Hello dears, if you’re like me you find the modern inter-web and computer thingamys a little overwhelming. in fact I had a conniption the first time my nephew plugged my Macintosh SE into a network and I’ve never been really comfortable since.

But I like what it lets me do, so I struggle along.

I did peek in my iTunes music folder once (looking for my old Tom Jones and Seekers’ records) but I thought, “Good grief, that looks complicated,” and I’ve never looked again.

I suspect that’s exactly what Apple want. They don’t even mention their “back end” (nasty expression) because you can really get in a mess if you play around with it.

Now dears, I mention this because Photojunction has a back-end too, and I suppose what I really want to suggest is, if you can, keep your hands off it.

Let me tell you what happened to one of our users recently. All jokes aside, if it had happened to me it would really have got my knitting in a knot, but there are lessons to learn, so let me explain what they did:

1. Went in and made copies of the Project folders (where Photojunction stores everything to do with a specific job).

2. Manually deleted content from the Project folders (which PJ put there for reasons I don’t really understand).

3. Saved extra stuff in the Project folders (which PJ won’t know about – especially if it’s in one of the duplicate Project folders they made, which PJ also won’t know about).

4. Renamed files (which means PJ won’t be able to find them).

5. Used illegal characters when renaming (which PJ, your operating system or lab might not be able to handle).

6. They also configured their Preferences to put the default saving folder inside the default project folder (this is “I’m my own Grandpa” territory and confusing for the software, and it certainly makes my own head spin).

Now I do know everyone has their reasons, and I’m the last person to criticise, but I hope you don’t mind me offering some suggestions:

Click on my Preferences and you’ll see I don’t even know where Photojunction is storing my bits and pieces. As with my iTunes, I’m happy to leave well alone. Some users need to change their Project Folder because they need to place the files on a different drive or central server, and it’s easy to do: I just don’t need to.

I haven’t even changed the default “saving folder” (where PJ stores my exports and upload bundles), so the files still go to my desktop.

But my main advice is not to mess around inside the folders.

If Photojunction puts things in these folders I assume it has its reasons, and who am I to disagree?

If I want to duplicate Projects, Events or Albums I do it in Photojunction, because if I do it that way PJ can keep track of everything, and everything keeps working.

Same if I want to edit, duplicate or delete my image files or the exported page layouts: I can do it in PJ, and if I do it that way everything works.

The developers, who are very nice young men, have spent a lot of time building all this into Photojunction so that they can help you avoid all this frustration.

Bless you all, and please cover up outdoors (it’s cold and wet here in New Zealand right now – not that I’m complaining).

PJ Nanny

I like to think I am a power user for Photojunction. Every now and then, however, I feel like I get smacked in the face with “How did I never know this before?!” One of my favorite things about Photojunction might be the seemingly endless possibilities. Properly trained in Graphic Design, I despise having to use a mouse. I prefer using a tablet whenever available, but I also work on a laptop quite a bit, so I have adjusted to my trackpad as well. Not quite as accurate as my stylus, I still find I am better with a trackpad than a mouse.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Apple recently release the Magic Trackpad. The Apple geek that I am, we bought one almost immediately. It is the perfect compromise for our desktop. I no longer need to pull my tablet out for simple things, and I can avoid using a mouse. Thanks to the tips on the box, we learned even more tricks for our laptops, that we did not know were possible.

This extends to Photojunction. The more I use the trackpad, the more I accidentally learn.

And so, my tips and tricks for today:

Did you know…. using two fingers on your trackpad (same as you would to scroll in a window), you can swipe over an aperture on an album layout and adjust the crop/zoom? I am finding it to be far more accurate than using the slider. On a current Wacom Intuos table you can use the wheel to do this as well.

Next… (and this one I didn’t find, Danny told me) building on editing the crop/zoom on the layout, you can hold the command key and move the image within the aperture.

Go ahead. Try both. It’s awesome.

Angelique

Shortly after the iPad was announced, Nigel posted about wanting to run Photojunction on it. While that hasn’t happened (yet), the iPad has become quite a popular tool for photographers.

Personally, I like to use it to present final album designs to clients. Photojunction makes creating and editing layouts so simple, that sitting there with a client flicking through their spreads takes the mystery out of knowing exactly what they’ll end up with.

There are so many presentation options within Photojunction, but here’s a few that work with the iPad…

1. Slideshows

Want an album slideshow to fit perfectly on your iPad so you can present it to your clients? Choose the Computer (Projector) size from the Slideshow movie size presets. They’re the same exact dimensions as the iPad. Easy enough right? Imagine pre-designing the album and having the slideshow playing on the iPad when your client comes in to view their proofs.

2. Proofs

Would you rather your clients could flip through the pages of their album design at their own speed, while you take notes of any changes they may want to make? When you export Proof Layouts in Photojunction (Album menu > Export > Proof layouts) choose 1024 as your export size (the second option on the drop down list).

Add the proofs to your iPhoto library (or whatever you have set up to sync with your iPad) and you are on your way!

3. albumexposure

This is my personal favorite. We made an excellent decision when we joined forces with albumexposure, and they made sure it wasn’t long before albumexposure was iPad compatible.

All the great albumexposure features you’re used to on your computer are available when you access an album design via your iPad browser. Clients can view, comment and submit their album comments or approvals using the iPad. albumexposure and Photojuntion will do their thing and your clients’ comments will be available for you to view back in Photojunction.
Of course, this particular method does require an internet connection

So what’s your favorite way to present albums to clients? Leave a comment below, we’d love to know.

Cheers, Angelique

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

Each version of Photojunction takes us further towards a seamless workflow to design, export and upload your album orders to Queensberry – right first time and hassle-free..

If you’re using Queensberry this is just a reminder that you no longer need to use LabFTP.

Photojunction does it all, and the advantage is that the processes are managed and automated – so there’s minimal opportunity for anything to go wrong, and you’ll get your album faster.

Cheers, Ian

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

Photojunction’s integration with albumexposure just keeps getting better.

albumexposure now offers you the ability add music to accompany a client’s album design, from within Photojunction.

Just select the ‘Proof with albumexposure’ option from the Album menu in Photojunction, then on the AE start screen, choose the ‘Upload Music file’ option from the ‘Select Song’ drop down list.

Cheers, Nigel

PS music files need to be in MP3 format.

You can now choose in the Photojunction Preferences to have the Problem Reporter report on any problems in your album design when you create a slideshow or proof sheets from it.

Why’s that useful? Well you’ll need any problems fixed before you order the album, so if you’re going to create a slideshow or proof sheets of it, you can be sure they’re perfect too, and exactly as per the album.

This option is set on as a default but you can turn it off by heading to the Preferences and unchecking ‘Report problems on exporting proof layouts and slideshows’. Easy.

Cheers, Nigel