Picasa

Digital photos have officially overtaken film as the most popular form of picture-taking, and yet many of us barely know how to get digital pictures out of the camera. The software that comes with digital cameras is variable in quality and ease of use. But let's assume you get over this hurdle, and empty the camera's contents onto your computer. What then?

• Many of us have had a less-than-satisfying experience printing photos on a color printer, but there's a better way, which is to use a printing service.
• The best pictures are often ruined by red-eye from the camera flash, a tilted camera, or bad lighting, but now you can fix that with easy-to-use photo editors.
• E-mailing photos can be a pain (see this video for tips on making it easier) -- especially if you want to share them with your whole family. Now you can upload them once to the web and share them privately with family members in web-based photo albums.
• Remember that really nice slide show, continuously displaying the life stories of the bride and groom, with a musical soundtrack, at your niece's wedding? Again, it's very easy to do with the right software.

Sounds like a lot of software to buy and learn, right? Wrong!!! There are now free software applications that will do all of these things and more.

Picasa is perhaps the best-known of these applications, and was practically ubiquitous even before Google bought the company. This Mainstream Guide runs you through the installation, configuration, and use of Picasa. I give some attention to how it compares with Windows Live Photo Gallery -- another, more recent contender for supremacy in this space. (You can watch a Mainstream Guide about Windows Live Photo Gallery here.)

In addition to the Picasa application, the Picasa Web Albums on-line photo sharing service is demonstrated. Note that web applications like this one are accessible from other operating systems, e.g. Macintosh, which may be important if others in your family don't use Windows.

Do you use Picasa and/or Picasa Web? How do you like them? Know of anything better? Post a comment below!