Picasa is a program for viewing and storing photos in the cloud, editing them, searching by faces, creating collages and videos. How to make a video from photos: the best programs Create a movie using Picasso

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The author of the article is Alena. I want to introduce you to an amazing photo viewer called Picasa. Picasa is the brainchild of Google and also has great capabilities, which I think will be of interest to many.

I often have to deal with photographs. My indispensable assistant lately is the FastStone Image Viewer, which can not only “snatch” photos from a scanner, edit them, show slide shows, but also does an excellent job of batch image processing.

Well, then somehow I was processing digital photographs and caught my eye free program from Google - Picas. I decided to see what this “beast” was and was pleasantly surprised by the possibilities that open up when working with this free photo editor. Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages (for some, perhaps not significant), but more about them below.

What is Picasa, its features and disadvantages

To the advantages Picasa image viewer the following can be attributed:

Photos can be downloaded to your computer directly from a scanner, camera, phone or memory card. A huge number of file types are supported (.jpg, .gif, .nef, .raf, mpg, .avi, .divx, .mp4, .mkv, etc.). The first time you connect any of these devices to your computer, it is configured to auto-upload all files to your Google Drive.
You can view images in both normal and full screen mode. You can also view it as a slide show.
Picasa can be used as free photo editor(possible retouching, cropping, alignment, color/contrast correction, etc.).
It is possible to apply various special effects to photos (sepia, black and white, grain, shine, various shades, posterization, thermal imaging, red-eye removal, etc.)
Images can be sent for printing directly from the picasa photo editor.
You can send the image to someone by email, or send it for publication on social networks.
Create an extraordinary collage from selected photographs.
Create a screen saver from any number of images.
If you decide to edit an image, it will automatically be saved under a new name rather than ruining your original.

The advantages, of course, more than outweigh the existing disadvantages (in principle, you can find fault with any program, if you really want to):

It is not possible to create subfolders (other albums) inside a photo album.
It cannot display files with the .tiff extension correctly (only the first page of several will be visible).
Well, there is a small problem with changing the size of the picture (you can change it, but not in one action, as you would like).

Installing Picasa on your computer

Go to the official website and click Download Picasa. We agree with all the conditions put forward to us, after which we select a folder (a place on our computer) where the download file will be saved (it will not take much, only 65.9 MB). Click the “Install” button.

To complete the installation, uncheck unnecessary checkboxes (I left only the last one - “Run picasa”):

A window will open asking you to create a Google account or log in by entering your email address and password.

Once you have logged in (or re-created) your account, you will be prompted set up auto-upload of photos and videos to Google+. To do this, click on the “Configure” button:

Here you can select those sources from which your photos and video files will be automatically downloaded, which after downloading will be visible only to you (if you do not bother to give anyone access to them). After checking or unchecking the boxes you don’t need, click on “Start downloading”:

For some time (depending on the number of photos and video files on your computer), in the lower right corner of your monitor you will see this window, where the pictures will replace one another - this is a search for all the images available on your computer. Please wait for this process to complete.

That's it, installation of the picasa photo editor on your computer is complete.

Picasa Web Albums - Organize and Add Photos

At first sight photo editor from Google It looks like a regular photo viewer, but it actually has some quirks. Let's see which ones:

On the left we can see the “Folders” section (by the way, they will be a complete copy of the folders that are on our computer). remember, that Once you delete a photo from your Picasa folder, it will also disappear from your computer. Be careful with this.

With the “Albums” section, things are much simpler. Albums are the brainchild of the program itself, so we can move and delete images placed there without fear - the source files will always be located in folders on your computer.

Users - search by faces

In the “Users” section you can collect a collection of faces. Picasa can do it very well recognize faces in photos, collecting them from different folders on your computer (it would be nice if this feature extended to Google Images, so that you could more effectively search for people by photo). Here you can also delete and move photos without any consequences.

If you try to slowly enter the name of the person depicted in it under the portrait, you will be offered options for those people who are your friends on various social networks. Original!

If no offers have been received (well, this person doesn’t have his own account yet), then enter his full name, or just his name (for example, Varvara), and press enter on the keyboard. A window will open where the entered name “Varvara” will appear at the very top. Then, click “New Person” (the name Varvara also appears with an asterisk) and on the right, if desired, enter his e-mail, then click OK.

Now we see that in the corresponding section we have a new user - Varvara (all photos of Varvara will show off in this folder, from diapers to old age):

Surprisingly, Picasa detects this with incredible accuracy.

Adding photos to Picasa, importing new ones

First, let's choose which ones we want to see in our photo viewer. To do this, select “Tools - Options - File Types”. We check the boxes next to the types that we want Picasa to show, and then click OK:

Now we need to mark the folders that will be edited. Go to “Tools - Folder Manager”. On the left we select the folder we need, and on the right - the action (how many times the selected folder will be scanned, or it should be completely deleted from the photo editor):

As I said a little earlier, upload images to computer You can directly from a scanner, camera, mobile phone and even from a memory card. They will not only be saved in this program, but will also be automatically added as needed if you have allowed this in the settings.

