tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31472028104512930912023-11-16T07:36:50.452+00:00Picasa TutorialsPicasa hints, tips & tutorials to stop you going madRichard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-40126728452677792082013-01-25T23:21:00.002+00:002013-01-25T23:21:36.559+00:00Picasa and Google+You Can Share to your Google+ circles<br />
If you've joined Google+, you can use Picasa 3.9 to share directly to the circles you've created in Google+.<br />
They'll see your photos and videos in their Google+ stream.<br />
People that don't use Google+ aren't left out. They'll get an email to view your album in Google+, and they don't have to join to do so.<br />
<br />
Picasa name tags on Google+<br />
If you've joined Google+, you may have noticed that name tags have become more social.<br />
With the release of Picasa 3.9, you can now upload and share your name tags on Google+.<br />
Note that if you choose not to join Google+, name tags won't change at all.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-7029101659289680762013-01-25T23:18:00.001+00:002013-01-25T23:18:16.391+00:00Picasa for Mac's?Some people may not know that you can get a mac version of Picasa!<br />
Simply click here and download: <a href="http://picasa.google.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Picasa for Mac</a><br />
<br />
It's pretty much the same as the PC version, so get editing!Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-91795103804549718802013-01-25T23:04:00.001+00:002013-01-25T23:11:20.800+00:00Saving vs ExportingAs you know, when you make any changes to your images in Picasa those changes apply to your images only when you view them in Picasa.<br />
If you want to use a changed/edited image outside of Picasa (on the web/blog/photoshop/etc) you will need to do one of two things:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Save </b>or</li>
<li><b>Export</b></li>
</ol>
<br />
What's the difference?<br />
Firstly, <b>Save</b>.<br />
When you <b>Save </b>an edited image in Picasa it saves the image in it's present location on your hard drive. It then also creates a sub-folder in that location and places the original image in there for safety, in effect giving you a backup of your original image. You will then need to either export the image, or right click it and open it in another editing program like Photoshop.<br />
<br />
Secondly, <b>Export</b>.<br />
When you have edited an image in Picasa you can choose to <b>Export </b>it to another location. You can place it anywhere on your computer. You can also choose a new size and quality, as well as applying a watermark in the bottom right of the image if you want.<br />
By Exporting you are creating a new, edited version of your image which should be the right size to use. If you need to further edit the image in Photoshop or Gimp then you can do that easily.<br />
<br />
Which is best?<br />
It's entirely up to you which one you do, depending on your needs.<br />
I tend to use the export function rather than save personally as it's faster for my needs.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-2066693339493294002013-01-07T19:14:00.000+00:002013-01-07T19:14:00.032+00:00Tell me...What section of Picasa would you like me to focus on next?<br />Is there something you want to know?<br />
Confused by all the new buttons and sections?<br />
<br />
Just let me know by adding a comment below this post and I will create a personalised tutorial just for you :)Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-58499097465762097482013-01-07T18:08:00.003+00:002013-02-18T20:51:15.449+00:00Create a Facebook Timeline BannerThis post aims to help you create awesome Timeline Banners for your Facebook page.<br />
There are several sections to it, just follow each one, click on the images to see them larger.<br />
If you have any questions just let me know in the comments.
