Monday, October 19, 2020
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Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Learn Google Photos - The Book tl;dr
More than a book
Introduction
Chapter 1: Your Google Account
Chapter 2: Getting Started on Mobile Devices
Chapter 3: Collecting the rest of your life's photos and videos
Chapter 4: Getting around in Google Photos
- Website and cloud storage space (photos.google.com)
- Android App
- iOS App
Chapter 5: Exploring your photo library
Chapter 6: Keeping your memories safe
- Be careful with delete! Make sure you understand what you are deleting before you use it. Are you deleting the device copy, the cloud copy, or both? If you do delete by mistake, this chapter teaches how you can undelete if it has been less than 60 days.
- Photos and videos stored in your Google account are extremely safe, but as we all know, stuff happens. This chapter teaches how to copy your photos to one more cloud storage service, just in case.
- On your phone, sometimes it is necessary to have photos stored locally on the device. You can download individual photos from the cloud to your device.
- On your computer, you should download at least your important albums. This chapter teaches how to do that.
- Google provides a tool called Takeout that will download your entire library of photos and videos. It does it using multiple .zip files however and can be very confusing. It does not preserve your albums.
Chapter 7: Editing to improve your photos
Chapter 8: Organizing with Albums and Favorites
- Showcase your good photos and videos
- Collecting your chosen photos in special categories
- To tell a story, you can add text blocks and maps.
- For sharing groups of pictures
- Collaborating with others for a group album
- To use for digital photo frames
- To use for making printed photo books
- To use for making movies or animations
- To use for downloading backups
- Making a Favorites album by starring photos
- Auto updating albums (aka Live Albums)
Chapter 9: Sharing
- Using a link you can share one photo or any number of photos and videos with any number of people. They don't even need to have a Google account, anyone with the link can open it and see your photos.
- If you want to be more exclusive, you can share with specified individuals if they do have a Google account.
- Shared albums are wonderful for allowing groups of people to share with each other.
- Shared library is used if you want one partner to have access to your entire library.
- Sharing to another app is how you send photos via email, text, or post to social media like Facebook or Twitter.
Chapter 10: Surrounding yourself with your photos and creations
- Memories section: Google encourages us to reminisce by surfacing memories at the top of the mobile apps. In the Recent Highlights segment, you may see creations that Google has made for you. Sweet little movies are compiled from your photos and videos, collages, and animations.
- Next in the memories section, you can browse thru photos from this week 1 year ago, 2 years ago, and as far back as your photos go.
- Creations: You can make creations easily. Combine any photos and videos into movies, animations, and collages that will put a smile on your face and anyone you share with.
- Printing: built right in to Google Photos is a Print Store. You can order individual prints if you want, but the real beauty is easy, fast, and inexpensive it is to order photo books and mounted canvas wall prints.
- You can have your television displaying your memories like a big screensaver. You can also have slideshows constantly running on smaller screens of smart displays. Pick whatever albums you want to display on different screens. Your whole house can be filled with your memories being displayed. It can even happen at someone else's house. If you share photos of your kids with your mother, she can have those photos automatically displayed on her TV or smart display.
Chapter 11: Troubleshooting and getting help
Chapter 12: Apple Photos and iCloud vs Google Photos
- with Google Photos you can delete the device copy of a photos and still keep the cloud copy
- with Apple Photos you cannot. Apple photos job is to keep all your Apple devices in sync. Add a photos with one device, it gets added to all. Delete a photo with one device and it is deleted from all - including the cloud.
- if you delete photos using Google photos, it is deleting the device copy. That deletion will be noticed by iCloud and the deletion will be synced to iCloud and all Apple devices.
Chapter 13: My favorite features
- All your photos in one place
- Editing
- Find a desired photo in a split second, even with 100,000 photos in my library
- Reminiscing
- Shared Library – automatically save partner’s photos of you
- Shared Albums
- Make Movies
- Google Lens for reading business cards
- Navigate to a Photo’s Location
Want to buy the book? Here's the info.
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Google Photos is 5 Years old and brand new
Old app
| New app
|
Where did everything go?
The New Map View of Photos
Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos.
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.
Friday, June 19, 2020
Google Photos can stabilize videos
I hope you've discovered that your smartphone camera takes great videos, and videos add so much to the experience of your memories. Even just 15 second clips, combined with your photos, can bring your memories to life in delightful ways. But, any time you are hand-holding your phone while taking video, you run the risk of it coming out shaky.
If you are using an Android device and the Google Photos app, you're in luck. There's a simple, one-click option to "stabilize" your video. Just open the video and tap on the edit button below the video - the middle icon. That will open up the video editing tools.
All you need to do is tap the button at the left called stabilize, and Google Photos will do all the rest. Notice that you also have the option to trim the beginning or end, and to rotate the video. When you're done, tap Save a Copy in the upper right. Note: this feature does not exist on the iPhone version of Google Photos. I hear that the app Emulsio is supposed to do the same thing.
The results
Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos.
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.
Thursday, June 4, 2020
How Google Photos can Scan a QR Code
Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos.
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Show your Google Photos like a screensaver on your TV
What you need
The Chromecast device costs about $35 |
- Good household WiFi
- Chromecast device ($35) plugged into HDMI port of any TV
- Google Photos Account
- Google Home app
How to set it up
Google Home is a free app for Apple or Android |
- Once you have it plugged in and the TV turned on, you will see onscreen instructions.
- Both the TV/Chromecast device and your phone with the Google Home app must be connected to the same WiFi network.
- Once you've completed the onscreen instructions, you should see your TV listed in your Google Home App, let's say you named it "Living Room TV"
- Select "Living Room TV" in your Google Home app on the phone, and then tap on "Personalize Ambient"
- On the Ambient mode screen choose Google Photos, then select whatever albums you want used as your 'screensaver.'
Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos.
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Ten ways of using albums in Google Photos
- Select the photos you want in the album
- Click/tap the + in the upper right corner
- Choose Album
- Give the album a name and click/tap the checkmark at top left
- Showcase your good photos and videos.
- Collect your special categories that you want to show in an instant.
- Tell a story, complete with text blocks and maps. See our 2017 Italy album, or Geek's story
- Share groups of photos easily
- Collaborate with groups of people such as everyone on a trip
- Use for digital photo frames
- Use for making books
- Use for making movies
- Use for downloading backups
- Auto updating albums aka Live Albums. Think photo frame at Grandma's house auto adding photos of of grandkids
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.