91. Add Visual Effects and Captions

BEFORE YOU BEGIN	SEE ALSO
Touch up Photographs	About Advanced Editing Tools

If you're a fan of special effects, such as adding sepia tones to make a photo look old-fashioned or adding a soft focus to the photo, you'll find Picasa to be a great program. You can add special effects to the selected image with a single click.

Click the Effects Tab

After double-clicking a photo in the folder lists to open it in Picasa's photo-editing mode, click the Effects tab on the left side of the screen. You see a list of thumbnails showing all the effects you can apply to the photo.

Select an Effect

To add an effect, click it. In some instances, such as when turning a color photograph into a black-and-white photograph or adding sepia tones, the changes take effect immediately.

Customize the Effect

In some instances, such as when adding the Soft Focus effect to a photograph, you need to make choices about how to apply the effect. For the Soft Focus effect, for example, a portion of the photograph remains in focus, but the rest of the photo blurs slightly. When you click to select the Soft Focus effect, you come to a screen that enables you to select the size of the area you want to remain in focus and the amount of blur you want to appear for the soft focus effect. Click in the photo on the right side of the screen to establish the center point of the sharp focus area. Make your changes and click Apply.

Undo an Effect

To undo an effect, click the Undo button in the lower-left corner of the effect pane.

Write a Caption

To write a caption, click the Make a caption! text just underneath the photograph, and type the text of your caption. Note that you must have completed the application of any special effects and be back at the main Effects tab (click Apply or Cancel for any effect to return to the main Effects tab).

Undo All Your Changes

If you make multiple changes to a photo and then decide you don't like any of the changes, it can be difficult to undo them all. For the quickest way to undo all your changes, go back to Picasa's main screen by clicking the Back to Library button above the tabs on the left side of the screen, right-click the photo in the folder lists, and choose Undo all Edits from the context menu.