Editing and Sharing Photos in Lightbox
Google+ has a surprisingly competent image-editing mode called Lightbox that enables you take a closer look at pictures and perform a wide range of functions from within the web browser (as shown in Figure 8-7).
FIGURE 8-7 Looking at a photo in Lightbox.
Lightbox enables you to tag people, share images, add comments, perform edits, add captions, view photo details, download photos, and more. Click on any photo to view it in Lightbox.
The image you click on appears in the main window against a black background that makes it easier to view. On the left and right of the screen are navigation arrows that enable you to move between different images in an album (clicking on the image also moves to the next photo in the album). Click View All at the bottom of Lightbox to reveal a slide show of all the preview images, enabling you to skip to any photo in an album.
Can I Edit Other People’s Photos? No. Lightbox only enables you to edit your own images. You can, however, download photos from other people, upload them to your own photo library, and then edit them.
Adding comments to photos
You can add comments to a photo in Lightbox mode by using the Comments sidebar on the right (as shown in Figure 8-8). Type a comment and click Post comment, and it’ll be visible to anybody looking at the image. Also, anybody else looking at the image can use the Comments bar to add comments.
FIGURE 8-8 Lightbox comments.
The comments appear next to that particular photo, not the entire album. In the Photos window, a small speech bubble with a number inside indicates how many comments each photo has received.
Google+ enables you to manage and delete comments in the Photos window:
1. Click Options (to the right of View All) and choose Manage comments. Delete and report icons appear next to each comment.
2. Click the delete icon (the X) next to a comment you wish to remove. If you click the report icon (the flag), you delete the comment and alert Google to investigate the contents.
You can delete your own comments from a photo at any time by clicking the Delete button that appears below the comments.
Can I Hide Comments? It’s possible to hide the Comments sidebar by clicking the gray vertical bar that divides the main photo from the comments. This only hides it for you, though; other people can still add comments on the photo.
Adding descriptions to photos
You can give your photos descriptions in Lightbox mode by clicking Edit next to Untitled at the top of the captions column and typing some text into the box that appears (as shown in Figure 8-9). Click Add description to add the text to the photograph.
FIGURE 8-9 Adding a caption to a photo in Lightbox.
You can delete a caption by selecting the text again and deleting it.
Editing photos in Lightbox
It is also possible to perform basic edits in Lightbox mode using the buttons at the top of the screen (as shown in Figure 8-10). Click Edit and the following options are available:
FIGURE 8-10 The Edit options in Lightbox mode.
+ Rotating images. Use the left and right icons to quickly rotate an image 90 degrees in either direction.
+ Auto-fix. Click the auto-fix icon (magic wand) to enable Google+ to adjust parts of the image, such as contrast, saturation, and so on. I find auto-fix does a pretty good job of improving a picture. The changes aren’t permanent, and you can undo them at any time by selecting the same menu option.
+ Creative Kit. Click this option to open a more detailed editing mode.