We had our one night of class on using Picasa to organize and edit photos, but there's still plenty more to learn. Here are a few notes about things we either covered briefly or not at all.
Alternatives to PicasaIf you find that Picasa doesn't have enough features for you, there are some alternatives.
Adobe Photoshop Album(Windows) is similar to Picasa in many ways. It's free, although it's really a limited version and designed to get you more interested in
Adobe Photshop Elements (Windows/Mac), which has more advanced editing and organizing features. It's also more expensive (anything is more expensive than free) at around $85. iPhoto is also an alternative, but it's Mac only.
VideoPicasa will also let you store and manage your video clips. If you capture short video segments with your digital camera, those clips can be brought into Picasa along with your photos.
SlideshowsAlthough Picasa has a nice and easy to use slideshow feature, it has no options, and doesn't allow sound to be added. When you need to add sound or want to pan and zoom on your images, check out
PhotoStory3 for Windows. It's free and relatively easy to use. Here are some
video tutorials (screencasts) which show you how to use PhotoStory3.
I was raking leaves in my front yard when a praying mantis started crawling up my leg. I brushed it off and then ran inside for my camera. Fortunately, the insect didn't go very far. I took a number of photos in the grass and then encouraged the praying mantis to climb up a tree where I got more photos. The background was much better on the tree, and this is one of the images I really liked. In the grass, there was too much green and not much contrast -- I guess that is why it's easy to miss a praying mantis.
