I just went through the process of posting two slide shows, with embedded video clips, to Picasaweb using Lightroom as my primary tool. The limitations of Lightroom to do this required that I use a hybrid approach using both Lightroom and Picasa desktop software. In addition to the pitfalls of Lightroom, Picasaweb has been changed so there were several issues that had to be worked out. Here is an overview of the exercise.While being a very nice file organization tool, Picasa lacks the image development tools that LightRoom excels in. I like to post combined still and video slide shows to Picasaweb but neither Picasa or Lr provides me with all the tools I need to do this. So, I've developed a work flow that uses both to achieve my objectives. Here's the process:
Edit your still photos in Lr and create a Lr slide show. Add captions in the Library module but do not worry about formatting them or even placing them in the slide templates.
If your videos need editing, you may have problems doing this in Lr. It seems that Lr only saves your changes if you export using DPX or H.264, both of which will significantly reduce the quality of your videos if you shot them in HD. If you export your file using 'Video Format: Original', which would seem like a good way to preserve quality, the edits you made in Lr will not be in the export. The export will look like the original. This seems to be a significant limitation of the Lr video editing feature.
Go into Picasa (desktop) and star all the videos you want to place in your Picasaweb slide show. Use the Picasa synch feature to synch these to your Picasaweb web page. Sometimes Picasa does not scan all the files correctly and you may be missing some videos. Use Picasa/tools/folder-manager to force Picasa to scan your files and find all the images. Note that Lr can upload videos to Picasaweb, but it seems to have issues with large files and therefore is not recommended for this step. Picasa performs this function very well.
When all the videos have been uploaded (it takes a while), go back to Lr.
Using the Jeffry Friedl plug in, export your Lr slide show to Picasaweb. If you don't have this plug in, it is highly recommended and available at
http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies. When you export, pay attention to the following:
-In the 'Picasaweb: Upload Destination' panel, use refresh to make sure the plug in finds the new Picasaweb album that you put the videos into.
-Export your Lr slide show to this Picasa album.
-In the Image Captions pull down, select 'basic captions'.
The captions you entered in Lr will be displayed in the Picasaweb album. They will be centered with text wrapped to display the entire message. You do not need to enter carriage returns (control+enter) in the Lr text.
Once all this is done, you can go into the Picasaweb album and reorder the images putting the videos where you want them within the slide show. The slide show will be be in the order you created in in Lr, but you can move things around if you need to within Picasaweb.
You can also edit your captions in Picasaweb but these will not synch back to Lr. If you have to re-do your upload, the caption edits will be lost.
When you play the Picasaweb slide show, your videos will play seamlessly within the stills slide show. I'll add that Google recently changed how they handle the email lists within Picasa – I think they are trying to push Google Circles. At any rate, it is a little more difficult to find your lists now as they are buried in share/share via email only/To:/then a drop down box.
The ability to edit your address lists has also changed. It is no longer in the Picasaweb interface. You will need to go to Google Contacts; log in to Google the go to
https://www.google.com/contacts/#contacts and you will find plenty of good tools for managing your email lists. These lists are available directly in Picasaweb as noted before.
