2013-05-28

Google+ Photos Is The Place For Everyday Photos

After Google made changes to Google+ Photos, or Google Photos or new PicasaWeb, whatever you may call it, it's certainly a place where you want to put your photos.
Left is the original image. On the right the automatically enhanced one. The original is still available.
What makes Google+ Photos such a great experience?
  • Auto-Backup - Do not fear, it's uploaded privately. Automatically if you take your photos. You can choose to do so at any time, or on Wifi only. Same for videos.
  • Location Management - Now the missing feature from Picasa has arrived on G+ Photos. You can remove location data with one click. On the other hand photos can be found by location.
  • Auto Enhance - Introduced at Google I/O. Photos are automatically being enhanced. The original is still there. If you don't like it you can disable it by photo or deactivate Auto Enhance. But this is the reason you want host your photos there. The processing is great and it uses new techniques like object detection, to improve your photos. I spent a lot of time on different graphic software to make the same what this does automatically. No more hours of photo editing after a trip.
  • Auto Awesome - Depending on your shots, Google+ Photos also doing other things to it, if qualified. E.g. if you do some photos of a landscape side by side, it will do an Panoramic photo all by itself. Or animated photos if you took some steady and something is moving. Even HDR photos that brings out every detail when taking 3 shots of the same location with different lightning settings. And it's all done without you spending a second of your time.
  • Integrated Editor - That's right, there is a quick editor that lets you further process your image, put effects on it, resize, crop, sharpen and much, much more. The filters are also worth to take a look. Try Reala 400 if you want to see some exciting effects.
  • Photo Search - Tagging your photos is no longer necessary. Google now detects objects and surroundings and you can search just by what you want to see. You made a photo of a meadow? Just search for meadow. No need to do anything. Another time saver.  
  • 15 GB free for Photos in original resolution. However if you think a maximum on 2048 pixel per side is enough, you have unlimited space. You can also mix them up. Uploads for websites or shares on Google+ with 2048 pixel wide or high are usually enough. Those will not count towards your free space and you can use the rest for your precious photos you want to keep in the max. resolution. Need more room? You can purchase terabytes if you need it. 
  • Share them everywhere. You can get a direct link to your photo, and share it on any website or service. Why not keeping even your Facebook photo-shares in Google+ Photos with all the great features while not bound on a specific service?
I used PicasaWeb a lot. Now the Google+ Photo service has taken over. So many great features. And without the work. If you just want to have better photos without spending a lot of time, here you go.