Experimenting With Low Cost Photo Editing Software – Picasa

I like to use the term “image processing” software as an analogy to word processing but I see that most often the term “photo editing” software is used so that is what I’ll call it too. In regard to this entry and the next “photo editing” seems to apply well.

I use Corel PaintShop Pro 90% of the time and Adobe Photoshop less that 1% of the time. I am led to believe that for most true professionals the proportions would be reversed. For the remainder of my editing time I experiment with low cost options I’ve found to be useful, interesting and fun to use.

Here I will briefly discuss Picasa and present some examples of my photo editing efforts using Picasa. You should look Picasa up on Google for more details because Google provides Picasa software (for Windows XP/Vista/7) for free.

Before we move along, this is a good time to talk about messing with some of your most precious photos. Using word processing as an example, I know one guy who saves every version of every document he has ever composed. He learned the miracle of “save as” but is now encountering the problems. He wastes a lot of time finding the absolute latest version of his work and sometimes he picks the wrong document. That causes problems also. Other people edit documents and never preserve the original. They keep overwriting with newer versions. That’s like driving a car with no reverse.

My advice is to make the preservation of your original photo a top priority. Most software leaves it up to you. When experimenting the best precaution may be to make a copy of the photos you want to use in a new directory called “working copies” or anything you choose.

Picasa may be an unusual example of a software that actively attempts to prevent destroying your photo originals. I’m quoting portions from the Google web page for Picasa here.

“Picasa does not store the photos on your computer. When you open Picasa, it simply looks at the folders on your computer and displays the photos it finds . . . “

“Your original photos are always preserved. When using editing tools in Picasa, your original files are never touched . . .”

So check it out for yourself.

Color in a B & W Image

You see it in music videos and commercials a lot. I call this the Schindler’s List movie effect. Although Spielberg didn’t invent the effect he sure did make it into a gimmick. Its the part where Schindler is looking over a horrible scene of people being rounded up by Nazis troops. One little girl runs into a warehouse unnoticed but Schindler notices from the hill where he is observing from horseback. Its brought back one more time in the movie. You’ve seen it before. My issue is that this is a B & W film but the format and mood are broken because the little girl’s coat is a rose-pink. I suppose this insures that, even while chewing popcorn, you won’t miss what the director wants you to see.

Its the “Focal B & W” effect in Picasa. For this effect you need a color photo. Picasa will show you a B & W version with a target cross in the middle. You can set the size of the circular effect and the “sharpness” which means how strong it is. This effect works best with a circular or corner-oriented element of the photo. Other software may allow you to define areas that are not a perfect circle so as not to involve the background or other areas of the photo you don’t want to change.

OK, first a before and after.

This effect highlights an area of your photo. You can control how subtle the effect appears. With Picasa it seems that circular objects or corner areas are best suited for getting desirable results.

Here are some more of my results.

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To the left , again, circular is best. To the right you’ll see that corners work fairly well also. On that photo you can see the circular area of color coverage once you know what you’re looking for.