There are so many quality, and free, image editing tools we can use nowadays that it can be difficult to choose the tool that will be most helpful for any given task or problem you’re trying to solve. Today we’ll focus on two tools that provide me with the most functionality while at the same time being easy to use.
If you’d like to use a powerful image editing tool that is fully compatible with Adobe Photoshop, and free to use, I’d recommend that you carve out 90 minutes to work through the following UVic Libraries Digital Scholarship Commons workshop: Image Editing with Photopea
For today we’ll look at 2 different tools to help use with traditional photo editing, and the other using Generative AI to modify existing images, or create completely new images.
Google Photos
If you have a Gmail account you can access Google Photos every easily. If you prefer Apple Photos then you can do everything below, except for “Magic Eraser”
- Magic Eraser
- Cropping
- Filters
Gemini “Nano Banana” Image Creation
You can do similar things using Microsoft CoPilot, ChatGPT, or Google Gemini. I’ll be demonstrating Gemini today:
- Create an image from a prompt only: “Create a photorealistic image of a killer whale jumping out of the water in the inner harbour of Victoria, BC Canada.” – Image
- Create an action figure from an image: “Turn this pet into a collectible action figure, complete with a dynamic pose, detailed costume, and a glossy toy package box. Add a name logo on the box using the name Ziti Warrior Princess and make it look like something you’d see on a toy store shelf.” – Image
- Remove the background from an image: “Leave the red object, and remove the background from the image and replace it with a pure, solid white backdrop.” – Image