Don't Delete your Original Photos
I’ve had a few emails from Picasa users lately that got me worried. They said that they uploaded some photos to their web albums then deleted them off their computer.
What?!
NO! Picasa Web Albums is not a way to backup or store your photos. It is a way to share your photos with others over the Internet. If you want an online storage website, we recommend Carbonite.
Photo size, and file size, is important
When you upload photos to Picasa Web Albums, you should be using a much smaller size than your original photo. My camera is a 6.3 megapixel camera – yours may be more or less. That means a picture taken by my camera at highest resolution will have 6.3 million pixels – the little dots. Usually that’s 3,072 pixels wide by 2048 high. When a photo is displayed on a computer screen (which is the whole purpose of Picasa Web Albums) an 800 by 600 pixel picture looks big.
Most computer monitors are set to 1024 pixels wide, so an 800 wide picture will take up 80% of the screen. I upload my photos at the 1024 pixel setting. This is 1/3 of the pixels in my original photo. This also means the file size is a lot smaller. I have several hundred photos online and I’m only using 60% of my alloted 1Gigabyte of free space.
Deleting your original photo because you have it uploaded to a web album is like throwing away your original Van Gogh painting because you have a copy print.
Even if you upload to Picasa Web Album at full size, it will be compressed, and the result is not as good as your original. If you ever want to print it, you’ll want your original.
Who’s in Control?
But, probably the main point though, is that once you’ve uploaded your pictures to a free website like Picasa Web Albums, things could happen to them beyond your control. I’ve heard of people who had Web Albums that had been tagged as violating the Terms of Service and were then deleted by Google. Even if it’s a mistake, it can take a long time to clear it up. I know other websites that got hacked and the content destroyed. Admittedly, this is unlikely, but if you still had your pictures on your computer, it’s a simple matter of re-uploading them.
So, what is a good procedure?
Here’s what I do:
- Transfer pictures from camera to computer. Keep them all in folders by month.
(Members, see video: Import from Camera) - Upload just a sampling of the best ones to Picasa Web Albums to share with others.
(Members, see video: Introduction to Web Albums) - Backup-Copy all photos for each month to a CD (or DVD if CD isn’t big enough) Store CD in a safe place.
(see free video: Backup pictures) - Each year I move all photos for prior year to external hard drive. This external hard drive is usually connected to my computer – so, when I’m in Picasa I have access to all years.
(Members, see video: Move Folders to External Hard Drive)
You don’t have to follow that exact procedure – just make sure you follow a procedure that allows you to work with all your pictures, share a few of them, and have a duplicate set of all your originals in case catastrophe hits.
Related posts:
1 Comment to Don't Delete your Original Photos
Leave a Reply
Subscribe to Weekly Picasa Tip
Search
Categories
- Edit/Improve Photos (17)
- Getting Started (13)
- ▼Organizing (31)
- Backup and Tree View 03/03
- Backup! Backup! Backup! 09/15
- Combining Stars and Tags 09/22
- Don't Delete your Original Photos 05/17
- Don't Delete your Original Photos 05/17
- Five Deadly Sins of Picasa 01/07
- Importing and Folders 02/02
- Moving Folders with Picasa 10/28
- Organizing with Sortable Dates 04/22
- People Albums – View Whole Picture 02/08
- Picasa 3.5 Import Screen 10/06
- Picasa 3.5 released 09/23
- Picasa 3.5: How to Turn Off Face Recognition 09/29
- Picasa Tip: “Cancel unfinished operations?” 04/14
- Picasa Tip: Different ways to Save 08/04
- Picasa Tip: Finding Duplicate Pictures 01/13
- Picasa Tip: Folders and Subfolders 06/03
- Picasa Tip: How folders get Dated 03/04
- Picasa Tip: Import from Camera 02/17
- Picasa Tip: Keeping Pictures in Order 05/13
- Picasa Tip: Photos as Wallpaper 02/03
- Picasa Tip: Picture Information 09/02
- Picasa Tip: Scanning Old Photos 01/06
- Picasa Tip: Screen Captures 04/01
- Picasa Tip: Search by Color 07/08
- Picasa Tip: To Save or Not to Save 02/11