Click on Importing new photos :

In the window that opens, select the device (scanner, camera, etc.) from which we want to import something into the program for viewing photos and more. At the bottom, select the folder where all this will be imported, and select import all or selectively.

Picasa - free photo editor

Free photo editor Picasa is rich in a variety of filters and effects that can be applied to a particular photo, thereby changing it beyond recognition. Let's try in practice what it will look like. Double-click on the image you want to improve. The following window opens:

Back to the library- go back to select another image.
Play -
A -
AB
A.A.
Data EXIF- all additional information about the photo that any digital camera can remember will be displayed here. This includes what camera and what lens this image was shot with, what settings (iso, aperture, shutter speed) were made, etc. In this case, we don’t display anything, because this picture was copied from the Internet (there will also be no EXIF information if it was scanned).

Frequently performed operations

Cropping- this operation allows you to cut out the part of the picture we need. We click on the image and, without releasing the left mouse button, select the fragment we need, then release the mouse button and press enter. You can also choose from a selection of sizes (there is a good selection).

Alignment. Here the name speaks for itself. This operation allows you to use the slider that appears to correct the curvature in the photo (for example, straighten the horizon).

Red eyes- eliminates the effect of red eyes in photographs. Holding down the left mouse button, select each eye in turn, release the button - the defect will be eliminated. Unfortunately, it is not possible to correct sun-exposed eyes; this operation only removes redness.

I'll be lucky!- automatic lighting and color correction will occur in one click. Luck fix, so to speak.

Auto contrast correction- automatic correction of brightness and contrast levels.

Auto color correction- automatic color balance correction.

Retouching- allows you to remove various defects in pictures. For example, you can retouch a very old photo, or one that was damaged by something (coffee was dropped on it, for example). Click “Retouch”, select the brush size and begin restoring the image.

Text- everything should be clear with this. We select a place in the photo, click “Text” and enter the information we need.

Leveling lightening. Using this tool will help correct, for example, a person’s silhouette that is too dark in relation to everything else in the frame.

Lighting and color correction

Dodge and Burn- using the slider you can adjust the level of lightening or darkening of the image.

Colorful temperature- using the same slider, you can take your photo in warmer colors, or, conversely, go for cooler ones.

Choosing a Neutral Color- using an eyedropper, we can help Picasa select a neutral gray or white part of the photo in order to then more correctly (in your opinion) restore the color balance.

Effects in picasa photo editor

Although Picasa is a free photo editor, it has more than enough possibilities. I think that it is in no way inferior to, for example, Pixlr - an online photo editor in the style of Photoshop. Just look at the variety of effects that can be applied to an image. The result will be simply stunning. Let's look:

We can increase or decrease the sharpness of the image by using the existing slider to set the value of this setting.
Apply sepia, that is, age the photo, make it in some red-brown tones.
Make the photo black and white, which, I must admit, is now back in fashion.
Using the same slider, make the tones warmer.
Add grain. This may seem unnecessary to some (like me, for example), but many believe that it adds some charm to the picture that you just printed out.
It is possible to add some color to the image. Select the color you want from the palette, and then use the slider to adjust its saturation. It turns out effectively.
Add saturation to the picture.
Apply soft focus. That is, select an area in the photo that will remain clear, and blur the rest.
Add shine to the whitest areas of the photo. Use the slider to change the intensity and radius of this setting.
Apply a black and white filter or focus. Some changes, of course, can be observed with the naked eye, but somehow these settings didn’t particularly appeal to me. Try them, maybe you will check them out.
Well, the last effect in this tab is the choice of tone. We choose the shade we like from the palette and admire how our photo is transformed.

The next tab also contains effects:

Application of infrared film.
Using Lomography (you can add a little blurring and darkening around the edges). This effect imitates a photo taken with a Lomo camera, which was in use back in 1984.
Apply a Holda style effect (use the sliders to adjust edge blur, grain and darkening). Simulates a photo taken with a plastic toy camera.
HDR effect (you can adjust the radius and intensity of the setting, as well as its darkening).
Cinemascope, with the ability to insert wide black stripes at the top and bottom (simulates an old movie).
Orton effect (adjustable glow, brightness and darkening). Your photo will look like it was painted with “wet” watercolors.
An effect called “60s style” that gives a photo an antique look (you can add rounded corners and a warm glow to the photo).
Invert - make a photo look like a negative.
Imitation of a thermal imager.
An effect that simulates film cross-processing.
Posterization is reducing the number of colors in a photo.
Duplex - converts an image to two colors. Select the first color and the second, adjust the brightness, contrast and dimming.

