Picture Project or Picasa

I have just purchased a D40 outfit and am getting started in photography. At this point I don't want to purchase processing software. So to those with experience which of these two programs would be the best one to use? Or is there another free one that would be better?

Thanks for the comments.

From another newbie with a D40 I have tried Picassa. It imported the whole lot of the graphics on my machine!!!! I just didn't like it as well as Picture Project; it felt less controlable to me...so I deleted it. I did download and try the Capture NX and so far it is my favorite; I really like it but the trial version is over. I thought I could get away with not using a program like that but I can see the need for one. I'm awaiting a trail for Toneup that a few have talked about on ere. THe cost is just fifteen bucks!

Eia

For jpegs I vote Picassa, hands down. So do most reviews also. Picassa is a fabulous free program, especially the latest edition. The editing features are limited, but work very well. The organizing features are unsurpassed in speed and ease of use in a free or low cost program. It runs very fast. It searches through thousands of photos in the blink of an eye, especially after you tag them.

I tried Picture Project only briefly, but was not impressed. Sluggish and also has very limited editing features. I have also used and tested Photoshop elements, Jasc/Corel Paint Shop Pro, MS, Canon and Arcsoft programs, etc. Picassa is the easiest by far for me. Paint Shop Pro always gives me the most bang for the buck...$59 for most of the power of Photoshop.

As intuitive as these entry level programs are, one STILL must read the Help files, or tutorials to get the most out of them. The other poster imported all of his graphics...but there are easy way to limit what you import.

I would suggest downloading the 30-day trial version of Photoshop Elements 5.0. It is a spectacular program for photoediting, and very easy to learn. If you decide you don't like it after 30-days then you don't buy it, nothing lost. If you do decide you like it, it's only about $100 bucks - for me, that has been worth every penny as post-processing opens up a new world of possibilities in your voyage towards your final product.

I still use Picasa to organize and skim through my photos - it's excellent for that. But for editing I prefer Elements.

I have no experience with Picture Project, so cannot comment there - sorry.

Good luck,

Jason

Picassa 2 doesn't accept or catalog raw, just jpegs.

I have picasa on my system and I can view, sort and work on the Nikon raw file in a non distructive manner.

I use picasa for raw and Jpeg... In additon I am trying lightroom but it seems very sluggish to me.

Regards

Nigel.
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http://www.pbase.com/nwheal

Its all about practice..... And I need it

http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=15625

Bootz
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7131002@N05/

Picasa displays, catalogs, and edits raw files just fine. Any edits get saved as a jpeg, the original file is untouched, and it's far faster than any other program I've tried. This is an issue for me as my computer is very slow. I've tried picture project, CaptureOne, ACDeeSee Pro, Nikon Capture, Photoshop Elements 5, and a half a dozen others, and every time I went back to picasa because of the agonizing slowness of every other program. I use picasa as my organizer, my quick and dirty jpeg editor, and for any serious work I hit Ctrl-Shift-O and Photoshop boots up and opens the picture (in only two or three minutes!)
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cycle61 said:

Picasa displays, catalogs, and edits raw files just fine. Any edits
get saved as a jpeg, the original file is untouched, and it's far
faster than any other program I've tried. This is an issue for me
as my computer is very slow. I've tried picture project,
CaptureOne, ACDeeSee Pro, Nikon Capture, Photoshop Elements 5, and
a half a dozen others, and every time I went back to picasa because
of the agonizing slowness of every other program. I use picasa as
my organizer, my quick and dirty jpeg editor, and for any serious
work I hit Ctrl-Shift-O and Photoshop boots up and opens the
picture (in only two or three minutes!)
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Click to expand...

Ah Ha. I have done work on Picture project. When I boot Picassa they come into the program and are saved in jpeg.

When I go back to Picture project the images appear light and I can't retrieve them.

Does anybody know why? Thats why I assumed they were permanently altered.

No idea about the picture project/picasa interaction. I would guess that picture project applies some set of adjustments to the files, and then Picasa tries to interpret those instructions, and probably gets it wrong. Try viewing or downloading some untouched .NEF's in picasa, it'll work great.

One thing....DON"T use the save button in Picasa if you want your originals untouched. There's no need to save edits when you close the program, the instructions are retained, and reversible until you hit save. I can open a picture I shot and edited two years ago, and click "undo redeye" or "undo cropping" or whatever changes I've made. If you want to edit a file and save the edits, to export to somewhere else, use "save as" and change the name as you see fit.

