Digital Photography - Editing using Picasa

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Picasa2, a photograph editing, viewing, printing and e-mailing program from Google, can be downloaded free by clicking the above logo.
It is even possible to upload your photos to Picasa.  Mine are at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/paterson.keith.

Although the Picasa site says it only works for people with Windows 2000 and XP I have now heard that it is fine with Win 98 and ME. Even if Picasa says that your version is up to date I recommend that you go to their site and download the latest version (2,7) as it is better than the older ones.  For instance it will let you save an improved file to the same name. In doing so it does make a backup in another folder termed Originals, which can be deleted later

Please note that there have been problems uploading photos to Blogger from Picasa, although uploading to your own space (as above) still works fine

There is a book on Picasa called 'ORGANISING AND EDITING YOUR PHOTOS WITH PICASA' by Steve Schwartz.  £6 from Amazon.  But, frankly, it is the most self explanatory program I know

** Occasionally Picasa gets its data file in a twist and the wrong pictures are displayed. They suggest that the data file (db) should be deleted and recreated.  For instructions on this go to Picasa and press F1 (for Help) Type in " Wrong Photo " and print and study the answer.

A new feature of Picasa is called Hello. It is a new program that lets you connect directly with your friends to share your digital pictures. If you’ve used an instant messenger program before, you’ve already got the idea—Hello is special because it lets you share your pictures along with your messages. With Hello, you just pick what pictures you want to show off, and click “Send.” That’s it. Hello takes care of all the hard work. And you and your friends can download full resolution, print-quality pictures from each other, while you’re doing more important things, like talking about your pictures.

To say that it is the most friendly program I have ever used is indeed a compliment to its 'intuitive' nature.  It helps you achieve the effects you want without even having to look up a manual, though there is on line help available.  So, why do I feel it necessary to write a manual ?  I is simply that Picasa has so many extras that you might not discover at a cursory glance.

The first thing you will notice, on loading Picasa, is that it goes right through your hard disk finding anything that it considers to be a photo (or video).  It takes a little while to do this initially but then is produces a list of your folders, displaying the photographs. You get the option, on installation, to choose to restrict the search to the My Pictures folder and I would recommend this.  Otherwise you will see pictures of every little graphic from Help files to Graphics programs you happen to have.

When it has finsihed you can just click away on these to enlarge them or can click Slideshow to see a display of all the photos in that folder full screen with a few seconds for each.  Simple !

Incidentally, when you add or move, add or Save a copy of your pictures it takes a few moments for Picasa to realise you have done this.  Eventually you should see it working away putting them into the right place in your folders. Later it may automatically compress the data files to save space.

Initially, it will put the folders in the date order when the pictures were taken. If you wish to put them in a different.order (e.g.alphabetical folder, which I prefer) just click View and choose what you want to do.

n.b. One peculiarity of Picasa is that, on occasion, it displays the wrong pictures in a folder, although clicking on the picture will display the correct one for the title underneath.  Don't worry if this happens as it has not done anything to the originals.  To 'refresh' the folder, so the correct pictures show, right click on the folder on the left and click 'Refresh thumbnails'.  Even that does not work sometimes but I have found that splitting a folder can help. Picasa works with a number of data files (db) and these can becomke confused.  In the end you may have to delete the database folder and let it recreate the whole thing.

In Picasa 2, if you go to File, Save As and change the name of a picture, you will find that Picasa has also created a backup of the original. It is a good safety measure. Later you may decide to delete these originals to save space.

So, apart from a super 'viewer' what else is Picasa capable of ?  See the methods appropriate to each number below.

  1. Improve brightness and contrast (or do these separately). Try clicking I'm feeling lucky.  If it doesn't improve things Undo this or any other feature
  2. Crop... cut to the best part of the photo
  3. Straighten
  4. Red Eye removal (although I have used better ones)
  5. Sharpen those blurred pictures - to some extent.
  6. Turn them to black and white or sepia
  7. Make a gift CD (if you have a CD writer)
  8. Make a 'still movie' i.e. a movie program that appears to zoom in on each still picture
  9. Make a collage
  10. Batch edit multiple pictures
  11. Delete from disk
  12. Rename a picture or make a copy
  13. Make a caption which appears in the slideshow.
  14. E-mail a small version of your picture to someone. This will not only be a smaller file size but will also fit their email screen. This is quite important now popular cameras often produce massive pictures (they may be megabytes in size) which take ages to email and are difficult for the recipient to view. I have heard reports of firewalls stopping this process inititially
  15. Backup to CD or DVD
  16. Order prints
  17. Print your own pictures (various sizes) in an economic layout on your paper.
  18. Create 'wallpaper 'or screensaver from a picture
  19. Rotate pictures - putting portraits upright so you can view them easily
  20. Import from camera or scanner
  21. Easily move, compare and de-duplicate pictures
  22. Make a permanent copy without changing the original. (Save a Copy or Save As) Or just Save (latest version)
  23. Make a Web Album so other people can see your pictures (or even videos)

    New version features include : Make a poster, create a web album for friends to see or download, Publish to Blogger, Associate a picture with a Google Earth map (Geotag it) and even upload it so others can see it in Google Earth and much more.