Well, the third tab of the picasa photo editor contains several more effects:

Enhance - increasing color saturation and increasing contrast.
Soften - this effect gives the photo softness and some shine.
Vignetting darkens the edges of a photo. You can select the desired color, size, intensity and darkening scale.
Pixelation simulates large pixels and low resolution (you can adjust the pixel size, blending mode and darkening).
Sports focus - the image is scaled outside the central area. You can shift the center of focus, adjust the intensity of the zoom, change the focal size, mark sharp edges, and apply shading.
Pencil drawing effect.
The ability to give the image a neon glow effect (you can choose the color).
Stylize like comics.
Add a shadow cast by the image. It will look as if you put your photo on a sheet of paper (the color of the sheet can be selected in the settings) and a shadow emanates from it (its color can also be designated). You can also select the distance of the image relative to the sheet of paper, angle, shadow size and shading (transparency).
Passepartout - darkening the edges of a photo. This is something like overlaying a frame (the frame is also double - its color and thickness are selected both inside and outside).
Simulates a Polaroid photo. The tilt of the image and the color of the sheet on which it will supposedly lie are adjusted.

Copying effects

For example, you spent a long time working on some image, and you don’t even remember which filters you used, but the result impressed you so much that you would like to edit other photos in the same way. So Picasa is very capable of doing this, and can apply this set of effects to several photos you select at once! But there is one BUT: copy effects only possible within one folder. That is, the edited photo should be in the same folder as those that you want to edit (apply the same effects) according to the same principle.

What do I need to do?

Select a photo to which we have applied some effects. Then go to “Edit - Copy all effects”.

Then select the images in the same folder to which we want to apply the same effects, and select “Edit - Apply all effects.” Everything is very simple.

Batch editing and renaming photos in Picassa

In order to do batch image editing in the Picasa photo viewer, you need to select the ones you need and go to “Photography - Group Editing”:

Then we select the action we want to perform: rotate clockwise, adjust contrast or color, sharpen the image, add grain, change to sepia or black and white, remove red eye, etc.

If something goes wrong, you can always take a step back - undo changes made in one click from several photos. To do this, you need to select them, and then select “Photo - Discard all changes.” And also, if you once added a frame to a picture, but now you have made it in black and white, which you are not happy with, then selecting “Undo all changes” will also cancel the previously applied frame.

Here, in the “Group editing” item there is also an action - batch renaming of images(“Batch Edit - Rename”).

Select the pictures for which you want to change the name, click “Rename”. In the window that opens, enter a name, for example “Nature”, check the boxes next to additional data if desired, and click on the tab of the same name:

The selected photos will eventually all have the name “Nature”, and they will also be assigned their own serial number after the name (nature-001.jpg, nature-002.jpg...).

Additional features of the Picasa photo editor

Magnifier and how to add a mark

Pikasa has the opportunity viewing images through a magnifying glass. This is necessary so as not to open each image separately in a new window. To do this, click on the corresponding icon (folder with a magnifying glass), and hold down the left mouse button (your cursor will look like a magnifying glass) and point at any image. After you release the left mouse button, the magnifying glass will disappear.

To keep your favorite photos always at hand, you can easily add them to your favorites - add a note. To do this, select one or more pictures and click on the yellow star. This star will appear in the lower right corner of the selected pictures, and on the left you will have a new folder with your favorite photos - Starred Photos.

To delete a photo from this folder, i.e. To uncheck it, simply select it with a mouse click and click again on the yellow star icon.

Adding text tags to photos

Using tags you can easily Find the photos you need in Picasa Web Albums .

Select the image to which you want to add a tag (place a label) and click on the button Tag(this is a yellow piece of paper at the bottom right):

Then enter a brief description of our picture (tag) in the appropriate field “in our case - “girl in red” and click on the adjacent plus sign. That’s it, the tag is added. You can enter several tags for one photo at once - enter them one by one, separating them with a space.

You can also select a tag from the existing ones, i.e. select it from the “express tags” field (if you have previously entered frequently occurring tags there for easy navigation). Entering express tags is very easy - click on any question mark, a window will open where you enter those tags that you plan to frequently appear in your photo albums.

You can search for tags added to photos using the search field in the upper right corner of the Picasa window.

Add a map pin for an album or individual photo

First, let's see how add a pin (mark a location) on the map for the album as a whole. Select the album on the left, and then click on the red mark located in the lower right corner and enter the address or name of the place:

You can do it another way: click on the green mark with a plus sign, and then place it on the map (thereby indicating the location, placing a mark on the map):

You will be asked whether to add a label to a certain number of photos or videos located in this folder - click OK or cancel the action if the label is not set correctly by mistake.

Map marker for one image is added in exactly the same way, only not the entire folder is selected, but one image.

You can add a map pin to one or more photos even easier: grab any image with the left mouse button and drag it onto the map area. Photos whose location is identified on the map will have a red mark in the lower right corner. If you make a mistake with placing a marker (choose the wrong place on the map), then simply drag the red marker to the desired point on the map.

