TTSC Introduction to Picasa (WinXP) broward.k12.fl.us/ttsc 754-321-0411 x6
INTRODUCTION TO PICASA (WinXP)
Organize, edit and share all of your pictures; easily email photos, print photos, post them to your blog and make a slideshow. Picasa also makes advance photo editing simple.
Learner Outcomes • Organizing Photos • Importing Pictures • Editing pictures • Sharing pictures
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Organizing Photos Folder’s are directories on your drive that contain photos, changes you make will be made on your computer’s hard drive. Album's exist only in Picasa, these do not correspond to anything on your computer’s hard drive. 1. Library Icon
a. Synced Photos - the swirling circular arrows show up on photos for which you've enabled 'Sync to Web.' b. Starred photos - The star denotes images that you've marked as a favorite. c. Geotagged photos - The crosshair identifies the photos that you've geotagged in Google Earth. d. Uploaded photos - The upward green arrow indicates that you've uploaded the photo to Picasa Web Albums. This lets you easily keep track of which photos you've placed online. e. Blocked photos - The red arrow points down to indicate that you've manually blocked the photo from being uploaded. f.
Video files - The little film frame is placed on all of your videos.
Importing Photos You can import photos into Picasa from many sources, including cameras, CDs, memory cards, scanners, webcams, and more. 1. Importing from your Camera: a.
Click the Import button.
b. Select your device or folder from the drop-down menu (your camera should automatically be detected). To help you import images from a particular day or event, Picasa segments your images according to the time period in which they were taken. Each group of images in the import window will be marked by a clock icon. c. Select the specific photos you'd like to import, or choose all. These photos will be saved on your computer and displayed as a new folder. Introduction to Picasa
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Quick and Easy Editing Advanced photo editing, you can use basic one-click fixes to improve almost any photo, adjust color and lighting, and add effects like black and white or sepia. Add captions to help tell the story. Don't worry - Picasa never overwrites your original file. The photo edits you make are only viewable in Picasa until you decide to either export or save your changes. Either way, your original photos are always safe and sound, accessible at any time.
1. Choose a photo you want to edit, double-click a photo to open the 'Edit Photo' screen. 2. Editing tools on the left-hand side, within the three tabs Basic Fixes, Tuning, and Effects. 3. Basic Fixes tab a. Crop - Use this button to cut out parts of a photo that you don't want to see. b. Straighten - You can straighten photos taken with an off-kilter camera. Use the slider to align the photo against the boxed grid. c. Redeye - This tool automatically corrects red eyes that Picasa detects in your photos for any photo file type that Picasa supports. d. I’m Feeling Lucky - This is the one-click fix. (autofix). e. Auto Contrast - Automatically set the brightness and contrast to optimal levels, while preserving a photo's color values. f.
Auto Color - Automatically remove color cast and restore the color balance, while preserving contrast and brightness values.
g. Retouch - Use this tool to remove unsightly blemishes and improve photo quality. You can even transform old photos with marks, water stains, and scratches. h. Text - Quickly and easily add text on top of your pictures. You can edit the style, size, and angle of the text, as well as drag it to your desired location. i.
Fill Light - At times, photos with bright backgrounds can darken or compromise the subject detail. Use the slider to add light to the foreground of Introduction to Picasa
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photos, making them more balanced.
4. Tuning tab a. Control the color and adjust the lighting in your photo to produce a more visually enhanced image. b. Click the magic wands for lighting or color tuning color button to let Picasa automatically adjust the photo or use the provided sliders to manually control the color and lighting aspects of your photo. c. Adjustments: i. Fill light - Same as in Basic Fixes tab. ii. Highlights - Increase the highlights to amplify the bright spots of your photograph. It can help make the whites in your composition more vibrant. iii. Shadows - Darken the shadows in your photo to provide additional depth or contrast. Use this in conjunction with the Highlights slider to add contrast to a flat-looking photo. iv. Color temperature - Make your photos warmer by sliding the ticker to the right. This can make your colors more vivid and help bring to life the composition of your photograph. v. Neutral Color picker - Tell Picasa which part of your photo it should treat as gray or white. It will then use that selection to balance the colors in the photo. 5. Effects tab a. The Effects tab contains 12 effects that you can apply to any still photo. b. Sharpen - Make the edges of objects in your photos crisper and less fuzzy. c. Sepia - Create an 'old-fashioned' effect by changing the photo to a reddish brown tone. d. B & W - Turn any color photo into a black and white photo. e. Warmify - Warm up a cool photo, improving skin tones. For a more manual control, see the Color Temperature slider on the Tuning tab. Introduction to Picasa
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f.
