If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you may want to consider taking a trip out into the wild, blocking out the stress from your mind and taking in nature in all its beautiful glory. Some might enjoy the sounds of nature, but seeing it with your own eyes is simply remarkable.

Then again, not everyone has the time or resources to spontaneously venture out into the woods, or climb a mountain, or trek through a suffocating jungle. If that’s the case for you, then you can do the next best thing – browse through some high quality galleries full of beautiful, awe-inspiring photos of nature in its splendor.

National Geographic

When you bring together “nature” and “photography,” there’s always one massive entity that snatches the number one spot – National Geographic. Compiling galleries full of nature photos is what they do, and they do it to near perfection. It’s hard to think of anyone else who can do the whole “photos of nature” endeavor better.

Head on over to their website and you’ll find thousands of photographs in dozens of galleries, ranging from animals and wildlife, to natural landscapes, to weathers and seasons, to underwater environments.

Stormgasm

This website has a name that borders on the inappropriate, but Stormgasm really lives up to the implications of that name. Their photo galleries may leave you wanting in terms of technical prowess and convenience, but the photos themselves are top tier.

Do you love tornadoes? They’ve got it covered. Hurricanes and tsunamis? They’ve got that, too. Have an interest in lightning bolts? Yup! And if that isn’t enough for you, they even have a video gallery full of cool storm-related clips.

Free Roaming Photography

If the landscape of the American Southwest is something that intrigues you, then you’ll love what this gallery has to offer.

Free Roaming Photography is a website run by Mike Cavaroc, and it features hundreds of photos (as well as a dozen or so videos) from Arizona, Utah, the Yellowstone area, and more.

The galleries are lacking in terms of spiffy web technology (they’re nothing more than simple image links), but the photos are astounding. Cavaroc has snapped plenty of beautiful pictures of both landscapes and wildlife.

Wildlife Pictures Online

If you’re dying to see some amazing photos of exotic wildlife, Wildlife Pictures Online is exactly where you want to be. A lot of their pictures are taken in Africa, but even so, they’ve got a large and diverse selection of animal shots to enjoy.

From elephants to rhinos, from birds to zebras, they’ve got almost every kind of African animal that you could want to see.

And for those of you who are photographers, many of the photos in the gallery have a caption indicating what sort of equipment (camera, film, etc.) was used. Just a little bonus for the curious.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Alright, so empty blackness littered with stars and planets may not exactly qualify as “nature” in the traditional sense, but outer space sure passes for a wonderful canvas. If you ever get sick of rolling green hills and high towering pines – how could anyone get sick of that? – then you may want to check out NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Every day, NASA updates the page with a new image related to astronomy. Below the image, they provide an explanation of what exactly it is that you’re looking at.

The best part is that they keep an archive of every single Picture of the Day that they’ve had, and it goes as far back as June 1995. Wow!

When it comes to viewing free nature galleries on the web, what are some of your favorite websites?

Image Credits: Shutterstock, National Geographic, Stormgasm, Free Roaming Photography, Wildlife Pictures Online, FORS, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO

There’s no need to panic, however. While Picnik will be missed, there are some solid alternatives available that are just as free.

Google+ Creative Kit

If you don’t consider the actions of Google to be a mortal sin, you may receive the best results by sticking with the Google family. The company’s Creative Kit is, in essence, a port of Picnik’s functionality into Google+. Users have been able to use this feature for several months, but awareness remains limited. That’s probably because the Creative Kit is easy to miss. To access it, you first need to click on a photo you’ve uploaded in Google+, then click on the rather small Creative Kit button tucked away into the upper left hand corner of the screen.

Most of the basic features of Picnik can be found here, minus the Advanced, Touch-Up and Frames categories. With that said, I’d be shocked if Google does not add in these tools within the next few months. I don’t think the company has anything against free photo editing – they just want people to use these tools through Google+ rather than a separate website.

Speaking of which, you can export all of your Picnik photos over to Google+, making it rather easy to migrate from one to the other.

