Online Image Editors Review:

A selection of free online image editing tools were assessed...

With the assistance of my beautiful model Wilson, I took the photo on the right for testing purposes.

It turned out I probably should have selected a human model (sorry Wilson), since many of the online image editing tools appear to be aimed at perfecting your selfie for posting to social media, or as an environmentally friendly alternative to applying makeup perhaps? And 'skin smoothing' features don't work very well with feathers.

I selected an image which would I though would be challenging to remove the background from, to give the editors a realistic challenge. Background removal is one of the more time consuming tasks in image editing, and it's something lots of software is trying to master.

I wasn't willing to spend more than 30 minutes per image, so I set a timer as I started to edit, thinking I'd spend a half hour removing each background and show the resulting image for each editor, but that didn't prove possible. Some of the free editors don't let you save an image, and some don't let you deal with the background, so it was really only one service that allowed me to complete this test. Which makes for a rather clear conclusion I suppose.

Since everyone likes options, I included a bonus choice (link at the end) in case you find the online editors as difficult to work with as I did.

	Pixlr Free service is useful, has many features, although a paid service is available and might be worthwhile if you are doing more than a few images. Easy to use familiar interface similar to Photoshop; free version is useful, functional and allows you to save your work - this is the only tool I was able to complete the objective with and download an image as an example... I could have got a better image with more time spent. The 'magic' background selection tool was challenged by the shades of grey in the background and in Wilson's feathers, but with a few tries I got an approximation, and without outlining the whole image. With the right contrast between foreground and background, this would be a quick 'magic' selection process.
	Fotor FREE, but advertisement intensive, purchasing a paid membership removes ads, and also enables nearly everything I tried to use for free without success. Actually, it seems nearly impossible to get anything done without a paid membership you can't save an image without a paid membership... NOPE!
	BeFunky Functions like background and color controls are paid features, the free version only lets you crop, rotate, resize... stuff your phone does easily. I've seen this editor used for cartoons, but that must be a paid feature? I didn't find it. And for this test apparently I chose a bad image, things like 'blemish fix', 'teeth whitening' and 'lipstick' don't work very well with Wilson's photo. I guess this might be useful to make your facebook selfie posts more perfected? Never Mind...
	PicMonkey Not free, a free trial is available tho (pro plan starts about 10$ a month) and image background removal is a paid feature touch up features similar to befunky - you can do your makeup here, add a spray tan and lip tint... NOT USEFUL.

Pixlr

Fotor

BeFunky

Picmonkey

BONUS: Not an online image editor, but it's free to download and a very powerful tool - if any of the above fail to meet your needs, try this:

Gimp

If you find you are struggling with editing images, I can help!

Email Andrea: info@awgebservices.com

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