Digital Photography using Picasa: Schedule and Overview

Digital Photography
using Picasa
September 9 to Oct 2, 2013
Mondays and Wednesdays
Larry Weber
lbweber@gmail.com
(650) 323-3106
323-

Tutor:

Schedule
Lesson 1

Sep 9

Lesson 5

digital images &
installing Picasa

Lesson 2

selecting photos, collages, tags, &
maps

Sep 11

know your camera &
file formats

Lesson 3

Lesson 6

Sep 25

batch edit, adding text, saving &
emailing photos

Sep 16

workflow, importing photos, &
basic editing

Lesson 4

Sep 23

Sep 18

advanced editing, camera 2 &
composition

Lesson 7

Sep 30

sharing your pictures
web albums & Flickr

Lesson 8

Oct 2

printing your photos, slide shows &
cloning with Faststone

Digital Photography using Picasa

2

Lesson 1
Administrivia
Some of this class is based on
David Pogue’s Digital Photography:
The Missing Manual

In this lesson we will learn
What is a digital photo
How to get Picasa
What is a jpeg image


3

What is a digital image
Millions of small blocks of color: pixel
Arranged in rows and columns: aspect ratio
Think of it as a modern day mosaic


4

Pixels and Resolution
Block of color and brightness
Measured in Megapixels (millions)
Height x width = number of megapixels
(almost)
You can select resolution on camera
Pixelation occurs when the image is enlarged
so that the individual pixels can be seen


5

Pixels – an example


6

Installing Picasa
Official Picasa web site:
picasa.google.com


7


8

Or the Easy Way with Ninite.com


9

Run the installer and Allow changes


10

Where are your photos on the PC?
Windows convention
Every user has a Pictures folder

Use folders and file names to identify and
group photos
Picasa uses where your photos are stored
When you open Picasa, it looks at the folders on
your computer and displays the photos it finds.

Your original photos are always preserved
Picasa keeps the changes separately from the photo

11

First time you run Picasa


12

Picasa has a photo viewer (optional)


13

Basic Picasa Window - library


14

Folder Manager
Tell Picasa where are your photos


15

Adjusting the size of the thumbnails
Click on the zoom control and slide it left/right

What happened?
This only changes the size of the thumbnails
on the screen, it does not change the size of
the photo

16

Lesson 2
Review and questions from the last class
Get acquainted with your camera
Scene modes
Depth of Field
File Formats - JPGs


17

Digital Camera

Lens
Aperture
Shutter speed
Focus
Flash

Image sensor
User interface (UI)
LCD
Memory card (CF, SD,
Battery

Same between digital and film

)

Unique to digital

Identify these features on your camera

18

Scene Modes
Camera have settings to guide the exposure
Auto – camera to make all the choices
Sports – assumes there is fast motion in the scene
Portrait – optimizes for skin tones
Landscape – large aperture and no flash
Night – slow shutter
Macro – optimizes for close up
Fireworks – no flash and slow shutter (use a tripod)
Panorama – hold button down and pan, takes
multiple photos which are stitched together.


19

Shutter speed/Aperture relationship
1600

Needs more light

Shutter Speed:
Less light

800
400
200

Needs less light

100
60
30

Number is
fractions
of a second, so
30 means 1/30 of
a second

f16

f11

f8

f5.6

Aperture: More light

f4

Each f-stop larger
allows half the
amount of light, so
f8 has twice the
light as f11
20

Depth of Field


21

Shutter speed and aperture
affects blur and depth of field

from www.photonhead.com

22

Is more megapixels better?
Sorta – but not the whole story
Also important in a camera is
Accuracy of colors
Sensitivity to light
Lens distortion (lack of)
Focus accuracy
UI ease of Use

What resolution of your camera?


23

Higher resolution = bigger photo

1 mega pixel
2 mega pixel
4 mega pixel
6 mega pixel
8 mega pixel

10 mega pixel

24

Detail look from a
1 mega pixel photo

10 mega pixel photo


25

File Formats (produced by camera)
JPEG – most common, standard, compressed
and lossy
TIFF – standard, large files not lossy
RAW – large, most editing flexibility but
manufacturer specific
Lossy means that some photo quality is lost in a
tradetrade-off for a smaller (compressed) file
What file formats does your camera
support?

26

Comparison of
resolutions and file formats


27

Example of lossy compression

Low compression

Medium compression

High compression
28

Assignment
Take some pictures and bring them to the next
class
Indoors and Outdoors
Distance and close
Sun light, incandescent light and florescent light


29


30


31


32

Lesson 3
Review and questions from last class
Workflow of digital photography
Importing photos and watched folders
Editing in Picasa
Auto correction
Undo and Redo
Rotate and Straightening


33

Digital Photography Workflow
1.

