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Using Your Own Pictures for Blogging

Stealing Pictures If you've been blogging long enough, you've probably heard the warnings: DON'T STEAL PICTURES. As a blogger, there is, at least at some point, the temptation to use (steal) pictures from somewhere on the Internet. I found out the wrong way one time, when I posted a comic on my blog. I assumed since the author's name was on it, that it was fine. (Nope. Thankfully the author was polite, and I removed it.)

Here I'm going to share some of my own pictures (taken by my own camera), and some examples of how you can edit photos to use in blogging. If you are looking to add some pizazz to your pictures, take some time to compare the original "Before" picture to the edited "After" picture. There is great pride in working your photos into your blog.

If you want to know how to edit pictures check out this post, How to "PhotoShop" Your Pics for Your Blog (For Free). All photos below were edited at the free website, picnik.com.

Check out these before and after shots ...

Before

Geese

After

(Cropped, text added, softened corners, drop shadow)

Before

Butterfly

After

(Cropped, text added, softened corners, drop shadow?)

Butterfly

Before

Praying Mantis - Before

After

(Rotated, cropped, matte frame and border, text)

Praying for you

Before

Deer - Before

After

(Cropped, text added, matte frame and border, color focus (black and white "fade"))

Deer - After

Steve Kappre is a Mortgage Planner with Treasury Mortgage. Steve specializes in;

• All areas concerning NJ First-Time Home Buyer Mortgages, grants, down payment assistance, tax credits, and more.

• Reverse Mortgages

• Equity Management strategies for high-end homes and high net worth individuals.

Contact Steve Kappre directly at 856-419-3561 or at www.stevekappre.com

Posted by Steve Kappre, Gloucester - Camden County NJ Mortgage Loan Officer | 856-419-3561 on 09/13/2009 09:55 PM

Comments (54)

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54 Comments on Using Your Own Pictures for Blogging

SEP

Steve I have used Picnic after you told us about it. Should I say Ceil has used it. She just redid the header on my blog and we have gotten some compliments. We are still in training and thank you for passing this information for us to use.

Hi Steve~ I like you before and after photos! My favorite one is The Praying Mantis with I'm praying for you...

Hi Steve-Very well said. I love your pics and this line is so very true. There is great pride in working your photos into your blog.

Steve, cropping a photo can completely change it and these are great examples. I have pretty good editing capabilities in my Macbook, but it doesn't have the ability to write in the photo - at least not that I know, so Picnik is a great resource! BTW, do you have the upgraded one and can you tell me what extras it has, is it worth it? TBoard says it is, but I can't remember what it has in it. Thanks!

Sharon

Carl\Ceil - Awesome to hear!! I just made my own header with picnik for my outside blog - LOVE it.

Vickie - One of my fav's too. I want to frame that one for a gift.

Pat - If I'm not careful, I'll spend WAAAAyyy too much time on them!!

Frank - well considering the annual subscription is less than most of us spend on dinner ($24.95/year) - you really can't go wrong. There are a lot of editing options (mirror, icons, MANY more fonts, etc.) when you subscribe.

Love your pictures! Awesome cropping and the text is right on.

Bridget - Cool. I take a LOT of photos and just start to use the imagination. The vast majority never make it to the blog world, haha.

Steve,

Thanks for the link. This is helpful.

Brian

Someone read my mind! I have been doing this all along!

Steve,

My photos are on Flickr, where picnik is the free editor. It works well.

I just have too many photos up to edit them all. I need to clean house first.

Brian - yw

Chris - Some do it automatically, others think cropping is something with farmland. Gotta get the word out for everyone!

Mike - Right on, good mention since some people may be looking for an online venue for their pics as well.

Thank you Steve for the wonderful idea and information on Picnic. I have Adobe Elements, which I believe is a 10-15% scaled down version of Photoshop. I have used it to edit my kids pictures to make ivitations and birthday cards. I never thought that I could actually use some pictures on the blog by touching them like you did.

Sincere thanks,

Rajeev - Get to work - it sounds like you have a goldmine sitting there (of pics that is).

These are great ideas. Thanks!!

Nice manipulations, Steve. I use my own photos in my non-AR blogs. I have yet to use photos in my AR blog, but when I do, you can bet they'll be mine, too.

Good post. I like the shadow of the praying mantis the most. Very creative.