If the label on the photo is no longer needed, then click on this photo (its location appears on the map), and then click on the label that appears on the map itself and click:

Send to Google+

To do this, do we choose an album or individual photographs? and click on the big green “Send to Google+” button? located at the very bottom:

Photos are added to the folder you selected:

Then you will be taken to your Google+ account. There you can:

However you can prohibit publication of the album in other feeds. To do this, go to:

And check the box “Prohibit publication in other feeds”:

You can also prohibit publication in other feeds from the album. To do this, click on “Photo” in the upper left corner:

We select “Photo” there again and get to the page with all our photo albums. Click on the arrow again (as shown in the screenshot above) and select the same “Sharing settings”, check the box to prohibit publication.

Creating a presentation film in Picasa

Select an album on the left, and then click on the button “create a film presentation” :

In the window that opens, select the “Slide” tab, where we enter the name of our film (it will appear at the very beginning when you start watching the film), select a template for it (how exactly the text will appear on our screen), as well as the font, its size, style, text and background color:

You can also overlay text directly on the photo itself - select the one you want among the slides with the picture (click on it with the left mouse button), and then enter the text in the appropriate field, selecting a template for it. It is also possible to add an empty text slide by clicking on the leaf icon (as well as removing any slide by clicking on the cross icon).

When finished, you can view the resulting presentation movie by expanding it to full screen (see screenshot above), and also display the actual size of the movie without any stretching.

On the "Movie" tab it is possible add sound to our presentation. To do this, click on the “Download” button, and then select the appropriate track on your computer. Below we select the transition style, slide duration, overlay, and resolution of our future presentation film created using Picasa.

Then you offer the Picasa program post the film presentation on Youtube(by logging into your channel using your username and password) - click on the appropriate button (see screenshot above).

In the window that opens, give the name of your presentation, enter a description, select a video category, add tags (keywords) separated by a space, and decide whether to make your video publicly available.

The video cannot be longer than 10 minutes and weigh more than 1 GB. Please respect copyright- do not post on Youtube video hosting any music videos, television programs and the like that were not created by you, otherwise you may be blocked.

Then feel free to click on “Add Video”. You will see a window where you can watch the video download. After the download is complete, in the lower right corner of the monitor “Click to view on the Internet” (if you accidentally closed this window, then watch your video on YouTube in your channel):

The video on YouTube will take some time to process (depending on the size). After which you will have the opportunity to dig deeper into its settings:

Opposite “Video” there will be a number that will show the number of videos uploaded to this video hosting site. By selecting our presentation film and clicking on the “Actions” button, we look at what actions can be performed with it:

Configure access settings - make it open, access via link, limited access
Delete
Apply additional actions - add a date, access to video statistics, category, comments, show the shooting location, insert an age restriction, add tags and descriptions, etc.
Well, and see the last completed actions

By clicking on the “Edit” button, we can improve the video, add subtitles, sound, download or delete the video.

Creating a collage in Picasa

In order to create a collage, you need to click on the appropriate button, having first selected a folder with photographs (you can select individual pictures with the mouse) of which this very collage will consist:

On the right, you will have a selection of selected photos scattered on a piece of paper. By clicking on any of these images, you can delete it, set it as a background (the rest of the pictures will show off on it), or rotate and resize it using the target that appears:

On the left there is a wide selection of styles:

Stack of photos- randomly scattered pictures (applied by default)> -
Mosaic- images will automatically adjust to the page size
Mosaic frame- a mosaic with a relief center of the image (i.e. a photo will be installed in the center of the collage, and the rest around it).
Net- images will be placed in rows and columns of the same size.
Index-print- thumbnail images will be lined up in a row, and the title of the previously selected folder will be displayed above them.
Multiple exposure- all images will be superimposed one on top of the other (a very beautiful background is obtained).

Also in the settings you can add borders to photos :

Make images without borders (set by default).
Make a regular white frame.
Make a frame in the form of Polaroid photographs.

As a background you can use a solid tone. To do this, click on the square (see screenshot below) and use the eyedropper to select the desired color in the palette that appears. You can also select a color from the image itself by pointing the eyedropper cursor at any of the images:

You can also use an image as a background. To do this, left-click on one of our pictures (it will be surrounded by a bright frame) and click on “Use selected” (a copy of it will be displayed in a square), and then admire how the background transforms in our future collage:

Each style, no matter what we choose, be it a mosaic, an index print, a stack of photographs, has several more interesting settings. For example, for a mosaic, you can set the grid spacing - the images will not be connected to each other, but will have a kind of frame. And having selected, for example, a stack of photographs, you can add shadows to the images (they will look more natural, not drawn) and add captions (who or what is shown in this photo will be signed):

By the way, captions are taken by default from the name of the photos, so don’t forget to sign them before creating the collage. Also, any collage can be set as a desktop background.

On the “Clips” tab we have all the photos available in the previously selected folder (from which we took the photos to make the collage). If we suddenly want to add images to the collage, then go to this tab, select a few more images you like and press the “plus” sign (to remove, respectively, the “cross”). The selected pictures will be added to the collage in the same form as those existing there (with a shadow, frame, inscriptions, if we previously specified them in the style settings):

All in all, creating a collage in Picasa very addictive, it all depends on your rich imagination. Yes, don't forget to click on the "Create Collage" button when finished.