Acquiring the image

3.

Camera
Scanner
Download
Sharing
2.

Editing with Picasa
Organizing your photos
Tags, Collections, Facial
recognition and places
Improving the image

Taking the photo
Automatic settings or
manual settings
Composition
Special techniques

4.

Displaying and sharing
On-screen
Web sharing
Print
Email
Media show


34

Steps of importing your photos
Importing photos always involves
1.
2.
3.

Copying the photos to a folder in your computer
Naming the folder with a meaningful name
Picasa set to “watch” this folder

These steps can be done either by
Using Picasa import, or
Manually using Windows operations

[Optional] Rename each photo – replace the
arbitrary camera name with a meaningful one

35

Connect memory card to computer
Use a memory card reader or
USB cable connected to your camera
(camera must be ON to act like a card reader)


36

AutoPlay in Windows

Starts Picasa with import tool
Same as starting Picasa yourself


37

Import dialog in Picasa


38

Importing from your Camera
Import options

Start import manually


39

What Happened (previous slide)
Picasa created folders based
on date taken
Placed those folders in
My Pictures
Copied the photos into the
created folders
Left the photos on the
memory card


40

Watched Folders
Folders that
Picasa “watches”
for changes
If changed,
Picasa updates
its library
Example: Picasa only watches My Pictures
I suggest that you have Picasa only watch My Pictures,
you can easily control what is in the Picasa library by
what folders you keep in My Pictures

41

Adding a folder to Picasa manually
Example is for adding a
folder from My Documents
to My Pictures.


42

What happened
We moved the folder Example Images from
My Documents to My Pictures
Picasa was watching

My Pictures
It found a new folder
containing photos
It added the new
folder and photos
to Picasa’ Library


43

Sort a folder and other library ops


44

Editing a photo
Double click on the water skier (Example 01)


45

Automatic Photo Correction
Click on “I’m feeling Lucky”
What happened?
Picasa analyzed the photo and
guessed that the strength of
the colors needed to be raised
An Undo button appeared

What didn’t happen?
The file containing the photo wasn’t changed,
Picasa will remember that it should perform this
change every time it uses this photo

46


47

Why are there 2 views of the photo?
Picasa doesn’t automatically change the photo
What it does is keeps track what changes have
been made
In our example: photo named “Example 01”
had the “I’m feeling lucky” command done


48

Undo and Redo
Click the Undo
button
Click the Redo
button
Repeat while
watching the
histogram

49

Rotating a photo – Example 02
Some cameras will mark a photo as rotated
If yours does not, you can rotate it in Picasa


50

Straightening a photo – Example 03


51

Straightening a photo


52

Lesson 4
Editing with Picasa
Retouch, Crop and Redeye

Camera
Zoom
ISO & White Balance

Composition
When to flash
Photos of people


53

Digital retouch
Double click on Example 04 (girl’s face)
Click on Retouch


54

Adjust the slider so the size of the retouch
brush is a little bigger than the blemish


55

Move the brush over the
blemish, click and hold the
left mouse button

Move the brush to a place where the
blemish disappears

56

Cropping a photo – Example 05


57

Aspect ratio
Crop to either:
Make the photo right for a certain sized frame, or
Improve the picture composition and balance, or
Both

This specifies relative shape, not absolute size
For example, “8 x 10” forces the crop so that
one edge 25% (10/8) larger than other
Manual does not constrain the shape

58


59

What is Aspect ratio and
why is it important
You camera has a sensor of a certain size and
with a specific number of pixels wide and high
Conventional photos use a specific widths and
heights
Examples
My camera
Portrait frame
Desktop photo
Small Photo
HD TV
SD TV

3872 x 2592
10 x 8
7x5
6x4
16 x 9
4x3


1.49 x 1
1.25 x 1
1.40 x 1
1.50 x 1
1.77 x 1
1.33 x 1
60

Redeye
Occurs when light is reflected back
BTW on animals it is green

It is worse in low light when subjects eyes are
dilated
How to handle
Don’t use a flash
Use redeye reduction flash (double flash to un-dilate)
Move the flash away from lens (separate flash)
Fix in software


61

Fixing Redeye in software
Double click on Example 06


62

ZOOM on a camera
Optical zoom – uses camera optics to control
telephoto and wide angle
Digital zoom – camera takes a part of the picture and
expands the picture by adding missing pixels
(interpolating)
Larry’s rule (and probably everyone else): NEVER use
digital zoom. Instead use highest resolution and use
computer software to expand picture.


