1/31/2010 google's picture perfect picasaiq/compclass/picasa.pdffolder on your computer for...

1/31/2010 Google's Picture Perfect Picasa

The Picasa software lets you

organize, edit, and upload your

photos in quick, easy steps.

Download Picasa at

http://picasa.google.com


http://picasa.google.com/

• You'll be prompted to accept the terms of agreement. Click I Agree. • The 'Picasa Setup' dialog should appear. Choose a location on your

computer where you'd like to save the application and click Next.

• Click Finish to complete the installation


Organizing Photos

Digital editing tools

Exporting Photos

Tools for sharing your pictures via e-mail

posting them on a blog

making CDs


Agenda Part 1

Importing pictures in Picasa.

organizing pictures

Editing and sharing pictures


Importing Pictures into Picasa

The first time you start the program, Picasa

will offer you two choices to scan your

entire hard drive for pictures.


Picasa does not store the photos on your computer.

When you open Picasa, it simply looks at the folders on

your computer and displays the photos it finds. It

displays the file types that you tell it to find, in the folders

that you tell it to search.

Picasa scan for pictures menu




Option one scans your hard drives for pictures and

adds them to the Picasa Library. You can then edit

organize or share these pictures in Picasa.



Option two scans your specific directories for

pictures and adds them to the Picasa Library.

Choices for Importing Pictures

into Picasa

1. Scan your entire hard drive for pictures.

2. Scan just your Desktop, My Pictures, and My Documents folders.


Importing Pictures into Picasa

Once you tell Picasa which option you prefer, it immediately goes to work finding and organizing pictures.

Picasa is going to take a while now, and scan all the images in the selected folders. It’s best to allow it to finish,


Scanned pictures in Picasa




Folders

created by

Picasa auto

scan

http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibrary550.jpg


The folders can be modified as we can

control which folders to include and

exclude more specifically using

something called the Folder Manager


Menus and toolbars

Picasa menu Bar

At the top of the screen is the

normal collection of menus

and toolbars, and most of

these do just the things you

might expect them to.


http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibrarymenu.png


On the left of the Library View is the Folder List.

There are, when you start, two Collections in the

list. Albums and Folders.

Folders are grouped by year. The Folders listed

directly relate to the folders/directories you see

in Windows Explorer.

Albums are virtual collections of files, and don’t

relate to anything real on your hard drive.

You can create an album and add images, and

all Picasa does is keep track of them together,

without actually moving any of the real files.

http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibraryfolderflat.png


The major

portion of the

screen, and

the one

you’re likely

to spend

most of your

time, is

called the

Light Box.

The light box is similar to the thumbnail

view in Windows Explorer, and mostly

behaves the same way.

http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibrarylightbox.png

Status Bar

Directly underneath the Light Box is the

status bar. This shows you a whole lot of

information about whatever is currently

selected. Keep an eye on it. It’s very

handy.

Underneath the Status Bar are two more

important features, collectively known as

the Photo Tray.


http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibrarystatus.png

Photo TrayUnderneath the Status Bar are two more important

features, collectively known as the Photo Tray.


1. On the bottom are all the tools you need to deal

with moving your images onto the web, printing

them, blogging etc.

2. Top right of this tool is a slider to let you change

the thumbnail size in the Light Box.

3. Top left are some buttons for dealing with

individual images, including rotating and

favouriting

cc

http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibraryphototray.png


Photo Tray

Over in the left corner is the

Photo Tray itself. This tool lets

you deal with multiple files at

once. We won’t be doing that

here, but those three buttons

are (from top to bottom) Hold,

Clear and Add to Album.

http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picasalibraryphototrayleft.png

Importing Basics: Add new photos

You can import new photos and videos into Picasa -from a camera, CD/DVD, memory card, camera phone etc. - in a few simple steps


Importing photo from external source

1. Connect the camera (or memory card, CD/DVD, scanner, etc.) to your computer.

2. In Picasa, click the Import button.

3. Select the source of your new photos (e.g. your camera) from the 'Import from' drop-down menu at the top.

4. Small thumbnail previews will display in the import tray, divided into groups based on the time in which they were taken.



Select the destination

folder on your computer for

your new photos, from the

'Import to' drop-down menu

at the bottom.

Select the source of your

new photos (e.g. your

camera) from the 'Import

photos from' drop-down

menu at the top.

Select the specific photos you'd like to import and click Import

Selected, or click Import All to import all the photos displayed.


