Picasa :(: I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+. Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa...

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa using Lightroom?

Thanks for any help.

picpiper Loc: California

tita1948 wrote:

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa using Lightroom?

Thanks for any help.

Because I have some kitchen duties to attend to shortly I will spare you my thoughts on Google for now.

I've used Picasa since before Google bought it. For years used Web Albums to easily share photos with family. However, this final merge of Web Albums into Google+ Photos with its ugly interface and forced inscription into Google+ is the last straw.

Many months ago I started using Yahoo's Flickr which allows 1TB of free space. It has a drag-and-drop upload interface, but I usually use Picasa to select the desired files, put them in a Picasa album, export the album to a local temporary folder and then upload the temporary folder to Flickr.

After uploading you do have to manually place the uploaded photos into a new Flickr album. It is certainly not the elegantly integrated album uploading from Picasa to Web Albums, but it works.

You can send links to individual photos or entire albums to people who will not be required to join anything.

One important thing to be aware of is that Flickr defaults to making all uploaded photos public. If that bothers you be sure to edit the security permissions of the photos and or new albums you create on Flickr.

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

picpiper wrote:

Because I have some kitchen duties to attend to sh... (show quote)

Yes I have many unkind words for the exc at Google as well. But.... Sounds complicated to use Flickr.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

tita1948 wrote:

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa using Lightroom?

Thanks for any help.

Are you sending jpg? If so you might try a WD My Cloud external drive. It has it's own cloud service and you can let people see your photos from your own personal cloud drive that sits in your house. The process takes about 30 minutes to set up after you have plugged the external drive in.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

I share albums with everyone, on Google+ and not.

This may help -
http://support.google.com/picasa/answer/1295919

Otherwise reply and I'll send detailed instructions. S-

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

tita1948 wrote:

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa using Lightroom?

Thanks for any help.

Have you checked with your Internet Service Provider? Do you have enough space under them where you can just set up your own web site and post the photos there?

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

tita1948 wrote:

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa using Lightroom?

Thanks for any help.

Flickr is probably your best alternative, and it is easy to use. You can make your uploaded photos either Public (anyone can view them) or Private/Friends (you select who can view them). Easy to use after short learning curve.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

tita1948 wrote:

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

Can I do something like I used to do in Picasa using Lightroom?

Thanks for any help.

You can build albums free in Shutterfly, too, and invite people to view them. Ther don't have to join. You can share photos or documents free up to a certain amount of storage, via Dropbox, same thing. Lightroom doesn't have its own showcase site like that, but the CC photographers package comes with a Behance site that you can set up.

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

minniev wrote:

You can build albums free in Shutterfly, too, and invite people to view them. Ther don't have to join. You can share photos or documents free up to a certain amount of storage, via Dropbox, same thing. Lightroom doesn't have its own showcase site like that, but the CC photographers package comes with a Behance site that you can set up.

Yes I have heard of Shutterfly. I just might look into this. Thx

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

Ron 717 wrote:

Flickr is probably your best alternative, and it is easy to use. You can make your uploaded photos either Public (anyone can view them) or Private/Friends (you select who can view them). Easy to use after short learning curve.

I'll look into Flickr as well. Thx

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

DropBox

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

tita1948 wrote:

... Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.
...

Can you explain, as I send Albums and most are not signed up with Google+.

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

brucewells wrote:

DropBox

The problem I have found with DropBox is that they have to have DropBox too. Which is what I'm finding out with Google+ and other companies. My friends don't want to be forced into joining or signing up with a company just so they can see photos.

picpiper Loc: California

tita1948 wrote:

I used to send friends a link to see photos from my Picasa album. Now they can't view them unless they sign up with Google+.

St3v3M wrote:

Can you explain, as I send Albums and most are not signed up with Google+.

St3v3M wrote:

I share albums with everyone, on Google+ and not.
This may help -
http://support.google.com/picasa/answer/1295919
Otherwise reply and I'll send detailed instructions. S-

Something has changed re: Web Albums full integration into Google+ Photos. Like I mentioned above I have been putting albums I share on Flickr instead of Web Albums for about a year now. Before tita's post I was going to put an album onto Web Albums and clicked on the "Web Albums" button in the upper right corner of the Picasa screen. Instead of opening up into my Web Album pages it instead wanted me to log into Google+.

Necessary background: I've had a gmail account since beta which is the same account that is linked to Web Albums and Google Drive. I have a separate account linked to You Tube (although they know it is me.) During their multi-year push to make all things Google+ they kept trying to get me to merge everything into one glorious Google+ account under my real name - even though I knew that was actually what was happening behind the smoke and mirrors anyway I would always skip the requests for the grand merge.

Getting back to that Web Albums click from Picasa - it opened up IE (which is not my default browser) and wanted me to sign in to Google+. I put in my gmail/web albums/drive name and PW and it took me to a Google+ profile page. Even though the information was correct there was no way to navigate away from that page. Hmm... how was I going to get to Web Albums?

It's not easy - click on the little upper-right corner app grid in gmail; click More; click Even more from Google; scroll down and click on Picasa - nope that let's you download Picasa. OK... Let's pop over to Google Drive... good - right there is a Google Photos button, click... "Stay Tuned! Your photos are coming soon."

At this point I was wondering if I was ever going to see my Web Albums again. I Googled "web albums google" and the first hit is picasaweb.google.com. Click that and finally get to https://picasaweb.google.com/home which is my Web Albums. I'm sure a combiniation of cookies and a stored password got me directly in. (I also uploaded a new album, just to make sure it was still live.)

While spending way too much time just trying to get back into my Web Albums I came across the "Share from Picasa Web Albums" web page with instructions for sharing with non-Google+ persons. Frankly, given the trouble I had getting into my Web Albums, I'm really wondering if a shared album recipient that has no Google accounts at all would easily see the shared album.

The only people I have shared with in the past at least have gmail accounts so I can't do a meaningful test.

I know Google claims that they reversed their "everyone has to join Google+ to use certain services" stance and claim they are de-emphasizing Google+. But it sure hasn't felt like it too me.

St3v3M: Have you recently shared any Web Albums or photos with people who have no Google Accounts?

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

picpiper wrote:

...
St3v3M: Have you recently shared any Web Albums or photos with people who have no Google Accounts?

Technically Google's Picasa Web Albums have changed into Google+ Photos, but they work the same as before.

Open Google+ Photos http://plus.google.com/u/0/photos
Click More and drop the arrow down to Albums
Click on an Album
- Do Not Click Share -
Click the down arrow to the far right
Click Sharing Options
Highlight and copy the link
Click Save
Email the link
Enjoy! S-

An example album: http://plus.google.com/photos/117704149374652405175/albums/6025298687528974193?authkey=CJio5ZzQpvvmSg