I started with Pixlr, and really prefer it over Aviary. Played with several things before settling down, which is, I admit, a pattern in many of my examples. First I played with a head shot of me, but I lost the example I liked, so it stayed lost. I chose this photo because it was already out of focus. Playing wasn't going to ruin it. One of the things I did was to use the Pastel filter on it, which brought out he center of the daisies. I've tried the Pastel filter on other photos with no effect that I could see. Then I used the Solarized filter on it.
This one I believe I used the Unsharp Mask filter, to soften the hard edges of the snow scene, then used the Vignette filter for the grey edges in the corners (they can be made closer or further away), and lastly, as an experiment, tried the Embossed filter.
Then I tried something in the Adjustment column, I think it was, the column before the Filter column, and used the "curved" effect to get a sort of solarized Blue jay in the snow, but slightly different than the filter.
Then I finally went to Aviary, which in contrast I found confusing. I also had to create another password for it. And then importing was a little more difficult, not much, but a little bit more opaque. After awhile I came up with the below. I think it's the Pointillism filter. Something I don't like about Aviary is that it prints it's title on the picture.When you start saving, it wants you to share it on it's interior social space. It's also set up for "layers" a lot more than Pixlr.
I did try to move a photo to peacock, but never got one over there. I tried to work with other parts of the software, but learned quickly, that I'd no idea what it did. I finally came up with this by using a couple different filters.
I finally went back to Pixlr to try to figure out how Allana had done the Kaleidoscope photo--and at least in part, she moved the picture a half turn, and used the Kaleidoscope filter on it again. At least that's how I came up with the following. She may have enlarged part of her photo.
As you can tell, I learned a little more about blogger, too. I had started the entry, and downloaded the first photo, then tried to do it again, and couldn't that day. When I closed down for the day, I discovered the window behind all my others. When I brought these in , I tried to have them justify left and center, and all that remained, was the justifying center. It certainly is a learning experience.
But this has exposed one to free software that can retouch and artistically restyle photos for the library. And I can see teens at a library really loving this.
