Picasa – a brief guide (for PC, Windows XP)
Copyright Tom Langford, 2010,
Downloading and installing Picasa on your PC is easy. Here is one of the many sites you can use:
After installing Picasa the first time you download pictures from your camera (using the USB cable, or a card
reader) this window will appear:
Choose ”Copy pictures to your computer and view them using Picasa 3”.
If you tick “Always do the selected action” this window will not bother you again. Picasa will then be the
default program for downloading pictures.
(Picasa will catalogue and display ALL of the pictures in your computer. If you prefer that Picasa "watch" only
certain folders, in the top Picasa menu go to: Folder > Remove from Picasa... The Folder Manager will open
and you can choose which folders from there.)
Downloading pictures and saving them into a folder
1) When you download pictures Picasa will open. You can select the pictures you
want to download.
> To select a sequence of pictures click on the first picture to select it, then
Shift + click on the last of the sequence - all the pictures
inbetween will be
selected.
> Control + click to add/remove individual pictures.
2) Choose the location: for instance your My Pictures folder or your Desktop
3) Name a new folder to download the pictures into: for instance Family Trip or
Photography Course Pictures
4) Then click “Import selected”
5) The pictures now appear in the named folder.
Improving pictures in the Editing section
Picasa’s Editing section has three tabs ...
Basic Fixes …
Straighten – use this to tilt the picture.
Crop – I keep this on Manual. Drag on the picture to crop it.
Auto Color and Auto Contrast may improve the picture.
Retouch is used to remove blemishes. Follow the simple instructions to use it
Each alteration can be removed by clicking Undo.
Tuning ...
Play with the sliders to improve the look of your picture
Fill Light lightens all of the picture
Highlights lightens only the lightest parts
Shadows darkens the darker areas
Color Temperature makes the picture more blue or red.
Effects ...
Careful with these!!! They are OK occasionally, and need to be used
sensitively.
Using a special effect on a poor picture will not turn it into a Good Picture!
Emergency advice ...
If you have messed up the picture and want to start agaion you can Undo All Effects
(found in the Picture menu.)
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Your original picture is never altered - the alterations and edits
affect only the screen preview.
At any time you can remove these edits and return to the
original picture.
Printing Pictures
Using a home printer
If you print pictures from Picasa using your home printer, all of the alterations you made will be printed.
Using a Photo Lab
If you copy pictures that you have altered onto a CD, or “disk-on-key”, and take them to a Photo Lab only the original, unaltered picture will be
printed – none of the improvements or alterations will be seen.
To print an altered picture in a Photo Lab you must save a copy of it that includes the alterations.
Here’s how …
Select the picture that you have altered. Then in the File menu, go to Save As …
Give the copy that you are going to make a distinctive name – such
as “Final_DSC*****”
Click Save …
… it will be saved in the same folder as the original.
Copy this picture to a CD or disk-on-key (see next section) and all of the saved changes
will be printed in a Photo Lab.
How to save your altered pictures onto a "disk-on-key", Flash drive, or USB stick
Select the altered copy, then from the File menu choose Export Picture to Folder…
You will need to type in a “Name of Exported Folder”. Picasa will create this folder and place the altered picture into it.
Copy this folder to your disk-on-key and take this to the Photo Lab to have prints made.
How to resize pictures
(See also "How to email reduced-size pictures")
You can make reduced-size copies of pictures that are easier to
upload or import into Word documents, etc. The original pictures
will not be affected.
Select the picture(s) that you want to reduce in size.
In Picasa’s top menu go to File > Export picture to Folder …
Choose a Location, and type in a name for a new folder
to store the resized picture(s) in.
Select the new size to reduce the picture(s) to. (For
uploads to Toms Photography Courses website choose
1024 pixels.)
Click Export, and Picasa will make a copy of the original
picture(s) at the reduced size, and store them in the new
named folder.
Other Useful Features
How to email reduced-size pictures
Select one or more pictures, click the email icon at the bottom of the Picasa window. Your email program will open and the pictures will appear
as attachments in a new email ready for you to address and send. They will also have been automatically reduced to a suitably small size.
Uploading to Picasa web albums. Share with friends and family
Select one or more pictures, click the upload icon and they will be uploaded into a free web Picasa Album. There’s a field that you can enter
email addresses to send emails to your friends and family with a live link to the album. You must have a Google email account to use this
feature.
Collage
Create a collage of pictures, and add a background and text.
Any Questions?
Try Googling “Picasa forums”, “Picasa how to”, etc, for help.
Picasa is a very useful program that can catalogue all of the pictures in your computer, enhance, print, email, and share them in online albums.
It has many more useful features for you to discover, and there’s plenty of help and tutorials on the internet.