Photo Editing with Fotor: A Fun Free Tool

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Learn about Fotor, a fun, free photo editing tool even beginners can master. Get information about the different options and features you will find to make your photos look outstanding. Ready to get the easy tips? Let’s go!

My Photo Editing Backstory

It’s a running joke in our family: Anytime I try to arrange something, it always ends up in a row or looking too symmetrical. Designing things is not my strength. It makes no difference if it is decorating, photo editing, or planting things in the yard. I tend to be very linear and perhaps too balanced. The solution, at least for gardening, has been to let me be the one to plant and maintain the vegetable garden. I can plant in rows all I want to. It’s one place where symmetry is okay. With my weak design skills in mind, I’ve been trying to improve my photography skills. Basically, I need all of the help I can get. So when a representative of Fotor photo editing software company contacted me, inviting me to test out their free program, I enthusiastically agreed to give it a try. This is not a sponsored post. Here’s what I’ve found, and I’d like to share it with you!

Trying the Flat Lay Photo Technique

I’ve been wanting to try the flat lay photo technique for awhile. You know, the style of photo that shows some random objects artfully scattered (a challenge for me) on a plain background, shot from above. So I scurried around the house, gathering little bloggerish-looking props.

I had a bit of trouble with the randomness aspect. Also, I used my phone, not a fancy camera. I don’t own a fancy camera. I have a beloved, battered point-and-shoot, but I find I use my phone for most of my blog pics. My photo needs a lot of work. So here we go. Let’s put the features of Fotor to the test.

Crop, Crop and Crop Some More

Here’s the basic editing menu dashboard as I used the cropping tool to get rid of all of the sloppiness around the edges. Cropping was easy, and undoing would have been easy as well.

 

The editing tools are intuitive, tutorials are provided, and the layout of the editing dashboard is easy to follow. I also used the 1-Tap Enhance option at the top of the left menu. What did I have to lose?

Exploring the Photo Editing Effects Menu

Hey, hey, hey! Look what I just did! I used the Color Splash feature in the Effects menu and was able to convert the photo to black and white, then add a splash of color to a selected area. Pretty cool!

 

One of my other favorite choices in the Effects menu is the Tilt Shift feature. With this option, part of the photo remains clear while the rest is blurred. Very fun!

Skipping the Beauty Menu

The next item on the list of left menu choices is the Beauty menu. For my flat lay photo, I have no need of the Blemish Fix, Wrinkle Remover (Nice!) or Weight Lost options. However, next time I change my profile picture on my social media accounts, heh heh, those might be fun choices to try. One little trick I tried was to use the Teeth Whitening feature to erase some of the shadows in my photo.

 

Testing Out the Frames, Stickers and Text Menus

Other menus on the left of the editing screen include Frames, Stickers and Text. Just to save time, I added all three features to the photo. There are many frame options that are only available with the premium version. The same is true for the stickers. However, there are enough free options to choose from to add a bit of fun and color to any photo.

Designing an Image for Pinterest

I decided to test out Fotor’s Design feature. There are many templates to choose from if you have the premium version of Fotor. If you are only using the free version, there are a lot fewer template options. The ones available with the free version are simple and plain, but that’s not entirely a bad thing. I was able to take a plain template, insert my carefully edited flat lay photo, and design a Pinterest image. It took me longer than it would have on Canva, which I use for most of my designs, but I got it done.

Bottom Line: There is a lot to Love About Fotor

As someone with basically no design skills, I think Fotor will add a much-needed boost to my photo editing skills. The program is easy to use, and the free version includes a surprising amount of options. Fotor combines the photo editing capabilities of PictMonkey with the design capabilities of Canva. Fotor is a better photo editor than graphic designer, but for a free program, it provides far more tools than what I expected. I didn’t even mention the Collage component, which offers free options for arranging your photos. Also, there is a free app which I am looking forward to using. The one drawback to the free version is that there are ads along the bottom and right borders of the screen. I’m used to ignoring ads, but I think the loading of the ads slows down Fotor’s functions at times.

What About You?

Do you have all of the photo editing tools you need? Might Fotor be a good fit for you? This was probably a painful post for some of you to read, as you witnessed my feeble attempt at a flat lay photo. I’ll keep practicing my skills, and will try to improve. If you have any photo editing advice, or have a favorite editing tool you like to use, I’d value your input.

Have a wonderful week, and may all of your design efforts meet with great success!

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Lisa Mitchell is a school librarian who likes to use her job as an excuse to stay up far too late reading books and noodling around with tech tools.

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