The folder list on the left is the hub for

Picasa organization. By scrolling

through this list, you can access all

photos displayed by Picasa. To

understand Picasa organization, you

need to understand the following three

collections:

ALBUMS

PEOPLE

FOLDERS


Folders

Folders in Picasa represent the folders

on your computer. You control the

folders that are scanned and displayed

by Picasa. Changes you make to

folders in Picasa affect the

corresponding folders on your

computer's hard drive. For example, if

you delete a photo in a Picasa folder,

that photo is also deleted from the

computer.

http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=11511



Albums

Unlike folders, albums exist only in

Picasa. Albums allow you to create virtual

groups of photos taken from multiple

folders on your computer.

Albums display those photos without

actually moving the photo -- it's like a

playlist for photos.

When you delete or move photos from an

album, the original files remain in their

original folders on your computer

You can use albums to group and

organize photos based on your own

criteria and identified by a simple word

or title..


For example, you can create a album

called “Flowers” to group all of your

photos of flowers, or you might create a

album like “Trip to The Grand Canyon”

to arrange all of your latest vacation

photos.


Unlike the “Folders” collection, which

matches exactly the folder locations on

your computer, albums do not correspond

to physical folders on your hard drive.

Albums exist only in Picasa and are like a

virtual "playlist" of photos you have

grouped together


If you delete or move photos inside the

Albums collection, the original files remain

in their original locations on your hard

drive. You can add the same photo to

multiple albums without creating multiple

copies of the same photo on disk.


Any edits you make to a photo in an

album will be applied to every instance

of the photo in Picasa, including the

original in your Folders collection.


Select “File” > “New

Album” to create a new

album in Picasa.

Enter name of album in

the dialog box and click

OK


Select a photo, right click the select the “Add to” button to the right of the Photo Tray, and then select the “Album” on the popup list.


Add to AlbumAlbum name

Note : You can also select multiple photos and drag

them to the album on the left.

Select a photo. Right click with your mouse and

select “Remove from Album” in the context menu

or press the Delete key on your keyboard.


Remove from Album

Note: Deleting a photo from an album does not delete

the original file from your computer’s hard drive.

Select photo and Right click

to open context menu

To change an album description.

Double click on the title of any album to open the

“Album Properties” box.

Enter a new description for the album.

You can also modify the album’s date, place taken, or

description.

Any descriptive information you add will be searchable

in Picasa. When you’re done, click the “OK” button.



People

In this collection, you can organize your photos

by what frequently matters most -- the people in

them.

Picasa uses facial recognition technology to find

and group similar faces together across your

entire collection of photos.

By adding name tags to these groups of faces,

new people albums are created.

These people albums are just like the albums

above: when you move or delete faces, the

original files stay put.



• Double click the unnamed People folder .

• In the Light box the pictures will be displayed. Select a

picture you want to name.

• In the “Add Name” text box enter the name of the

person and press enter.

• A dialog box will appear. Enter the additional

information of this person (optional) and press the “new

Person” button on the left hand bottom corner.


• Picasa will now select photo similar to

this person and save it in a new people

folder with this persons name.

• Opening this folder will show all the

photos for this person


Your photos take on more meaning when you share

them with friends and family. Here are two ways to quick

share your photos:

Upload photos to the web

Use the Upload button in Picasa to upload all

selected photos to Picasa Web Albums.

Don't feel like picking through your photos?

The Share button

uploads an entire folder or album, and sends email

invitations to your friends and family.








Click the Email button in Picasa to quickly send

all selected photos to friends and family, using

the email provider of your choice.

Keep in mind that email doesn't accommodate a

large number of photos, so if you want to share

a lot of photos, consider uploading them to

Picasa Web Albums, where you can take

advantage of the free one GB of storage that's

available.




Email your photos

Picasa provides you with the editing tools

you need to fix common problems and

create unique effects in your photos.

Double-click a photo that you'd like to edit

and use the three editing tabs to the left.


Editing Tabs


'Basic Fixes' tab: Make simple fixes.

Removing red-eye

Cropping photos

One-click fixes for color and contrast.

'Tuning' tab: Advanced editing features

Fix contrast

Remove color cast.

Adjust shadows and highlights

Brighten up the foreground with fill light

'Effects' tab:

Choose from 12 effects with the potential

to dramatically alter your photos..





Your original photos are always preserved.

When using editing tools in Picasa, your

original files are never touched. The photo

edits you make are only viewable in Picasa

until you decide to save your changes. Even

then, Picasa creates a new version of the

photo with your edits applied, leaving the

original file totally preserved.


Use the “Crop” button to cut out parts of

a photo that you don’t want to see.

In the “Crop Photo” view, you can select

a predetermined photo size (for instance,

4x6) or manually select the part of the

photo you’d like to keep.

To crop a photo, drag and drop the

bounding box directly over the photo. Click

on and drag the corners of the box to

change the cropped selection while

maintaining the same proportions. Click

“Apply” to save your changes in Picasa or

“Cancel” to return to the “Basic Fixes” tab


For any folder or album in Picasa, just

click the Play button in the folder or

album header.
