Noshtopia Phoenix

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Turning Yucky Mobile Phone Food Pictures Into Beautiful Things With Picnik

 

Here's some of the bread that you get at St. Francis. So yummy that place.

I'm into month two of my six month iPhone food picture taking experiment, where I ditched my fancy Nikon DSLR for the iPhone to take all my food pictures. I love the convenience of the iPhone, but it's still only a 3 mega-pixel camera with no flash capability. I'm also not the type to take a picture and then straight upload. Oh no! The creative in me needs to do some prettying up of the photo before it hits any of my blogs, tweets or Facebook.

So, you know how you find a new software or application and just get so super excited about it that you just gotta tell everyone...or in my case blog about it. Well, let me share with you Picnik, an online photo-editing application that is a miracle maker in my book.

And no, they are not paying me or giving me anything for this review. I found Picnik on my own because I wanted something cheap and could do things like Photoshop because I can't afford Photoshop which I had on my laptop before I got the viruses and had to strip everything. Of course, I left my original Photoshop install CDs back in California.

I tried the free version of Picnik and dug it so much, I got the paid version because I wanted access to all the effects and I wanted to see NO ads. Yes, you have to pay to not see ads and I'm good with that because well Picnik is cheap, uh I mean, affordable. Let me tell you, for the price of a Starbucks coffee drink per month, this is one of the best deals you are going to find on the web. I can totally see why Google just acquired them.

In fact, I'll stop talking for a moment and just show you a simple Before/After example of some wine. (Note: Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.)

 
 

The original shot was taken on my iPhone 3GS in a private room at a menu tasting event at Fleming's Steakhouse & Wine Bar. In the After picture, all I did was some cropping, added a vignette effect, and then used a cool effect called "focal soften" which gives you that hot clear spot where the wine glasses are and then soft fading out. The After photo feels warmer like you're at a nice steakhouse which Fleming's is.

Picnk also has a "frame" effect called "Before & After" which created the comparison shot you see here. They are thinking about bloggers {wink}.

Here's another example with steak and green beans that just blew me away. 

 

Big difference, huh? I feel like Picnik saved this "Before" mobile phone picture from photo yuckiness. The steak alone looks so much tastier. Looking at the "After" picture would you guess that it was taken with a cell phone? Photo experts might but not the average blog reader.

And again, it was very simple. In effects, I just boosted up the exposure, saturation, and contrast. I added some warmth in the "temperature" setting. Then I used the same "focal soften" effect. Voila! That's it.

Now check out this pistachio hot mess. (Again, click on the image to see a larger version. You'll really be able to appreciate the difference in the two photos when you see it large.)

 
 

Well? Oh yeah, rescue! Again, I boosted the exposure, saturation, and contrast. Made the photo more "warm" versus cool in the "temperature" effect. I went into "curves" to take away some of the blue, then added the "Matte" effect which adds that white glow on the edges of the photo, and to make the center pop even more, added the "focal soften" effect.

As you can see, I'm a huge fan of the "focal soften" effect. I really like how that effect just warms up the food and makes it feel inviting. The effect also adds some dramatic flair by making the viewer's eye go to the best part of the whole image.

There are a whole other bunch of effects on Picnik which can get pretty wild or goofy like stuff you see in scrapbooks...no offense. You can add holiday border themes like Easter or St. Patrick's. You can add "stickers." You can create collages, photo shows, and order prints. You can connect and get access to all your photos on major sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Photobucket.

But best, this app is easy, fun, and simple. I like all the presets to make instant changes, but also there is the flexibility to do some advanced stuff for those who are more fancy schmancy photo enthusiasts. Again, Picnik is no Photoshop, but it can do some pretty darn cool things much easier for us who like simple and are avid mobile device users.

Really: Dr. Oz And His “10 Commandments of Weight Loss”

 

For the most part, I do like Dr. Oz. I find him not only educational but warm and funny. He can talk about poo on TV and it's cool.  He does a good job of helping to take the fear out of looking at your health. This is coming from someone who used to be terrified of hospitals and used to take a, "maybe it will just go away" approach to my health.

I liked Dr. Oz more back in the early days when he was on Oprah, and his book, "You: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management" which he co-wrote with Dr. Michael Roizen was a Diet & Fitness book I actually found impressive because for doctors they made their book fun and practical. Doctors who show their humor are good peeps in my book.

But now that Dr. Oz has his own show, and now has the pressure to produce numbers, TV ratings, I think he's starting to do more and more things that are trendy to attract viewers versus just being himself. A perfect example is this PR pitch I got, "Dr. Mehmet Oz will share his “10 Commandments of Weight Loss” on Friday's show."