If you have any urgent matters, but you haven’t finished creating, then click on the “Close” button - it will happen saving a draft to the “Collages” folder (will appear among other albums):

When you need to edit it, double-click your project in the appropriate folder and click “Edit Collage.” Everything is quite simple and convenient.

Sending photos by email

Very convenient in Picasa, sending photos by email. Click on the envelope located at the very bottom of the program:

We will be offered a choice of two ways to send our images (using the default email program or Google's email program):

In this case, I was offered to use Opera as the default program, since it is the one I have installed as the main one for receiving and sending all kinds of correspondence. I'm very pleased with her. So, if you select the default program (click on the appropriate button), then a letter will open in it, where you will only have to enter the recipient’s address and click on “Send”.

When you select Google Mail, the following window will open:

In the “To” field, enter the addresses of those to whom you want to send the images by mail - as you enter letters, prompts will pop up with the mailing addresses of your friends, which is very convenient. Then you can enter a name in the “Subject” field, then you can view the photos attached to the letter (you can view them using the arrows and delete an extra frame that accidentally ended up in this letter). You can add something of your own to the letter itself, or leave everything as it is, that is, how many files were sent and what these Photos were submitted via Google's Picasa program. If everything is entered correctly, click on “Submit”.

On this note, I think we can end. I hope it will be interesting. Have fun learning free photo editor Picas !

When you open Picasa for the first time, you'll be able to choose the option to scan your hard drive, or simply My Pictures, My Documents, or Desktop. The program will display your photos in the Library. You might find photos you've forgotten about because Picasa makes browsing super easy and convenient. If you have photos outside of the My Pictures, My Documents, and Desktop directories, you can add a new folder manually by clicking on Tools / Manage Folders. The program will display your photos.

Double click on the photo to go to the editing window.

Find out what each button does in the “Normal” editing window. Quick guide:

The first button, "Crop". By clicking this button you can cut out part of your image. You can select a size manually, or one of the previously created sizes. Click “Apply” when finished.
The second button, "Straighten", can correct the horizontal position of the landscape. Click on it and use the grid and slider until the image fits into place. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
Third button, "Redeye". If you click on it, Picasa will automatically correct the red eyes in your photo and display them in green squares. If the program has missed someone's eyes, you can point this feature window at them and Picasa will correct them. If the program selects the wrong object with squares, you can click on that square to make Picasa ignore the selection. Click “Apply” when you're done!
The fourth button, "I"m Feeling Lucky, changes the lighting and color of your photo at the program's discretion. This button can be useful for changing unclear or dull photos.
The fifth button, "Auto Contrast", raises the contrast of your photo to a better level.
The sixth button, "Auto Color", improves the color of your photo and works great with dull images.
The seventh button, "Retouch", can remove traces of dust from your photo, which can help if your lens has been dusty. Click the "Retouch" button, and then hover over the cloudy part of your photo, moving the mouse until the stain is removed. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
The eighth button, "Text", can add text to your photo. Click the button and then point anywhere on the photo to start typing. Use the text box that appears on the left to change the text font, size, color, and transparency settings. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
The ninth and final button, "Fill Light", can illuminate your photo if it's a bit dark. Move the slider up and down until the photo is perfectly lit.

Find out what each button does in the "Tuning" tab. This information clarifies the use of configuration tools:

The "Fill Light" slider has the same meaning as the last button in the "Basic" edit field. Move it up and down to highlight your photo. Useful when you forget about the flash.
The "Highlights" slider makes the colors in your photo more vibrant and open. Use when you want to highlight the highlights of your photo.
The "Shadows" slider has the opposite effect of the "Highlights" slider. Use when you want to add shadows to dark areas of your photo.
The "Color Temperature" slider changes the “temperature” of your photo. Blue is cold and red is warm. Move the slider to the left if you want to add more blue, and to the right if you want to add more red.
"Neutral Color Picker" removes tint from photos. Click on the eyedropper icon and then on a neutral black, gray or white area of the photo to change the color.

Find out what each button does in the Effects tab.

"Sharpen" - sharpens the edges of your photo. Use when the photo appears blurry and out of focus. Click on "Sharpen", and then move the "Amount" slider until you achieve the desired result. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Sepia" - gives the photo a retro sepia tone.
"B&W" - turns your photo into a classic black and white photo.
"Warmify" - changes the 'color temperature' to a warmer one.
"Film grain" - adds grain to your photo. This button, combined with "Sepia" or "B&W", turns a modern photo into a retro shot.
"Tint" - changes the photo to the color of your choice. Click on the button and select a color using the eyedropper to apply it to the photo. Next, move the "Color Preservation" slider until you achieve the desired result. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Saturation" - increases the saturation of your photo. Click on this option, and move the "Amount" slider to the desired effect. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Soft focus" - softens the focus around a point of your choice. This tool is useful for highlighting a specific subject in your photo. Click on this option, and move the "Size" and "Amount" sliders until you achieve the desired result. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Glow" - adds a glow to your photo, especially in the light parts of the photo. Click on this, and move the "Intensity" and "Radius" sliders until you achieve the desired result. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Filtered B&W" - makes the photo look like it would have been taken with a black and white camera and a color filter. Click on it, and select a color to use the filter. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Focal B&W" - makes the photo black and white, except for one place, of your choice. Click on it, and move the pointer to the desired location. Next, move the "Size" and "Sharpness" sliders until you achieve the desired result. Click “Apply” to save your changes.
"Graduated Tint" - increases the tint of one part of your photo, making this useful when editing sky photos. Click on this and select a color to use the tint. Next, move the "Feather" and "Shade" sliders until you achieve the desired result. Click “Apply” to save your changes.

