Academic Tech Tips

Creative Kit in Google+ (formerly known as Picnik and has since joined Google) is a free online photo-editing program that offers an array of professional and fun tools. This application provides numerous creative filters and effects such as cinemascope, focal B&W, vignette and many others. A few highlights of the program include:

• – Allows you to upload pictures straight from social networking sites such as Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket and more
• – Access to creative and fun tools such as adding text, stickers and creating collages
• – Provides options to print straight from your computer, order prints online or order other photo projects like books, posters and wrapping paper

PictoBrowser is free slideshow creation tool that allows you to display pictures from your Flickr account on your website or blog.  The main advantage of using Pictobrowser is that you can embed a photo gallery of your images directly on your webpage, rather than linking to your Flickr account.   Once you’ve uploaded photos into a Flickr account, all that you have to do to create a slideshow is to provide your Flickr account name on the PictoBrowser website, select the group of images you want to display, then copy and paste the HTML code created by PictoBrowser onto your blog or webpage.

PictoBrowser also has a number of adjustments that can be made to your slideshow including modifying photo size and changing the player’s color, size and transparency.

With Picture Resizer, you can resize your photos quickly, without even opening a program!  Picture Resizer is a free application for Windows that allows you to drag and drop a JPG image or a whole folder with JPG images to resize.  Whether you need to resize images to post to a Web page, blog, PowerPoint or Blackboard course, this tool is incredibly helpful and simple to use.

1. Download the PhotoResize400.exe application to your desktop.
2. Drag and drop JPG files or a whole folder with JPG images onto the PhotoResize.400.exe icon on your desktop.
3. Your JPG images will be resized and copies will be saved next to the original.  The names will be the same as the originals and will contain a suffix indicating their sizes.  By default, 400 is the size of output pictures.  To change the size of output pictures rename the PhotoResize400.exe application by replacing the 400 with a different number.

If you have a digital camera then you probably have hundreds of digital photos stored on your computer. You may use software that allows you to organize your photos into albums on your computer or maybe you use an online photo-sharing application such as Flickr or Google’s Picasa. Let’s say you want to take your photo-sharing capabilities even further and create customized slideshows that you can easily distribute online. With Slideroll, you can create video-like slideshows that you can share via email or post to your website or blog. With a free Slideroll account, you can add music to your slideshows and import photos from your Flickr account; plus Slideroll produces slideshows in the Flash video format, which can be played in the most common Web browsers. Here are a few pointers to help get you started with using Slideroll.

Getting Started with Slideroll

In order to access Slideroll’s features, you will need to create a free account. Once you login, you will have the option to upload photos to your gallery or you can click on Slideshow Creator to start creating a slideshow.

In the Slideshow Creator, you can add photos, text slides, and choose music if desired. Once you are finished putting your slideshow together, you will get a link to your slideshow that you can share via email or you may embed a code to display your slideshow on your website. If you create a Slideroll slideshow for a course you can include your link in a PowerPoint presentation or Blackboard course.