63

Optical and Digital Zoom

From www.digitaltrends.com

64

ISO and the digital camera
ISO rating indicates sensitivity to light
Higher ISO requires less light, but
Higher ISO results in more noise

ISO 100

ISO 800
From www.dpreview.com


65

White Balance
Adjusts picture to take into account the “color
temperature” of the light
Which is picture looks better?

From www.cambridgeincolour.com
66

White Balance Camera Settings
How do you set white
balance on your
camera?
Do you have prepresets?

From www.cambridgeincolour.com
67

Image Stabilizer (Anti-shake)
Feature in some cameras (advisable if buying)
Good in low light, so slow shutter speed
Good in high zoom, so hard to steady camera


68

To Flash
Flash if
The subject is in the shadows
There is not enough light to get a good exposure


69

Or not to Flash
Don’t flash if
Subject is too far away, > 10 feet for most cameras
(flash doesn’t help but the camera doesn’t know)
In front of glass (all you will get is the flash flare)
At an event or museum (if cameras are allowed)
You CAN get a good photo without it


70

Change Your Point of View
Getting low (good for pets and babies – their world)
Shoot upwards or downwards


71

Face Recognition
Feature on some cameras (nice to have)
Camera recognizes faces and adjusts focus and
exposure accordingly


72

Tips for portraits
It’s like porridge:
Not too close, not too far
Not too high, either
Framing – it’s all about the person
Easy lighting
Use a flash?
Camera settings?


73

Fill the Frame
Which photo do you like better?


74


75


76

Lesson 5
Review and question from last class
In this lesson we will
Practice our editing techniques
Learn how to use
Select photos and use the selected Photo Tray
Create a Collage and create a simple panorama
Use the Properties panel
Tags and Geo Tags


77

Sorting a Picasa Folder
Open Folder Example Images 2
Sort the folder based on file names


78

Selecting Multiple Photos: method 1
Pick photo in any order and in any folder


79

If photos are adjacent in folder then

Can pick either the beginning or ending photo
as the first photo

80

You can also select photos by drawing a box
that touches the photos


81

Selected Photo Tray
Photos in the Photo Tray are used together
Rotate photo can rotate all at the same time
Share, Email, Print & Export works on all in the box
Tags and Geo data works on all photos in the box


82

Selected cont’d


83

Practice our Editing
Select the folder Example Images 2
Edit the photos:
Example 001 through Example 012


84

Create a photo collage
Select the 4 photos in folder Example Images 2
Example 013 thru Example 016
Go to the Menu bar and select Create
Then select Picture Collage


85

Pick a collage layout in settings


86

Set size and options for the collage


87


88

Saving the collage


89

Create a panorama
A panorama is a photo created by combining
two or more separate photos together
Picasa doesn’t do this automatically, other
software does a much better job
Locate the two photos of Mont Saint Michel in
folder Example Images 2

Use the straighten tool on each image getting
the abbey in each photo exactly vertical

90

Create a panorama, cont’d
1.

2.

3.

4.

In the library view, select both photos and
select Picture Collage under Create
Rotate each photo if necessary to make
them perpendicular to the edge of the
paper.
You might also want to select both and
make the bigger by exactly the same
amount
Uncheck the Draw Shadows option


91

5.

Click and hold one photo, drag it on top of
the other so the common features overlap.
I used the car for alignment


92

6.
7.
8.

Click on Create Collage
Crop to improve photo
Try: I’m Feeling Lucky


93

Panorama – using software
Microsoft has a free program for Windows (32,
(32,
64), & OSX
Find it with Google using:
“microsoft image composite editor"

Photos taken overlapping with the next

94

Result using the Microsoft tool


95

Properties of a photo
The camera records additional information
according to a standard called
Exchangeable image file format (Exif)
Exif)
Information includes
Date taken
Time taken
Camera settings (even if you used Auto)
Brand and model of the camera,


96

Properties
1.

Click on Properties Button

2.

Click on the rotated photo

3.

Inspect the properties of
other photos


97

Tags
Key words that are attached to a photos
Used to group photos with a similar subject,
regardless of where they are in the library
Tags panels displayed with:


98

Applying a tag to a photo
Select the San Francisco skyline photo and
enter San Francisco in the tag name box, then
press the plus button


99

Tags cont’d
Select Alcatraz photp, click San Francisco
photp,

We could have selected both photos and
entered a tag for both


100

Tags cont’d
Select the 3 harbor scenes & place a tag:
tag:

Peggys Cove

Practice by tagging photos for
Flowers
Animals
California

101

Using Tags
Enter a tag in the search box (upper right) to
find all photos that have that tag


102

Geo Tags

1.
2.