<br />
<br />
Firstly we need to create a specific crop ratio.<br />
<ol>
<li>Select an image (any image will do)</li>
<li>Double click it to open the edit section</li>
<li>Click "Crop"</li>
<li>On the "Crop" tab, click the drop down menu and scroll to the very bottom until you see "Add Custom Aspect Ratio..."</li>
<li>Click "Add Custom Aspect Ratio..." and when the pop up box appears enter these ratios: 851 width - 315 height, then call it "Facebook Timeline" and save</li>
</ol>
You now have the correct crop to use for your Timeline images<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7IMGUpr_R5EVsiJbFa8NNkph0whvWcGlynR_-WRZFGM8ZqtzAB2JozY3ey7V3Jl1EfrU1m0G4WumtEnbqIqdlYxaS9BJTYHD47KqiVx_g7XuTiVp6YPgcDup3Zcnh32DMSWDUelak0a7/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+173823.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7IMGUpr_R5EVsiJbFa8NNkph0whvWcGlynR_-WRZFGM8ZqtzAB2JozY3ey7V3Jl1EfrU1m0G4WumtEnbqIqdlYxaS9BJTYHD47KqiVx_g7XuTiVp6YPgcDup3Zcnh32DMSWDUelak0a7/s640/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+173823.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Secondly<br />
<ol>
<li>Choose the image you want to use for your Timeline</li>
<li>Double click it to open the edit section</li>
<li>Click "Crop", choose "Facebook Timeline" in the Custom Aspect Ratios section and draw a box on your image</li>
<li>When you are happy with your crop click "Apply"</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5xF4EnpJstitamiMNj15rnGOG4RsgJnyxX0kgmAthVPWC19HFb5FUNvjekApDapbui82NuNXTv41fYAq_FFyhEQwq7Yw5cGH7Ex8GvDFeusL94pkGvjVI1Sn8huWBF2BjPOG6w1D2Bm4U/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+173957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5xF4EnpJstitamiMNj15rnGOG4RsgJnyxX0kgmAthVPWC19HFb5FUNvjekApDapbui82NuNXTv41fYAq_FFyhEQwq7Yw5cGH7Ex8GvDFeusL94pkGvjVI1Sn8huWBF2BjPOG6w1D2Bm4U/s640/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+173957.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Thirdly<br />
Export your image to the desktop with an image size of 851 pixels<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9ltSIblBPyKJjAmfktQjAtaA4BXGCghjDSe3Uvu_YUkF29zyA12Cre0i2UIXq_PhSWj2W4Fgucn2QtXeUutQS4cFbzWqkSaeve5Ew4sPjECviF7-HEnbc0ykLh-Tu6U1DGDXQ8wQkuP_/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+174044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9ltSIblBPyKJjAmfktQjAtaA4BXGCghjDSe3Uvu_YUkF29zyA12Cre0i2UIXq_PhSWj2W4Fgucn2QtXeUutQS4cFbzWqkSaeve5Ew4sPjECviF7-HEnbc0ykLh-Tu6U1DGDXQ8wQkuP_/s640/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+174044.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
That's it done!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj54IdiCDV1cx4IrxPUQFeFiR-6J6Nbpsy0aimML7OcX86_ZzMNSfGSjiJ-dTttfkcWWvo236mgjkR0M64jOLYxO5rm4EYB4ktPuNbihXBWAi5KpLPOyJrHTrhDAW3RL6MhqWbfVCg7VLd/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+174030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj54IdiCDV1cx4IrxPUQFeFiR-6J6Nbpsy0aimML7OcX86_ZzMNSfGSjiJ-dTttfkcWWvo236mgjkR0M64jOLYxO5rm4EYB4ktPuNbihXBWAi5KpLPOyJrHTrhDAW3RL6MhqWbfVCg7VLd/s640/Fullscreen+capture+07012013+174030.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
All you need to do now is to upload it to Facebook and start using it...<br />
<br />
If you have any questions just ask.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-50078142410709315822010-03-18T09:27:00.000+00:002010-03-18T09:27:28.253+00:00Watermarks - How ToHow to add a watermark to your images.<br />
<br />
Select an image<br />
<br />
<ol><li>In the "<b>Basic Fixes</b>" tab, left click "<b>Text</b>"</li>
<li>Click anywhere in the image on the right and start typing</li>
<li>To enter more than one line of text just use the "<b>Enter</b>" or "<b>Return</b>" key on your keyboard</li>
<li>A rounded edge box will appear around your text (this box will not be visible when you finish)</li>
<li>To move the text, left click on the rounded edge box and drag the text where you want it</li>
<li>To change the font, use the drop down box labelled "<b>Font</b>"</li>
<li>To change the colour of the Text, click the circle next to the Grey T, this brings up an eyedropper which allows you to pick a colour in your image or use the pop-up box to choose your colour</li>
<li>If you just want your text to be an outline (not solid) click the white box with a red line through it</li>
<li>To change the colour of the text OUTLINE, click on the "hollow" T to the right of the white box with the red line</li>
<li>To make the outline thicker or thinner use the slider next to the hollow T</li>
<li>You can have solid colour text with a different colour outline by using a combination of the above buttons and sliders</li>
<li>To change the size, rotate and make the text opaque see below</li>
<li>When you are happy with your watermark click Apply</li>
<li>Don't forget to EXPORT or save the image with the watermark when you upload it</li>
</ol><br />
To change the size of the text there are two options:<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Use the Size drop down under the Font drop down</li>
</ol><br />
or,<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Hover your mouse over the MIDDLE of the text you have placed and a circle will appear with an orange dot to the right. Click and drag the orange dot to SCALE the text up and down as required.</li>
