program to make a photo album...

**RedGTiVR6** · 03-11-2005, 12:04 PM

So I'm wondering what everyone recomends for making a photo album.

Here's what I need from this photo album.

I need to be able to print out all of my construction pictures from building my car. I need to be able to add captions and add arrows, etc to explain the pictures. I need this to look very professional so that I can take it to some place like Kinko's and have it printed and bound.

I need this for competition purposes. If the judge can't see it or a picture of it they will assume that it is not done. That and a lot of people out at these shows (like myself and Monte) enjoy looking through the build pictures. Some of them give us ideas, or a better understanding of how something went together.

I have tried the phot album thing in PhotoShop but it's rather confusing to me....but I haven't spent much time with it. Does anyone know of anything else that might work?

TIA!

**Scouse Monkey** · 03-11-2005, 12:06 PM

doesnt adobe accrobat reader come with some photoalbum thing now?

**stevieg** · 03-11-2005, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Scouse Monkey

doesnt adobe accrobat reader come with some photoalbum thing now?

It's just for organising you pictures into categories and viewing pictures by date (Photoshop Album) it doesn't do a fat lot for printed albums.

**RedGTiVR6** · 03-11-2005, 12:11 PM

ok - well, yeah - if that's the case then it won't do what I need...lol

that and putting stuff into .pdf format foched all of my pictures last time.....I have a digital rebel....it made all of my pictures look as if they were taken with a $100 camera.....=/

**Bugbyte** · 03-11-2005, 12:12 PM

Mac mini comes with iPhoto. Make the book and email it off. $35 or thereabouts....after the purchase of the mini, which, by the way, costs less than Photoshop. :-P

Okay, I'll stop being unhelpful. Picasa from Google has this feature, I think. You'd still have to edit the photos a bit to put circles and arrows on them, however, you can do that in Photoshop. If you find that too confusing you can do it ghetto by importing the photo into Powerpoint, adding the text and arrows, then saving the slide as a Gif. Use a blank page and make sure the photo covers the whole slide.

I'm sure others will suggest some stuff that does this more seamlessly.

**stevieg** · 03-11-2005, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Red GTi VR6

ok - well, yeah - if that's the case then it won't do what I need...lol

that and putting stuff into .pdf format foched all of my pictures last time.....I have a digital rebel....it made all of my pictures look as if they were taken with a $100 camera.....=/

Maybe have a look at Paint Shop Pro 9, that's a free trial (98MB download) but easier to work with than Photoshop (just less powerful at the very top end)

Also I your using Paint Shop pro or Photoshop remember to save editied files as TIFF (using no compression or lossless compression) as if it's being printed you will want to ensure maximum quality. a decent 5MP camera can do top quality A4 / 10x8 prints, so long as you don't lose the detail by re-saving as jpeg again (and losing information in the image) or GIF

What is the final result meant to look like? A car brochure or a simple photo album?

**Chairboy** · 03-11-2005, 12:17 PM

I'll second Picasa. It's got some really great organizational powers, and can also output photo albums for publishing on the web.

**RedGTiVR6** · 03-11-2005, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Bugbyte

Mac mini comes with iPhoto. Make the book and email it off. $35 or thereabouts....after the purchase of the mini, which, by the way, costs less than Photoshop. :-P

I have an iBook...and I can't stand iPhoto.....lol

Okay, I'll stop being unhelpful. Picasa from Google has this feature, I think. You'd still have to edit the photos a bit to put circles and arrows on them, however, you can do that in Photoshop. If you find that too confusing you can do it ghetto by importing the photo into Powerpoint, adding the text and arrows, then saving the slide as a Gif. Use a blank page and make sure the photo covers the whole slide.

I'm messing with Picasa right now but I kinda get the feeling it's more for organizing on your computer than what I need it for...=/

**RedGTiVR6** · 03-11-2005, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by stevieg

Maybe have a look at Paint Shop Pro 9, that's a free trial (98MB download) but easier to work with than Photoshop (just less powerful at the very top end)

Also I your using Paint Shop pro or Photoshop remember to save editied files as TIFF (using no compression or lossless compression) as if it's being printed you will want to ensure maximum quality. a decent 5MP camera can do top quality A4 / 10x8 prints, so long as you don't lose the detail by re-saving as jpeg again (and losing information in the image) or GIF

What is the final result meant to look like? A car brochure or a simple photo album?

a photo album....since I have something like 595 images...lol

granted not all of them will be used, but the vast majority of them will be....

**RedGTiVR6** · 03-11-2005, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by Chairboy

I'll second Picasa. It's got some really great organizational powers, and can also output photo albums for publishing on the web.

but I don't need it for web.....I will, eventually, once I get all of this stuff done. Then I'll be able to take the photo album that I made and just put it online, or visa versa....make the web page and turn that into a printable photo album....