The Junction

Options, options, options.

Right-click anywhere, on anything, and Photojunction’s likely to give you options.

A few examples:

Right-click on an image Group, Collection or Folder in the Event Window and you’ll get options like Delete the Group, Create a slideshow and Create Proof Sheets.

Right-click on an image in the Event window and you’ll get all these options:

Right-click on on Image Folder and you’ll get a Show in Finder option (to locate the original folder of images on your system).

Want more? Ok, right-click on an image on a layout, and you’ll be given all sorts of quick image editing options.

Cheers, Nigel

Another handy hint from the drafts folder (thanks again Nigel) – Ed.

You’ll know all about EXIF data… That information your camera stores about your images.

Well it’s especially important when comparing images. And since you probably do a lot of ‘comparing’ in Photojunction, your image’s EXIF data is available to view from within the Event window.

Simply select an image, and click the EXIF Data tab in the navigation bar on the left to display its information (they must be linked to the high-res originals).

You can also sort images in the Event window using EXIF tags. Very handy.

Cheers, Nigel

Discovered this handy hint buried in the drafts (thanks Nigel, gone but not forgotten!) – Ed.

Further to Anna’s emotional cry to ‘save people in photographs from random and thoughtless amputations’…

I was trying to think of a way to ‘stop the suffering’.

It occurred to me that we could specifically shoot for the panoramic opportunity.

Shoot what you might call ‘the subject image’ and then move slightly to get the ‘rest of the scene’ photograph. Use the spine as the aligned join for these images to create a panoramic effect.

This has two advantages.

The enlargement required is less, keeping the quality up.

You plan more for the placement of your subject so that nobody has to lose an arm.

Important tips for this to work:

-be wary of barrel distortions from wider lenses.

-do not adjust the exposures.

-doesn’t work for crowd scenes unless you can put a deliberate break between the two images.

-be aware of the image alignment vertically and horizontally.

Cheers, Johannes

We’ve now released v1.49 to fix a few minor issues in 1.48, but everything in this post is still current – Ed.

In case you haven’t noticed, we kiwis are very modest

Which is why I like announcing stuff that I didn’t have much to do with, but I feel really good about, because I can sing its praises without feeling bad about myself!

Anyway…

The dev team have been busy busy today pushing out a new final release, and I think it’s a really good one. They’ve put a lot of time and effort into refining features first released in v1.47, especially for Queensberry Press Books, but there’s some juicy new stuff too. So read on!

1. It’s really nice that PJ now remembers open tool panels when you save your work space – even the separate template window and preview – and on separate monitors if that’s how you do it. So go ahead, update your workspace!

2. Make sure you check out the goodness under the More Button on the Event window! Divide and Conquer distributes the images across the album layouts based on the number of images you specify per layout. It also splits the images into groups based on the time interval you set. It’s now a great time saver in my humble opinion (it wasn’t my idea!).

3. You can now design the dust jackets of Queensberry Press Books separately from the cover (you don’t have to use the same design on both as you do in ordinary press books).

4. You can now freely design translucent pages in Queensberry Press Books (ie add images and text as on ordinary pages). Add translucents anywhere you like using the button at the bottom of the layout window. You can also download translucent title templates free of charge from the PJ Store. Should you reduce opacity on translucents? Our designers say it depends on the images, the amount of detail in them and whether you want to be able to see through them or not. Many images look good at 100% opacity, and we don’t recommend less than 60%.

5. You’ll see that we’ve added new paper stock options for Queensberry Press Books too (Art Tintoretto, Art Nettuno and Pearl Metallic). Art Nettuno is what you saw in the unreleased “art album” that we showed at WPPI and at FOCUS (UK).

6. There are also new cover options for Press Books. By all means have a play. We’ll be adding more cover styles next week, and posting images of the new cover and page stocks on the blog, next week. We’ll have prices for you then too.

7. We’ll show you our new Japanese-inspired Mayu Press Book Case then as well – I think it’s beautiful.

8. We’re finding more and more users are avoiding Photoshop and doing all their image editing in Lightroom or Aperture. But that means they don’t have Photoshop to create their page layouts. To deal with that we’ve introduced a new “Export, Print and Assemble” service for Queensberry. If you choose the new service PJ will upload the original high-res files to us instead of layouts. We’ll then create the layout files for printing at our end. There’s no charge for the service, and because we can create layered files we can also offer Full Colour Service printing. Cool eh?

