Picasa Tip: Make a Movie

 Picasa, Sharing Photos, Videos  9 Responses »
Jul 292009
 

Picasa 3 has a very easy way to take a bunch of photos, add a song you like, and create a movie.  All you do is select the photos you want in the movie and click the Movie button at the bottom of the screen.  Once in the ‘Movie Maker’ you can add a song from your computer’s music library.  It will even time the playback of the photos to match the length of the song.  You can also choose among several choices for the transition between photos.  Pan and Zoom is the default transition.

image

Show-Me-How Videos:

 

This is different from Picasa’s slideshow feature in that the end result is a single file – a .wmv movie file.  Once the movie is created, you can upload it to your Picasa Web Album, or better yet, to Youtube.  It’s a single click to create movie and upload to Youtube.  You must already have a Youtube account.  The .wmv file will playback on any computer with Windows Media Player.  If you want to play it on a TV’s DVD player, you need one more step.  In Vista there is a DVDMaker that comes with Windows.  Just open that up and add your .wmv file to it – then burn DVD.  If you’re on XP, you need some other software like MyDVD from Roxio. For Macintosh, I believe iDVD will do the trick.

The movie maker capability in Picasa is very basic.  For example, if you would like one song for the first 10 slides and another song for the remaining slides – it can’t do it – one song per movie … period.  Our favorite *free* program for making fancier slide show movies is Photo Story 3. (Tutorial video: download and install Photo Story 3).  It allows for many different songs on the sound track.  It will even create the music for you and make it end at the right place.  You can also add narration.

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos.  Not a member?  Join now.

Show-Me-How Videos about photo story:

 

 

Picasa Tip: Import from Camera

 Getting Started, Organizing, Picasa  2 Responses »
Feb 172009
 

Many people use the software that came with their camera to import pictures to their computers. That’s fine. Picasa doesn’t care how your pictures get onto your computer. As long as they get saved into a folder that is being watched by Picasa (like your Pictures folder), you will see them next time you open Picasa.

But you can use Picasa to do the import process as well. Then, you don’t need the software that came with the camera. picture-autoplayAs soon as you plug in the cable from your camera to your computer, or insert the camera card into a card-reader in your computer, you should see a screen pop up that looks like this image. (Member Tutorial Video:Import from Camera)

You may have more options. You may even have another pop-up window from your camera’s software. You can ignore, or close, any other popups and select ‘Copy pictures and view them using Picasa3’, as shown in the image at left.

Once you click on ‘Copy pictures and view them using Picasa3’, you will see the ‘Import Tray.’

import-tray4Can you tell I’m writing this tip right after Valentine’s Day?! The roses Jim gave me keep getting prettier every day. I just have to get out the camera and take a few more pictures as they unfold! I even got a little creative and laid my black bathrobe on the ground to make the background go away.

Ok, anyway … this will take a minute for Picasa to see all the photos. Wait till you see the message ‘Copying 15 of 15’ – your number will be different – the point is that it has finished getting all of them. Then click on ‘Import All.’ Now you will see this screen:import-folder1

If you want these photos to get saved into an existing folder, you just click the Browse button and find the existing folder. If you want to put them into a new folder, you first make sure the ‘parent’ folder is selected in the ‘Location’ field, then enter the name of the subfolder you want to create in the top line. Make your choice for what to do with the camera card after the copy, and click ‘Finish.’ I usually choose the ‘Safe Delete.’ So, every time I use Picasa to transfer photos from my camera to the computer, the end result is a clean card to put back in my camera.

So now all my photos of the roses show up in Picasa and I can crop, sharpen, make collages and add text. Wanna see the end result?

 

Rose Collage

You can do it too — watch the member tutorial videos. Not a member?  Join now.

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos.  Not a member?  Join now.

 

 

 

 

Picasa Tip: Web Albums default settings

 Picasa, picasa web albums, Sharing Photos  2 Responses »
Dec 162008
 

When you upload photos to a Picasa Web Album, there are a few options you want to set. I always make my albums ‘Public’ as opposed to Unlisted and I choose Medium size so I can store more photos in my web albums.

webalbums-options1

At first, I was making these selections every time I uploaded, because the default settings were Large Size and Unlisted Album. Then, I found the place to change the default!

The term ‘default’, in case you’re not familiar, means the automatic setting. The default is what’s going to happen if you do nothing.

To set the default settings for Web Albums, click on the Tools menu and Options, then the Web Albums tab. You can change any setting you like. My personal preference is for pictures to be uploaded in the medium size, make the albums public, and add a copyright notice to every photo. Once I make the selections below, and click OK, my defaults have been changed. Now, when I’m ready to upload photos to a web album, I don’t have to pay attention to the options – I know they’re already set the way I want! I just click ‘Upload’ and then ‘OK.’

webalbums-options2

If you have already uploaded a Web Album and then realize that no-one can see it because it is set to Unlisted, you can change that on the web by clicking on the Edit drop-down button at the top of the album. On that menu is an option for Album properties. Scroll down to the bottom of the properties box, and you’ll see the place to select ‘Public.’

Lots of new Picasa 3 tutorial videos are now online! Just go visit the Geeks On Tour Classroom … Picasa page and you’ll have your choice of

  1. Picasa 3: Overview (Free)
  2. Install Picasa 3 (Free)
  3. First time using Picasa 3 (Members Only)
  4. Folders (Members Only)
  5. Orientation to the Library Screen (Free)
  6. Adding Text to Photos (Members Only)
  7. Tree Folder View (Members Only)
  8. Move Folders to External Hard Drive (Members Only)
  9. Make a movie from photos (Members Only)
  10. Viewing and Sharing Video files (Members Only)
  11. Individual Photo View (Free)
  12. Search for pictures (Members Only)
  13. Selecting Pictures (Members Only)
  14. Starrred Photos (Members Only)
  15. Importing from Camera (Members Only)

Plus the 25 videos on Picasa 2 are still valid for Picasa 3. Most features still work the same, the screen may look a little different, and there are more features now.

Please Join ‘GOT Class’ – that’s the Geeks On Tour online classroom, so you can watch all the videos. A gift membership makes a great present too!.