Using Picasa to Edit Your Photographs

In the image Library, double click the image you wish to open. In the left pane, select BASIC FIXES if it is not already selected.

How to crop, adjust, resize, and save a photograph

Cropping photos is useful for trimming unwanted material from one or more edges of the image. For example, you may have a picture of yourself posing with your ex-girlfriend, and you wish to remove her from the photograph. Or you may desire to trim some of the background to put more emphasis on you.

Click CROP, then MANUAL. Now click and drag in the image to select the area you wish to save. Now click APPLY. ("Click and drag" means this: put your mouse cursor at the top left corner of the area you wish to save. Click the left mouse button and hold it down as you drag the selection box to the bottom right of the desired image area, then release the left mouse button.) While you're working on Basic Fixes, you can adjust your image by clicking on some of the other buttons, such as Auto Contrast, Auto Color, and I'm Feeling Lucky (this button adjusts both color and contrast). Click the Tuning and Effects tabs (next to Basic Fixes) to further adjust your picture if desired.

Next, click FILE, then EXPORT PICTURE TO FOLDER. For NAME OF EXPORTED FOLDER, you may wish to type in a name such as ContactMeFree Photos. This box also allows you to resize images. Under IMAGE SIZE OPTIONS, select RESIZE TO: and type an appropriate height in the box that is less than 450 pixels. If your image is small, do not stretch it. That will make the image larger but more grainy and less attractive. Now select the IMAGE QUALITY using the JPEG SETTING slider. In general, JPEG settings of 25 to 75% give reasonable picture quality while minimizing the file size. (Tip: With JPEG images, higher % settings give better image quality but have larger file sizes — thus increasing the download time for people viewing your images. Some of them may have slow dial-up modems, so choosing the best JPEG picture quality is not advisable.) Now click OK.

Now open the folder containing your images that you wish to upload to ContactMeFree. Their file names should include only lower-case letters (and numbers, if desired), but not any spaces or special characters. If you need to change the name, right click the image or its file, then click RENAME. Change the file name, then click the ENTER key. If the .jpg suffix is visible in the file name, leave it intact. For example, if your picture was originally named Beach Party.jpg you could rename it to beachparty.jpg or something similar. Tip: Windows now hides file extensions by default, but some users choose to show them by unchecking the box for HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES (to see this option, open Windows Explorer, click TOOLS, then FOLDER OPTIONS, then VIEW, then hunt for HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES, then check or uncheck that box as desired).