If you are short on cash and can’t quite afford the price tag of software such as Photoshop, fear not, as there are plenty of free editing programs available that will do just the job.

Here are our top three programs for budding photographers:

GIMP

Available for PC and Mac, the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is often referred to as the free alternative to Photoshop. As an open-source application, it is run by a community of volunteer developers who maintain the product. With GIMP you can get professional level editing and retouching tools, making it the closest free app to Photoshop currently available. If you are used to Photoshop, it may take a while to adjust to the GIMP program.

Paint.NET

Using Microsoft Paint as its muse, this program was originally developed by college undergraduates mentored by Microsoft. The alumni of the program continue to maintain this free replacement for Microsoft Paint, which has surpassed the original program with advanced features and increased functionality. Although not maintained as well as other free editing programs, this is a good alternative to Photoshop.

PhotoScape

This program allows you to organise your most-used features, as well as customising the toolbar. Other than image editing, PhotoScape also lets you create:
– Slideshows
– Animated GIFs
– Capture screenshots
– Combined images
– Split images

PhotoScape is a great mix of basic and advanced tools and also converts RAW images to JPEG from DSLRs and other more advanced cameras.

Although this program is free, you will be treated to ads recommending other software. This won’t infiltrate your computer with adware but can be pretty annoying; however this is the price you pay for free software.

You might want to look at the standard of camera you have and consider updating to something with a few more bells and whistles. This will get your picture looking great without the need of too much editing. Clifton Cameras offer a great selection of digital SLR, compact system and digital cameras ranging from beginner to professional.

Depending on your photography skill levels and the quality of your camera, these free tools could be exactly what you’re looking for when editing. Nothing on the market fully compares to Photoshop, but these three free alternatives come pretty close with a large number of features.

Building an app is not only an expensive thing, but is also a very hard, and if you are a beginner in that field it can certainly be very stressful. You already know that there are many freelancers online who can build you a basic app for less than $10,000 (or that is something they say), but you can also go different road and create an app all by yourself with a help from apps specially designed for building a high-quality app without spending a fortune.

1. MainStreet Apps
MainStreet Apps gives small businesses a do-it-yourself, cloud platform to build apps by needs of their customers. Process is very easy and straightforward, so you don’t have to be some kind of a computer wizard. The minute you are finish your app, MainStreet Apps does the whole thing further from hosting your data in the cloud to reviewing your app and uploading it to the app store.

2. AppMakr
AppMakr is a totally free do-it-yourself application that can build robust, native apps for iOS and Android without any coding knowledge. There are no hidden costs and additional requests so you can build a dozen apps. Along basic things it contains push notifications, HTML 5 functionality, high-resolution picture galleries, live updates, and branding and design customizations. (more…)

If you want to take the photos with shallow depth of field you are going to need some nice lenses, or some very luxurious camera. But, if you are lacking those things do not despair because it is possible to digitally imitate shallow depth of field using our favorite piece of software called Adobe Photoshop. It will take only two minutes of your time, and your photo will be completely different.

First step: In the layer box simple right click the layer called background, and then choose to duplicate layer. After that just name the new layer as Blur.

Second step: Go to the Select Filter, then choose Blur and go for Iris Blur. You’ll get the Blur Gallery tool. When you select your effect just shift the ring in the middle to the part of your photo that you want to remain sharp. (more…)

In the wonderful world of web design, it pays to have the right tools in your kit to enable you get the job done as quickly and professionally as possible.

Aside from planning the layout and sketching navigation to give your users a clear, simple and flawless experience, you need to ensure all aspects of the site – from fonts to images – showcase your website to the best of your ability.
Check out these useful tools to give you a helping hand in web design:

Glyphs

As all web designers know, choosing the right font for your website’s audience is vital. If you’re a creative type and fancy creating your own typography, then Glyphs is for you. Allowing users to change shapes, spacing, kerning, weights and so much more, this nifty software lets you see letterforms in real-time. (more…)

If you don’t have time to transfer your photos from smartphone to computer for little bit of editing, but you want to get ingenious with your photos as fast as you can, then without a doubt apps are the best thing for you.

We choose 10 best photo editing apps that let you add filters, frames and effects in snap. Once you select your favorite one, simple download it to your smartphone and start using it for photo editing.

