Shutterfly - Awesome photo books.

I uploaded a ton of wedding photos recently to Shutterfly (we were married 2 years ago). My wife did a great job sorting through them, and using the the Shutterfly web program to assemble a gorgeous wedding album. The templates and such seemed pretty intuitive and easy to use, though the process was time consuming. She did find keeping track of the pictures difficult. In any case, the task was completed, and we ordered a book with a leather cover. It arrived just a short time later, and is really, really nice. We are both very please with it, and will use again. It wasn't cheap, but for something like a wedding album, it was very reasonable. Highly recommended.

www.shutterfly.com

Big Huge Tools Flickr Picture tools

This website has some fun tools for messing with your pictures. Although designed to work with Flickr, few (if any) seem to require Flickr at all. But some fun, free tools for messing around with pictures.

More fun than useful, but worth checking out.

Big Huge Labs

Casio Exilim EX-F1 Slow-Mo Super Cam

I love my Cameras, and love taking pictures. I thought I had an awesome pairing, but now I want a trio. I have a Canon Digital Rebel SLR, a great camera with several lenses. I also have a Pentax waterproof camera, a great little camera for on the river, that takes great pictures on land and fits in a pocket. Gizmodo has a review out of the Casio Exilim camera, which makes me want a third. It's main claim to fame, super slow-mo pictures. Up to 1200 frames per second. I can't imagine that, but even 60 FPS is awesome. I'd love to take shots of my friends running a waterfall, and getting full resolution shots for the every inch of the drop. Check out the videos of them blending a tomato.

A detailed review full of "I want it" goodness here:
Casio Exilim EX-F1 Slow-Mo Super Cam Full Review (Verdict: Totally Unique, Shockingly Powerful)

Fotoflexer - Better than Photoshop Online

Since we're on the topic, I just discovered another nice online photo editor. It has all the normal editing tools, a fast and intuitive interface, and lots of neat effects, some of which I've not seen elsewhere.
http://fotoflexer.com/

Photoshop online - eh. Not so much.

I use Photoshop all the time, actually own a legal copy of Adobe Creative Suite. It's one of only three pieces of pay software I use regularly. (XP, Office being the others.) It's a great program, and has enough of a market that "Photoshop" has become the generic term for any computer modified photo, from simple adjustments and fixes to creative and artistic modifications.

When I saw that Adobe had released an online version of Photoshop, I rushed to test it and have spent quite a bit of time playing with it this morning. I can't say I'm impressed. It lacks the serious tools that have made Photoshop the standard for professionals, and for casual users, the interface is not nearly as nice as some of the other online editors. It also lacks any really interesting or fun tools. Comparing it to Picnik or others, I can see no reason to recommend it over those.
(See my post about online editors here)

All that said, it will probably do well. When people go online for a photo editor, many will Google "Photoshop" rather than "online photo editor" and will perhaps never discover what I consider to be a better product.

Facebook | Picasa - Upload pictures in just one step. Brilliant.

For several years, I've been a user and a big fan of Picasa, a free
photo organizational tool from Google. I take thousands of pictures a
month, so keeping track of them, editing them, and sharing them is
tricky. Picasa works very well at helping with all of them. I just
discovered that there is a Picasa plug-in available for uploading
pictures to Facebook, another service I use frequently.

* Add the following plug-in:

http://apps.facebook.com/picasauploader/?auth_token=e2fc0644d1627f48c332ae504c96ac5f&installed=1

* Select the photos you want to upload.
* Click the Facebook button
* Log in.
* Done!

Very nice.

Free online photo editors

I'm pretty much a Photoshop and Picassa user. I work mostly on large files, so working online is a hassle with photos, though I use it for many other doc types.

That said, there are times when I'm on a machine without editing software, and there are some pretty good online editors. They can prove useful, and are great for folks not prepared to invest in software, they work well.

• Picnik - Probably my favorite of the bunch. Seems to work pretty fast. Has all the expected basic editing tools. Also has a bunch of really cool effects that you can apply. I want to find some of these for Photoshop. Integrates very easily with Flickr, Picassa, and other online photo services.
  
• Splashup - Splashup will look immediately familiar to users of Photoshop. The interface is very similar, and it provides tools like layers. Useful if you are attempting to follow instructions intended for Photoshop. Pretty slick, and also interfaces well with most of the online photo sites.
  
• There are others. Check out this Techcrunch page. But having looked at them all, I can't see any reason I wouldn't use one of the two listed.
  

Very, very cool optical illusion I made.

• Stare at the Dot in the center of the picture for 30 seconds
  
• WITHOUT looking away, put your mouse over the picture
  
• Looks like you are looking at a normal color photo, right?
  
• Nope...Look Away without moving your mouse.
  

Believe it or not, there are only two pictures. The weird color one, and a b/w one. Pretty neat huh?

This is the tutorial I used. Let me know what you think.

Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop is an amazing photo editor. I've been using it casually for years, and have barely scratched the surface of what it is capable of. When I have something I want to do, even if I think I know how, I will frequently search online for a tutorial, More often than not, I find a better way of doing it, easier and with better results, explained clearly in a tutorial. Here is a list of Tutorial Sites worth checking out:

• http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/ - This Site has a simple listing of techniques, nicely listed by what the goal is. (Remove a back ground, fix color, etc. )

http://www.tutorio.com/photoshop-tutorials.html - Another good collection of Photoshop Tutorials - The site also has tutorials on other subject, like Flash, Web Design, Etc.

• http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tut_fx.htm - Some of these are a tad out of date, written for PS 7, but cover some solid effects and the principles still apply.


• http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/photoshop - A huge collection of great tutorials.


• http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1 - 8,000+ PS Tutorials


• http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-tutorials/Most-popular/1/ - What to say? More great PS tutorials.


• http://www.sketchpad.net/photoshp.htm - A good collection of basic tutorials. Learn about Layers, Clipping, etc.


• http://pslover.com/ - 11,000+ Tutorials