I just bought Photoshop Album 1 for my Windows 98. Where do I begin? I have about 1000 photos on my hard drive in about 7 different folders. I read the info – but don’t quite understand it. Can someone explain to me in easy understandable terms where I start and what I do? Thanks.
Ok, the first thing to do is to create your own tags. Examples are Kids, Trips, Anniversaries, Birthdays, etc. Next, import your pictures. Click on File / Get photos… And choose Folder. Navigate to find your hard drive,then select C:\ and make sure the subdirectory option is selected.
Album will work for a while, so go get a coffee, tea, a walk, buy a new car, etc… 😉
You will be presented with miniatures of your pictures. They will not be copied into Album’s directory. Only their location will be added to Album database. Meaning, if you move ’em, you loose ’em. Album has a reconnect option, but it’s not 100% reliable.
Now comes the cataloguing of your pictures. You can work two ways. One by one, or select multiple pictures at a time, then click on a Tag and drag it on one of the selected picture. Next, you might have to adjust the date and time. In Album 1.0, I don’t know if you can adjust date / time of multiple photos at a time (I don’t think so).
Finally, one by one, you may add a caption. Make sure you add caption, and not notes. Captions will be shown on VCD and PDF slide show, notes won’t.
On the option bar, click Clear. For this first time, you see a difference. But the next time you import picture, Album will return the default view, that is, the newest picture at the top (example, your newest picture is today, and you imported a batch from 1974, then when you click clear, it will show today’s picture).
Finally, click on Find / Untagged Items. This will show you all the pictures you might have not tagged yet. Either on purpose, either because you forgot. You go from there and do the work.
Hope this helps. If not, you may consult Album’s forum (take a deeeeeeeeep breath before getting there!), or write to me personnaly at I’ve been an Album user since day 1. I’ve tried just about every options, so I should be able to help.
There are many pictures in my folders I want to delete off my hard drive, don’t want them. Should I go into the folders first and delete them? Or should I move them all into Album 1 and then delete them? Would this take them off the hard drive or just out of album? I am trying to think of the easiest way. I have so many versions of pictures that I no longer need. Then, when you download more pictures from the digital camera – do you right away tag them? Is this how the program works?
There are a lot of different approaches you can take with Photoshop Album. After you create your tags as has been explained, you only choose those pictures that you want to organize into your different tags in Album. So if you have a lot of pictures that you are sure you don’t want any more, I would just go into the folders and delete those.
Personally, the way I use Photoshop Album is I put the pictures I want to keep on CD ROM disks and then Use Photoshop Album to organize the pictures. Photoshop Album stores a low resolution copy of the photo on the hard drive. You can browse through all of your photographs regardless of how many CDs you have created. Then when you find one that you want to work with, Photoshop Album will tell you which CD to insert to retrieve the real photograph.
It should be important for you to understand that Photoshop Album does not move your pictures anywhere. It merely creates a link to the picture wherever it is located so that it will be easy for you to find that picture in the future.
Removing picture before you import them in Album is a way. You’ll save time. Otherwise, if you discover Album has imported a picture that you don’t want anymore, right click on this picture and select "Delete" (or hit the Delete key on your keyboard). Album will ask you to either remove the picture from the database or from database AND your hard drive.
WORD OF CAUTION : Album 1.0 doesn’t make use of Windows’ Recycle Bin. Therefore, any destruction is finale. No comming back.
One thing I discovered and found handy is that I created a temporary tag (named : temp). When I encounter I picture I know I have it somewhere, I tag it with the temp tag. Then, as I dig my pictures database in Album, I tag all pictures that I feel are duplicated with the temp tag. Later, when work is done, I click on the small box just left of the Temp tag. Album will then hide all pictures except those with the Temp tag. Select all images that are identical, except one of course, and right on any selected images and select Delete. Make sure you kept at least one of those images not selected.
My workflow with Album doesn’t involve getting pictures directly from the camera but it’s similar. Let me explain.
Since I have a DVD burner, I keep my originals in a folder on my hard drive for a certain time. Once the folder reaches a size that makes it resonable ($$$) to burn on a DVD, I burn all the pictures. Then, in Album, I import the pictures, but I carefully select "leave original on disks". Album will import a proxy (a small thumbnail) of my images. I will catalog and tag those thumbnails. When I need one in Photoshop Elements, I right click on it, and select "Edit in Photoshop Elements". Album will prompt for the right disk (because when I imported them, I give the disk a meaningful name).
Otherwise, you may simply connect the card or camera and have Album import and store your pictures in its folder. This won’t create a thumbnail, it will rather copy the files from the card onto your hard drive.
WORD OF CAUTION : Some users have reported deleted pictures from the camera going this way (camera only, not a card reader). I don’t remember the specific combination of events that lead to this problem. So copying image directly from the camera is at your own risk.
Once a batch of new pictures have been imported, your present collection is hidden and only the new pictures are showed. Tag and put a caption on them, then hit the "clear" button at the top of your screen.
Have you downloaded and installed the Album 1.0.1 patch ? If not, start by doing so before working with the software.
Don’t know how many of you get the Wall Street Journal, I don’t, but I friend of mine alerted me to Walt Mossberg’s column in today’s issue. He has some very complimentary things to say about Album 2.0
