Best Photo Editing Program - Affordable - As an Artist I Use this Program Faithfully

I love to draw and paint, and I sell my work on my own website at A Brush with the Past and I also sell Homemade Cards on Etsy.  It has taken some learning and hit and miss ideas to sell online, but one of the most important part of any sale is IMAGES!

Images are the first thing your potential customer will see.  It doesn't matter just how great your work looks in person, if you can't portray it properly or in a pleasing way on the internet, you are dead in the water before you start.

Images are Everything!!

I had to learn this the hard way.  But I simply could not afford programs like Adobe or other photo editing software.  I came across PicMonkey from another artist blog site and decided to give it a try.

There is a free version, but I decided to go for the 7 day trial and then purchased the Supreme plan.  You can pay monthly or once a year and I was amazed at how affordable this program was for my business.  Monthly at the time of this writing, you are looking at approx. 8.99 a month.

Totally Easy to Understand.   I didn't want something with a massive learning curve. I had looked at software in my local computer shop and I found it very intimidating, so when I found this site, I was seriously impressed.

Make Your Images Pop or Overlay in a Mockup Display

Since I am not that good at photography, I didn't own a light box or fancy setups, so for my art site I simply went to ETSY and I purchased a "mockups".  There are so many to choose from.   Just put Mockup in the search bar.

What is a Mockup and How do I use One?

Step 1 - It looks like a beautiful picture frame or card or whatever you wish that has been staged with the perfect lighting, background, the perfect everything.  Most are on ETSY for under 10 bucks.  Just put "mockups" in the search box.

Step 2 - You are sold a jpg to download to your computer.  Just remember where you stored it.

Step 3 - Open PicMonkey and click "Edit photo".   Then add the mockup photo from your computer.

Step 4 - Click on the "butterfly" to the left (which is the overlay)

Step 5 - Click on "add your own" and a drop down tab will show and hit "my computer" to get your image you want to display

Step 6 - It will show up over top of the mockup frame, card or whatever your chose, and you can adjust it to fit with all the adjusting tools at your fingertips.

Lighthouse at Sunset Watercolor Painting

This is one of the best photo editing programs out there. It is affordable and has been worth every penny to me.  It shows off my paintings in a better way than just laying it on the table.

PicMonkey Worth Every Penny

I am still learning new ways to create awesome images that I think look professional.  I can adjust the colors, brightness, sizes.  I can create collages, and there are templates for many different websites including Etsy banners, shop owner image and more that are exactly the right size.

Check it out and see what you think. 

There are lots of tutorials on Youtube as well.  The other day I figured out quite quickly how to erase the background of a photo so I could add words and create a poster.  This is an awesome site.

Just click on any of the banners and find out more.  You can start off with a free version and then find it in your budget to upgrade as this will definitely make your sales healthier and you will recoup the investment since it is not as high as many other photo editing sites can be.

If you Sell Online You Need to Woo People with Your Professional Color Adjusted Images!

You can't just scan it or take a photo and expect it to look as great online.  It will need adjusting, cropping, and color checked, and maybe place into Mockups like I did.  But I do think my above painting looks much better displayed in this mockup frame, then just laying on a table.

This is a much cheaper option to Adobe, which I am sure is an awesome program, but it is very expensive in my opinion.  As an entrepreneur, I simply do not have the budget for it.

My own Paint program has a limited amount of photo editing, but since I have joined PicMonkey I don't even use paint,  I simply send my photo or image to the photo editing program and then I fix it, or place it in mockups or create collages (as can be seen on my cover page of my business, A Brush with the Past) and once I am happy with it, I hit "export" and it sends it back to my computer image storage all ready to go.

As an artist you will love this program.  That is why I decided to write this post today.  As anyone who reads my blog knows, I am always on the lookout for ways to make life easier but on the cheap, and I felt this need to shout this program from the rooftops!

So give PicMonkey a Try, it doesn't cost anything to check it out.  But if like me, you were frustrated with how your images were turning out, this is the best photo editing program for you!