Top 4 canvas print gift ideas.

Sometimes buying presents is fun and easy, but for the most part, it’s not. Some people are so hard to buy for, and trawling through town for hours only to end up purchasing bubble bath as a last resort is upsetting for everyone, amiright?! 

Luckily for you and the person you’re buying for, Pixelpaint canvases are the perfect gift. They are completely customisable, affordable, and you can order quickly and easily from our online store. We’ll also ship straight to the lucky person's front door for you. Did I mention that we can slip a handwritten note in with your order for you that says ‘Happy Birthday Doug’, or something like that? Because we can!

Here are some ideas to inspire you!

Inspirational/positive quote: Never underestimate the power of words. Reading something inspiring or positive can change your mood instantly. This option is easy to whip up yourself on Photoshop and there are so many great ideas online.

Old memories: Do you have any cool looking vintage photographs lying around? Turn those suckas into canvases! Nothing beats a a good throwback. You will need access to a good scanner for this option (places like Harvey Norman can help with this).

Natural beauties: I know what you’re thinking, but that’s totally not what I mean. Beautiful, serene pictures of nature have been known to have calming effect on people, increase brain function and do your housework for you (that last part was a lie). If you know someone who could use a little zen, why not make them a nature themed canvas?

Secret obsessions: Do you have a friend who is crazy obsessed with someone or something embarrassing and hilarious, like aliens or Jessica Simpson? Why not have it/her printed for them on canvas? Gaurenteed to lighten the mood, novelty canvases do make memorable, funny gifts.

Head here to place your order with us today.

Free image editing software you should know about!

Most of the time, when something is advertised as being both awesome AND free, it’s too good to be true and loaded with catches. This is not one of those times.

We constantly have customers contacting us asking us to edit their images for one of our canvas prints, unfortunately we don't always have time to oblige! Instead, we've spent ages ferreting around online, testing various free photo editing software options to see what’s good, so you don’t have to. We know, we’re sweethearts...

Photoshop is the boss when it comes to image editing, but not everyone has access to it or is keen to fork out serious bling for something they are only going to use a handful of times. Also, sometimes you just want “to like, make an image look ‘vintage’ or whatever.” We feel ya. 

Here are our two favourites, one for the complete novice, and the other for the more advanced computer user.

Befunky – for beginners.

· This website is free and it’s stupidly easy to use. No confusing language, really engaging interface and the whole website is a piece of cake to navigate.

· Get rid of red eye, adjust the brightness and contrast, crop your image or fix the colours.

· You have access to a huge range of effects that you can apply to your image instantly with the click of your mouse including pop art, vintage and lomo.

· There are some advanced options and effects that you have to purchase to use, but all of the basic and popular effects and tools are FREE and you don’t have to download anything.

Aviary - more advanced.

We’re kind of late to the party on this one. Aviary has been around for a while, and it’s basically amazing.

· Aviary allows you to extensively edit and manipulate media, offering some, if not all, of the basic functions you’d get in Photoshop.

· You have access to the same basic editing tools and effects as befunky, but a lot more freedom to move beyond those options and create effects yourself.

· You can download it as an app for mobile users, and it’s compatible with pretty much any browser.

· There are loads of tutorials online, so if you’re a newb and you want to take your image editing to the next level, make sure you hit up YouTube first.

In case you didn’t already know, we’re super open to suggestions and feedback, so if you want to see us do a tutorial or blog on a particular topic, reach out! Hello@pixelpaint.co.nz.

Top 10 photography tips!

It’s nice to have friends! Luckily for us, one of our buddies is killer photographer and all round good guy Duncan Rourke of Creative Stance.

We’ve got a visual crush on his skills, and he’s been kind enough to let us in on his tricks of the trade. Here are his top 10 basic photography tips for ya’ll:

1. Always shoot at the highest Megapixel setting your camera offers. It is easy to resize your image smaller for the internet/emailing, but you can’t make it bigger!

2. Don’t use the zoom if you can take a few steps towards the subject instead. ‘Digital zoom’ is unreliable and will only give you bad results.

3. Are your action shots always out of focus? Next time half press the shutter button before the action takes place. Problem solved!

4. Crooked sunsets are for losers, so watch the horizon line. The easiest way to get your horizon horizontal is to simply line it up with the top or bottom of your view finder. Most camera’s come with simple photo editing software with a ‘straighten’ tool.

5. Take care when it comes to framing. Look into the corners of the viewfinder to see what is going to be at the edge of your photo. Do you need all of that background? Probably not…

6. Force the flash outdoors. Use the flash in bright sunlight to lighten dark shadows under the eyes and nose, especially when the sun is directly overhead or behind your subject.

7. Be a director. Talk to your subjects, make them feel comfortable!

8. Mix up your shooting angle. Don’t be afraid to get down to waist or ground level, this works  wonders when photographing small children or animals.

9. Try not to use ‘on camera flash’ indoors. It often creates horrible colours and can create the  dreaded ‘red eyes’. Make sure your subjects are away from walls, no one likes seeing outline shadows.

10.  Purchase good quality memory cards and backup your files. It can be very frustrating losing your photos so watch out for the cheap and nasty cards.

Now you’re fully equipped with the knowledge, you can go take some awesome family snaps for your next pixelpaint canvas print. Haven’t purchased a canvas yet? Email us and mention this blog post, and we’ll hook you up with a discount.

Get to it!

Our top five tips for choosing an image for your canvas print.

Once I convinced my hairdresser to give me an asymmetrical haircut. She didn’t want to do it but I forced her. The end result was mildly horrifying but I pretended to like it, mostly because I was too proud to admit she was right. I was out of pocket, I looked freaky, and even though I forced her to do it, I secretly hated my hairdresser for giving me the haircut of my nightmares.

We never want anyone to experience that with us, metaphorically. We know you love that photo of a photo of a mural from the 70’s that is really small, and you say you don’t care if it prints out pixelated, but we’re here to stop you from making the same same mistake that I did back in 2009. Here are our top five tips on choosing an image for your canvas print!

Tip 1 – Decide where it’s going to go first.

Consider what kind of image would fit in with the surroundings. Think about how much wall space you have to work with and identify the dominant colours in the room. Is there an existing theme in the room already that you need to consider?

Tip 2– Be picky.

Choose an image that speaks to you, something that you love. Looking around at art and design online is a great way to get some inspiration.

Tip 3 – The bigger the better.

Lets be honest, size does matter. If you have a huge digital image to work with, we can always reduce it down to a more manageable size. But if your image is tiny it’s going to look crap once we blow it up on to canvas. Make sure you check over our image requirements before you go image hunting!

Tip 4 – Pick something timeless.

Nothing sucks more than breaking up with someone, except for breaking up with someone and then realising you have a massive canvas of you and your ex making out on the wall. Pick an image you are going to like for a really long time, because our canvases come with a 10 year guarantee.

Tip 5 – Be Adventurous.

Play around with the brightness, contrast and colour of your image until it looks just right. There are literally hundreds of free image editing websites out there if your not a photoshop whizz. Think outside the box, and test out some different effects.

We hope you found those helpful! Holla at us if you have a topic you’d like us to blog about via hello@pixelpaint.co.nz