Aviary (Phoenix or Facebook App)

One of the better free image editing options available on the web is Phoenix, which is part of the Aviary suite of free media editing utilities. Phoenix is not tied into any social network or any other website and it doesn’t require registration. You can load it and start editing within seconds.

The interface itself is more akin to a traditional image editing program like Photoshop, so it could be a little intimidating at first. You also won’t find some of the easy photo filtering features you find with Picnik.

Where you will find those features is the Aviary app on Facebook, which was just launched. Known officially as the Aviary Image Editor, this tool gives you the ability to open photos from your albums and manipulate them with a number of common tools. There are even stickers to add and effects to apply.

Better still, you can connect Picnik to Facebook, so you can edit and save photos now with Picnik but open them later in the Aviary Image Editor if you want to make any changes.

Pixlr

Making the choice for the third alternative in this article was tough. There’s a lot of good options out there such as Fotoflexer and Phixer. However, these simply seem to do the same thing as the Creative Kit and Aviary Image Editor, but offer an inferior interface and inferior social network connectivity.

So instead I direct you to Pixlr, a veteran of the online image editing wars. Pixlr is a lot like Phoenix. It’s a standalone photo editor geared towards advanced users. However, of the two I’d say Pixlr is without a doubt the more robust option. It simply has more features.

Pixlr also offers an easy editor called Pixlr-o-matic, which is available online, via Facebook and as an iOS and Android app. However, it’s focused on adding effects and filters rather than real photo editing.

Although not directly a part of any social network, Pixlr does include the stand social network connectivity, which means you can open and edit photos stored in Facebook and Picasa (among others).

Conclusion

I think that Aviary Image Editor is the leader of the alternatives listed here. Creative Kit is nice, but its integration into Google+ seems a bit Frankenstein. Google has taken a stripped-down version of the Picnik software and stitched it on to their social network. Hopefully they will put more work into the feature.

What alternative will you be using once Picnik goes offline? Let us know in the comments.

The opening up probably boosted the to and fro movement of snap-click photos, after all the old cliché holds good – a picture does say a thousand words. Especially when you find Twitter’s own 140 to be limiting.

A photo does say more; but does it say them effectively? Sharing photos comes with a few unsaid rules. It’s true for Twitter…it’s true for sharing any photo across the web. Let’s talk about them.

Choose your photos wisely

Everyone loves photos. Just like tweets, photos that you share on Twitter should also be interesting. Don’t share blindly…be picky. You wouldn’t want to post snaps of your office party en masse when it wouldn’t be of any interest to your followers. The best you can do is to share photos around a theme and support it with the text message. Like any other social platform, Twitter too comes with its own etiquette.

Get the photos right

Common sense. What would anyone do with photo that resembles a blob? If your followers can’t make out what your photo is all about, then either expect some “WTF” comments or being unfollowed by friends who have better things to do.

Twitter accepts photos that are 3 MB or smaller. But for faster uploads, you can crop and resize the image to a more optimum size. Online photo editors can do that in a jiffy. Twitter allows .gif, .jpeg, and .png files but not bmp, .tiff, and animated .gif images.

Twitter also gives you a user gallery which stores your 100 most recent shared images. The user gallery is a part of the Twitter profile, so it pays to keep it neat and compact.

Too much or too little

Great photos are one of the easiest ways to not only grab eyeballs but also gather Twitter followers. But go overboard with it, and you will be on a one-way ride to the spammers’ gallery of fame. Get the balance right between too much and too little. The right photo shared at the right time with Twitter has a better chance of scoring an impact.

Nix the watermark

This is a personal opinion, but I think that watermarking an image just about ruins it. Yes, it protects your photographic masterpiece but if you mean to protect your photo then upload it elsewhere. Twitter is the wrong medium for copyright-clad photos. But when it comes to promoting brands or a product, watermarking could be considered a must. In the meantime, Twitter really hasn’t found a way for users to protect their photo shares.