Tag photos with a location, manually or GPS.
Open the Places Panel
Select Peggys Cove photos


103

Geo Tags cont’d
In the search box a the bottom of the Places
Panel enter:
“peggys cove”
and press the search
button
If the search returned the
right location, press OK.
If not click and hold on the
peg and move it to the
right location

104

Lesson 6
Batch Edit
Adding Text to a Photo
Saving
Emailing


105

Picasa Tags visible in Windows
Tags entered in Picasa can be seen in the
Details view of a folder


106

Batch Edit – select multiple photos


107

Batch Edit – Renaming your photos
1.

2.

3.

Select the photos
in the Photo Tray
Go to
Picture/Batch
Edit/Rename…
Use “-001” at end
“to start the
sequence number
at 001.

108

Stars in Picasa
Stars are a feature that allows you annotate
favorite photos

The Stars button adds or removes stars from
the photos in the Photo Tray

109

Library View – Photo Captions
Add captions/Title to
Photo thumbnails
Select:
Select:
View
Thumbnail Captions
Choose one of these
None
Filename
Caption
Tags
Resolution

110

Adding text to a Photo
Select a photo

Select Text
button


111

Adding text to a Photo cont’d
These are just
like in word
processing
Sets lettering
color
Sets outline
color
Transparency
Outline
thickness


112


Click on the
colored dot to
change the
color
Moving your
cursor across
here will
select a color


113


Or move the
cursor
anywhere in
the photo to
select a color
I picked the
color of the
boat


114


Enter the text
anywhere
You can move
it, tilt it and
resize it


115


When you are
done, click
on Apply to
save your
work


116

Saving a photo
Picasa doesn’t change the photo when editing,
instead it remembers what was edited
When you see a photo in Picasa, Picasa
displays the photo with all the edits
When you see the photo outside of Picasa,
you will not see the changes
You can tell Picasa to update the photo so it is
consistent everywhere


117

Saving all edited Photos in a folder
Picasa will make a backup of the original
(unedited photo)


118

Save and Revert a specific photos
To Save specific photos select, right click & Save

To retrieve originals right click & Revert


119

Changing the Date Taken of Photo
Change the Date Taken if the date was wrong
or was lost when copying from other source
How to add/change the date
1.
2.
3.

Select the photo(s)
Go to Tools/Adjust Date and Time…
Enter new Date and Time


120

Emailing
Sends the .jpg files as attachments
But files might be too large – stay under 5 MB
(depends on your and recipients email service)
How to do it
(use one depending on how you do email)
Gmail – directly from Picasa
PC email (Windows Live Mail, Outlook, …) – directly
from Picasa
Web email (Yahoo, Hotmail, Comcast, …) –
1.
2.

Export to a folder (on the desktop makes it easy)
From your web mail, attach the photos

121

Email from Picasa - configuration


122

Using Gmail


123

Using PC based email program


124

Using Web email
Addresses

Export the photos


125

Email using a Web mail cont’d
1 Compose an
email
2 Enter
recipients
addresses
3 Attach
exported
photos


126

Email using a Web mail cont’d


127


128

Lesson 7
Sharing Photos on the Web
Picasa Web Albums
Flickr


129

Sharing Photos on the Web
Web sharing, alternative to email sharing
No email size issues
You can share with many people, add more people
later or remove access later
Some sharing sites offer print services

There are many web sites (Wikipedia lists 30+)
Picasa Web Albums (built into Picasa)
Flickr (Yahoo property)
Shutterfly


130

How to use Web photo sharing
To share you photos you must have an
account
Picasa – Google account (doesn’t have to be gmail)
Flickr – Yahoo account
Shutterfly – site account

To view someone's photos
You will be notified by email of a shared album
Depending of the site, you may be able to view
some or all of the senders albums


131

Sharing with Picasa
Creates a web album and share from within
Picasa – requires a Google account
Steps
Sign into your Google account,
if not signed in you will be
prompted in the next step
Select the photos into the Photo Tray and click on
Share on Google+


132

Sharing with Picasa, cont’d
When you filled out the dialog,
click on the Share button

If you shared to the public, you
are reminded that the photos
are included in search results


133

Sharing with Picasa, cont’d
Email notification of shared photos

Email has a link to
the Picasa Web
Album


134

Picasa Web, change permissions


135

Sharing with Flickr, Shutterfly or …
Decide on which service to use and create an
account
Flickr is from Yahoo,
so a Yahoo account
is needed
Flickr gives you a terabyte of space –
(over 200,000 5 MB photos)

