Welcome to Modern Educator

Here on this blog I hope to get a conversation going amongst students, teachers, administrators, and parents about who, what, when, why, and where we should teach technology skills for the 21st century. I am technology teacher at Truckee High School in Truckee, CA and currently teach classes like digital media, e-learning, applications, and keyboarding -- yes...still important! :) Please Join the Conversation!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Google+ Photos -- A Better Way to Store, Edit, & Share Images?

Share memories with just the right people - Google+:

I use to use Picasa to edit photos but now you can access many of the same basic editing features right in Google + by accessing your Photo page.

One new feature of this service is similar to Apple's iCloud feature where you can set your phone to automatically backup all your pictures to your Google + Photo account.  This makes it easy to access your pictures taken on your phone from any internet connected device where you can then edit them, organize, and share them with friends, family, or the public.  One important thing to point out with this feature is the fact that you may quickly reach your storage limit at Google and be faced with the decision to upgrade your account by paying a monthly fee.  Click here to learn about Google storage limits and pricing.  More information about this can be found here.

Another interesting new feature of Google+ Photos I have not messed around with yet is 'Auto Awesome'. This feature is on by default and does all kinds of things for you like improving your photos, stitching together multiple photos into a panoramic shot, creating animations out of series of photos, improve everyone's 'smile' in a group shot by selecting the best shot of each person from multiple shots to create one awesome shot, and HDR where multiple exposures of the same shot are stitched together to create one high quality image.  Learn more about this feature here.

Finally, as with so many other online photo editing programs, Google+ Photo lets you auto enhance or customize your pictures at the click of a button.  It also includes many cool features like adding effects and borders.  I highly recommend giving this service a try for your photo management.  I can not say that it is better than other services but I do know from first-hand experience that it is important to streamline the services I use so that I am as efficient as possible with my work.  Since I use Google for so many other things; email, storage, collaboration, video conferencing, and web site creation to name a few, it seems like a good way to go for me and others who do the same since Google+ Photos are directly connected to the other host of Google applications and services.  This makes it easy to embed a slideshow in another application or share an album with colleagues and clients.

If you find you like this service and want to get more advanced editing and management features, then try downloading Picasa to your computer hard drive.  Once you do this you can access a full range of photo editing and management features and it connects directly with your Google+ Photo account.

Download Google Picasa 3.9 here!


STUDENT REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT:
For my students at Truckee High School.  Please comment below and reflect on how you could use this Google service for your academic work.  Think about all of your class learning projects and brainstorm ways that you could use Google+ Photos for your work.  Include ideas around sharing photos and incorporating them into other projects using various Google applications or other software applications. Your reflection should be at least 2 paragraphs in length and include at least three examples of possible application in your academic work.

'via Blog this'

28 comments:

  1. I tried it out on some photos I had lying around. It's easy to use and less confusing than photoshop, which is what I've used in the past. It's going to be really useful in the future for other items of interest.

    Madeleine A.

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  2. Really Cool and helpful.
    Blaze Halderman

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  3. It's really cool i didn't know that google had this.

    Adam G.

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  4. I agree with adam its easy to use but ijust used the cameras filters.

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  5. Google Photos is super efficient and easy to use. I tried it on some of my pictures and the variety of different effects and features were excellent. This app can definitely be helpful if I want to use the photos from Google Photos to post on Google+, include it in Google Drive, Blogger, etc.

    Brenna W.

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  6. I tried Google + Photos on a few pictures I already had. It really made the pictures look better with some enhancement, and there were a ton of editing options you could choose from. This service could be very useful for academic purposes such as assignments with spreadsheets, slideshows, and even presentations.

    With using spreadsheets, it's always good to have images such as graphs to help people who are reading visualize it. However, you can put more images than just graphs. For example, if you were doing one on your pizza business, you could put a photo of your pizzas. In slideshows and presentations it's always good to have pictures to make it more interesting, and you can edit your pictures with Google + Photos!
    -Corinne D.

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  7. Google photos is really simple and easy to access
    Evan H

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  8. This is really cool. Im excited to have more tools to edit photos.

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  9. I recently experimented with Google Photos. I think it is very useful and has many features. I agree that I'm not going to say that it is better than other picture editing apps. Personally, I'd say it's about the same. I think it is very user friendly and I'm excited to be able to use this feature on Google+.

    -Marlena M.

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  10. This is a great way to enhance your photos ad make them look even better and unique. I am excited to start using this app for all my photos, it is just super fun and easy
    -Alice B

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  11. really helpful, easy , and cool

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  12. Google Photos is an excellent way to effect my photos and very easy to use. Just a few minutes ago I tried it on my photos with the different editors and features were great. I think this app and feature now on every electronic device I use will definitely be useful. This service on Google may help me with posting on Google+, adding photos of me onto Blogger, and for presentations.

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  13. Really useful and cool

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  14. This Feature makes it very easy to edit photos and in a simple manner.

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  15. It was nice, simple, easy to do!

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  16. This is a really awesome new tool that i didn't know existed until today. It is very easy to use, and really makes the pictures as best as they can be. I am excited to know about this new feature on google so i can try some of the new edits on my own pictures. This will be a very useful tool to have in the future.

    Tatum K.

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  17. Google Photos is an extremely effective way for photographers, or anyone, to edit and create wonderful photos.

    Alex B.

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  18. Google Photos is a good way to edit and share new photos with people, such as colleges who might look for photos of you and your interests.
    Brandon K.

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  19. I think google photos is a great tool. it's very simply and I especially enjoy the editing tools. I think this will be a very used tool for many people, including myself.
    Shelby G.

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  20. Google photos is a great way to edit and share photos. it is very easy to edit photos which is why it works well for me.

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  21. Google photos is a very cool tool that is very simple and easy to use.It has awesome techniques to edit your pictures.

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  22. I see this as very helpful if you're not willing to pay 600$+ for Adobe Photoshop but if you don't want to this could be perfect for amateurs just trying to crop and shade.
    -Curtis Krommenhoek

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  23. Google Photos looks like a really good alternative to other photo editing and photo backup apps. I would really choose to use Google Photos over other paid apps that do generally the same things. Also, it is very good to have to backup all of your photos.

    -Martin S.

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  24. I think google is going the right way. I think it is amazing that we can access al this amazing tools on the cloud via google. Life will be made easier and things will go faster.
    Marcos E Cota

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  25. Google+ photos is an easy way to keep everything you want all in one place. Especially if your going all Google, like sites or with blogs. You can easily put pictures that you want right where you want to put them because they are all on Google. Its also completely free which is super cool and convenient.

    Brianna Crouch

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  26. I like it. Very Nice and unique.

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  27. Google is a great way to keep all of your important papers and personal photos in one place, instead of having them scattered. Google is also very easy to use and it is very easy to share papers and photos with your friends and coworkers.

    Taylor Pugh

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  28. Emma S.
    Google+ Photos is a fantastic way to keep you photos organized and safe form being erased. It also has a pretty great editing system.

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