9. We’ve added a new and improved FTP upload procedure to Queensberry. It’s faster, and robust in testing, but in this release, if you prefer you can go back to the existing process (you’ll be offered a choice when you hit Send Order).

And that’s just the major news. You’ve been asking for a simple list of image names to find files in Lightroom or Aperture, and it’s there now. You can space apertures easier based on your defaults in preferences. Check out the release notes to see a full list of tweaks and fixes.

With so many new features to show off we’re going to do a couple of webinars over the next few weeks to introduce them. Meantime, as always, have a good play and tell us what you think!

From everyone at Queensberry, thank you for using Photojunction.

Cheers, Ian

Forget animal sacrifice, this is about image sacrifice, and why it is – quite frankly – morally and photographically unethical!

What I’m talking about here is panoramic layouts and when to ‘cut’ an image (and when not to). Queensberry doesn’t make leaves with prints continuous across the spine of the book, as some manufacturers do. Instead, the prints on our digital pages are split at the centreline, leaving a gap of about 2mm (about 1/16”). The reason for this is because if the print is folded – it almost invariably discolours and/or cracks. Our albums are all about protecting images rather than mistreating them.

So when it comes to using a panoramic spread and splitting a print in two over the centre spine – it should be purposeful and only an occasional feature. I often see designs where an image is sacrificed at the expense of a ‘cool’ layout design – and a person, arm or leg is literally cut down the centre because of image placement over the centreline of the album. This isn’t Chainsaw Massacre 5, people!

In the image above the layout is completely symmetrical – which is nice – but the couple’s hands are being cut in half with the centre spine (and aren’t their hands part of the story of this image?) Below is an alternative layout that works just as well – but doesn’t cut anyone’s limbs in half.

When designing it’s a good idea to think about a layout not just as a spread, but also as two pages (left and right). A good design should be about enhancing the images themselves, not so much about creating intricate patterns that can get in the way of visual flow and story telling.

Above is a layout of apertures that looks quite good on the screen, but when it’s made the spine will be cutting right through those small apertures – and you’ll end up with a little slither of photo on the right hand layout. A large panoramic image (image below) can look spectacular, but cutting an aperture that is smaller than a 7×5 doesn’t do the image any favours.

The best way to lay out a montage is to use a standard layout and work with the spine rather than against it – see image below.

Large group photos can be really tricky because you’ll often want them to be as big as possible – but it’s probably a better solution to use a full page on one side rather than cut Aunt Mildred’s head in two! (see my example of the massacre below).

Happy selective slicing.
Anna

Disclaimer: No images were harmed in the making of this blog post.

PS I think this is good advice even if your album manufacturer doesn’t split prints at the spine.

Why not design your albums in Photoshop or InDesign? A lot of people do, and they’re great applications – we depend on them both ourselves.

A few thoughts …

Adobe don’t think designing your albums in Photoshop is a good idea. That’s not what it’s for. Adobe’s page layout software is InDesign.

So how much does InDesign know about wedding and portrait photographers, their workflow, their albums and their suppliers?

InDesign doesn’t know what DPI your lab needs, or what file type, or what size the printed layouts should be, or about bleed and trim requirements, or what colour management processes are in place. These cause huge frustration for album makers and their customers when work is held up because production requirements aren’t met … or the results are disappointing.

That’s why we build Queensberry’s specifications into Photojunction – to ensure the work you send us is right first time.

Yes, you could you get around those problems by “getting it right” in InDesign … but in the real world that leaves too much room for error, as the printing industry will tell you.

Commercial printers depend on strict pre-flight processes to ensure that “the digital files required … are all present, valid, correctly formatted, and of the desired type”. They’d grind to a halt without them.

What all that really amounts to saying is that InDesign is a great layout design tool, but it isn’t a pre-flight solution.

The album industry is no different, which is why Photojunction heads you in the right direction with album and lab presets, and why it validates your work before it uploads your Queensberry orders.

(Many other album suppliers deploy software specifically to validate your files before you can upload them, even if they don’t care how you design the albums. Asuka’s File Checker is a good example.)

But wait, there’s more.

You won’t find Photojunction’s template functionality or many other productivity aids in InDesign.

You won’t find Photojunction’s great tools for selling images and interacting with your customers either.

And here’s what really sets Photojunction apart:

InDesign, and for that matter almost all “album planning software”, assumes a book is made out of “pieces of paper”, ie is flushmount or un-matted. And yes, these days they generally are.

