portrait

It may not beat Photoshop, but Aviary is still one of the most comprehensive photo editors available for Android. What's more, it's incredibly simple to use.

From the get-go, Aviary makes it simple to edit your photos, as it opens up directly to a carousel of all the saved images on your device. From here, you can swipe through your photos straight away or go to your photo gallery and make your selection that way. Otherwise, the app also gives you the option to take a new photo to import into the editor.

Once you make your selection, … Read more

Popular apps like Instagram spit out highly stylized images, but what do you do when you simply want a portrait to look nicer? I put Portrait Professional 10, a $39.95 automated airbrushing software package for Windows and Mac, through its paces.

I dug through my photo archives, looking for portraits in need of some TLC. My top candidate turned out to be the fortune teller animatronic from an antique machine at Tinkertown in New Mexico.

The fortune teller suffers from an overwhelming makeup job, lots of wrinkles, and a ruddy complexion with visible pores. Time for some magic.… Read more

Photofunia is a ridiculously simple photo effects app that lets you drop your photos into funny and interesting scenes, similar to those you might find at an amusement park photo booth. If, say, you want to see what your face might look like on a billboard in Times Square, Photofunia has an effect for that. How about on the cover of Esquire Magazine? Photofunia's got that covered, too. With an incredible number of effects available, the possibilities seem endless.

To get started with Photofunia, just fire up the app and start looking for an effect you like. You can … Read more

Scientists have developed a way to look inside a whole cell that doesn't involve the usual method of slicing and staining in the lab. Instead, you might say they're employing X-ray vision.

By using soft X-ray tomography (SXT), researchers can take images of a cell every 100 milliseconds and then re-create a whole picture of it from about 90 to 200 images in just a few minutes. The news was presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to Science Now. (The AAAS publishes Science Now.)

In the image of … Read more

All digital cameras are created more or less equal, right? Not quite: the Samsung DualView TL220 has an extra ace up its sleeve--or, rather, an extra LCD.

Yep, this is the one you've heard about, the camera with the second, front-facing screen so you can easily snap self-portraits (and portraits of you and whatever celebrity you're able to cajole in front of the lens). It debuted late last year with a rather steep list price of $349.99.

Right now, Abe's of Maine has the Samsung DualView TL220 for $149 shipped. That, my friends, is what they … Read more

If the popularization of the digital camera made self-portrait photos feasible, then the proliferation of social Web (and online dating) sites has made them inevitable, even essential. As such, the practice has become a bit of an art for those who strive to capture the best shots. If you're considering honing your own skills in this arena, the following tips should come in handy.

First, let's talk devices. Of course, you could always use a digital camera, connect it to your computer, download the images, and then upload them to your profile. But that's so 2007. Instead, … Read more

Most graphics software can transform photos into artistic "sketches" if you know how or have time to learn. Photo to Sketch Standard (P2S) 4.0 by Thinker Software does that, too, but it's fun, free, and easy to use, something few graphics packages can claim. It hardly breaks new ground, but we found it simple to learn and a lot of fun to play around with, too.

P2S has two parts: a main interface for applying sketch effects to images and a basic but decent image editor/paint program. Sliders control the intensity of pen, pencil, and … Read more

LEGO Photo is a free photo-manipulation app that automatically creates pointillist versions of your snapshots using virtual Lego blocks.

As with similar fun-with-photos apps, you can either use pictures from your device or you can snap a new pic from directly within the app. Once you choose (or take) a picture, the app spends a few seconds "Lego-izing" the image. You then tap the screen to see the transformed image, and then continue tapping to cycle through numerous different palettes, from primary colors to shades of gray. Once you're done, you can save your creation to your … Read more

If you have a picture of yourself, why not put it to good use? With the help of some online resources, you can do all kinds of neat things to it. You can even put it on greeting cards, avatars for your Twitter profile, and more.

If you're planning to put your picture to use, do it with these sites.

BeFunky BeFunky is a neat way to create pictures that you typically don't find on the Web.

When you first make your way to the free site, you'll be able to choose the kind of effect it will apply to your picture. I was really impressed by the number of options it offered. Everything from stenciling to creating an Andy Warhol-like picture was included in the options.

BeFunky gives you the option to upload a picture from your computer or take a snapshot from your Webcam. When you're satisfied with the design, you can add artwork behind your image, include some text, and more. My picture took just a few seconds to create. And thanks to some nice share options, syndicating it to sites like Facebook and MySpace was quick and easy. Not bad for a free service.

FACEinHOLE If you're the kind of person who goes to an area fair and sticks your head in a picture hole, you'll love FACEinHOLE.

To use FACEinHOLE, you'll need to register for the site. From there, you can pick a "scenario" that ranges from Halloween costumes to movies and television. You can also create your own scenario to put your portrait into.

In essence, FACEinHOLE shows you a picture and lets you modify it to get it to fit perfectly in the face hole. I tried it out on several images. For the most part, the uploading process was quick and easy. But as I started editing the image, I found it difficult to accurately place my face in the hole. It took away from the service. That said, I did like that FACEinHOLE allows you to share your image across the Web. You can even put it on a shirt. It'll run you $19.99 to do that.… Read more