Owning and using Photoshop Album is like having the world s best

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1 d Ch01.qxd 7/7/03 8:37 AM Page 7 Chapter 1 Introducing Album In This Chapter The growth of digital photography What Album does and why you need it Owning and using Photoshop Album is like having the world s best personal assistant organized, efficient, always at your beck and call, saves you time, money, and frustration and just makes your life easier. I admit it. Before Album came into my life, I was a closet photo shoeboxer. Well, actually, more like a 33-gallon storage toter. Maybe you re the same way. Album and Organization I bet that you love photos taking them, looking at them, and sharing them. I bet that you love knowing that you ve captured and preserved the memory of special events, milestones and moments of your life and those of your family and friends. And maybe you re like me because the thing you don t love is the timeconsuming task of organizing, labeling, and placing the photos into albums. That task always seemed to stay permanently affixed to my to-do list. When I switched to a digital camera, things improved some. I didn t need any more storage totes or garage space. But, digital images bring on a whole new set of problems. Does this scenario sound familiar? Do you have a clutter of inconsistently named folders and unintelligible alpha-numerically named files scattered all over your hard drives or burned haphazardly onto CDs? Enter Album your photo organizing personal assistant phenom. Album quickly (and with a miniscule learning curve), enables you to import, organize, find, manage, fix, and share your photo collections.

2 d Ch01.qxd 7/7/03 8:37 AM Page 8 8 Part I: Getting Started with Photoshop Album Sure, there s an initial time investment. And Album doesn t turn lazy people into efficient organizers (I still have to scan my analog prints). But because of its ease of use, you might find yourself (like me) full of renewed enthusiasm for the task of organizing your images. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, or in this case, in the albums. I have seen how efficient Album is at transforming unorganized clutter into an ordered, streamlined system. I have seen the best organizational system since the Dewey Decimal system at work. I have seen the light! And the bonus is that after you ve gotten your images organized and manageable, you can relax and use those images in some creative and expressive ways. And Album is there to help you with that as well, allowing you to make wonderful creations. So Album not only makes your life easier, it makes it more fun, too. It s the best 50 bucks I ever spent. What Album Does and Why You Need It The bottom line is that when you save time you save money. And the program that s going to save you both time and money is downright dirt cheap. I mean, for the cost of a cheap dinner and a couple of movie tickets, you probably just purchased a program that can make you more organized, more productive, and even get some creative juices flowing. You may have thought when you first bought your camera that the software that came bundled with the camera was all you needed. Now you may see that the features of those programs are limited and really intended to just facilitate the importing of images onto your computer. Album allows you to import, identify, organize, export, manage, edit, and share your photos, as shown in Figure 1-1. About the only thing it can t do is make you a latte while you enjoy all the free time you gain from Album doing all the work. Here s a quick glance at Album s multiple features: Import: After you take photos, you can move (or import) them into Album. It only takes a few minutes, and your camera and memory card are ready for the next outing or event. In addition to a digital camera or card reader, you can import images directly from your scanner, hard drive, or CDs. After they re imported, your images are stored in what Album calls a catalog. If you re short on hard drive space, you can even store your images offline, while retaining a proxy (low-resolution copy) in your catalog. You also can import video and audio clips.

3 d Ch01.qxd 7/7/03 8:37 AM Page 9 Chapter 1: Introducing Album 9 For the two readers who don t already have a digital camera Not too long ago if you had a digital camera, you were considered to be on the technological cutting edge. Now it is just as common to see a digital camera as it is a film camera. Some estimates predict that, worldwide, consumers will buy 10 million digital cameras in The digital trend has steadily escalated for many reasons. Anytime a product offers convenience, immediate satisfaction, and a time and cost savings, it is bound to be embraced by the masses. If you haven t jumped on the digital bandwagon yet, here are a few reasons why you may want to make the switch: Immediacy: There s nothing like being able to correct your mistakes immediately after you make them, instead of regretting it later. Shooting digitally allows you to take a photo, view it in the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), monitor attached to your digital camera, and, if you like what you see, great. On the other hand, if the exposure, lighting, or composition is a little off, delete the photo, make your adjustments and reshoot right then and there. And, as an added bonus, because you can make instant adjustments, you can improve your photographic skills more quickly. You can try different angles and compositions. If they don t work, you just delete them from the memory card. You also can really test your camera s features and get to know how it ticks by taking shots using different settings. Hey, and no more streaked or fogged film from airport x-ray machines! Convenience and time savings: Here are four nice words for you: No more photo processing. No more driving to the photo lab, filling out the order, waiting for the development, and picking up the order. You also find that the time you spend scanning steadily declines. Going digital means simply cabling up the camera or card reader to your computer, making a couple of mouse clicks and the photos are on your hard drive, ready for action. Less expense: Just like time isn t wasted with photo processing, neither is money wasted paying for processing. Just print (and pay for) only the photos you really want. Invest the savings from paying for film and processing toward accessories for your digital camera (see Chapter 20). Some people argue that a high-quality digital camera is more expensive than a comparable film camera. This may be a true statement now, but is becoming less so. Because the technology is still evolving, quality cameras are becoming less expensive and will continue to do so. Less clutter, and less retouching: Going digital means not having to store negatives, slides, or prints. Storing all that output not only consumes precious storage space, but keeping track of it all is tedious. And because there is no film or prints involved, you ll spend less time retouching dust, dirt, or scratches. Flexibility: Digital images allow you to share your images in different ways. Print them, them as attachments, burn them onto CDs, or post them online.

4 d Ch01.qxd 7/7/03 8:37 AM Page Part I: Getting Started with Photoshop Album Figure 1-1: Photoshop Album has multiple features to make the photographic part of your life easier. Identify, view, and export: After your images are imported into your catalog, you can view them in one location any time, all the time, as shown in Figure 1-2. Album provides you with a tagging system that enables you to attach keywords or phrases to your images to make sorting and locating them a breeze. You can locate and view your images by tags, dates, folders, and other criteria. It doesn t matter where the images reside, whether on your computer or on other external media. Album also keeps a history of each image, details such as if you ed or printed the photo. And you can even export images in a variety of file formats for use in other applications. Edit: If you didn t quite get your images perfect during the shooting process, Album lets you edit your images using cropping, red-eye removal, and color and contrast tools, all of which require only a mouse click or two. Album also provides seamless integration with many external image editors, such as Photoshop Elements, for those images that require extra-strength editing.

5 d Ch01.qxd 7/7/03 8:37 AM Page 11 Chapter 1: Introducing Album 11 Figure 1-2: Album allows you to see all of your images in one organized location. Create: Keep it simple and just or print your images. Or be a little more innovative and make projects, called creations, such as albums, slide shows, cards, calendars, photo books (shown in Figure 1-3), and more in just five easy steps. Share: After your images have been cleaned up and enhanced, Album makes sharing your files a snap. You can images and creations as attachments, post them online via a photo sharing Web site like Shutterfly. com, or view them as a Web gallery. You can print the images, or burn them to CD or DVD. Album can save your files as PDFs (Portable Document Format), which means that anyone, anywhere with just a computer and free Acrobat reader can view your images and creations. Preserve: Album makes it quick and easy to back up your catalog or archive your images to CD or DVD. Store the media in a safety deposit box or other offsite location to ensure your memories are safe from disaster natural or man-made.

6 d Ch01.qxd 7/7/03 8:37 AM Page Part I: Getting Started with Photoshop Album Figure 1-3: Create wonderful projects in Album, such as hardbound photo books.