But many Queensberry albums are matted (think Pagemount and Overlay, Duo and Musée) and you simply can’t design them with InDesign.

Yes, digital albums and press books can be gorgeous – but now that everybody is doing them, and the prices they command are trending lower and lower, are they necessarily differentiating you in the market?

That’s why we built Photojunction from the ground up to enable you to freely design your albums layouts, print them and cut the mats that frame the images so beautifully.

So don’t use Photojunction just because it’s free! Here are five other key reasons to choose Photojunction over InDesign for albums and photo books: built-in presets, pre-flight checking, productivity tools, presentation tools, and fully customisable matted album design.

Cheers, Ian

PS I hope that also explains why Queensberry asks you to design and order your albums using Photojunction

It’s amazing how often we see people talking online about fixing a problem by “reinstalling the software”.

I just did a quick double-check round the guys and we don’t normally recommend “reinstalling” as a strategy for fixing software issues.

In fact, if you reinstall, the problem you’re trying to fix is likely to remain or even get worse. That’s because your user database will still be there and that’s where a problem could lurk and cause trouble even after the cause has been dealt with via a bug fix. BTW don’t delete your user database unless you want to lose all your past work!

If you have persistent problems that a quick reboot won’t fix please email us or contact us on Facebook if you prefer.

Cheers,
Ian

PS Installing updates is another matter. We definitely recommend that.

Danny’s Last Day from Photojunction on Vimeo.

Ian talks to Danny about successes and frustrations; wow features he wishes he’d plugged in the webinars; how to be a happy software user (any software); how and why PJ differs from layout programs like InDesign; and why you can depend on the PJ support and development teams.

Hello Dears!

I saw this on Twitter recently:

If Photojunction was a human I’d punch it in the face!

Danny wrote back, Actually we are human – how can we help?

The nice man apologised – because he was a nice man, and because we don’t often abuse real people (unless they’re partying outside our bedroom window, that is, or cutting us off at the lights).

I’ve told my lovely boys and girls not to take this too personally…but if I could give you a wee bit of advice:

If you’re frustrated, getting twitchy on Twitter makes you feel better but it doesn’t solve the problem.

I bet you won’t believe me, but today I got the spinning wheel of death from both Excel and Safari. (Very annoying: I’m planning a Seniors outing to Waiheke Island and time’s getting short.)

All I could do was use a few bad words and hope no-one heard me. Because no-one believes that complaining to Apple or Microsoft will do any good.

But Queensberry isn’t a big corporate and they do offer personal support for Photojunction. So please use it.

I know time zones can be a problem and you might not be able to get an instant response, but you will be talking to people who call the developers by their first names – sometimes to someone who is a developer. They’re as good at diagnosis as my darling doctor – and if they can’t fix your problem they do know a specialist.

Wrap up well dears,
Nanny

PS Christine, one of our support people, says this:

“It’s always helpful if we’re able to know whereabouts in the program you were and what you were trying to do when the program had difficulties. Any error messages you see help us diagnose the problem and screenshots make things so much clearer. And if Photojunction asks you to send a bug report please do!

“Also, we do keep an eye out on Twitter and Facebook, but emailing info@photojunction.com is easily the best thing to do.”

Yesterday Johannes asked if you could send PJ Support some interesting design questions, and I think you’d better. Methinks his mind’s started wandering – Ed.

The first time you have sex there are so many things that could go wrong.

The second time you know a bit more about what happens, but that doesn’t mean that things are any easier.

If, the first time you had sex, you focused on having fun over getting it right, the experience would probably be 100 times more enjoyable. 100 times more enjoyable because you would be free to get it wrong, or right, without the judgement.

If you watched all the instructional videos you would get points for execution but your creativity would be hindered by the rules of play and the examples you had seen.

Although I am certainly no authority, in having sex there are some fundamentals you must follow (I won’t go into details) but the rest is personal expression.

Making your first album (losing your album maker virginity) can be a traumatic experience too. There are instructional videos, certainly many opinions, and so many ways that things could go wrong.

The lovely people at Photojunction have worked hard to make sure you have a positive experience, and they hope you will embrace and enjoy your first time. It is a time before you have become habitual in your design …. this naiveté is a wonderful freedom to explore.

If it’s your first time, just play. Enjoy, embrace, and be proud … losing your virginity only happens once.

Cheers, Johannes

If you do need a video to get you started (with PJ that is) there’s one here.