136

Steps of non Picasa Web Albums
Place photos into Photo Tray, click on Export

Fill out the Export
dialog (like we did
to email)
Click the Export
button

137

Using Flickr
Sign into Flickr
and choose
Upload


138

Uploading in Flickr


139

Flickr – Photostream and Sets
Photostream is all of your photos
Sets are sharable subsets of Photostream


140

Flickr – Creating Sets


141

Sharing a Photo Set

The recipient will get an email with a link to
get to your photos

142


143


144

Lesson 8
Printing your Photos
Creating a Slide show and a Movie
Scanning a Photo
Cloning using Faststone


145

Printing your photos

1.
2.
3.

Picasa has three ways to print
Home printer (Print)
Google partner (Shop)
Third party eg Costco (Export)
Before you start, think about what size you
want and crop your photos to that size (aspect
ratio).


146

Home printer
Select the
photos, the
small
thumbnails
will be seen in
the Photo Tray
Click on the
Print button at
the bottom of
the window


147

Print dialog box for printing at home
Print dialog for
using your
home printer
This will show
how prints
will be placed
on the paper.
Printer options
controls
printer
specific
choices.


148

Print using a Google Partner (Shop)
Picasa/Google
has marketing
and sales
relationships
with print
companies.


149

Print using a Google Partner
The Shop option
lets you
1
choose among
quite a few
online
vendors.
Besides prints,
these vendors
might offer
other products
such as
calendars,
mugs, print
books.


150

Third party – eg. Costco (Export)
For a third party
vendor, we
export the
photos like we
did in web
email except
at full size.
Then we go
their web site
and upload the
photos
according their
process.

1

151

Third party – eg. Costco (Export)
Picasa makes a
new folder.
Place it on the
Desktop or
other easy to
use location.
Specify original
size because
we want the
best print
quality
although the
upload might
take longer.


152

Costco Photo Center
Costco has you
first upload
your photos
into their
albums.
Then you can
purchase
prints, mugs,
etc by
choosing
photos that
are already
uploaded.


153

Costco Photo Center
You can create
a new album
or use an
existing one if
you have used
Costco before.
Open the folder
into which you
exported your
Picasa photos,
And drag the
photos to the
web page as
shown.


154

Costco Photo Center
You can add
more photos to
the upload list
or remove
ones already
on the list.
When you are
ready press
the Start
Upload button.


155

Costco Photo Center
You can print all
or part of the
album and
include photos
from other
albums.


156

Costco Photo Center


157

Slide Shows
Place the desired photos into the Photo Tray
Click the Play
button


158

Making a Movie
Picasa can make a movie (playable slide show)
Place a few (4-8) photos in the Photo Tray
(4Click on
Create Movie icon
Add an audio track
and play


159

Scanners
Digitizes photos, film, and documents
OCR converts text to a file
Photo and film scanners need hi res


160


161

Open Faststone Viewer
Open Faststone Viewer
In the navigation panel, navigate to Example
Images 3 in Pictures
Double click on
any image

Working with Files and Folders

162


163

Move to right edge
Shows image information

Shows camera settings
when the image was
taken.


164

Move to the left edge
This menu allows you to
Copy/save/ print and have a slide
show
Rotate, resize and edit the image
Adjust the colors, lighting
Provides special effects


165

Simple Slide Show
On the left edge menu,
select Slideshow

Pick play options

Play the show


166

Pixel editing your photo (Clone)


167

Set up the options to clone pixels
To remove the telephone wires, pick
Small brush (3-5 pixels)
Hard brush (.7-.9)
Magnify to 400%


168

How to clone pixels in Faststone
1.
2.

3.

Decide where you want to repair first,
Find an area (source) on the photo that would
be a good replacement
With pointer over the source, press CTRL

4.


169

Helpful Cloning Tips
Hardness indicates how much to blend, a hard
brush will give provide for sharp edges
Use ctrl-Z (undo) if you make an error, each
ctrlctrlctrl-Z will undo one brush stroke


170

Special Effects
Pick a Peggy’s Cove photo
In the left edge menu, click on Oil Painting
Adjust the
Amount slider
to vary the
effect
Try other
effects

171


172

Digital Photography using Picasa: Schedule and Overview

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais procurados

Mais procurados (12)

Semelhante a Digital Photography using Picasa: Schedule and Overview

Semelhante a Digital Photography using Picasa: Schedule and Overview (20)

Último

Último (9)

Digital Photography using Picasa: Schedule and Overview