Picasa is a gem of a program, all the more so since it is a free download offered by Google. Not only does it find all the images on your computer and organize them by date and folder (or however you want to organize), it provides EXIF data for each photo, a histogram, allows you to tag and caption photos and perform more useful and increasingly sophisticated edits.
To download Picasa, go to http://www.picasa.com and click the Download Picasa link.
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As soon as you install the program, it will begin to search your hard drive for images and load them into an image library.
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You will see the folders in which your images are stored on the left, and the images themselves appear in a library.
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Click on one of the photos. It will appear from a filmstrip-like row of photos at the top. On the left are tabs of edits, such as Commonly Needed Fixes, Lighting and Color Fixes, and three tabs of Image Processing filters that can be applied to change the look of your photos. Along the lower right hand corner are icons including People, Places (Google Maps), Tags, and Properties - EXIF, or Exchangeable Image File Format data, which tells you where the picture is stored on your computer, the camera that took the picture and when, exposure, white balance used by the camera, etc.
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For example, the photo above can be cropped using automatic or manual controls.
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In this photo, Picasa allows you to compare a before and after photo with the edits you have done. Note the histogram in the lower left hand corner.
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The above photo is being tagged to categorize it. The tagging icon is found on the lower-right hand pane of Picasa. Simply type in categories you want to use, and they will be available for other photos as well.
I will be posting more about Picasa and what it can do in future blogs. Give it a try!
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