Wednesday, April 8, 2009

How to be a photo pro with limited time

Life goes by WAAAAY too fast! Just so I can make sure I remember all the wild and fun things in my life I take lots of photos. For me, my photos revolve around my kids and all their crazy adventures. So, for me taking them is not a problem - it's enjoying them! The thousand of photos I took used to just sit on my computer and the sheer volume of them left me less then excited to organize, let alone do something creative with them. And it is not because I lack in creativity - I mean for me I actually created videos and design projects for a living, so that was not an issue. No, my issue was time and the severe lack thereof. But that changed with a little help from Adobe. So I wanted to write this post to do a little shout out to wizards at Adobe for simplifying my life and allowing me to get organized so my family could start enjoying our memories on a whole new level.

So what is the marvel? It's the Adobe Photo Album Starter Edition and yep - it is free! You can download it right from their web site: www.adobe.com

With it you can organize your photos quickly by time, place, people in the photos, ratings (is it a 2 start or a 5 star photo?) or put it into any customized category. No more mind numbing folders on your computer to try and organize everything. Now you can call up any event, person, or even use a calendar to find your photo of choice.

It does come with a red eye tool and a crop tool, but that's about it for editing. If you want to do more for scrapbook, movie creating or other projects and if you have a few bucks, I would recommend Photoshop Elements. It has the same album features, but includes a lot more editing options for print and even movies. Coming from a design background, I have used the full blown Photoshop, so I know what muscle Adobe has up it's sleeve. When I sold my design business, I had to part with that bells and whistles software. Too my surprise, their "Elements" version is extremely robust, yet with a major focus at keeping it simple for the non-techi and the beginning photographer. It may be worth a try. You can download it for free 30 days to see what you think. You can make a purchase with Adobe, but I recommend Amazon for a cheaper deal and free shipping! (who doesn't love free shipping?)