It helps to know where a Twitter photo is coming from

Tweets are usually time sensitive and location sensitive. Apps like Foursquare and Gowalla are built around geo-location and a lot of check-ins also piggybacks on Twitter. So tagging your Tweets + photos with geo-location data helps put it in a place. Think of Twitter powered breaking news, and the effectiveness of location tags becomes clear. It also makes the Twitter photos searchable by location. Adding location data leads to a better Twitter experience for everyone…not just the tweeter.

Hashtags to the fore

Adding hashtags to your uploads helps in their search and discovery. A Twitter based service like Hashalbum makes it easy to search for images in real time by letting you discover new photos based on their #hashtag. Hashalbum is a photo discovery tool that scans Twitter for images and sorts them into shareable albums by their #hashtags. This helps you to find photos in a specific topic of interest.

Eye-catching image effects

Thanks to the universe of image effects web apps (and mobile apps), even a photo taken with a standard cell phone camera can be enhanced and made interesting. Give your dull photos a makeover using apps like Instagram, Hispstamatic, BeFunky etc,

Ultimately, Twitter is about the community. So, don’t be shy and share socially with the network of your followers and friends. Photos are tweets with a more graphic face, so you have to respond to them just like regular tweets to keep the network fires burning.  Share with us your best Twitter photo tip. What more can you do to spread your photographic masterpieces?

Image Credit: Flickr

Creative Pad

Mixel consists of a blank canvas in which you add selected images from the Mixel library, your own iPad photo library, your Facebook photos, or from a web image search. If you have an iPad 2, you can also snap a photo and add to your “mixel.” You use Mixel to create a collage that can be shared with other Mixel users.

Mixel Tools

The creative collages that you produce on Mixel are the type typically created in applications like Photoshop. But this free app provides tools for even the most inexperienced user to create fun collages.

To use Mixel, you must register and log in with your Facebook account. From there you simply start with a “new mixel” canvas and add and edit selected images.

The Mixel toolbar also allows you to duplicate, delete, crop, flip, arrange photos in front and behind one another. The key to creating an artistic or funky collage is to use the crop tool to mix up images in uncanny ways.

The crop tool allows you to make freehand style crops of any image. If you don’t like the crop you have drawn, simply tap on the green dotted line or shape to start over. You’re not limited to typical rectangle or oval shapes. Sometimes you might even crop an image in a way that completely disguises its original source.

After you select an image, you simply double-tap on it to add it to the canvas. Mixel is so cool that it provides a feature that quickly shows you how other Mixel users have used that same image in their work.

You can also layer images similar to how it is done in Photoshop. You simply tap on the image and then tap the “To Front” or “To Back” button. Some images in the Mixel photo library will have a transparent background, while with others you might need to crop out which portions of the background you don’t want.

Flipping and duplicating an image is an easy single tap process, requiring a lot less clicking that you might do in Photoshop. One feature I like to see added to Mixel is an opacity tool.

Saving & Sharing

You can easily save all your Mixel creations, and then tap the Post button when you’re ready to share it with other users.

With Mixel, shared collages become a part of a larger community in which a mixel can be copied, imported to your library and “remixed”.

When you tap the remixed button, the elements of the collage are broken apart allowing you to delete, reuse, and remix anyway you like. Some popular collages get remixed like a Photoshop tennis competition.

You can also of course like, comment on, and share mixels on social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and via e-mail. Collages can also be saved to your photo library.

As with other social networking applications like Mixel, you can also select to follow other Mixel members.

Mixel really can become quite addictive. It allows for an infinite amount of creativity and inspiration. Let us know what you think of it, and if there are any apps similar to it that you like. If you want to know about other free apps for the iPad, check out the Top 20 Free Apps for Your New iPad.

At first glance, Google’s decision to get rid of Picnik may seem odd. It remains a rather popular service and is one of the better browser-based image editors available. However, many of the service’s features have been gradually incorporated into Google Plus as part of the Creative Kit. Even the interface is nearly identical. It’s likely that management would rather see people looking to edit photos online sign up with Google Plus instead of continuing to use a separate service.

Picnik will remain fully functional until its closure. In fact, it will be a bit more functional than before. All of the premium features are free until the final day and users who have already paid for a membership will be refunded.