<li>TIP. If you only want to scale the text and not accidentally rotate it, press and hold the left CTRL key on your keyboard.</li>
</ol><div>To rotate the text, hover the mouse near the middle of the text and a circle will appear with an orange dot to the right. Click and drag the orange dot to stretch and rotate the text.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Once you have your chosen text, at the right size, with the right font and in the right place - click and drag the Transparency slider to around 60%. This makes the watermark less visible and thus allows the viwere to see the image better, while still protecting your image.</div><div><br />
</div><div><i>Try to place the watermark near the centre of the image if possible as this will be the most difficult to remove or crop out.</i></div><div><i>If you want to place a copyright watermark it MUST be in this format: "© 2010 R HORSFIELD" the year is the date of creation, followed by your name.</i></div><div><br />
</div><div><b>TIP: to get a © symbol...</b></div><div>Press and hold the left ALT key (the one to the left of the space bar)</div><div>Using the right hand numeric keypad (not the numbers at the top of the keypad) type 0169</div><div>Release the ALT key and a neat little © symbol appears!</div><div><br />
</div>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-32337739670325635972008-09-04T15:48:00.001+01:002008-09-04T15:56:39.912+01:00Retouch (New Picasa 3 Tool)Having had Picasa 3 now for a few days, I thought I'd post on some of the new features, firstly the "Retouch" tool.<br /><br />If you have ever wanted to remove a spot or blemish from a face in a photo, this is the tool for you. It works on the same cloning principles used in PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro - but it's a heck of a lot easier and more intuitive to use.<br /><br />Basically, all you need to do is click on the area you want to remove/alter in your picture, then click on another part of the same image to replace it. The funky thing is that Picasa then has a quick whizz at blending the edges of the new area with the existing image, then "Hey Presto", job done.<br />It's certainly not on a par to the perfection that you can manage with PS, but it is pretty remarkable nonetheless.<br /><br />One other application for this tool...<br />You can have fun placing eyes onto foreheads, removing noses, getting rid of basically anything. Just experiment and have fun.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-78195089373809211482008-09-02T19:35:00.003+01:002008-09-02T22:12:52.437+01:00Picasa 3 is here!Yep, you read it right... the 3rd Major Update to Picasa is now available!<br /><br />With details being leaked out already as to whats included (including auto-facial recognition) and better indexing and searching, it's bound to get millions of hits in the first few hours of being made available.<br /><br />Head on over to http://picasa.google.com/ for more details.<div><br /></div><div>Click here for the download: <a href="http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa3-setup.exe">Picasa 3 (Beta)</a></div>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-32485234136615393872008-07-19T13:21:00.000+01:002013-02-18T20:53:27.826+00:00Creating CollectionsIf you’re like me, you’ve probably been using Picasa with the default set of folders on the left hand side (Albums, Folders, Hidden, and Other Stuff), but it starts to become frustrating to search for photos when you have thousands of photos and you didn’t have the time to give every single picture a caption to be able to search on! So if you have tons of pictures and want to use Picasa more effectively, so you create your own Collections to sort out your pictures between Family, Friends, Travel Vacation, Cars, Dogs, or whatever specific categories you would like to have!<br />
<br />
Doing it this way makes it a lot easier to sort through pictures because now you can simply go to the collection and you’ll have only those folders listed in order of date without having to sort through all the other folders you might have around that same date!<br />
<br />
To create a new Collection, choose one of the folders in the left panel and right click on it. Choose Move To Collection and then choose New Collection.<br />
<br />
Enter a name for your collection and click OK. Picasa will automatically move that folder into the new collection which looks just like the other sections, and which you can scroll down to see.<br />
<br />
And that’s it! Now you can start organizing your files better and making them easier to search. Let’s say you create a collection called Business Pictures and you want to see pictures you’ve taken for your business recently. Just go to the search box at the top and type in business and all your pictures from that collection will show up.<br />
<br />
Another cool thing you can do, which I just learned is to create a password to protect a collection! So if there are sensitive pictures you have, then you really should create a collection and password protect that collection. Simply right click on the collection header and you’ll see the option “Add/Change Password”. Enter a password and verify it and now you have a password protected collection of pictures. Remember though that the pictures can still be viewed if you go through Windows Explorer.<br />
