First, we need to downsize the 4000×3000 photo into our output range of 900×600 pixels. Done where we have Constrained the Output size to be 900×600 pixels. Now Pixlr will only deliver suggested crops that  meet the desired aspect ratio of 9/6 and the Output size of 900×600. Second, we want to choose a crop the offers the best look using the  Rule of Thirds design standard. And as you see in the screenshot , the Rule of Thirds guidelines are shown – so by dragging the crop area around one can achieve the best looking photo design. Finally note what we have done in this cropping – gotten rid of distracting elements while zooming in on the essence – the sunflower painting.

Here is the image after some Adjustment  |  Curves and Adjustment | Hue Saturation corrections:

A  good image has become a superb image made the best possible display size.

Summary

Pixlr is more than adept at attacking the problem of Dirty Dog images. It is available free and online making it dead simple to correct and resize your  images before they are added to your website.  Best of all, Pixlr provides a full range of tools for filtering, sharpening, and doing a wide range of image touch ups beyond the Dirty Dog corrections. And because  Pixlr runs well on most laptops from the last 3-4 years, it delivers quick results.