Picasa is a nice application designed to simplify the way you manage photos on your computer. With this tool, you can easily view, edit and organize your pictures however you like. Picasa has been recently updated and a variety of editing effects have been offered. Making use of this particular program, you're still likely to enjoy Basic Fixes options. Among them, you'll see such functions like cropping, editing in Picnik and retouching. The special mention is related to Sliders in the Tuning tab that assist you in changing colors and shades in your photo. As you know, there's 12 Basic Effects to enhance the picture: for instance, sharpen, saturation or graduated Tint.
In order to sophisticate the photo, employ Advanced effects: such fresh functions as Infrared film, 1960's, Posterize, Duo-Tone, etc. Also in this version, you're able to invert colors and cross the process. So you see that it is a feature-rich application. Don't be afraid to undertake an experiment on your photo as Picasa keeps photos in its original form even if you make up your mind to save changes. I find it pretty convenient that you can preview the results of applying effects to choose the most exited ones. The program allows for comparing different edits on the same or distinguished photos. That's the business of side-by-side editing. Sharing photos to Google+ is the most long expected option Picasa offers. It should be noted that this feature is available even for users who haven't joined Google yet. Keep in mind that you're able to upload pictures in a private way, as well. Furthermore, you can tag people who are in the photo and share them nearly with the whole world.
In short, Picasa deserves your attention if there's a need of a rich palette to exert substantial effects on your pictures that later can be shared to Google+.