<br />
Any questions, post a comment!<br />
<br />
Tags: CollectionsRichard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-15213748899392402642008-07-19T13:17:00.000+01:002008-07-19T13:18:48.778+01:00Creating a MovieThe newest version of Google’s popular Picasa program now has a feature where you can select a folder or album of pictures and create a fully compressed yet high quality slide show movie of the pictures! You can then take the small video and upload it to your Picasa web albums, YouTube, or even your MySpace account to share with family and friends. Here’s how you do it:<br /><br />In Picasa, select a folder or album from the right hand pane first.<br /><br />Once you select the folder, go to Create from the top menu and choose Movie.<br /><br />On the Create Movie options screen, you can choose the amount of delay you want between pictures. The default 1 second I find to be very fast and you don’t really have enough time to see anything! I found 3 seconds to be ideal for me without being too long. However, if you’re planning on creating a movie of 300 pictures, 1 second might be just fine or else it might get too long.<br /><br />I also found 320×240 movie size to be too small and grainy. The large size gave a much better picture than small and was not significantly lower in quality than Widescreen. The major difference is in the size of the files depending on whether they are compressed or uncompressed. I created some test movies with various options and I’ll give the results out of those below.<br /><br />On the Video Compression dialog, you will have an option of Full Frames (Uncompressed) or several other compression methods. I chose DivX 6.0 Codec because it gave me extremely small files or high quality on my tests. Click OK and Picasa will create your movie and open the folder where the movie was saved to.<br /><br />Here are the results of creating a movie from 10 pictures taken by a Sony DSC-N2 8MP digital camera, with 3 second delay between pictures and DivX compression:<br /><br />Small: Uncompressed: 220 MB, Compressed: 3.04 MB<br /><br />Large: Uncompressed: 883 MB, Compressed: 3.13 MB<br /><br />Widescreen: Uncompressed: 1.94 GB, Compressed: N/A<br /><br />As you can see from the table, you’ll definitely need to compress if you want to be able to share these movies with anyone! But the DivX compression was very impressive bringing the file size down from 883 MB to 3.13 MB! And there wasn’t very much difference between the compressed files for small and large. I wasn’t able to get the program to create a file for me for Widescreen compressed because of an error, but once I get that I’ll update the post.<br /><br />Once you have your file, you can go to Picasa and right click the video and choose Upload to Web Album. If you use YouTube, you can post your video there and share it. Or if you use MySpace, you can create the video and then post the video by clicking on Videos under your picture:<br /><br />And then click the Upload tab and fill out the form to upload your video!<br /><br />Once uploaded, you can share the link with your friends and family.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-51610417565387566172008-04-08T21:37:00.002+01:002008-04-08T21:43:33.331+01:00Full Page Manual Slideshow, ScrollerHere's an interesting little feature that I havent seen posted anywhere.<br /><br /><ul><li>In "normal" view (folders on the left and thumbnails on the right)</li><li>Hover your mouse over <span style="font-weight: bold;">any </span>thumbnail in <span style="font-weight: bold;">any </span>folder<br /></li><li>Press and hold "Alt Gr" (right hand side of you keyboard space bar) <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span></li><li>Scroll your mouse wheel <span style="font-style: italic;">or</span></li><li>Press the left & right arrows keys on the keyboard</li><li>(remember to keep the "Alt Gr" key pressed)<br /></li></ul><br />This allows you to scroll fullscreen through the contents of the folder!<br />You do NOT need to click on the thumbnail or folder, just hover on it.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-995670195666194742008-03-29T03:00:00.005+00:002008-03-29T04:20:51.976+00:00PiPiView 1.1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/delgaudm/extending%20picasa/pipiviewer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/delgaudm/extending%20picasa/pipiviewer.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />PiPiView is a free Interactive Picture Pile Viewer for Picasa2.<br /><br />The original Picture Pile Collage of Picasa is pretty cool but the result is only a single jpeg montage, so not really usefull.<br />PiPiView is an <span style="font-style: italic;">interactive</span> version of the Picture Pile which runs separately from Picasa. It's a viewer built in Flash MX 2004 and it enables you to browse through the photos, click and drag them around and to zoom in on them by a single click.