Remember you can always click 'Undo' to get back to the original. To select a number of pictures click Hold each time. Alternatively, click the first one, hold down Shift and click the last one.

Open a picture then

  1. Just click on " I'm feeling lucky' or click brightness and autocontrast. Make a Copy or (with some versions) Save it over the original. Then Undo the action so you can distinguish it from the new copy.  If the new one is much better, delete the original.
  2. Click Crop, drag the cursor across the picture then apply (or undo)
  3. Click straighten, move the straightener and then click Apply
  4. Click Red eye removal, drag the mouse across the offending eye.  Click Apply
  5. Click Effect, Sharpen  once or  twice, then Apply.  Don't overdo it !  But you can always Undo and action.
  6. Click Effect and choose one of the alternatives and Apply
  7. Select a number of pictures by clicking which you want, then Hold each time.  Click make a gift CD
  8. As for 7 but click Create Movie.  The resultant file is massive but could be saved to CD/DVD to send to someone
  9. As for 7 with about 4 pictures and click create collage (to print)
  10. Go to a folder, click Edit Select All, then click  Picture, Batch Edit
  11. Right click a picture and click Delete from disk
  12. Click a picture and press F2.  Rename it. Or click Make a Copy on the left
  13. Click a picture, drag the cursor across the word Caption and type in your own
  14. Click a picture (or several ) and click Email at the bottom. To send more than one click Hold each time.  Tip: to make a reduced version of a picture just email them to yourself and give them a new name or put them in a different folder.  I usually attach an 'a' to the file name to distinguish it.
  15. Click Tools, Backup.  You need a CD or DVD writer
  16. Click Create and click Order prints (or other products)  You are given a choice of processor.  You have to upload pictures, of course, and , if you are wanting many, this is only realistic with Broadband.
  17. Select and hold one or more pictures. Click print at the bottom.  Choose the size you want. It will fit pictures the best way it can.
  18. Click a picture and click Create
  19. Click a picture and use the rotate arrows at the bottom
  20. Click Import at the top and choose your already installed camera or scanner
  21. Picasa is great for organising and de-duplicating (getting rid of identical pictures which are in different folders). Not only is it is easier to see duplicates but also, you can 'drag' them from one folder to another.  If you select several photos by holding down shift (or Alt) you can move them all at one go.  Alternatively you can Cut or Copy (via Edit) and then paste them into another folder.  If Picasa finds identical pictures it will give you the option to Skip or Rename the duplicates.  If you Skip it will leave the duplicates behind.  If you choose Rename it will not overwrite the original but they will appear together and you can decide whether to delete one or the other.

  22. N.B Any editing you do with Picasa is NOT saved and can be undone at any time within Picasa. To save a change go File, Save, Save As or Save a Copy.  A copy will NOT overwrite the original but will rename it with an extra number. You can then Undo the change on the original and (if you are sure then copy is an improvement) delete it. 

  23. Web Albums. See mine Here. Picasa allows 250Mb of free space to create an on line Web Album. This is not too difficult to do but, unless your pictures are compressed down you may need Broadband to upload many.

    To  create you own web album you must have a Picasa account.  If you already have a Googlemail email address you can use that. Now go to Http://picasa.google.com/support and bookmark it for future reference.  Then go to www.picasaweb.google.com and click "New Album".  You will be taken through the Registration procedure and they will email you to confirm your account. When you have logged in click on "Upload Photos" on the left.  If you are using Internet Explorer you can browse for and upload around 5 photos at a time.  The first time you use this feature you will be asked to install the Active X plug-in when prompted.  If you are not using IE you will be able to upload photos one by one.  When you have completed an upload you will be directed to the album.  Make a note of the address in the address line so you can tell other people where your photos are.


    Examples of editing photographs using Picasa features :  Here are four versions of the same picture, which have been treated with various Picasa facilities.  The first picture has been taken badly, at a slant.  This was corrected using number 3 above - Straighten.  The third picture shows a 'cropped' version. And in the last case the cropped one has been improved using " I'm feeling lucky" which guesses the better brightness and contrast.

    Picture at a slant

    Picture straightened

    Cropped picture

    Picture improved

    If you would like further tips on Picasa, do not hesitate to get in touch

    Click on the above space for more information on Picasa
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