This is our review of picnik when we first met them at CES this year, check them out today at 9am Pacific for a free premium access all day into Thursday, 9am Pacific.

It’s possible that I’ve been living under a rock. The other Editors at Tech Bucket Blog certainly feel that way, but I’ve never heard of picnik. Turns out, they’re pretty freakin’ interesting. They offer on-line photo editing in a simple and easy website.

I got a demo of the site and a run down on the features that picnik can do and I have to say it gives iPhoto a run for it’s money (and iPhoto’s free!!!). You’ll find some pretty powerful features like airbrush, red-eye, touch-ups, color balancing, and many others presented in a very simple to use UI. You don’t need a degree in photography or trained in Photoshop to pick up what picnik can do. Did I mention it’s simple?

The comparison to Apple’s industry leading UI is completely unfair. Unfair for Apple (Oh no they didn’t!). picnik has created a “click” (a tool really) for just about everything. If you want to remove a mole, there’s a click for that. You click on it with the remover tool. Poof! The mole is gone. Too much flash coming off your nose? There’s a click for that. Click on the too much flash tool and click on the area where it’s too shiney. Poof! White flash is smoothed out.

Feeling kinda vampirey? There’s a click for that. Click on the vampire eyes tool and select the eyes of your subject to make them look just plain creepy. There’s even a click to make turn human skin to lizard skin…but it’s just gave me the heebiejeebies.

Have you put too many edits into the photo? Looking kinda digital faked? There’s a click for that too (airbrush)! Smooth it out and..Poof! You’ve got a finished image that looks clean. All in a few clicks and probably 5mins of your time.

Need to print one out? Why not do it through Costco (13 cents for each 4×3)? A few more clicks and picnik sends your pictures off to printing to Costco or some of the many other services they’re partnered with.

We’ll definitely be spending more time with the site, so check them out at www.picnik.com.

(Editor’s Note: I was promised by the folks showing me the demo that the site would never be complicated and they’re right. A lot of what I described is free and you’ll clearly be able to tell what premium users have access to. Besides, any site that asks if you’re blood thirsty on the landing page can’t be bad.)

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