Picasa is a great, free, user friendly resource for editing your pictures. You can download it for free from Google. I discovered Picasa a few years ago, and since I am still PhotoShop illiterate, I still use it to edit my family photos from time to time. Picasa is pretty simple to use, so it's perfect for non-techies who need a way to spruce up their pictures. You can easily change your picture to black and white or sepia, remove red eyes, and crop photos. There are also more in depth features you can use to brighten or darken your photos. If you have a photo that didn't turn out well and is too dark to see much, you can often use the editing features in Picasa to make it into a decent photo. If you like to print your own photos at home, you can do that from Picasa and it is pretty easy as well. I do not like using Picasa to organize my photos. First, it seems unnecessary when you can just organize them in the photos folder on your computer. It also jumbles them up and I can't figure out how to move them to where I want them to be.

skatiem

USA

Picasa is a great program to use.  It is fast, free, and easy.  I am a photographer, but i dont have the money for an expensive photoshop program.  Picasa was recommended to me by a friend so i downloaded it, and now im hooked.  i use for all my photography and it takes so much faster for me to edit and figure all the features out.  it took me about an hour to figure out all the features out.  Some cool features are coloring for a photo, cropping a photo, fixing red eye, fixing blurriness, and many others.  Also, if you are someone who likes to email photos to people alot, this is a great program.  It has a quick and easy email feature right on the program. 

jorjor

Citrus Heights, CA

I have never used any other photo management program, but since this one is free so I can't complain! It was quick and easy to download and I never get any annoying registration messages like some other free programs. I like the way I can edit my pictures as I upload them or I can leave them as is until I have time to fix them. I also like the choice to let the program fix the highlighting, shadows, color contrast and temperature for you so you don't have to fine-tune everything yourself if you don't have time. Fixing red-eye is quick and easy, as is cropping. Also there are some neat features such as color tinting and soft focus effects. The only thing I have a hard time with is the file organization, it's easier to manage the names and groups of files using Windows and refreshing Picasa. I have over a thousand photos and they are safe in picasa

carlyandmelissa

Waynesville, OH

I discovered Picasa2 couple years ago!  I have tons of pictures stored on my PC but always had a hard time finding a program to email pictures!  I find the functions and features easy to use.  I use the back up feature often.   Editing may be a bit limiting but for the  needs I have it works just fine!

mandm97

Willington, CT

I really enjoy using Picasa.  As much as I would love to be a Photshop pro I am not and have to resort to easy programs that still give me quality images.  Picasa is the best I have found so far.  It is really easy to organize your photos and the editing software is so user friendly.

beckientim

Greenwood, IN

I have stored hundreds of photos at one time at Picasa and love that my family can view them all whenever they'd like.  My camera directly emails photos to my computer, and the program it uses is very difficult for others to view.  With Picasa, we just go to the site and look at pictures!  I do edit my photos in a different program (the place where I order prints), so I am not sure about the quality of the printed photos from their editing.  I do use and like the basic functions of this program.

acarder

Hillsboro, OR

Someone complained about limited editing but hey, it's free. I use it with paint.net and its great. My mom and dad can even use it. I have more expensive software but I'd rather use this if I don't need to do something professional. I use Photoshop and Rhapsody but they both hog resources. Picasa does all the work for you and does it quickly. You can use it to get rid of duplicates in your computer without having to go through all your files. For someone like me, that can take days. I have over 5000 pics on here. I highly recommend it!

katydid88

Delaware, OH

I have used Picasa for many years. I really like the version 2. My favorite thing about Picasa is the ease of the organization features. Can easily change the name of folders, move pics from folder to folder, star your favorites that I use for printing pics later, easy to load pics and I have never lost pictures using Picasa I have recommended this program to all my family members for its ease of use. I do agree with other reviewers that the editing capabilities are easy to use but limited also. But for me it's great.

bamsx4

Adamsville, AL

**To the Point**I am so disgusted by this service that I have to share my experiences very briefly.**A Closer View**Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you so they say to located and organize my photos on my computer; to edit and add effects to my pictures easily and to share my pictures through e-mail and prints. Best of all it's free. I decided to try this service because my trial of Hot Album which came with my camera ran out. I needed to edit my pictures rather than store them but I did copy all my pictures to Picasa and started loading them to Picasa. It was easier than loading them to Hot Album and them moving the pictures for editing. I really like the editing part of this service. I have basic fixes where I can crop, straighten, fix red eye and fix the light. I have tuning options to highlight and shadow my pictures and I have an effect option where I can make the picture warmer, make it black and white or filter it. My pictures get organized by date which is nice however the names I've given my folders have been lost. So far so good. I can deal with the names being gone. What I can't deal with is losing pictures. This is the second time. The first time apparently they didn't get uploaded from my camera. I have never had this problem with Hot Album and I lost pictures of a restaurant to which I had gone since I deleted them from my camera.I just went to review a movie theater. I had taken so many pictures and only one is in Picasa. I have done a search and my other dozen are gone. I looked in my recycle bin an they aren't there. I am not loading my pictures onto Picasa anymore and I suggest that unless you are using it only as a back up don't risk it.**Jo's ViewpointI don't like it!**

Jo

Plymouth, MA

I have recommended Picasa to everyone I know who takes pictures that they edit on their computers. Even if you have another editing program and love it. Picasa is quick and easy, there are no complicated instructions. It is very user friendly and self explanatory. You can do many quick and minor adjustments to you pictures and even a few more advanced edits. It even allows you to edit batches of photos at a time. But, the best part of it is not the editing at all but the fact that it organizes all of your pictures on your computer into easy to find files. You will never have to lose another picture on your computer. After you set it up to search for and organise them the way you want just wait a few minutes or a little more if you have tons- like I do :) and viola! There they all are in handy little easy to find folders. It doesn't make new copies (unless you ask for that) so it does not take up extra space on your computer. Another handy little feature is that you can search for pictures by many different things, colors, titles, names, faces, etc. For people who like to email pictures to family and friends via email, and who doesn't? It makes it very simple to do that too. Just choose your pictures and click one button and send, you can even re-size them so that the receiver gets smaller sized photos which they can see faster and easier on their screens.

skoenlaper

Tucson, AZ