My first reaction to that pitch is pure shuddering because really how many umpteenth times have we heard the phrase "commandments of weight loss." That's the stuff infomercials are made of.

But...I have to read further because it's Dr. Oz and now I'm curious about these commandments. Here's 5 of them:

• Thou shalt not wear pants that stretch.
• Thou shalt not eat meat that walks on 4 legs more than once a week.
• Thou shalt not eat while standing up or in a car.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s plate nor sneak bites from it.
• Thou shalt not pile food more than 1 inch high (or put food within 2 inches of the edge of the plate).

Immediately, I see a list of rules and restrictions that would make anyone feel like they are back in Catholic school. *ugh*  So, if I break a commandment does that mean I'm going to be judged and sent to hell? Actually yes, more of dieting hell.

One of the main reasons diets and weight loss programs don't work long term is because they focus on negatives not positives which can make you feel more on edge versus feeling optimistic. I mean really, do I have to make sure my food doesn't come within 2" of the edge of the plate. Isn't that getting a bit anal retentive? Why not just eat on a smaller plate?

I'm very skeptical about the other 10 commandments which look like they are going to be ridiculous like these first five. Again, I like you Dr. Oz so why do you disappointment me with stuff like this. How about stuff like this instead:

• Thou shall eat more food in the natural form Mother Nature created.
• Thou shall drink water to help the body perform its best
• Thou shall hang out with people who support your healthy living goals
• Thou shall stop judging oneself and practice more self kindness.
• Thou shall learn the emotional connection one has with food and make the changes to break the association of food = comfort.

That's my two cents. So what do you think about the weight loss commandments approach?

Social Media + Restaurants: Wildflower Bread Company Does Twitter Right

 

I don't do this often, but I have to give a huge gold star to Wildflower Bread Company because here has got to be one of the most perfect examples of how a restaurant or even any brand for that matter can do Twitter with utter awesomeness and develop a stronger customer bond...because after this experience, this customer definitely has developed more love for the Wildflower brand.

Just doing my usual online social thing

I go to the Wildflower Bread in Scottsdale because they have free WiFi so I can blog and tweet, and I can eat lunch or early dinner. Sometimes I like to eat my heavy meal of the day between 3-5pm, and not all places serve the dinner like meals all day. After 3pm, Wildflower does.

So, I do a check-in at Yelp on 2/1. I'm more open to doing the "here's where I'm at" thing on Yelp versus Gowalla or Foursquare because on Yelp it feels less stalkerish to me and I have a context to check-in as I'm a food blogger. All my Yelp check-ins are then automatically set up to post to my Facebook page and my Twitter account @noshtopia. I do @noshtopia versus @skinnyjeans because I'm still not comfortable announcing to 47K people where I'm at. @noshtopia has a smaller yet more more focused audience of foodies, so I'm good with announcing my food whereabouts to them.

A pleasantly shocking surprise

About an hour later, I'm still at Wildflower, and I check my @noshtopia replies and I see a tweet from @WildflowerCEO aka Louis Basile asking me how my visit was. I am literally in shock. Typically at these chain type restaurants, you're barely even asked how your visit is when you are physically in the restaurant. I'm getting asked on Twitter about the service, so obviously, Wildflower not only does active searches on their name, but they follow up...right then and there. The social media person in me feels my heart swell :)

I think the move is pretty bold and refreshing too because they take the chance of me replying in an open forum that I might say my visit sucked or I hated it...especially when I got the CEO's ear. Often, you'll hear companies shy away from doing this kind of customer communication in social media because they are driven more by the fear of negative feedback. To me, I think the companies who are serious about creating a better experience for their customers will be open to ALL feedback and listen.

 

I, of course, reply with some nice comment because I genuinely do have a good time every time I go to Wildflower. I mention one of my favorite foods there which is the big pretzel with the honey mustard, and @WildflowerCEO replies to my reply with again something about keeping in touch with them so they can continue to do better.

How social media and business work ideally in the real world

I am so impressed by this whole interaction, you have NO IDEA! Obviously, you do because I'm gushing about it on my blog and tweeting about the experience. I had to share this Twitter experience because it is literally how every marketing person would ideally like their client/company to behave in social media.

As a customer, who lives on the web, I feel like this company understands how I live (online), and has taken the time to engage me and to make sure that I am having a good experience with them. No doubt that I will be eating more pretzels and soup there. Bravo to Wildflower!

Oh, and one last tidbit. This is how much Wildflower understands web workers, bloggers, or mobile workers and wants these types to come to their place, at least in the Scottsdale restaurant. Besides the free WiFi, there are electrical plugs at every booth. Having a plethora of plugs is awesome. Seriously, paying attention to that detail is very impressive to me.