Click on "Upload" to upload Picasa web albums. This will only work if you have a Picasa account (located here: http://picasaweb.google.com).
Click on "Email" to forward your photos to friends. You can use the default email program, but it will be more difficult to work with from Picasa, or you can use your Gmail account, which will be much easier.
Click on "Print" to send the selected photos to your printer. Before printing begins, you can change the settings.
Click on "Export" to move your photos to another folder on your computer's hard drive. This is useful if you want to copy your photos to a USB or CD drive.
Click on "Shop" to shop online. From sites where you can sell your photos to professional printing services.
Click on "BlogThis" to upload your photos to Google Blog, if you have one, along with your post.
Click on "Collage" to create a collage from the photos you select. You can choose the grid settings and size of your collage. When you're done, save it and share with your friends!
Click on "Video" to create a video from the selected photos. You can choose the audio track to use with the video, the photo transition style, and the dimensions of your video. By clicking on "Slide" at the top, you can add text to your video. When you're done, you can upload your video to YouTube if you have a YouTube account.
Click on "Geotag" to add a location to your photos using Google Earth. To do this, you will need Google Earth installed on your computer. Wait for Google Earth to open, then move the pointer to the desired position on the globe, and click “Geotag” in the lower right corner of the screen.

Picasa(in Russian - Pikasa) is a free online software package (photo editor platform), the use of which tools allows you to easily and quickly edit, process and completely modify digital photos, as well as post them on the Online network. In 2004, the Picasa program was purchased by Google, which continues to develop and expands its capabilities over time (these are: the best browser Google Chrome, Gmail mail, the Google Plus social network, an image editor program and many other online services that allow Google to be one of the leaders in the Internet market).

By using Picasa programs online You can easily create great presentations, collages and slideshows from your arsenal of photos, and also share them via the Google Plus social network or email. When you first launch the application, your images on your computer are automatically sorted and albums are created, the pictures in which are organized by name and date of creation of the files.

How to use Picasa

How to use Picasa— is described in detail and with illustrations in the article below. The main purpose of the Picas program is to edit photographs and paintings using a basic set of functions, effects and filters. The program with a Russian interface can be downloaded online for free at the following link:

After downloading the driver online, installing Picas is no different from installing regular software on a personal computer. When you launch it for the first time after going through the installation process, Photo Editor will by default scan your PC for graphics. If you have a large number of pictures on your computer, the process may take more than 3 minutes, but after a few minutes of waiting you will receive complete information about your pictures.

Loading images into the program

Uploading an image from a digital camera is quite simple. Picasa itself detects when the camera is connected online to the computer and starts downloading all the photos from it, showing you in advance. The user can select the photos needed to upload and select portrait or landscape display.

Changing Photos

Picasa has a lot of choice tools and filters, using which you will noticeably improve your photographs and be able to create beautiful and unique images. By double-clicking on the photo, the following sections will open in front of you:

This option makes simple changes - straightening the photo, cropping, retouching, correcting the common red-eye effect, or adding a caption to any part of the photo. If you don't know how to use these functions correctly, you can entrust all the work of changing lighting and adjusting contrast to the Picasa application by clicking on the button - I'll be lucky!

The option presents several controls:

1. Lighting alignment. Often, in a photo with a very bright background, the main details turn out to be darkened or unclear, adjust the brightness - this will help balance the light. You can also try to improve the quality of the photo.
2. Lightening. This function allows you to increase the level of lightening in order to highlight the bright areas in your composition. By pressing the slider to the right or left, you can visually monitor changes in the drawing online.
3. Lighting. Used when you need to darken shadows, to increase depth or contrast.
4.Color temperature. By adding “warm” tones to the image by dragging the slider to the right, you will get a more animated composition and the colors will become brighter.
5. Specify a neutral color. You can also tell Picasa Google which parts of the image should be considered white and gray. This help to the program will give Photo Lab a basis for balancing photographs.

And programs for viewing images and photographs. Picasa is considered one of the most popular. What kind of program is this and what are its main capabilities - this is the topic of our article.

Graphics editor Picasa

Picasa is a popular graphic editor and organizer, developed by Lifescape and purchased by Google in 2004. The operating systems that Picasa runs on are Windows, MAC OS X and Linux. It is distributed free of charge and supports not only English, but also Russian.

The program has a built-in so-called Easter egg. If you press Ctrl + Shift + Y, Teddy bears will appear on the screen.

