Make pretty pictures quick and easy...

There is a quick easy way to make your pictures look good, and it's free. I am a lover of all things Google, Picasa is no exception. It is a free download and is very handy to organize and do some basic editing with your pictures. I use it for 90% of what I do; the other 10% of the time I use Gimp. Picasa is much easier to use and I can usually get the same results. The first picture is a screen shot of Picasa. I will tell you what I use the following tools for. (1) if your pictures are too dark you can lighten the picture with this slider. (2) & (3) I use these sliders to add contrast to the pictures, it adds a nice effect but can be overdone. (4) If you get your color temperature off you can quickly fix it with this slider. You can warm up a picture or cool it down to your liking. (5) I usually use the crop and rotate feature in this tab. There is also an auto fix and other stuff, but I don't use it that much. (6) There are some cute effects but the only 2 that I usually use are the b&w conversion and sharpening. (7) toggles the histogram on and off, I will use this in conjunction with (2) and (3) to get the right contrast. I also use the export button to resize my pictures for blogging. If you have not used Picasa, don't be afraid, start making your pictures look pretty. All of the following pictures were edited with the Picasa.