replacement for picasa

wub

Messages
2
Name
john
Edit My Images
Yes
Please please please help! Something i thought would be repetitively easy, has turned out to be a nightmare.

I have used Picasa for years on pc with microsoft. It was a simple and easy to use manager of my photo's with simple easy editing, like cropping, and adjusting brightness. I used it in my business to store and edit shots I'd taken for my website and could print out family photo's 4 on a sheet of A4. It was an old program but it worked.

Then Google took it over and then retired it, so its gone :)

I started to look for a replacement. I would be spoilt for choice i thought, must be loads of great programs out there to replace Picasa, for the everyday person like me who does not use Apple software on PC, but does have photo's to backup, store and print out, who is not a professional who needs Photoshop. I've been looking on and off for a year! I cant find anything that does the above and works?

I am now using Elements, as a stop gap which i think is appalling. I cant pick 4 photos and print them on one sheet. So if i want to print 20 6 x 4 photo's, on photografic paper, i have to use 20 sheets! Every time i try and down load all my photo's from my iphone, it crashes? I even gone to an IT company to look at it, who say there is an issue with the downloading a lot of photos from an iphone, but it wont give you the ioption to down load half at a time or smaller batchs.

Also elements converts all my pictures on the pc to its own format. and it has lots of bugs.

Please put me out of my misery and show me an app / program that will manage my photo's, allow me to do simple editing, will print 4 of more images on one sheet, will let me save high res images, smaller so i can use on my website and generally not be overally complicated. i'm happy to pay for for it as well. At this stage i would almost pay anything just to get this done and dusted and not have the frustrasting annoyance i get every time i have to do something to a photo and Elements opens!

Thanks all.
 
Elements will allow you to print four photos on one sheet of paper - use the help menu to show you how.

Elements does not change the file type of photographs. If the photos you want to download are jpegs, they will still be jpegs after you download them to Elements unless you tell Elements to save them as something else.
 
You need to be in Elements Organiser to print contact sheets i.e. more than 1 photo on a page and the photos have to be in the Elements catalogue i.e. already imported.
If you have edited photos using layers then Elements will set the file type to .psd when you save, simply click in the file type box and select .jpg when saving.
 
I think Picasa 3 was always a google baby. They stopped updating it some years ago because, I guess, the future is in mobile phone photos uploaded to the clouds.

So wub, what about uploading your phone pics direct to https://photos.google.com where you can organise. edit, share ....

Child's play. ;)

Let me know if you want more info & I'll guide you thru it.
 
Thanks all, i will try the suggestions and also look at Elements organizer, but have to say, i'm not a fan of Elements so far
 
I think On1 360 may be what you need, though it's likely more complicated than Picasa. It should help you manage photos from the phone across to your other devices as well as developing, printing and cataloguing images.
 
Or just buy and use Photoshop 2021 - £120 a year is hardly expensive :( (Now where did I put my tin hat?) :exit:

Les :)
 
I have thought about this, however that is £120 every year !


Yes I know - I have use PS for over 10 years and lets be honest £120 is not a fortune is it ? Just 32p a day

Les
 
Yes I know - I have use PS for over 10 years and lets be honest £120 is not a fortune is it ? Just 32p a day

Les

That's £1,200 for PS !
I think I paid apx £30 for my Used copy of LR & PS and sure it is not up to date with the latest fixes, patches and new cameras. As I am not a pro that is too much money for me as living in the SE of England is expensive enough.
if Adobe was cheaper to subscribe to I will at the front of that queue ! lol
 
That's £1,200 for PS !
I think I paid apx £30 for my Used copy of LR & PS and sure it is not up to date with the latest fixes, patches and new cameras. As I am not a pro that is too much money for me as living in the SE of England is expensive enough.
if Adobe was cheaper to subscribe to I will at the front of that queue ! lol

I sell a lot of images- I shoot Weddings ( when possible) along with school portraits Class images. School proms on occasion etc- so the £120 pa is easily recovered and living out in the Somerset levels is also very expensive :)

Les
 
I think On1 360 may be what you need, though it's likely more complicated than Picasa. It should help you manage photos from the phone across to your other devices as well as developing, printing and cataloguing images.

Back when I was very new to photography I used Picassa. Looking at the online tutorials On1 does seem to have the most similar interface to Picassa. Not free but the OP could download it, try it out and see if they like it on a trial period.
 
I used Picasa back when I first started to learn everything about photo editing, now I'm more of a C1 and Photoworks fan. Never tried Ps in my life, it seems like a huge amount of money for someone who doesn't do photography for a living.
 
Yes I know - I have use PS for over 10 years and lets be honest £120 is not a fortune is it ? Just 32p a day

Les
I paid about £50 for Affinity Photo and that is not for a year, that is for life
 
As I have mentioned above I am not a Pro, so having a subscription a/c with adobe for PS & LR I will never recover my cost as I only an amateur, not a Pro.
Any Free software that does the job is a bonus to me.
I have even looked at Topaz a Noise reduction software that controls Noise much better than PS or LR can recover noisey images. I believe that is a one off fee ( do not quote me on that ! ) which to me is better than a subscription based a/c.
 
And so is the cost of your camera and lenses.
But I doubt many of us rent our cameras. I buy a camera and it is mine forever - or until I choose to replace it. I buy software and it is mine forever - or until I choose to replace it.
 
But I doubt many of us rent our cameras. I buy a camera and it is mine forever - or until I choose to replace it. I buy software and it is mine forever - or until I choose to replace it.

This. Over 10 years you will pay £1200 to adobe. In 10 years you might upgrade c1 pro, once, or maybe twice and only if you want too - usually that will come when it won't support a newer digital camera release - most don't upgrade their bodies that often. Subscription models are not good for the consumer but the mega rich big tech companies that then have you "locked in".
 