Key Features

The main features of the program that are worth paying attention to for those who want to learn how to use Picasa:

photo editing;
auto-viewing of images in both normal and full screen modes;
the ability to download images to a computer using a scanner or camera;
indexing photos on your hard drive automatically;
creating collages;
creating a slideshow from photos;
sending photos by email or automatically publishing them on blogs;
assigning keywords and labels to images.

Disadvantages of the program

Picasa 3 also has some disadvantages. Among them, it is important to highlight the following:

files with the .gif extension do not display animation;
in some cases there may be problems with displaying alpha channels in png;
there is no possibility to create nested albums;
The image dimensions can only be changed by exporting it to another folder;
the program does not work with multi-page files in

Working with Images

We looked at the main features and disadvantages of Picasa. We also found out what kind of program this is. It's time to talk about how to work with her.

To work with an image and then edit it, you need to find it in the gallery using Explorer and open it. You can process photos using the “Image Correction Toolbar” editor window.

Using the buttons on the menu bar, you can do the following:

Remove red eye. To do this, just select the photo you need and click on the “Red Eye” button.
The crop function will help you trim off unnecessary elements. Select the desired area on the photo and click on the “Apply” button. The program will delete everything that was outside the selected area.
Alignment relative to the grid. This is used if the photo was taken with a poorly configured camera.
Automatic contrast correction. Using the function, you can set the most optimal level of contrast and brightness without spoiling the color saturation.
Auto color correction - helps eliminate color deviations and evens out color balance. In this case, the contrast parameters are preserved.
Retouching. Allows you to remove various stains, streaks and other defects from photographs.
“Text” button - allows you to add text over the image.
Leveling lightening - using the button you can add light to the foreground or background, balance the color.

Effects for photo processing

Do you know how to use Picasa to add various effects? It's quite simple.

The program supports 12 basic effects that can be applied by simply opening the “Image Processing Tools” tab. These include:

The “Enhance Clarity” effect will help make the outlines of objects less blurry and increase the sharpness of the photo.
Sepia will add reddish-brown tones.
Using the Black and White function, you can convert any color image to black and white.
Warmer Tones - Using this feature helps improve the display of different skin tones.
Grain helps improve the appearance of a photo when printed.
"Different Tint" is used if you want to change the color of the image. In this case, you yourself choose the shade you need, which will be superimposed on top of the original. This function works not only in Picasa 3, but also in earlier versions.
The “Saturation” button is designed to adjust color saturation. Adjustable using a slider.
Soft Focus helps create a blurry effect around a selected point.
The Radiance effect allows you to increase the brightness of the light areas of a photo.
Black and White Filter creates the effect of taking a black and white photo, but with a color filter applied.
Black and White Focus also turns the image into black and white, but leaves the circular area you specify in color.
The Tone Selector feature includes a graduated filter based on the color you select.

Artistic filters and effects

The program also contains a “Other filters and effects” tab, where there are 24 different artistic effects that can be applied to the finished image.

We will not go into detail about how to use Picasa when using these functions, but will only list them. So these include:

Infrared film.
Lomography.
Holga style.
HDR effect.
Cinemascope.
Orton effect.
1960s.
Invert.
Thermal imager.
Cross processing.
Posterization.
Duplex.
Gain.
Soften.
Vignetting.
Pixelation.
Sports focus.
Pencil.
Neon.
Comics.
Circuit.
Shadow.
Passepartout.
Polaroid.

Making collages

The last thing we will look at is how to use Picasa to You can launch the function using the “Create a collage” button, having previously selected the photos and images you need.

The main modes in which you can create collages:

randomly scattered photos (with and without frames);
mosaic (two types);
net;
index-print;
multiple exposure (overlaying images on top of each other).

While creating a collage, you can change the size of the photos and their position in space relative to the selected angle.

Conclusion

One of the most popular programs for creating and viewing images is Picasa. The Russian version has a very wide functionality, allows you to quickly process images, removing unnecessary objects, adjust brightness and contrast, apply various artistic effects, as well as create collages and presentations. A simple and intuitive interface makes it very attractive, and even a novice PC user can work with it.

To be honest, we love to show our photographs to relatives, friends and acquaintances. But it’s one thing to run a slide show using some viewer on your home computer. But if you want to be able to always carry it with you, then problems will arise. It is inconvenient to store a bunch of photos on a flash drive or CD. In addition, others may not have a normal viewer. Therefore, the best option is to create a slide show as a separate executable file or create a mini-movie.
Concerned with this question, I began to look for free programs with which I could complete the task. Of course, you can use commercial software, for example, the same Ahead Nero, but why? It's time to switch to free software. A half-hour search on the Internet yielded disastrous results. Or Picasa, or six little-known but specialized programs. The choice fell on a product from Google. Moreover, there is detailed information in Russian.

First of all, download the viewer program from Google from the page http://picasa.google.ru (the installation file weighs about 10 MB). When you first launch the utility, it will offer to scan your hard drive to search for pictures. We agree and wait a few minutes. On the left side of the program window we get a tree of folders (“Library”), on the right — thumbnails of photographs.

