If you're like me - and I know I am - then when you take photos, sometimes you need to make changes to them. It could cropping out something (an ex of some sort, or some random stranger in the background of a photo), or you might need to make some kind of tweak - adding some text to label something, for example. I present a "web 2.0 tool" that not only allows you to do these, but some other cool stuff beyond that: Picnik. Capable of working with files on your computer, from the internet (directly, via a websearch or from several photo sharing services) or even from your webcam, Picnik lets you have your way with the photos.

Say you have a photo of some Easter Eggs that you've decorated based on a popular kids program - maybe something like Sesame Street. You could post that photo online, but what if someone isn't familiar with the characters? BAM! Instant titles.

Before		After

You could also do something like take a photo of a picnic basket (a la the photo for this post, from "The Queen of Subtle," via flickr), crop it, tweak the colors a bit, resize it, and then save it online. In this case, it was pulled right from the flickr page, edited, then saved back into my own flickr page. (By attributing the original author, I'm able to use the photo and adhere to the Creative Commons license).

Picnik also offers a paid version, which allows you to do some more interesting things - but the free account is plenty to get you started!