Steve -- If you ever get tired of mortgages, you could definitely go into free-lance graphic design. I am duly impressed! What a visual delight!

Steve - great pictures and good information. I use my own pictures in my blogs but I have never thought about manipulating them the way you did...I love the text added to them. Very creative.

SEP

Hi Steve - I like what you did with the first two. A narrow, landscape orientation is something that is not used as often but can be very effective. The frame and matte options are nice touches too.

Good topic. I've tended to avoid pictures but need to start using them. In todays LA Times there was an article about a few photo services that basically contact website owners through their attorneys demanding $900 fines. Ouch.

Those are clever photos -- thanks for sharing the resource.

I've done a lot but never added text to inspire, will have to keep that in mind

Those were so cute! I loved the praying mantis and deer.

I thought you were very creative in your editing and imaginative in your titles. Picnik is a great site.

You did a nice job with those photos.

I've been doing this since I started blogging. In fact, one photo of a subdivision has been used many many times, with different editing for different scenarios. I don't have to hunt around for "free to use" photos, and worry about whether they are really free to use or not.

Tammie - Hope it helps!

Mike - Good to know

Patrick - Thanks. That one was fun.

Chris - You think? Thanks for the kind words.

Lori - I didn't use to do that until a recent nature contest came along, and the goal was to use nature pics for marketing. It opened up a whole new array of options.

John - I like the narrow landscape type as well - they fit very nicely into a blog as they are a good size, but not offensive to the eyes since you don't have to scroll too far to get beyond them.

Tim - Ouch is right. I can't live with that stress!

Bob/Carolin - You are welcome.

Clifford - Text used sparingly can be great to get the point across.

EmMee - Thanks. All of the photos were taken in my yard, so anyone can do it!

FPines - Thanks. I find it enjoyable creating these.

Kris - Well said, and you are right, with the many ways to edit photos, we can even use the same ones repeatedly without being mundane.

Good advice and your photos are very creative.

Im not a shutterbug...so, I really dont have a backlog of photos that I can fall back on. So, I use Istock and buy them. $1 an image and I can use it as many times as I want. :-)

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Awesome Steve ! Congratulations on the feature.

We can all use a little editting now and then!

Wow, Steve, how creative you are, just cropping and editing and a few words, you make it look so easy!

Hey Steve, I always enjoy your post.

Thanks for the infor and the link.

Patricia Aulson/portsmough nh homes

Great pictures! Thanks for the suggestions on improving our own!

Very creative Steve.

I need to keep my camera handy...

Very good pcitires. I haven't used picnic yet, I read your blog post about picnic. Am going to check it out soon.

Fernando - Thanks.

Clint - That works. I find enjoyment in taking the pics, wereas some may not.

Missy - Thanks

Beverly - Most are easy, some more challanging.

Cathleen - Welcome

Tom - Lately I've been using my cell phone's camera as lugging aroud the real thing is annoying.

Suma - Do it, it is a great tool.

Steve: Thanks for the tutorial. I appreciate it. Thats the next step for me; incorporating pictures into my blog. Thanks again!

Did you take any of those pics with your cellphone?

Paul - Welcome

Dave - The above ones I did not but this one here I did and cropped with Picnik.

Thompson Soccer Fields

Hi Steve. I use photos that I capture. I use Picnic sometimes as well.

This is kinda cool - the way you turn your photos into motivational posts and postcards that I see. I bet you feel good that you're using your own. I need to get back into my photography too.

Lana - Good to hear

Loreena - It is a great feeling, one of pride and accomplishment, and that I can really say things just the way I want.

Steve, There are so many great things that we can do today with our own photos. I love the programs available, especially picnik. Great shots!

Sandy - Very true, and thanks.

Very nice. Photoshop is a great application and not that difficult to use when you get the hang of it.

Great point to remember, thanks for the info. I will be using your ideas in the near future.

Erica - Sure Photoshop is great. And I agree when you have time to learn it, it is great. But considering the monetary and time expense, most agents can't swing it if they aren't already tech savvy. But I certainly wouldn't say "no" if someone offered to buy it for me :D

Jon - I'd love to see the outcome!

SEP

Steve,

If your like me and you don't have a collection of photos you can use photobucket which has a huge collection of photos and images that anyone can use. You can even crop, change colors, add test or other images. It's a great site.