Getting Funky with befunky

If you go to my facebook page, or twitter, or pikchur, you will notice I enjoy taking photographs. When I got a new cellphone, I wanted something that could take photographs and videos, like people want to know how their cellphone is to make and receive phone calls, my that is so 1990's. When the family camera died, I wanted to make sure the next camera was an improvement.

I enjoy taking pictures.

One aspect that has been a major plus for all of us who take photographs is the availability of places to store our photos and also to edit our photographs. In fact last year, PCMag had an article on the various free online editing sites there are out there for the budding photographs. I encourage you to read it and use some of the sites listed, there's a number of very good ones. I prefer Picnik myself and have used it a number of times. You may go over the article and find a different one, and so be it, more power to you.

All the sites have a basic, read free, site and then they offer the premium sites, usually with more services, no ads and better resolution of the end results. Also if you get the premium service, you get tools that are not offered in the basic. Flickr offers such a thing, Picnik and Pikchur all make it possible to enhance your experience at a relatively reasonable yearly cost. I understand, for example, Flickr allows you to upload and store more photographs for $24.95 a year.

One site that I've used a few times is BeFunky. It's different in that it allows you to take your photograph and do some very interesting things with it. The header in the homepage states you can turn your digital photographs into 'works of art'. It is actually very good and you can do some fascinating things with regular pictures:





So quite impressive when it comes to the effects. I noted they even have an app on Facebook. You've perhaps seen the notices for 'cartoonizer'. That's BeFunky in action. If it's an app on Facebook, it is probably bringing in the dough.

It's a fairly recent company but it sounds like it has a good workplan for growth and expansion.

The site is clean and fairly user friendly. To make the necessary changes is also straightforward, although you might find the choices a bit overwhelming. The claim is 125 different special effects, so there is truly accounting for all sorts of taste. The work can be saved to a gallery, saved to the hard drive, emailed, shared and printed. You can also take your work and turn it into mugs, t shirts, stickers, magnets, post cards and postage stamps, USA only.

The company wants you to take out a befunky plus membership. It is a premium that offers first and foremost, the removal of the watermark, plus things such as better resolution and the ability to upload more photographs. It sounds like a great deal, but I've got to admit I do have one slight problem and I think if they change this, it would be an even better site.

The problem is the amount, befunky wants $50.00. It does mean no more of those annoying announcements and the slowing down of the work, but I wonder if the price is a bit much. As I pointed out, most other services offer premium grade for $25.00. I think this is probably the sweet spot for most of us. Fifty seems a bit much, but for half that I suspect they would get a lot more people. If they halved their costs I think I would look at it as an option.

It's something for them to think about.

Still, it worth considering as a service to enjoy.