Until relatively recently my camera gear was not at all expensive. The idea of spending £1200 over 10 years on software seems quite excessive - at least if you buy used gear the losses on resale are small, but the rental model is a total loss.

As with Flickr subscriptions, if you perceive there is value in it then fine, but if you don't then there is no reason to pay the price.
 
I still use PS Elements 5 costing about £60 ? 15 years ago and the free version of Capture One Express.
If I could get Capture One for less than £100 I would buy it....but it has just gone up to £200 (33% increase 2020to2021) for a perpetual license. :oops: :$
Elements 5 works perfectly well on all versions of Windows including 10 in all it's reincarnations!
Adobe bring out a new Elements every year and sadly some buy a new one every year which keeps the ball rolling.
Sorry... my little moan!
 
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I guess it's all about perceived value. My current DSLR camera and lens is worth £150, however, while I don't like subscribing, the Adobe photography package and what it offers is worth £10pm to me and probably offers me more value than a £300 lens would over the next 3 years.

I understand over 10 years it would cost me £1200, but I will always have updated version and during that time I will likely spend £12,000 on fuel (£100pm) and £3600 on takeaway hot drinks (1 a week).

This makes me ponder if I need my weekly hot chocolate...!

It also depends what you want to do with your images, something like lightroom is relatively easy to learn but offers so much more creativity and control over your photos than most free basic image editing packages and you might find you take your photography to a new level or it actually inspires you to get more creative when shooting.

It might be worth doing the free trial and playing with some of your best images and seeing what results you get compared to previously?

I should add I realise not everyone has £10pm spare but thought I'd share some thoughts on it.
 
I guess it's all about perceived value. My current DSLR camera and lens is worth £150, however, while I don't like subscribing, the Adobe photography package and what it offers is worth £10pm to me and probably offers me more value than a £300 lens would over the next 3 years.

I understand over 10 years it would cost me £1200, but I will always have updated version and during that time I will likely spend £12,000 on fuel (£100pm) and £3600 on takeaway hot drinks (1 a week).

This makes me ponder if I need my weekly hot chocolate...!

It also depends what you want to do with your images, something like lightroom is relatively easy to learn but offers so much more creativity and control over your photos than most free basic image editing packages and you might find you take your photography to a new level or it actually inspires you to get more creative when shooting.

It might be worth doing the free trial and playing with some of your best images and seeing what results you get compared to previously?

I should add I realise not everyone has £10pm spare but thought I'd share some thoughts on it.

"Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 pounds 19 shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and six, result misery."

Charles Dickens
 
My worry on the software rental front is that when I eventually need to stop paying I'll lose access to the software and all the edits. If there was an option (as there used to be years ago with other kinds of software) where you buy a licence and pay a maintenance and upgrade fee, so that you always own the latest version, I would be a lot happier to try it!
 
My worry on the software rental front is that when I eventually need to stop paying I'll lose access to the software and all the edits. If there was an option (as there used to be years ago with other kinds of software) where you buy a licence and pay a maintenance and upgrade fee, so that you always own the latest version, I would be a lot happier to try it!
You'll not lose your, images or edited images as they're saved to your computer, device or the cloud. If you lose access to the cloud you'll be given the opportunity to download from it first.

I was thinking about this last night and remember when photoshop used to be £600+ to buy and new versions came out each year. Elements was £80ish.

Now you pay £120 per year and get constant updates on photoshop and lightroom, which seems like a pretty reasonable deal (if you upgraded each year before).

Lots to consider, pros and cons, and hope you find the result that best suits you and your photography!
 
I don't know if John (wub), the OP found a solution, but I think that ON1 Photo Raw 2021 might be a good fit for his requirements.

It costs £90.60 for first-time owners, but that's all you ever need to pay. Upgrades are a little over half that price - I paid £58.95 - but obviously you only need to upgrade if you want the new features. It appears that there's currently a sale on as the price is shown as £72.48. There's also a pay-monthly option starting at £7.24 with options for payment period and cloud storage amounts. See the link below for more, and make sure you click on all the tabs for full information.


There are plenty of tutorials available on YouTube, and ON1 Software's own videos are top-quality. For example, here's one on printing, including printing 4-up on one sheet:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td9TSqGEVGE


There are some options missing that some professionals would want, such as hierarchical keywording, but Photo Raw includes asset management, excellent post-processing including optional AI, presets, built-in effects, layering with masking and blend modes, HDR, panorama, fully-adjustable portrait AI, integration with Photoshop and other programs, and more. There's also a free mobile app for iOS and Android which can work together with ON1 360, which allows you to work on photos on your PC from your phone or tablet. There's also ON1 Plus which gives you a lot of extras and tutorials.

The usual disclaimer applies: I'm just a happy customer.

Edit: Just got an email this morning. The sale ends today.
 
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Lightzone is a replica of lightroom and is a free download. You might have to make a small donation of a couple of $$. Yes it’s American but I managed it. Gimp is also a free replica of Photoshop. Tutorials can be found on YouTube.
 
Lightzone is a replica of lightroom and is a free download. You might have to make a small donation of a couple of $$. Yes it’s American but I managed it. Gimp is also a free replica of Photoshop. Tutorials can be found on YouTube.

At risk of coming off as difficult, Lightzone and GIMP are not replicas of either of those programs, though they do possess some common features. I thought I'd take a look at LZ, and once I started looking at the tools the resemblance stopped. GIMP is an excellent piece of software that I use sometimes, but it doesn't really look like PS.
 
Affinity seems to be the nearest thing to Photoshop at the moment, and now being on offer for £24 is as cheap as you will get for a lifetime piece of software, not used it myself properly, but looking at some of the tutorials on YouTube and the like, it looks excellent.
 
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