If you have any files on the service it would be a good idea to back them up. You can do this by using the new Picnik Takeout feature, which downloads your photos to zip files. The other option is to export your photos to Google Plus, where they can be stored as part of your profile. Make sure to do this before April 19th. You’re out of luck if you don’t export them before the site goes down for good.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Below are five other cliché profile pictures that are currently on the market, and let’s keep in mind that I am mostly describing them all at an extreme level.

The Casual Model

We all know that girl – the one who believes that she is the stuff. Whenever a camera is nearby, she jumps on the opportunity by instantly posing wherever she’s at. It could be a gorgeous building, and she’d strike a pose. It could be in front of a trash dump site, and she’d go Vogue on that mug. Nuclear wasteland, poverty-stricken village, gun-pelted warzone, homeless tent city – BAM, it’s time to attempt to look sexy.

The world is her photo shoot, and regardless of how awkwardly she places her hand on her hip or how painfully non-seductive she actually looks whilst attempting to give booty more boom, this girl is going to try and score one more for Facebook. Unfortunately, it rarely works for her.

The Attention Battle

There are a few of folks online that happen to have friends in the real world, and while out on their partylicious escapades, they will occasionally take group or pair photographs. However, you’ll notice something about these particular pictures. Sure, they may appear to be merely taking a friendly pic, but in all truth, they are battling for the viewer’s attention.

Sometimes, one will hog the screen while pushing the other to the side. Others, all participants will make the most ridiculous faces possible. Usually, these images result in cropped profile photos with comments such as “Thanks for cutting me out lol” – the most hate-filled “lol” of all time.

The Drunken Night

Practically speaking, if I had any, I simply wouldn’t put my drunken pictures online. Sure, it might have been the best night of your life – playing checkers with shot glasses, zooming down the bar like it’s a slip-n-slide, and singing a pepped-up version of Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” on stage – but consider the consequences.

Sometimes, there are future employers out there who aren’t going to want a raging party animal like yourself. However, I guess that’s just too bad for them (thankfully, MUO isn’t like that – our New Year’s Party was a hoot).

The Overdone Edit

While others don’t, I love color grading on photographs and video. However, there is such a thing as too much color grading on photographs and video, and often, this is either done with Windows’ built-in photo enhancer or more commonly, phone apps. These photos typically result in over-exposed images that feature a race of nose-less human beings with black, soulless eyes.

The cringe-factor increases with friends who comment on these photographs, saying, “OMG u r so talented lol” and “this is so beautiful”. Granted, I’m not one to critique someone’s work, but sometimes, it’s just nice to see what a person actually looks like.

The Friend’s Camera

The phenomenon of this profile picture style has both perplexed me and humored me. Occasionally, there are people who will take these dramatic shots of themselves looking in the distance or perhaps staring out a window as rain gently slides down the glass pane, symbolizing the slow progression of grief in this long journey called life. They want you to think that they are deep and philosophical, but heck no, they aren’t.

In reality, this person has extended their arm and taken this picture of themselves at least fifty times, trying to make it look just right. Their arm has likely been curved into an awkward U-shape just to avoid getting it into the frame. They will be going to the ER simply because they took this picture. There was no friend that captured this moment – it’s all a lie.

Conclusion

There are lots more of these cliché types of photographs, and I’d love to hear about a few more. Granted, I can’t say much for whether or not I would like to see them. However, faithful MUO readers, what I can say is this – moderation is everything.

What other types of cliché photos do you know of? Do you have any samples to share?

Image Credits: clarita, earl53, klk13, kconnors, mensatic, anitipatterson

I have two applications that make your pictures on the iPhone truly something awesome to behold. If you need to give your photos a little more dramatic flair, these are the applications for you. Best of all, they are both available free in the iTunes app store, so you will be able to improve your photos, and not open your wallet!

PicYou

PicYou is a great app for giving your photos some cool effects and sharing them on social networks. When you first log in, the application will ask you to create an account or log in with your Facebook account. If you do this, you can share the photos you create quickly and easily.