Now let's understand a little terminology. You can also run a standard slideshow. Collect all files in one folder. Or select photos in the folder manually by holding Ctrl and selecting them one by one. Then go to the “View > Slide Show” menu (or immediately press “Ctrl+4”). The slideshow will start immediately. Settings are available at the bottom of the screen; just move the mouse arrow to the side. This will pause the slideshow; to continue, press the space bar.
But we need something different. In Picasa, this is called a “Movie” project, which allows you to create a video file with a .wmv extension. You can edit together not only photographs and music for the background, but also video clips. The resulting file can be shown to friends and acquaintances. Or immediately upload to the popular YouTube service. And now in more detail.

So, we selected photos, copying them into one folder for convenience. Open Picasa, find the desired folder in the left list, select it and select the “Create > Movie” menu.
A new window will appear. On the left is the control menu, on the right are frames from the film of the correct size, and on the bottom right is the storyboard of the film.
If you want the sequence to be sorted by file name or creation date, go back to the “Library” tab, right-click on the folder and select the desired sorting “Sort folder by parameter...”

Movie tab. This section is responsible for the main parameters of the future film. You can select the soundtrack for your slides. Alas, only one in WMA or MP3 format. However, a 3-5 minute composition is enough to view several dozen photographs. You can choose three modes: cut the audio, match the display of the photo with the sound, or link the photos in accordance with the sound. The default is the second item, i.e. The duration of display of pictures depends on the total duration of the composition.
Next, you can select the transition style: a total of 10 filters are available. This is not much - some programs have hundreds of them, but more than enough for an amateur slide film. It's a shame you can only choose one style.
Then, depending on the choice of the two previous modes, the duration of the slide show and the “Overlap” parameter are selected.
Now you can proceed to selecting the movie size. Available resolutions range from 320x240 to a maximum of 1920x1080.
If necessary, check the boxes “Show captions” and “Crop full frame of photo” (to fill the full frame of the film).
At the very bottom there are three more buttons: “Close”, “YouTube” (create a movie and send it there) and “Create a movie”. We don’t touch them for now and go to another tab.

Slide tab. This section is responsible for the text design of individual slides. You can choose a signature for each one. The font, size, style, as well as the color of the background and letters change. You can also choose a template for placing labels. Each slide can be assigned individual captions in the storyboard at the bottom right. Picasa also automatically creates a zero frame with the name of the folder and the date it was created. This inscription can be changed to something else, for example, “Trip to St. Petersburg. November 2008.” You can add text slides to your movie. And delete unnecessary ones.

"Clips" tab. Used to add and remove photos, as well as download them from the library (“Advanced” button).

To change the order of photos, you need to drag them manually. You can see what happened by clicking on the green triangle in the storyboard.

Creating the final film
So, all the settings are done, select “Create movie”. In a few minutes - the creation time depends on the amount of resolution of the movie - it will be created. The movie will automatically be saved to a folder like \C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\My Documents\My Pictures\Picasa\Movies\. If you want to return to the project later, click on the “Close” button. And agree with the proposal to save the draft.

That's all. Remember that the quality of a film primarily depends not on the number of transition filters used between photographs, but on their aesthetic qualities.

(Published in the newspaper "My Friend the Computer", No. 3, February 2009. The author's edition is given here.)

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Comments

error 9
Posted by ansenna , at 2010-06-23 21:36:54
also error 9, damn it (((

iiiiii
Posted by iiiiii , at 2010-12-19 12:54:14
how to download

Posted by Desmond, at 2011-01-27 17:18:25
Hmmm this will come in handy

Posted by TATIANA , at 2011-02-12 07:15:02
I COMPOSED EVERYTHING AND MADE THE FILM. I CLICK CREATE FILM, THE DRAFT WINDOW COMES OUT AND CREATE NOW, I CLICK CREATE NOW. I ONLY GET DRAFTS FOR WHY, WHEN I CLICK PLAY SLIDE SHOW THEN I HAVE A BLACK EC RAN AND NOTHING ELSE. WHY IS THIS?

problemi's picasa 3
Posted by vadim , at 2011-05-25 19:14:14
I COMPOSED EVERYTHING AND MADE THE FILM. I CLICK CREATE FILM, THE DRAFT WINDOW COMES OUT AND CREATE NOW, I CLICK CREATE NOW. I ONLY GET DRAFTS FOR WHY, WHEN I CLICK PLAY SLIDE SHOW THEN I GET A BLACK SCREEN AND NOTHING ELSE. WHY IS THIS?

Change movie in Picasa
Posted by Pauline , at 2012-01-14 21:54:07
Hello, I created a movie from a photo with music, first, to view it, I set the photos to a low resolution, today I edited this movie and created another one based on it, the photo resolution is 1600*1200. And there are two problems at once - the new film gets stuck when watching and it does not have a “change film” button, please tell me what is the reason?