<br />If you click on a photo with the CTRL-button hold down at the same time the web browser opens the original JPG in a new window. You can use the mouse or the left/right arrows on your keyboard. Drag the photos to move them to an other place. You can use the viewer as a stand-alone program but since its built in Flash it's ideal to place it on your website or weblog, you can even create a Windows Desktop picture pile and move the images around under your desktop icons!<br />PiPiView uses the same way of 'refining' as Picasa does. When you zoom in on a picture it first enlarges the thumbnail and at the same time it starts downloading the fullsize (a little bar shows the progress while downloading). When the fullsize is loaded the enlarged thumbnail is replaced by the sharp fullsize.<br />You can see an actual sample working here: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mikedelgaudio.com/extend/Picasa/pipiviewer/">mikedelgaudio.com</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Download the zip file from here: </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank" href="http://www.kasstzam.com/pipiview">PiPiView 1.1</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> in zipped format</span></span><br /><br />Here's the info from the enclosed Read~Me file:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">PiPiView - Interactive Picture Pile Viewer for Picasa2<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Copyright (c) 2005 by Rick Companje<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Website: http://pipiview.companje.nl (website down)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Email: pipiview@companje.nl</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Version: 1.1</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Date: 2005-07-22</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">-------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">PiPiView is a free Interactive Picture Pile Viewer for Picasa2.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">The original Picture Pile Collage of Picasa is pretty cool but the result is only a jpeg, so not really usefull.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">PiPiView is an interactive version of the Picture Pile which runs separately from Picasa. It's a viewer build in Flash MX 2004 and it enables you to browse through te photos and to zoom in on them by a single click. If you click on a photo with the CTRL-button hold down at the same time the web browser opens the original JPG in a new window. You can use the mouse or the left/right arrows on your keyboard. Drag the photos to move them to an other place.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">You can use the viewer as a stand-alone program but since is build in Flash it's ideal to place it on your website or weblog.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">PiPiView uses a kind of the same way of 'refining' as Picasa does. When you zoom in on a picture it first enlarges the thumbnail and at the same time it starts downloading the fullsize (a little bar shows the progress while downloading). When the fullsize is loaded the enlarged thumbnail is replaced by the sharp fullsize.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">The font used in PiPiView is my own handwriting, you can use it for free!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Install PiPiView (only once)<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span></span><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Have Picasa2 installed</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Download pipiview11.exe</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Run the self-extraction file pipiview10.exe</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Extract the files to the Picasa2 web template directory (normaly: c:\programfiles\picasa2\web\templates\)</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">The folder 'pipiview' has now being created there</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Alternatively, copy the complete extracted pipiview folder and contents into the above directory<br /></span></span></li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Create a PiPiViewer:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span></span><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Start Picasa2</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Select multiple files in one folder or label (no maximum of pictures but keep under 40 for the best results)</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Right click on the folder or label and choose for 'Make a Webpage...'</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Choose the size of exported pictures (640 will do)</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Enter a Page Title (here seems to be a little bug in Picasa)</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Select folder where to save the files</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">On the next screen select the 'Picture Pile Viewer (PiPiView)' template</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Finish will start the export of images, thumbs and viewer.