1. Snapseed

If you want to edit your photos quick, enjoyable and powerful then Snapseed designed by NikSoftware is the best thing for you. This company already has many awards for their software products, so they are not new thing on the block. First edition of this app was for iPad in 2011, but soon after that Snapseed launched an Android version. App has some cool tweaks that you can use on your photos, which include very popular vintage filters, adding attractive color, adding beautiful photo frames, or if you want to have some fun just go crazy with special effects. (more…)

If there’s one thing that doesn’t get touched on that much in the gaming world online, it would have to be community. After all, you’re not going to be just playing on your own. There are plenty of games at an online casino that are actually about community. Bingo is one of them, because you have to chat with other players as you reach for the big win. You will also find a bit of community even in strategy games like poker. After all, there’s no fun in beating robots. People want to know who you are. They want to know more about you. And we don’t think that this is a bad thing at all. When you feel like you belong to part of a group, you’re going to be feeling strength in numbers. That’s an amazing feeling and it shouldn’t be discounted at all.

You just need to think about the choices that you have before you. You don’t want to find that you can’t go to one casino because it’s really not as popular as meets the eye? This is where you go and find a casino directory that talks about the top betting websites. You’ll get not only the community you crave, but you’ll also get great odds. The best casino and sportsbook combos know that betting is the name of the game. You’re not going to have to worry that you’re getting bad odds. Most bookmarkers are going to have differing odds t a degree, but you should still be fairly well represented in the pack overall.

Now then, one thing that remains is simple: are you going to jump in the fun now? Betting websites let you have a great time but that doesn’t mean that you have to just take on anything and everything. You want to make sure that you truly have things set up properly from the beginning. A well organized casino/sportsbook online is exactly where you need to be, so make sure that you check it out as soon as possible.

After all, you really can’t win if you don’t take things into your own hands, right? Absolutely! That’s why you need to get in the game as soon as you can.

With the expansion of the online shopping sites there’s also a variety of designs, and a large number of new online shopping sites ignored content in relation to the appearance, and the consumers face difficulties while finding what they are looking for. OLX is a perfect example of how things should look, and the way things work perfectly. Clear and simple design of this free online platform of classifieds, currently working in India offers a wide range of services, from education and jobs as well as the buying and selling of all type of products, is the best way to go, if you want to be the best in your field of job. This site represent the next generation of free online classifieds. Thanks to its simplicity and intuitive design within comprehensive offer, OLX is the one of the most popular web destination in India. From the early days, back in 2006 they work with such a great sense for the customer’s needs, and it’s needless to say why they become number one destination in that part of the World.

On one place you’ll find everything you are looking for, and the best news is that they are going globally, so there are no location barriers anymore. OLX is certainly the place to purchase or advertise almost everything in best and most successful possible way. But, alongside that, there’s also a wide choice of services such as jobs, matrimonial, real estates, communities and classes and the best things is that they offer services in 40 different languages, and in almost hundred countries all over the World. (more…)

If you are building a website, you may be feeling overwhelmed about what to do; but if you want to build it correctly, you should assess your needs and what you want the site to be and do for you. Making a list of what you need and want will help, but you should also make a list of what you can, invest both financially and in terms of time, and what you want the site to do for you and your clients. Once you have these things in place, building your site will be easy.

Know Your Direction

Just like any endeavour you undertake in life, you need to know your goal. With a business it’s easy to say that goal is to make money, but you probably have other goals in mind, too. If you are selling a product to inspire people or a service that will help the environment, these are also goals for you. You are planning to change the world or lives, so you need to include that in the direction or your business plan. Making money should never be the only goal a business has or else your business won’t have much substance.

Know Your Design Needs

Once you have that direction you will know what your site needs to look like. This is another reason why “making money” shouldn’t be the only goal of your business because it’s hard to narrow down a design simply for money-making. If you are selling cloth diapers, for example, and they save people money and help the environment, you may want to consider using green colors in your design since you’re promoting a “green” product. If you are helping people with inspirational materials, put pictures and quotes or music on your site that will uplift people, and be sure to change them often so people don’t get bored with them. There are many web templates out there that can make your design easy to accomplish. (more…)