Film Grain - Add a 'grainy' film look to any photo - looks great when you print.
g. Tint - Strip the color out of your photo and apply a colored tint over the top. Use the Color Preservation slider to add the original color back to your photo underneath the tint. h. Saturation - Use the slider to adjust color saturation. Slide it all the way to the left to make the picture black and white. Slide it all the way to the right to make it appear 'radio-active.' i.
Soft Focus - Soften the focus around a center point that you select.
j.
Glow - Brightens the white areas of a photo, causing a dreamy effect.
k. Filtered B&W - Add the effect of shooting black and white film with a color filter. The filter blocks or enhances certain colors in the photo. l.
Focal B&W - Turn a photo to black and white, while keeping one circular area of color intact. You can define the size and sharpness of the colored spot.
m. Graduated Tint - Add a graduated filter from a color you select. This is useful for making gray skies blue. 6. EXTRAS a. Adding captions: While editing a photo, click the text underneath that says 'Make a caption!', then add a caption. If you upload the photo to Picasa Web Albums, your captions will also appear in your online albums.
Sharing in Picasa Now that you've organized and edited your photos, you're ready to share them with others. 1. Click the Share button sharing located in the folder or album header. Your photos will then be uploaded to Picasa Web Albums. You'll also be prompted to send email invitations to your friends and family to view the album. 2. Hold Photos - The Photo Tray displays the photos that you've selected in Picasa. Hold the Ctrl key while clicking photos in your library to select multiple photos. Use the Hold to secure photos from different folders or albums. 3. Clear Photos - Use this button to remove all photos from the Photo Tray. Similarly, if you change your mind about including a particular photo in the Photo Tray, select the photo and click the Clear button. This will remove the selected photo from the group.
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4. Add Photos to an Album - The Add to button allow you to add all selected photos in the Photo Tray directly to an album of your choice. 5. Star your Favorites - Add stars to your photos in Picasa to mark them as your favorites. Use the 'Star' filter at the top of your library to see only your favorite photos. 6. Rotate - Rotate a photo 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise. 7. Tag - Tags are like keywords. To save time, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-T. 8. Upload - Upload all photos that you've placed in the Photo Tray. During the upload process, you can control the upload size, online album privacy, and also even add a watermark to your uploaded photos. In addition to the upload button, there are several ways to upload photos from Picasa to Picasa Web Albums. 9. Email - Use this button to quickly distribute a smaller number of photos to friends and family, using the provider of your choice. 10. Print - The Print button lets you print your selected photos using a local or networked printer. Select a print layout size, such as 4 x 6 or wallet size, and Picasa will automatically size your selected photos to those proportions. You can choose to include a photo border or the captions you've previously added. These print layout options make it easier to print multiple photos on one page. 11. Export - Use this button to create copies of your photos with all edits applied. Your original photos remain untouched. During the export process, you'll also get to control the size and quality of the resulting copy of your photos. 12. Shop - Click this button to access a list of Picasa's online print providers. After you sign in to the provider's website, Picasa will automatically upload all of your selected photos to the print provider's website, enabling you to order prints as you wish. 13. BlogThis! - Post up to four photos at a time to Blogger directly from Picasa 14. Collage - Make a collage and share it with your friends and family. Experiment with six different types of collage, and maintain total control over your collage content and layout 15. Movie - Combine your photos, videos, and music into a movie and upload it directly to YouTube 16. Geo-Tag - Place your photos on the map in Google Earth and embed the latitude and longitude information in your photo file. Introduction to Picasa
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