Picasa 2 vs. Adobe Photoshop Album

[gwc1023]

I have been using Photoshop Album for some time now (v 2. something, the one you had to pay for, lol, as v3 seems to be free now?). After reading some reviews and recommendations for Picasa here and elsewhere, I downloaded last night and now I'm having doubts about what would be best for me! I'd appreciate any comments about how you're using these programs or opinions between the two.

What I've liked about Photoshop Album: the tag system, backup capabilities, ability to search for photos labelled with two different tags at a time

What I have been frustrated with about Album: have to add new photos manually - particularly RAW files get to my computer through the Canon software, so unless I remember right away to go to Album and add that folder, it's not in there, and after a few weeks darned if I can remember what's there and what isn't.

What I like about Picasa (so far) - I love that it scans automatically for new pictures; I like that I can 'hide' folders, but still have them in the hidden folders view rather than basicaly deleting them from the catalog as in Album; I like the Blogger feature (although it's not a dealbreaker); shows my RAW files as well,

I will have to relabel all my pictures if I switch to Picasa, which is a pain. But...if it's going to work better for me, I would do it. I take a lot of snapshots of my kids, which I then scrapbook (or at least theoretically, I'm way behind) - that's what I liked about the labels in Album, if I was going to be working on a page in my son's book about summertime fun, I could search for all pictures with the labels 'Gavin' and 'outside' and it would come up with everything I could pick from for that page.

I'm also getting more into 'serious' photography, and have done a few family portrait type sessions for friends and a wedding. I noticed the 'contact sheet' option in Picasa which I also think I would like for situations like that.

Sorry for the length - thank you so much for any suggestions and recommendations you have!

[jcw122]

Hows Picasa w/ RAW photos? When they first implemented viewing of RAW images, I noticed some of my images were screw up....do you see any of those?

[gwc1023]

I haven't looked at every single one of my RAWs yet, but have checked through a lot of them and they all seem to look fine in Picasa...maybe something they worked on between updates?

[jcw122]

I haven't looked at every single one of my RAWs yet, but have checked through a lot of them and they all seem to look fine in Picasa...maybe something they worked on between updates?

Yeah probably.

[TonyKInTexas]

Picasa did not allow me to fully integrate my current folder arrangement. It wanted to do things its way and that caused me no end of problems. I gave up after a few days.

Having not used PS Album (my boss has and he loves it) I cannot directly comment.

Good luck,

[Packhorse-4]

If I remember correctly, the Photoshop Album eventually developed into the Photoshop Elements Organizer. I’m using PSE 4.0 so my version of the organizer may have more features than the Photoshop Album but, a couple of the features you mentioned you liked from Picassa-2 are available in the organizer.

When you go to the print screen, there is an option to print a single print or a contact sheet. And the organizer gives you the option to select “Watch Folders” that will automatically look for new pictures.

You may want to give a look to see if these features are in your version of Photoshop Album.

[ibdb]

Picasa did not allow me to fully integrate my current folder arrangement. It wanted to do things its way and that caused me no end of problems.

There have been changes to Picasa since the time it was considerably less folder friendly. For free, it's certainly worth a look. I still use it for some quick and easy organization and web distribution.

I used to use Organizer (packaged with PSE4), but got progressively less happy with it as my collection grew. Moving pictures from one drive to another was a real pain, and I had the database get corrupted on me twice. For smaller collections, and ones that don't get moved much, it's probably still ok.

I do think there's a way to have Organizer automatically monitor folders for you, though -- at least in the newer version.

[grego]

I love Picasa. It handles RAW fairly well. It will send files to CS2 for me, if needed. It has handled my files a little easier than Bridge on my currently limited system(that's why im upgrading now).

And it's very cool, with their browser and uploading. It's one of the easiest tools to upload. 250mb free and then additional space is not expensive at all for the year. It's almost temporarily my website as I transition to a flash site.



I do think there's a way to have Organizer automatically monitor folders for you, though -- at least in the newer version.

There is. You can have it monitor all the time, scan once, or never scan.