To create a new photo, simply click on the camera icon on the bottom of the screen. To take your picture, click on the standard “take photo” button at the bottom. If you want to add an effect to a photo you already have, click gallery at the bottom of the screen.

Once you have your photo chosen, you can add all kinds of cool effects to it. The effects will do things like change the colors and hue of the picture and alter the border to give it a personal touch. It definitely goes a long way towards making your photos more unique looking.

You can also customize your profile to give other users more information about you with this application. Click on the Profile tab and you will see all the options available. You can find friends that already use PicYou and invite new ones. From this page, you will be able to link to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, so you can share your pictures with all your friends.

An important part of this app is following and viewing other users’ photos. You can click the popular tab to view the most viewed images. You can also click activity to see a timeline of the images posted and shared by your friends.

Pho.to Lab

This application is not as robust in the social aspect, but much more robust in the types of effects. Whereas PicYou is more about giving your images some artistic flare, Pho.to Lab is all about making your pictures crazy. They have effects such as putting a picture in a Santa Claus costume, on magazine covers and all kinds of other crazy effects.

The application will launch right into the effects selection. Some of them are not available in the free version and must be purchased. However, there are lots in the free version, so you can make a lot of this application without spending a dime (the app is ad-supported).

The effects are divided into categories. There are all kinds to choose from such as monsters, photo filters, cartoons, magazine covers and more. Once you decide on a category, click it to view the effects. It will show you a preview of what the effect will look like. Click one to select it. The app will then ask if you want to use a picture from your gallery or take a new one.

After you choose an image, Pho.to Lab will process it and show it to you. Click the share button at the bottom of that screen to share it to SMS, email, Twitter, Facebook or simply to copy the link to share it manually. You can also click the download button to store it in your device for later access.

This is an awesome application if you want to make some cool and funny photos. Instead of downloading one of the hundreds of applications that alter your images in funny ways, you can download only Pho.to Lab and let it handle everything.

Conclusion

With these two iPhone applications, you will be ready to make some of the best photos. They make adding effects easy, even if you are not technologically advanced. If you cannot be bothered with spending hours laboring in Photoshop, these are the applications for you.

Have you tried these apps? Or do you know of a better one? Post a link to some of your cool photos and apps in the comments!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The Places theme for slideshows works best if you have traveled several different places and if your travel photos have been labeled by location. The latest versions of the iPhone and some other contemporary cameras now include a geotagging feature that embeds location coordinates for each of the photos you take.

Pro image applications like Aperture will show you the geotag info, which consists latitude, longitude, etc.

But luckily iPhoto will translate that info into a recognizable name like Coney Island, London, or Islands of Adventure. But even if your travel photos are not tagged, you can manually label them using iPhoto’s Places feature.

Labeling Photos

When you select a photo and then click on the Info button in the iPhoto menu bar, the Places tool will show geotag info for that photo. If your photos are not geotagged, you can simply select a collection of travel photos and add the information yourself, similar to how you add keywords to your images.

As you type the location name, iPhoto will list possible locations to choose from. It may even list popular resorts or tourist spots. After all your travel photos are labeled, you can click on Places in the Albums panel, and you will get a map with red pens dropped on places you have taken photos.

Organizing Travel Photos

If you have organized your travel photos into regular or smart albums, all need to do is create a new album, name it the title you want your slideshow to be (such as “Where We’ve Been”) and add to it selections from your travel photos. Sort the collected photos by date so that they are kept together in the album.

Create Slideshow

Now with your travel album selected, click the Create button in the toolbar and select Slideshow. iPhoto will set up a separate folder of your selected photos. Next, click the Themes button and select the Places theme.

iPhoto will process your photos and create location titles for each set of your travel photos. A titles effect will appear on a moving map, with the first photo of each section representing the location.

If the titles are not to your liking, no problem, you can actually edit them, and be specific as you like about the location. As with other slideshow themes, you can also move photos around and delete the ones that don’t fit. You can also go back to your travel photo albums and add more images to the slideshow folder. If your images are dated correctly, iPhoto should place added photos in the appropriate section. If not, simply move them to where they’re supposed to be.

