Picasa 2: New All-in-One Photo Editing
and Managing Software
By Patty Hankins & Bill Lawrence - Published May 5, 2005


Google recently released version 2.0 of their free photo
editing software Picasa. We'd seen a couple of good reviews
of the program - so decided to give it a try. We weren't
sure what to expect. What we found was a very basic (but
nice) editing program and an excellent photo organizing
program rolled into one package - and it's free!

Picasa 2 can be downloaded free from  http://www.picasa.com
- downloading and installation was straightforward.  Picasa
2 requires that you have Windows 98 or newer operating
system. It also requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0.
There is not a version for Macs.


Photo Library

Even some people who already have a photo editing program
might want Picassa for its "photo library", which organizes
your image files on your computer.  Upon opening, Picasa
starts you in the Library View. Picasa searches your hard
drive for images, and places each folder with images in a
list on the left side of the screen. The right side of the
screen shows thumbnail views of each image, sorted into the
folders. 

Picasa appears to be able to read most standard image files,
including JPEG, TIFF and Canon RAW files including raw files
from a new Canon 20D. It can read flattened, but not
layered, Photoshop PSD files. This isn't too much of an
issue - since if you're working with layered PSD files,
chances are you'll be using more sophisticated software than
Picasa anyway.

From a drop-down menu, you can among other things edit the
folder name, find it on your hard drive, or show a slideshow
of the images in the folder. Some of the other useful
functions available in the Library View are batch renaming
of images and printing contact sheets.

One very nice function in the Library View is the ability to
search for a specific file. You can search by title and set
the timeframe for the search. That way, if you're like us
and have hundreds (ok thousands) of images on your drive,
searches can be narrowed by time if you know when you
created the image. 

The Library View is a very user-friendly way to find images
and sets of images on your computer. 

Edit View

Double clicking on any image in the Library View opens that
image for editing.  The edits are basic - cropping, rotating
(both 90 degrees at a time, and free rotation), brightness
and color temperature adjustment.  The controls for
brightness aren't too bad - you can adjust darker and
lighter areas separately.  The color controls leave some to
be desired, but aren't too bad for, say, if you're photo has
too much of a green cast to it.  It even has a neutral color
picker - simply click on something that should be neutral
(white, black, or grey), and it color corrects the photo.
Picasa also has a set of automatic color and
brightness/contrast adjustments, which appear to do
reasonably well with straightforward photos.  It also has a
red-eye correction feature. All controls have an undo
button, in case you don't like the effect.  The program also
includes a set of special effects, such as increasing color
saturation, adding a graduated or solid tint to a photo,
making a color photo a black & white or sepia image, etc. An
automatic sharpening tool is available from this menu.

The biggest weakness that we've found in Picasa is saving
your files.  Picasa only lets you save your files as JPEG
images.  JPEG is a lossy format - every time you save in
JPEG, you lose a little detail in your photo.  As far as we
are concerned, the inability to save your edited images as
anything but a JPEG is a major flaw in the program.  If you
edit in Picasa, try to do all edits at once - do not edit a
bit and save, edit more and save, etc. Each time you save
you lose a little more.  Also, do not save a file to replace
your original.

The program also does not support color management, and will
not save 16-bit per channel files (standard JPEG doesn't
support 16-bit) - but again, if you're using these then
chances are you've got a more sophisticated editing program.


Other Functions

Once you have your image edited up, you have several options
in Picasa for what to do next. With just a click of a
button, you can print it, email it, upload it to one of
several online photo printing sites, create a collage of
photos, or send it to an online blog. You can easily create
slide shows, and wallpaper & screen savers for your
computer.  From the Library View, the program also has a
very nice basic web-page generator - you can simply
highlight a directory, and it creates an index web page of
thumbnail images, and a set of web pages with a larger image
that you can page through in your browser.

Overall Impressions

Overall, Picasa 2 has a lot going for it, especially for
free software. For someone who has a digital camera but
doesn't have photo editing software (or if you get photos on
CD from your photo store), Picasa has easy to use basic
editing functions that can enhance photos.  We consider the
restriction of saving only in JPEG a major limitation,
although one that many can live with, and hope that future
versions will correct this.  However, even if you don't want
it for its editing functions, Picasa is definitely worth
looking at for its image organizing functions.

Patty Hankins & Bill Lawrence are the co-owners of
Hankins-Lawrence Images, LLC, a digital photography
company based in Maryland. HLI Photonotes, their
monthly ezine, provides information and tips for
photographers. To subscribe email
hl_images@earthlink.net  with subscribe in the subject
or visit www.hankinslawrenceimages.com .

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