- Picasa Tip: Use Albums 12/30
- Picasa Tip: Use Captions 01/27
- Picasa Tip: When your pictures get "All Messed UP" 01/20
- Storing Pictures on an External Hard Drive 06/30
- Using Albums and Temporary Albums 02/18
- Photo (4)
- ▼Picasa (75)
- Backup and Tree View 03/03
- Backup! Backup! Backup! 09/15
- Better Pictures 10/14
- Capture One Shot from a Video 01/30
- Combining Stars and Tags 09/22
- Congratulations on your eBook Purchase! 11/19
- Cover Slides and Collages 12/10
- Dark Photo? Use Fill Light 09/09
- Do you take crooked photos? 11/24
- Don't Delete your Original Photos 05/17
- Don't Delete your Original Photos 05/17
- Emailing Photos with Picasa 05/02
- Five Deadly Sins of Picasa 01/07
- Framing a Picture 12/29
- Importing and Folders 02/02
- Managing Digital Photos with Google's Picasa 01/15
- Moving Folders with Picasa 10/28
- People Albums – View Whole Picture 02/08
- Picasa 3 and Video Files 12/04
- Picasa 3.5 Import Screen 10/06
- Picasa 3.5 released 09/23
- Picasa 3.5: How to Turn Off Face Recognition 09/29
- Picasa Book updated to Version 3.5 11/19
- Picasa Tip: “Cancel unfinished operations?” 04/14
- Picasa Tip: 4 Clicks to Dramatically Improve your Photos 06/10
- Picasa Tip: A Picasa Plug-In for Live-Writer 07/14
- Picasa Tip: Add a Watermark to your photos 11/11
- Picasa Tip: Automatic Updates 11/19
- Picasa Tip: Blue Skies 05/06
- Picasa Tip: Cut thru the Haze 08/20
- Picasa Tip: Different ways to Save 08/04
- Picasa Tip: Download photos from a Web Album 06/24
- Picasa Tip: Fill-in Preprinted Forms 03/10
- Picasa Tip: Finding Duplicate Pictures 01/13
- Picasa Tip: Flipping Photos 03/19
- Picasa Tip: Folders and Subfolders 06/03
- Picasa Tip: How folders get Dated 03/04
- Picasa Tip: I'm Feeling Lucky 04/07
- Picasa Tip: Import from Camera 02/17
- Picasa Tip: Keeping Pictures in Order 05/13
- Picasa Tip: Make a Banner Collage 12/23
- Picasa Tip: Make a Movie 07/29
- Picasa Tip: Make your own Photo Holiday Cards 11/04
- Picasa Tip: Moving folders to a USB Hard Drive 11/25
- Picasa Tip: Nested Folders 12/02
- Picasa Tip: Out of Focus? I meant that! 01/13
- Picasa Tip: Outdoor-Indoor Collage 03/24
- Picasa Tip: Photos as Wallpaper 02/03
- Picasa Tip: Picasa to Facebook 06/19
- Picasa Tip: Picasa Web Albums 02/24
- Picasa Tip: Picture Information 09/02
- Picasa Tip: Printing options, White Borders 08/12
- Picasa Tip: Save Edits and Resize with Export 10/28
- Picasa Tip: Scanning Old Photos 01/06
- Picasa Tip: Screen Captures 04/01
- Picasa Tip: Search by Color 07/08
- Picasa Tip: Synchronized Web Albums 04/28
- Picasa Tip: To Save or Not to Save 02/11
- Picasa Tip: Use Albums 12/30
- Picasa Tip: Use Captions 01/27
- Picasa Tip: Using the text tool 04/22
- Picasa Tip: Web Albums default settings 12/16
- Picasa Tip: What happened to Sharpen? 05/28
- Picasa Tip: When your pictures get "All Messed UP" 01/20
- Picasa tip: Your photos as Screensaver 12/09
- Picasa Tip:Making a Panorama 05/20
- Professional Prints 10/14
- Resizing Photo Files 07/22
- Sharpening Photos with Picasa 07/23
- Storing Pictures on an External Hard Drive 06/30
- Taking Video with your Laptop’s Camera 01/22
- Upgrading to Picasa 3.6 12/11
- Using Albums and Temporary Albums 02/18
- Webinar for Beginners to Picasa 11/29
- You have a Digital Camera ... Now What? 10/25
- picasa web albums (7)
- Sharing Photos (11)
- Show-Me Video (4)
- Special Features (6)
- Videos (12)
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Chris Guld on Picasa 3.5: How to Turn Off Face Recognition
- Nicky on Picasa 3.5: How to Turn Off Face Recognition
- Mile on Picasa 3.5: How to Turn Off Face Recognition
- Chris Guld on Backup! Backup! Backup!
- Anna on Backup! Backup! Backup!
Hi, I do love you site so much and the way you have your pictures organized. I have one question I need answered.
Let’s say I have duplicates and want to delete one of them. Meanwhile I have already posted a picture on my blog. If I delete that picture it is taken off my blog then. I have lost more pictures this way and only when they are taken from Picasa.
Would you be kind enough to explain this to me and what happens and what to do about it. I have a mac and wonder if that is the problem ? I really will move them all if you can explain it to me.
Thank you. Connie