Ever get frustrated that you don’t have a simple system to edit (i.e. crop, color, brighten, redeye removal…) your photos? Perhaps you don’t have $600 to buy Photoshop + 40 hours to invest in learning how to use it. Maybe you are like me, taking dozens of photos per month just to let them sit on your PC, waiting for when you have time to organize and edit them. If this is you (and you have not heard of Google Picasa) then you are going to thank me for this blog post.
Over a year ago Neal told me about Picasa. I downloaded it out of curiosity and was thrilled when it automatically found and organized every photo on my computer. Picasa found photos I didn’t even know I had. I have yet to find such a simple system for editing, printing, emailing, and preparing my photos for my iMemoryBook projects.
For example, here is a photo of me fighting to catch the garter at my friend’s wedding. You can see that the photo is dark and barely viewable (I am the one in the middle. I did catch it:)
Here is the same photo after 10 seconds of editing in Picassa:
The difference is night and day and it didn’t take more than 5 minutes to learn!
Getting Picasa:
Click here to download Picasa to your computer (it takes less than a minute).
After you have downloaded Picasa, let it go and find your photos on your computer. (If your photos are still on your camera just click import in the top left corner and go get them).
Using Picasa for your iMemoryBook:
- Select all your best photos for your current iMemoryBook project (hold down CRTL to select more than one.)
- Click “Add to” in your bottom tool bar.
- Select “New Album”
- Name your album: “My Personal History Photos” (This example is if you are creating a personal history)
- Continue to add photos to this album until you have all the photos that you want.
- Select your photo album in the “library” and click “Export” in the bottom right side. (I usually export photos to my desktop so that they are easy to find)
Great. You are almost done.
- Log in to your iMemoryBook account.
- Click on your “Photos” tab in your book.
- Click “Upload Photos”
- Click “browse” under “upload multiple photos” (this is the best photo uploader I have ever used)
- Select ALL of the photos in your newly created picasa album.
- Click “Open” and wait for your photos to upload.
Your done!
You can also use Picasa to create CDs, blog entries, and order prints from over 10 different online photo stores.
Picasa is FREE and considered one of the best bargains ever.
Share This
