How to use Picasa with iPhoto

[Leanne]

Today we all have a digital camera or mobile phone that makes the photos. Having a Mac they can be downloaded and manage your photos with iPhoto. It happens that these pictures should be shared with friends and relatives, using the Internet.

You can send an email with dozens of photos is a waste of time. Fortunately there are many Internet sites that allow us to create the "Photo Gallery" of our photos: Flickr, Shutterfly, in a certain way even Facebook and Picasa Web Albums. Picasa is a Google application that allows users of Windows (a few days even the Mac) to manage their digital photos, a sort of iPhoto. But Google has gone further and created a space at our disposal (1 Gb) called Picasa Web Albums where we can put our photos organized into albums and share with the world, or only with people that we want. This great service is usually integrated with Picasa for Windows. This is easy to use even by those who use iPhoto. Google has created a small application, Picasa Web Albums Uploader, which we want to send photos to Picasa Web Albums.

Let's see how to share an iPhoto event with friends using Picasa Web Albums.

1. First of all go to Picasa Web Albums and register by creating an account (if you have not already done). The operation is quick, only takes a few minutes.
2. Once the account is created you need to download the Picasa Web Albums Uploader. There is also a fast video in English to get an idea of how it works (although it uses a very old version of iPhoto). By clicking "Download Now", a window appears with the terms of use of the application, click on "Accept and Install".
3. If you use Safari to download the application starts immediately if you use Firefox the following window appears, select "Save File".
4. The download will be very fast. If you use Safari then you will find the application inside the folder "Downloads". Instead, Firefox should have put the file on the "Desktop".
5. Find the file "PicasaWebAlbumsUploaders.dmg" and open it (double-click or Command-O), the following window appears.
6. Now quit iPhoto if it is open and open the file "PicasaWebAlbumsUploaders.mpkg". Click on continue on the next window.
7. Now the real installation starts, click "Continue".
8. Click "Install".
9. Put the password (the one you used when you installed Mac the first time).
10. Click on Close. Now open iPhoto, so let's try if it works. Select an "Event" to share with someone.
11. Now that you have chosen to put the event on Picasa Web Albums, go to menu "File> Export".
12. Enter the account that you created at the beginning of Google, and if it asks you to click on "Sign In".
13. You will see, in a window you can name the album that are about to create, a description, indicate whether the record is public or hidden (unlisted) and photo quality (I used Better Quality, as long as I have space). Once you have made your choices, click "Export".
14. Now you can upload your photos on Picasa Web Album starts and the window above gives you all the necessary information on how the operation is going.
15. Now you can see at once what has happened to Picasa Web Albums, click on "View". hopefully, the web page with the album that we just uploaded.
16. Well, now we invite our friends and relatives to this album, if you choose to keep it hidden (unlisted) that is an essential case.
17. Click "Share".
18. The share window is very similar to the one you're surely used when you write an email. Then type the email addresses of those who want to see the album. Unfortunately, from here you cannot read the Address Book, so if you do not remember the email address, you must open the phone book and copy and paste the email address of each recipient. Write if you want, even the text of messaging and when you have finished click on "Send Email".
19. Your recipients will receive an email once in the message where there is a link to the album that you just shared with them.

[Leanne]

This incorporates two key functions: Face Detection and geographical positioning of the photos on a map. This can easily sort pictures of social events and trips, which are by far the most important issues for many.

Face Recognition:

IPhoto has this feature only fully implemented in the program. Picasa detects faces, we can check using the function to display only photos that appear on people’s albums, but it only allows sorting through the online service known as Picasa Web Album.We do not understand the reasons that let Google to limit its program in this regard, it is clear that they have the technology so that the program could correctly classify faces. Reflect and hopefully we will soon see a version of Picasa with this function. As already mentioned, the program lets you use the function to show only those photos you see people in our albums. Once activated then you can add tags.

Put your photos on a map

Both iPhoto and Picasa allow geographically positioned our photos. If the camera has a built in GPS that provides the necessary metadata, photos are automatically positioned, but there are very few models that incorporate this technology will be normal that we have to do it manually. Both programs use GoogleMaps technology. In the case of Picasa, Google Earth must be installed to perform this task but is not required in the iPhoto. The truth is that, we found the easiest way to accurately position your photos in Picasa, but iPhoto has some devastating ace up its sleeve: it incorporates a database of sites that allows you to tag images without the computer is connected to the network.