If you don’t like the default theme music for your slideshow, simply change it. You can adjust other settings for your slideshow. However, the Places theme does not show all your photos one at a time. This theme will present 1-4 photos at time. You don’t have much control over this, except for the order they appear.

The Presentation

When you click the Play button, iPhoto presents graphic travel effect that moves across the map to the places where you took photos. As with other slideshows, you can export your project to show it off on a website, your mobile device, or big screen TV.

Let us know what you think of this slideshow project, and similar ones you’ve used. For other ideas about iPhoto, check out our articles here.

Below is a selection of nine awesome blogs and photo sites that offer amazing, priceless images, each in its own way.

ffffound

I recently mentioned ffffound in a post about 10 websites that will help you feel better, but ffffound is much more than a quick pick-me-up. It is a website where a closed (invite-only) group of artistically inclined individuals share photos. Some can be disturbing, some contain nudity, but in a given page I can usually find at least a couple that make me think or feel something.

Ffffound is easy to navigate: Simply hit J to scroll to the next image, and K to scroll to the previous one. No text, no lengthy explanations. Just photos, photos, photos, as far as the eye can see.

Pictory Blog

Unlike ffffound, in Pictory Blog every photo has a story. Rather than a never-ending torrent of photos, it is more of a carefully curated drip. Just a few photos are published every day, and they come from all over the world. Photos are submitted by readers by themes, and the blog ties in tightly with Pictory magazine itself.

For example, check out this gorgeous long exposure scene, which was submitted as part of the “in deep” theme and links to all photos published from that theme. The blog and the magazine both make me feel like taking my Canon 600D and seeing what it can really do.

Boston Globe Big Picture

If there is one website I think of when I think “photo blog”, it’s the Boston Globe’s Big Picture. Every few days a new post goes online, showing a close-up of events from another part of the world. Each photo has an informative description.

The Big Picture is one of my favorite ways to keep up to date on important global events, and really look at them for myself rather than just read what others think about them.

In Focus

The guy who was originally behind The Big Picture, Alan Taylor, left the blog in January 2011. But he did not give up on telling stories using photos. Quite the contrary, he amped up his act and set up shop at In Focus, The Atlantic’s photo blog.

Alan is a pro Web developer, which may explain why In Focus looks so similar to The Big Picture, right down to the “j/k” shortcuts for flipping between photos and the black images that “may contain objectionable content” which you must click to view. If you like The Big Picture, you’ll love In Focus.

Chromasia

The Chromasia blog is a part of Chromasia, two companies run by David and Libby Nightingale. Simply put, the blog contains stunning photos. They are all by David, and can be purchased as prints or cards. The blog is very lean on text – you will have to guess (or make up) the story behind each picture yourself.

One very unique feature is the link that says “show the original” below each image – you can hover your mouse over it and see the non-Photoshopped version of the same photo. It’s as if David really lets you into his studio, and shares what parts the camera and the computer both took in the creation process. Lovely, and very open.

The Sartorialist

This one’s for the ladies: The Sartorialist contains mainly street photos of people, mostly from New York, going around town in spiffy, creative, and interesting wear. That is not all you would find on the blog, however, as can be seen by the photo from Morocco, above. If you like street photography and enjoy fashion, this is one blog to check out.

Pixelcandy

If I ever start a photography blog, I know what I want it to look like – Pixel Candy. This is the personal blog of German photographer Thomas Bonin, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I don’t mean just the photos, either. The format itself is compelling and artistic. It makes your monitor into a picture frame – there are no scroll bars, no comments, no words. Just a single image at any given time, taking up your undivided attention.

There is also an “archives” button that takes you to a long thumbnail view, but the highlight is definitely the single-image view. In a word – wow.

Flickr Blog

The Flickr Blog is interesting because it curates and shares the work of Flickr community members and amateur photographers alongside “official” photos from NASA (above) and other public bodies who join the Flickr Commons from time to time. Flickr is the 900lbs gorilla of the online photo-sharing world, but its blog feels fresh, fun, and not pretentious in any way.

