FotoFusion can help shave off hours and hours of work hours to produce top quality albums.

 

There are three ways you can use FotoFusion to create a multi-page album.
 

1. Design by template: use the Marketplace templates, or your own custom set of templates to quickly populate an album

2. The Autocollage Album: create a sorted multi-page album in seconds, ready for customization.

3. The "From Scratch" Approach: Design original albums one page at a time.

 

 
 

METHOD 1: Design by template

The dotScrap Marketplace provides an ever-expanding resource of pro-album designs.

Extreme users receive five albums with their license. Click on the BUNDLED CONTENT button in the Start Zone to launch these 40-page albums. Extreme users can customize these albums: change the canvas size, reorder the pages, add or remove frames, change border options, retint the background, delete, clone or add new pages... One album can produce many looks suited to the needs of your client.

 
 

 

Premium albums are available by clicking on the MARKETPLACE button in the Start Zone. New albums are added on a regular basis, and can be purchased by launching them on the Create screen, then clicking on the Shopping Cart. Once purchased, the albums will be added to your permanent collection for repeated use.

 

When a wedding album is launched on the Create screen, the first page displayed is a cover sheet. This page is not editable -- it is the "wrapper" for the album, to show you the component pages. Delete this page from the pages hover if you wish; it will not render with your final output.

 

Similarly, sample images will appear the first time you open the album. These will vanish when you add your own images, and will never render.

 

(Please note: Essentials or Enhanced users can purchase wedding the album templates, but they will act as "ready-made pages." Empty frames will accept your images and text can be edited, but no changes to the canvas size, page order, or other major edits can be done.)

 

 

METHOD 2: The AutoCollage Album

The AutoCollage Album method provides a very quick way to start a custom job.
 
From the Start Zone, click on the AutoCollage button.

 

Run through the AutoCollage Wizard (see related article here). Select as many (or all) images in your event, and add them to the dropper.

 

On the Creative Options tab, be sure to specify the following:

 

On the Canvas Size Options tab, set your page size (eg. a 10x10 album will be 10x20) and set the page to ALBUM TWO-PAGE SPREAD.
You may wish to RESPECT CENTER LINE (so no image straddles the gutter) and add Safe or Bleeds. You can also use the Album Manufacturer Presets (click on the arrow next to the page dimensions).

 

Hit OK to generate your fully populated 38 page album in seconds, with the images flowing across the pages in order of the event.

 

Edit your album, page-by-page, adding any creative embellishments (eg. backgrounds, mattes, smart frames), resizing the images, etc. Remember that you can cut (Ctrl-x), copy (Ctrl-c) and paste (Ctrl-v) images from one page to another, or duplicate them (Ctrl-D). Preset border styles can be very useful to apply a common look across the album; set one frame to the desired style for the album, save it as a preset, then apply it to all image frames on each page.

 

Last, click on the hover in the Create Screen to add the first and last pages to the project, which should be set as ALBUM SIDES or SINGLE PAGES. Bring images to these pages directly from the Images tab, or remove a few particularly good portrait shots from the interior of the album to highlight on these pages.

 

 

METHOD 3: The "From Scratch" Approach

1) Organize your images

Open the organizer, and navigate to your images using the Source tab. Select the images that you wish to use, and assign them into buckets.

Assign categories and/or keywords to your images. This will allow you to easily find them again if you need to edit your album at a later time.

 

Example: The Smith-Brown wedding has been downloaded to C:\My Pictures\June 2007 jobs\SmithBrown.

 

 

Bucket 1: bridal party preparation

Bucket 2: the groom's men at the church, greeting guests

Bucket 3: the bride's arrival and entry into the church

Bucket 4: wedding ceremony

Bucket 5: the bride & groom's departure from the church

Bucket 6: the formal shots of the wedding party outside the country club

Bucket 7: the dinner, including candid shots of the guests and the cake cutting

Bucket 8: the dance and bouquet toss.

 

To the left of the buckets is the Categories section. Find the Weddings section, and look at the subcategories.
Add any you need by performing a right-mouse-down on any of the existing subcategories.

 

Then drag your buckets on top of the categories to assign them to that category.

 

 

2) Create your album.

Create new pages, and change the background, be it a texture, or change the background color. You can also use images from the wedding as a background image. Click on the Buckets hover button to access your pre-sorted images and add them to your canvas. Add text, downloaded graphic embellishments.

 

3) Save your work.

 

4) Create a proof for the client.

You may wish to consider overlaying image info to the project, to show the file name or frame number. You may also wish to watermark your project.

 

5) Edit your project.

When the client returns feedback, reopen your album and make the requested changes.
Swap images quickly from one frame to another. Replace images entirely by searching through your keywords and categories to find the series of images you need.

 

6) Send your project to the lab.
Export your work at 300 dpi (or as instructed by your printer of choice) and send the files to them in their prescribed manner.
Note that you can produce alternative sizes of the album through the Project Settings.

 

7) Relax, the job is done! (or go shoot an extra job with all the time you've saved...)

 

 

Note: If you require outsourced color-correction services, be sure to ask your lab if they will do this for you. You will need to ask if they can color correct your image set before you make the layout (preferable) or if they will accept layered psd files after you have exported. Labs cannot color correct a flattened image (eg. jpg).