Picasa

Google envisioned Picasa as a free alternative to expensive image editors. The program first appeared in 2002 and was adopted by many with a casual interest in photography. The hallmark of Picasa is that the program is very easy to use. The software has an intuitive assortment of tools that can be managed with a single click. The unfortunate downside is that edits are applied to the entire photo. There is no method of localizing fixes to enhance certain parts of a photo. Nevertheless, this is still a functional program for individuals who just want to share photos on social media. Picasa lets users create keywords to organize photos and albums. These tags make it much easier to search for photos. The editing tools of the program can be classified as basic fixes, effects, and tuning. Applying a basic fix will let users adjust things like color and contrast, and it will also remove red eye. Light can be added to photos that do not have the proper exposure. Effects included in the program include twelve different filters. These filters include sharpen, film grain, and black and white. Tuning offers the opportunity to make precise adjustments to things like color temperature and fill light. These adjustments work pretty well, but learning how to use them takes a bit of practice. One could reasonably expect to spend a few weeks with Picasa before they obtained a level of consistency in photo editing. Google is no longer supporting Picasa with continued development. Its replacement will be Google Photos, a platform that promises even more bells and whistles. In the meantime, those who have Picasa can still use it for photo editing. The only feature that has been disabled is creating albums in the Cloud.

The death of the wonderful Picasa has completely sent me over the edge. You establish your own personal "rat run", like driving a car without having to think what the levers do. Then to have to spend days searching for a trusted alternative is an absolute and utter mental torture, not to be underestimated. Picasa never had to be altered, it was brilliant. How could Google do this? So, so cruel and heartless!

I'll never trust google again. Picasa was part of my work flow.