Cute Overload

Cute Overload is right what it says on the tin – adorable pictures, usually of furry, fluffy animals. It may not be the most artistic photo blog on the planet, but it is certainly one of the cuddliest. From flying squirrels to kittens hugging puppies to ducks wearing sandals, Cute Overload has it all.

In Summary

This has been one challenging post. There is such an abundance of excellent photography blogs online sharing priceless images, picking just a handful was tough. But here they are.

Did you like them? Did I miss an important one? Sound off in the comments!

These days, I find myself taking 400 photos on a simple day out. I don’t even notice it. And what happens to those pictures? Most of the time, no one ever get to see them. Because everyone has a digital camera or a camera phone, we all take thousands of pictures, and to be  honest, who has the time to sit and look at all of them? But isn’t it a shame for all those beautiful pictures to go to waste?

PicTrip

PicTrip is an innovative way to share a large amount of pictures that is yet interesting and quick. You can share 100, even 200 pictures at a time, and all it would require from your friends is a minute or two of their time. PicTrip turns your pile of repetitive pictures into a fun and exciting video, complete with a soundtrack of your choosing, which you can then share with friends via e-mail, Facebook, or simply download the file and share it any which way you want.

So let’s see what it’s all about!

Creating A Video

PicTrip comes only as an iOS app, and therefore is aimed at creating clips from pictures you’ve taken with your iPhone. You can, of course, upload pictures from other sources onto your iDevice (as I did), and create a video using those.

To start, tap on “New Trip” on the main screen, and select the album you wish to use. At the moment, there’s no way that I could see to combine pictures from multiple albums into one clip, but since the whole thing is aimed at creating a video from a single trip or place, this is not really a problem.

Within your album, you can select which pictures to include in your clip. Tapping on a picture will select it, and tapping it again will de-select it. Very simple. The app will let you know how many pictures you’ve selected. When you’re satisfied, tap on “Done”.

You are now going to create your video. First, give it an informative title, so people will know what it’s all about. You can change this title later if you want. And now come the most important parts: speed and soundtrack.

At the moment, the app is a bit lacking in speed options, in my opinion. As you can see in the screenshot above, with my 31 pictures I can create a “slow” video (31 seconds), a “fast” video (4 seconds) or an “insane” video (2 seconds). I do wish there were further options to choose from between slow and fast. As it is, if you have a small amount of photos, slow is your best option. If you have hundreds of pictures, the faster options become viable as well.

After choosing the speed, it’s time to choose a soundtrack! This will make your video more than just a boring slideshow of photos. Tap on “Add Music”, and the app will transport you into your device’s iTunes library.

Sort your music any way you want, and find that perfect song for your video. I chose Having a Blast by Green Day.

You can now take a final look at your options, and when you’re ready, hit “Trip It!”.

The app will render your picture selection in no time, and present you with the final product.

Watching Your Clips and Sharing Them

When the rendering is complete, you can watch your video on the device and share it. At this point you can still edit the title if you wish.

Tap the fullscreen icon to watch your video on the entire screen. This is surprisingly exhilarating, especially if you’ve chosen the right music. I do wish the music would fade out at the end when the song is not actually over, but this doesn’t really affect the whole experience.

The app creates MOV files, which are archived on your device. To access them, either launch the app and tap on “Archive”, or open them from your Saved Photos library. This way, you can also upload them easily onto other devices using services like Dropbox.

You can also share the video right from the app by either e-mailing it or sharing it one Facebook. There are some sharing options which are glaringly missing, but you can always download it or e-mail it to yourself and share it wherever you want.

When you try to share on Facebook, this message pops up. I guess everyone it extra careful about copyrights these days.

Bottom Line

PicTrip turns your pictures into a highly enjoyable experience that’s easy to share and easy for your friends to watch. The app is relatively new, and I would love to see more options and features added to it in the future. As it is, it’s still very easy and fun to use, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is overloaded by pictures and is looking for a quick and easy way to share them and make sure people actually look at them.

What do you do to share a large amount of photos? Do you usually take the time to look at other people’s large albums, or would a solution like this help you? Tell us  in the comments!