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">When the export finishes Picasa will open index.html in your web browser</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">You can now upload it to your website</span></span></li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Using the viewer:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span></span><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Use the green arrow buttons to browse through the photos. PiPiView will zoom in on the next picture.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Press the blue information button to view the infoscreen</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Click on a thumbnail-photo to zoom in on that one. Click again to change it back to its original size and position.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Click on a photo with the Control button down to open the original JPG in a new window.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Drag a picture to move it to another place.</span></span></li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Customize a PiPiViewer</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">The default size for the viewer is 500x400 pixels, but you can easily edit the generated html-code and scale it to 400x320 or bigger to 600x480 for example.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">You can edit the background color of the viewer in the html-code. Find the bgcolor (in the object and embed tag) and change it to the color you want.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Change the datafolder in the querystring to point to the location of your image files. Do this when your html-file and/or your swf are on an other place than your images. The default datafolder is ./ but you can change it for example to datafolder=./photos/holidays/france/</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Version History:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Version 1.1 @ 2005-07-22:</span><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">The green buttons were added to browse through the pictures with the mouse</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Rick's free font added, my own handwriting</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Some layout adjustments (borders, shadows)</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Show infoscreen for N seconds (pipiview.swf?info=N)</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Version 1.0 beta @ 2005-07-01</span><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">first public release of PiPiView</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">supports dragging and dropping photos</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Keyboard navigation (spacebar, left, right)</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Control + Click to open image in new web-browser window.</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Licence</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Netherlands License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/nl/)</span></span>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-54800709333680187872008-03-05T19:02:00.001+00:002008-03-05T19:07:10.292+00:00Effective PortraitsChoose your portrait image and do whatever changes you require. Then:<br /><br />1. In the "Effects" tab select GLOW and press ok without changing any settings<br />2. Select SHARPEN and press ok without changing any settings<br />3. Select SOFT FOCUS and choose where you want the focus and size to go...<br /><br />This is a great effect for portraits and works really well with lower light/high grain images.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-61143833919666234782008-03-04T02:20:00.002+00:002008-03-04T02:36:54.051+00:00Doubling the effectWhen applying the Picasa "Tuning" effects it would appear that you can only apply them to a maximum of 100%.<br />However, it is possible to redo the "Tuning" effects more than once until you achieve the effects you desire.<br /><br />How?<br /><br />It's pretty simple really.<br /><br />Choose an image, select it and go into the "Edit" mode.<br />Select the "Tuning" tab.<br />Slide any of the Highlight, Shadow or Fill Light fully to the right.<br />Click on the Basic Fixes tab, then<br />Select the "Tuning" tab and you will be able to redo any of the Highlight, Sadow or Fill Light sliders fully again.<br /><br />Here's an example of a full colour image, converted to Filtered B&W and then 150% Highlighted and 150% Shadow - to create a high-key effect.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kasstzam/338963625/" title="High Key lit from below by kazam media, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/338963625_351e30af63_m.jpg" width="240" height="136" alt="High Key lit from below" /></a>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-64781107876976556122008-02-20T13:16:00.003+00:002008-02-20T13:29:09.478+00:00Focal Black & WhiteThe focal B&W tool is great, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to choose more than one coloured focal point in an image?<br /><br />Well, here's a great technique by "<a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/people/gsnowdon/">Mushroom and Gadgets</a>" that may be able to resolve that:<br /><br /><ol><li>Choose a suitable image</li><li>Go to the "Effects" tab and select "Focal B&W"</li><li>Choose the area you want to remain in colour and click "Apply"</li><li>Export the changed image to a new folder on your desktop</li><li>Go back to the original image and select a new focal point, then export this as before.