Recently, after being immersed in the wonders of Google I found out I could upload my pictures to a Google site called Picasa (much like you can with Flickr). I then got into it and noticed that it was taking forever to upload them through my browser and noticed that I could download a program that would upload them for me. After downloading the Google Picasa program I quickly realized what a discovery I had made!
It was really easy to use right from the start. It automatically started importing all the images on my computer into it and organizing them into different albums. This took a little while, but saved me the hassle of doing it myself. I noticed I could “Sync to Web” where it would upload my pictures to my online account and every time I changed the album, it would update them automatically. It also had the really cool option to “Create a Collage” which would throw all my pictures from specified albums into a collage that I could rearrange any way I liked. You can create really cool borders this way. There is also a “Create a Movie Presentation” option that I haven’t tried out yet. It will also let you do all sorts of photo fixes (contrast, redeye, retouch, etc). If you have Google Earth installed also, you can tag on a map exactly where the photos were taken; I haven’t used this yet but I intend to once I find some time.
The most impressive feature I found is that it will recognize all the faces in your pictures and once you start tagging a few people it will automatically start detecting who people are in photos! Find out more here. It blew me away and made going through all my photos to tag people an effortless process.
The best part of all? It’s FREE! (Can you tell I’m a poor student?)
I would definately recommend everyone to check this out. I’m not sure how well it works on Macs since I’m on a PC, but I imagine it would work just as well! If you want more information before downloading take a look at the Learn More page or watch this video! (The video is talking about Picasa 3.0, I have 3.5 which has the face/name tags)
I think Picasso would have used Picasa. Let me know if you find it as handy as I did!
ANother google miracle!
Actually it is a great way to manage and use your own photos.
While I use flickr and love the sharing and community features, for blogging, you should easily be able to link/embed your photos onto your blog as well.
Its is a miracle, I can’t wait to see what they come out with next!
I think I’m going to try to embed my blog images through it like you suggested.