Google Photos Quick Tip: Vignette to Frame your Photos

What's a vignette, you ask? It's where you just darken the outside edge of a picture so that it stands out. It's a very soft frame. Here is a recent flower photo I took:

And, here's the same photo with a vignette applied.

It's super simple, and all with features built in to Google Photos. This works on all 3 platforms, Apple iOS, Android, and Web.

• Open the photo and click the pencil to get into editing mode
• Tap the middle editing tool: adjustments 
  
• From there, tap the down arrow to the right of the "Light" slider
• You will now see all sorts of adjustments that can be made to the lighting in this photo. Feel free to play with the exposure, highlights, shadows etc.
  
• Vignette is the last one. Drag the slider all the way to the right for a thick border, or not so far if you want it thinner. Then close the Light adjustments by tapping the up arrow at top right.
• Save

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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 Top Contributor 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.

Make Albums and Print a Photo Book from an Album

We just returned from a month-long trip to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, and Berlin. How many pictures do you think we took? I used my iPhone 7+ and Jim used his Pixel XL phone as well as a Samsung Camera 2.  We took over 3,500 pictures and videos between the two of us.

We picked our best ones (445 photos) to share in an album, complete with text and maps to help tell the story. You can see the album here. Watch the video webinar below to learn all about how to make albums.

If you're not making Albums, you're not using Google Photos!

Here is our 45 minute What Does This Button Do Episode 119 on Photo Albums with Google Photos. The video starts with a demonstration of making a photo book. If you are a Geeks on Tour member, here are your #119 Show Notes.

The album is great, and I look at it all the time, but, I want an actual book to put on the coffee table so anyone can pick it up and browse our photos. Guess what, Google just added that feature to Google Photos!

In Google Photos, if you click on the Assistant, you will see a new button now for Photo Book. Click that, then you can select whatever photos you like - up to 100 of them - and click Done. That's it, that's all you have to do other than entering a credit card and an address for mailing your book. In a week or so, you will have a beautifully printed book with all the photos you selected.

Start with an Album and it's even easier to make a book

When I made my photo book, I started with the album. After all, I had already selected my best photos for the album - I didn't want to start from scratch selecting photos from my library.

• Open the album
• Click the 3-dot menu
• Select "Create Photo Book"
• Click Next
• If your album has 100 or fewer pictures, they will all be added to the book. Since my album had many more, Google selected 100 for me. I could review and change their choices if I wanted, but I didn't.
• Click Order, enter credit card and address.

A couple of clicks and a credit card - it only took 2 minutes! My book with 100 photos cost about $40. 

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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 Top Contributor 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.