If you’re like me, I’m sure you often see photos on the Internet and think, “Wow, I wish I could do that!” Retouching and editing your photos to achieve similar results is something that we’ve all wanted to do at one time or another, even without having knowledge of photo editing. One tool that manages to give photos a professional look without any complicated rigmarole is Pixlr Express, one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use photo editors now available.
Pixlr Express works via both its web service and an Android app; it lets you retouch and make high-quality collages even if you have no earthly idea where to start. This editor leaves Instagram in the dust: the program includes more than 600 effects and filters that are automatically applied to images just by clicking on the different options. In addition, you can superimpose different layers on the original photo in order to make each image unique.
A big draw of Pixlr Express is that you can use the editor for three different purposes: correcting photo errors, giving them artistic effects, or adding fun stickers and creating collages. This means the tool will cover all your needs without having to turn to professional programs or image editors that take up a lot of space.
The program interface is clear and concise, so you won’t have to guess where to find each option—all of which are divided into modules—in order to make changes to the look of the original photo (which you can upload from your smartphone’s memory or take directly from your camera phone within the program interface).
Adjustments
Of the six sections included in Pixlr Express, the “adjustments” section is the first on the list. This is where you’ll find all the technical improvements for your photos, such as contrast, lighting, color saturation, elimination of red-eye, and teeth whitening, in addition to the options to crop and rotate.
From the adjustments panel you can repair any flaws in the image, from improving the color balance to concealing poor lighting conditions to blurring part of the image or extracting and highlighting a particular color. The final two tools added to this section are the “Doodle” and “Add image” tools, which let you paint images yourself or add one photo on top of another.
Effects and Superposition
These two options are Pixlr Express’s most appealing and creative ones when it comes to making your photos look professional. The two sections add layers to the photos to change the tone and the intensity of the colors.
From “Effects” we can add vintage effects, place different unicolor or black-and-white filters, or even create a composition in a Warhol style with the “Creative” option. There is a huge variety of filters, and you can adjust their opacity or superimpose them over each other to achieve the exact result that you want, with the perfect finish, contrast, and brightness.
“Superposition” is, perhaps, the most outstanding feature of Pixlr Express, since it includes textures and designs that other programs don’t have. If, for example, you’ve edited a photo with a vintage filter, you can superpose over it different light leaks, smoke, space, or lighting textures; or “flaws” that simulate analog photography, among others. By combining several filters you can get some highly interesting results.
Stickers
Within this section you’ll find the borders, tags, and text that you can add as stickers over your images. These three tools will make your photos more fun, with stickers to place sunglasses, crowns, and comic-book onomatopoeias on the people in your photos. Pixlr Express also contains a wide array of frames and several models that can be combined with everything from the most “professional” filters to the funniest of your photos.
Collages
Besides editing and repairing your photos, you’ll also be able to combine them to create collages using a set of templates. With this tool you can choose your photos and compose them however you like inside the set frames, selecting how the images are distributed, the space between them, and the background color.
Another awesome thing about this program is that it’s not necessary for the Android device on which you’re using it to have an integrated camera. In the web version, you can even add photos you’ve taken with your webcam or by inserting a URL.
In addition, Pixlr Express can save your combinations of effects and favorite decorations so that you don’t have to go through the same process over and over again, saving you loads of time and making the program much easier to use.
