Photojunction also harnesses the power of Photoshop for you during the export stage of the workflow, when you can open and edit exported page layouts in Photoshop from within Photojunction, just as you did the original image files.

After you export your high-res page layouts (almost always using Photoshop) they become visible in the Export Layouts window.

The layout files will have been saved to your hard disk, and so under your care and control, and many people want to work on them before printing.

But you need to take care. If you rename or move the files, for example, Photojunction won’t be able to find them for uploading.

You can avoid problems if you open and work on the files from within Photojunction.

Just click the Open In Editor button in the Export Layouts window or double click on a layout and it’ll open up in Photoshop for you.

Provided you export the layout as a PSD, Photojunction makes it easy to do your creative and corrective edits, because it makes each element in your layout (images, text, backgrounds etc) a separate layer.

But there are things you shouldn’t do. I’ve already explained why you shouldn’t rename or move the files. But please don’t change image dimensions, the position of images on layouts, resolution or file type either, or you could introduce more problems, which PJ’s internal error-checking won’t be able to detect – for example a mismatch between your album design and your print files, or print files that don’t match the lab’s specifications!

If you do want to change the layout, no problem: just go back to Photojunction, redesign the layout, return to the Export Layouts screen and re-export that layout so the print file you send off to your lab reflects the changes you’ve made.

Cheers, Nigel

PS No problem? Not unless you decide to redesign the layout AFTER you do the creative Photoshop stuff…

Danny’s away at the moment so I’m going to steal one of his lines… Photojunction knows it can’t be Photoshop, so doesn’t try to be. It harnesses the power of Photoshop instead.

Photojunction works seamlessly with Photoshop, allowing you to open an image or a layout in Photoshop from within Photojunction, work on it, then re-import it back into Photojunction.

But how it works depends on whether you’re working with your layouts (what you’re designing) or your images (what you’re designing with), so I’m going to split this topic into two posts.

Today we’ll look how to work with Photoshop to edit your images from within Photojunction.

The ‘How-to’:

Select an image either on your layout, or in your event window, and click the Open in Editor button at the bottom of the Image palette (or by right-clicking on the image). You’ll get three options:

- Open original file: You’ll be working on the original high-res file in Photoshop.
- Open duplicate file: Photojunction will duplicate the high-res original file so as to not mess with the original  (we recommend this option).
- Open cropped duplicate file: Choose this if you’ve cropped the image on your layout, and want to work with just the now-visible part : only the cropped part of the image will open in Photoshop.

Select the option that best works for you, follow the prompts, and the image will open in Photoshop for you to do what you need to with it. Once you’ve finished, save and close.

Photojunction will re-import that image back into Photojunction and reflect the changes to the images you’ve made. Nice.

Tomorrow we’ll look at working with entire page layouts in Photoshop.

Until then…

Nigel

During our Photojunction webinar today someone asked how to hide the images in the Event window, which they’ve already used in their current album design. The same question’s just popped up on Twitter too, so here goes…

The simple answer is this:

Hit the More button in the Event window and select Hide images used in album.

That’ll remove from the Event window all the images you’ve used in your album design.

To have them show back up, select the new option Show images used in Album under the More menu.

That’s pretty simple. But there’s a few other features I think you’ll be interested in…

To find our where you’ve used an image within your album design, right-click on the image in the Event window, and select Jump To.  Photojunction will ‘Jump-to’ and display the layout it’s used on. And if it’s used in more than one place, Photojunction will display each layout it appears on. Epic.

Lastly, the Images Used collection.

Have a look in your Image Collections (left hand side of the Event window) and you’ll find one there called ‘ Images Used’. Yep, Photojunction automatically builds a collection of all the images you’ve used in your current album design. A great way Photojunction helps keep those images accessible and organised for you.

HTH

Cheers, Nigel

Hey, you guys are album designers. Check out Johannes van Kan’s recent post on the Queensberry Connects, Judging albums for awards.

As a judge for the Australian Professional Photography Awards at PMA in Melbourne a week or so ago, he shares some insightful observations and advice about album design… And shares a few pointers for anyone entering albums for awards.

Cheers, Nigel