</li><li>When you have done all the focal points you want to do, find the exported images folder in Picasa</li><li>Select all the individual images and click the "Collage" button at the bottom of Picasa</li><li>Choose the "Multi-Exposure" option and you should see all the images combined with various focal points still in colour</li></ol>This doesnt work with all images and you will need to see what's best by trial and error.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-60296612737752154562008-02-20T13:13:00.004+00:002008-02-20T13:31:26.859+00:00Full Screen Image PreviewIf you want to quickly see a selected image in full screen mode (without any toolbars, etc) then simply press and hold the "Alt Gr" key on your keyboard.<br />It's normally the key to the immediate right of your space bar.<br /><br />Additionaly, if you are in Folder View (folders on the left and thumbnails on the right) you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard or scroll wheel on your mouse (while pressing Alt Gr) to scroll through the images in the folder.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-47395176092453542192008-02-20T12:25:00.002+00:002008-02-20T12:34:12.203+00:00Perfecting White BalanceNo matter how much you prepare, sometimes the white balance in an image just isn't right.<br />Luckily, Picasa has a great tool for adjusting this and it's quick and easy to do.<br /><br />Here we go:<br /><ul><li>Select an image</li><li>Click the "Tuning" tab</li><li>You will see an option to use a "Neutral Colour Picker" (aka White Balance)</li><li>Click the eye dropper to start</li><li>Click on the image where it should be white (or 50% grey)</li><li>You will see the colours change (if you are happy with this then you are finished)</li><li>The eye dropper will close</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">A hidden method is to click and drag the eye dropper around on the image, as this gives you more option to get it right first time. Once happy with the new colours release the mouse and the eye dropper will close.</span>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-26360037887821371602008-02-19T23:21:00.000+00:002008-02-19T23:33:36.408+00:00Search by ColourYou're probably used to searching for an image by using text...<br /><br />...but Picasa has a trick in store! You can search for an image by it's colour instead.<br /><br />To do this simply:<br /><ol><li>Click on "Tools"</li><li>Click on "Experimental"</li><li>Click on "Search for..."</li><li>Then choose your colour</li></ol>Picasa will then show you all your images that are mainly or totally that colour.<br />Cool huh?<br /><br />You can experiment yourself and see what colours you can use by typing colour names and codes after the "color:" search text.Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-47971466905094918032008-02-19T23:11:00.000+00:002008-02-19T23:21:48.635+00:00Square CropEver wanted to know how to make a square crop in Picasa?<br />It's easy peasy!<br /><br />Simply do this:<br /><ol><li>Select the "Basic Fixes" tab</li><li>Click the "crop" button</li><li>Select the "manual" option</li><li>Hold down the "shift" key on your keyboard and</li><li>Drag your mouse over the image</li></ol>Hey Presto, a nice square cropped image!<br /><br />Here's a sample:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kasstzam/1888340706/" title="Sssshhhhhhh... by kazam media, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2030/1888340706_43c33c9bda_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="Sssshhhhhhh..." /></a>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3147202810451293091.post-26548346656249038312008-02-19T22:14:00.000+00:002008-02-19T22:39:41.487+00:00Filtered Black & White<span style="font-weight: bold;">The filtered B&W conversion is one of Picasa's greatest tools.</span><br />Essentially it allows you to convert a color image to black and white, simulating the use of a coloured filter in front of the lens.<br />The filters can be thought of in extremes:<br /><ul><li>Red - softens and lightens skin tones</li><li>Green - darkens skin tones, enhances skin pigmentation</li></ul>The colours in between these two extremes will give you a more subtle effect.<br /><br />To apply the Filtered B&W tool, simply click the "Effects" tab and choose "Filtered B&W". You can either use the preset colours available or use the colour box to select an individual colour.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Why choose this instead of the normal "B&W" tool?</span><br />Well, the standard B&W conversion can leave you with a flat, grayscale image - whereas the Filtered conversion can give you an image with more depth and clarity.<br /><br />Here's one of my favourite images that I used the red filter for:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kasstzam/338928291/" title="Handle With Care by kazam media, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/338928291_13d1ea2524_m.jpg" width="240" height="177" alt="Handle With Care" /></a>Richard Horsfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00092006095486732982noreply@blogger.com0