Image viewing, editing and organizing in the cloud
Picture viewing, editing, and organizing has been a mixed bag when using a Samsung ARM Chromebook. I have used Picasa as my primary Windows photo software for many years along with online storage of my albums, so I will start with the online version. I will refer to the online version of Picasa as Picasaweb. The next iteration of Google image organizing is Google+ Photos. Additionally, I have been using Skydrive for image storage and Pixlr for image editing.
Picasaweb has most of the features from Picasa Windows. My primary use of Picasa is organizing my pictures through EXIF tags. I organize my photos by editing three fields: Caption, Location, and Keywords. Caption works just as well on Picasaweb as Picasa Windows by simply clicking were it says "Add a Caption" then typing the caption. Adding a Location can either be done for individual images or in a batch manner. For an individual image, clicking on "Add Location" opens up a map for zooming or location search. For batch editing, clicking on "Create Album Map" allows for images to be dragged as a group onto a map. Keyword addition is added in the Tag section, but it is a little easier in Picasa Windows. In Picasa Windows there is keyword auto complete and group editing. In Picasaweb, Keywords are added by space separation with Keyword phrases being noted by quotes. This entry method is a bit awkward, but it works. Group editing of Keywords is not possible in Picasaweb. Additionally there is face recognition in both, but I don't use it.
My secondary use of Picasa is minor editing of photos by cropping and maybe adjusting the brightness, contrast, and color. Picasaweb is much more cumbersome for editing than Picasa Windows. To edit a picture in Picasaweb, "creative kit" starts up for each individual picture. The save option is either to replace the picture or save and alternate copy. If you want to alter the edit your only option is to start over with editing if you saved and alternate copy. In Picasa Windows edit mode can be active for several pictures and changes can be undone even after saving. Photo editing is simply much better executed in the Picasa Windows. Since I like to over-crop to compare sections of photos and then undo the changes after selecting a picture, I opted to use my Windows machine rather than culling a photo album in Picasaweb. In hindsight, to compare a few shots I could have simply zoomed in on the appropriate spot in un-maximized windows, but for several shots this isn't a good option. Picasaweb is nice for photo organization, but I wouldn't want to use it to pick or edit photos in a large album.
Pixlr on the other hand is pretty complete photo editing software. I have dabbled a little bit with it, and everything seems to work smoothly. If I use it more, I will expand this section, but I typically do not do a lot of heavy photo editing.
I have also been using Skydrive as an online photo backup. Like Google, Microsoft charges for data storage over a certain capacity. If you were using Sky drive before there recent price change, the free capacity is 20 GB which is plenty for me to back up my picture. Uploading pictures into Skydrive is as simple as creating a new folder, clicking add, and dragging files into the browser window. The only hitch is that Skydrive has a picture file size reduction automatically clicked, but it stays unclicked after unclicking it once. I can understand reducing a picture size if the picture is going into a blog or social network post, but for long term storage it doesn't make sense to have that as the default option. I use the folders as my albums, so pictures stay organized. Inside the folders pictures are viewed as thumbnails which can be clicked for a decent large view. The location and caption can be viewed alongside the picture. Regrettably, keywords are not viewable or searchable in Skydrive. Surprisingly, picture captions also seem unsearchable which for me makes searching for images in Skydrive kind of useless. Skydrive is nice for a simple back up, but it could use some work to extend functionality.
I have critiqued a couple of online photo organizing and editing programs, but what would be my perfect site? My perfect photo organizing site would have a lot of sortable options. By default I would have picture collection views by file folder aka album, keyword, location, date, and rating. I would make the all exif data editable including keywords, caption, and location. There would be a side by side comparison mode to select the best picture. All pictures would zoom via scrolling. Once an album was ready, sharing of a view over a social network would be a simple click without an external file transfer. All photo metadata would be searchable. A site this flexible and powerful would make a great webapp for a Chromebook.
My secondary use of Picasa is minor editing of photos by cropping and maybe adjusting the brightness, contrast, and color. Picasaweb is much more cumbersome for editing than Picasa Windows. To edit a picture in Picasaweb, "creative kit" starts up for each individual picture. The save option is either to replace the picture or save and alternate copy. If you want to alter the edit your only option is to start over with editing if you saved and alternate copy. In Picasa Windows edit mode can be active for several pictures and changes can be undone even after saving. Photo editing is simply much better executed in the Picasa Windows. Since I like to over-crop to compare sections of photos and then undo the changes after selecting a picture, I opted to use my Windows machine rather than culling a photo album in Picasaweb. In hindsight, to compare a few shots I could have simply zoomed in on the appropriate spot in un-maximized windows, but for several shots this isn't a good option. Picasaweb is nice for photo organization, but I wouldn't want to use it to pick or edit photos in a large album.
Pixlr on the other hand is pretty complete photo editing software. I have dabbled a little bit with it, and everything seems to work smoothly. If I use it more, I will expand this section, but I typically do not do a lot of heavy photo editing.
I have also been using Skydrive as an online photo backup. Like Google, Microsoft charges for data storage over a certain capacity. If you were using Sky drive before there recent price change, the free capacity is 20 GB which is plenty for me to back up my picture. Uploading pictures into Skydrive is as simple as creating a new folder, clicking add, and dragging files into the browser window. The only hitch is that Skydrive has a picture file size reduction automatically clicked, but it stays unclicked after unclicking it once. I can understand reducing a picture size if the picture is going into a blog or social network post, but for long term storage it doesn't make sense to have that as the default option. I use the folders as my albums, so pictures stay organized. Inside the folders pictures are viewed as thumbnails which can be clicked for a decent large view. The location and caption can be viewed alongside the picture. Regrettably, keywords are not viewable or searchable in Skydrive. Surprisingly, picture captions also seem unsearchable which for me makes searching for images in Skydrive kind of useless. Skydrive is nice for a simple back up, but it could use some work to extend functionality.
I have critiqued a couple of online photo organizing and editing programs, but what would be my perfect site? My perfect photo organizing site would have a lot of sortable options. By default I would have picture collection views by file folder aka album, keyword, location, date, and rating. I would make the all exif data editable including keywords, caption, and location. There would be a side by side comparison mode to select the best picture. All pictures would zoom via scrolling. Once an album was ready, sharing of a view over a social network would be a simple click without an external file transfer. All photo metadata would be searchable. A site this flexible and powerful would make a great webapp for a Chromebook.