That's pretty much my only gripe with Picasa, it cost me a few photos before I figured it out.
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one of the neat things about PS Elemnets, is, before I do any editing, I click 'file/duplicate'.

that way the original remains untouched.
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I realize your post is for free software, but I thought I'd mention that Fry's has PaintShop Pro Photo XI for $20 after rebate. Info below:

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4970881


C.A. Fields

http://www.cafields.com

"One thing....DON"T use the save button in Picasa if you want your originals untouched. There's no need to save edits when you close the program, the instructions are retained, and reversible until you hit save."

Damn, thats what I did wrong. I can't post edited images to Smugmug unless I save them. Smug Mug takes jpeg (not NEF) images. So all my images are converted to jpeg when saved.

I like the speed of Picassa, but don't care for the much for the processing functions (especially "get lucky" which can get weird).

I'm getting a 200 and will try Capture 4.4 trial, since I've tried raw & like it.

I use three free programs; Picasa, Faststone Image Viewer
(www.faststone.org) and The Gimp. I like Picasa because it
is fast, easy, and by default doesn't alter the original. A
couple of things I don't like about it are its very limited
color correction (basically just color temperature), and that
you can't see a list of the changes you have made to a
particular picture and the order you made the changes in.
It would be nice to be able to undo a previous edit that
wasn't the most recent, but there may be technical reasons
why this can't be done.

I don't have as much experience with Faststone, but for the
most part I like it. I has significantly more editing
capability than Picasa, but isn't as easy to use.

The Gimp is at the other end of the spectrum from Picasa. It
is closest to Photoshop in its capabilities and has a very
steep learning curve. The Gimp is open source.

I will often use Picasa to look at a photo and try some
quick manipulations before moving on to the Gimp if I
think it showed potential in Picasa.

I've tried fastone and Gimp too (I knew I forgot something off my original list) and although I loved both on my computer at work, my home system is just too slow. There are certainly many better programs out there, even a few better free ones, but picasa stays my primary because it's the fastest on my system. For any serious editing, I use Photoshop CS, and I accept the minutes of wait time, but picasa's near-instant response keeps it my primary viewer.
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Thank you for all of the responses. I am still learning and would prefer not to go buy products only to find they don't work.

Whenever I make edits in Picasa, I always use 'save copy as' and then I always do the 'restore original or whatever it's called' on the original.

That I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Aside from its ability to edit & organize pictures, its also useful to burn CDs for friends & family and as a way of putting your pictures on the Web via Picasa Web Albums. I think the free account gives you a GB of space with the option to upgrade your web storage.

My Picasa page is here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dellschau

My main gripe with Picasa as a picture editor is that the Sharpening function is all or nothing. Should be a sliding bar that allows you to increase the amount of sharpening according to what you want.

Still, it's a quick basic editing and organizing program, and it is free. For Windows users anyway, although you can also access the Web Albums via the Mac.

Bootz
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7131002@N05/

Re: "One thing....DON"T use the save button in Picasa if you want your originals untouched."

This is NO longer an issue with the latest version of Picassa. All edits are nondestructive. If you click Save, then it does apply the edits and saves changes to disk, but also saves a back-up of the original in a in a "hidden" folder called Originals. This allows you to post the edited jpegs online or e-mail them, etc. but retain your original. Also you can select any image that has been saved and reverse the save in Edit Mode by selecting Unsave button.

It gets tricky opening the same image in multiple programs though. If you want to work on the original in Photoshop you must either undo your nondestructive changes in Picassa and then open the file in PS or other editor of choice, OR find the image in Windows Explorer (right click, select Locate on Disk) which will be the original until saved OR navigate to the Originals folder where Picassa saved your backup and open the original.

This is a vast improvement over earlier versions. That being said, Picassa still is a limited editor with limited features, such as all of nothing Sharpening, Contrast etc. It is an excellent free organizer/browser and good for quick and dirty snapshot edits.

I am the king of cheap. I use Faststone's portable app. It is fast, does 95% of my editing. For the other 5%, I use Photofiltre. Easy to learn, use, and it is free.
Gimp is a good Photoshop clone, but it is slow.