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Peppermint, Katie, and Steph answer your questions and respond to your thoughts: conquering projects, purchasing cameras, tips for designers, the future of printing, doing what you love, and the best husband of the year award (and he’s not related to any of us). We have a couple of outtakes too, for those that have said they love them 
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Joining the Discussion:
Steph
Katie Nelson
Peppermint Granberg
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Picks of The Week:
Peppermint: Mister Retro Permanent Press Filters
Katie: Trip Journal
Steph: MistyHilltops.com
Happy New Year ladies, I haven’t had a chance to listen to this weeks episode yet but I wanted to make a comment on how your show about projects inspired me. I love projects and I, like Katie, love to have a clear cut beginning (such as January 1st and how perfect it fell on a Sunday this year). I’m doing Project Life this year and just trying to take it as it goes and not get hung up on how many photos I’m using (not doing P366 this year…just taking photos as often as I can). I may have pages that take me a couple of weeks to fill up and I may end up filling multiple pages with a single day’s events and I’ve decided that that’s ok for me.
My other project that I’m planning on doing is a Recipe 52 project where I photograph and document a new recipe each week prepared by a member of my family (my DD loves to cook and bake and my DH loves to grill). I blogged about these two things on the Log Your Memory blog on December 27 and Kristin has set up a Recipe 52 forum for anyone planning on participating. I especially love the idea of this project because if you miss a week or don’t start at the beginning of the year it’s not so bad as missing a day or week in another project (at least in my mind). I also love that it’s very adaptable to your needs (such as a year of healthy foods, breads, desserts, or documenting family favorites). I’m really excited about this project and wanted to let you know that your conversation about projects really inspired me to create more doable goals this year which I’m hoping decreases my chances of failing (which I’ve done so often in the past).
documenting recipes is a great idea! Very smart!
I love that recipe idea! How fun
I was just listening to the part of the show where Peppermint was saying that people complain about long file names. I know that in some cd/dvd burning software, the length of the file names is limited. I had a situation when I was trying to back up my hard drive to dvd a few years ago and it took several days and calls to tech support before we were able to figure out that I had to shorten file names and/or reduce the number of subfolders in order to get all my files burned.
Ahhh, that makes sense!
For designers who are looking for another resource on the business side of designing, my ebook has been updated for 2012 and has a great audio interview with Steph! http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/EBOOK-An-Insiders-Guide-to-Designing.html
Yes, it does
Hello!
Thanks for sharing my comment about “the best husband ever.” Kirk and I have been married for over 20 years. And he’s going to get a lot of mileage out of your comments – and so he should. It’s so thoughtful of him to listen to the show just because it’s important to me.
Not even newlyweds? Even more bonus points!
Sheesh, no kidding!
I started listening to the Digi Show in mid-December, and thanks to my 4hr a day commute, I have listened to most of the episodes (including the ones done under the paperclipping umbrella). I find that I’m constantly inspired by the things you ladies are saying. I’m fascinated by your organizational schemes. When I started digital scrapbooking in 2008, I started breaking up my kits and organizing things based on whether they were papers/embellishments/etc. Then the papers were organized by color. This worked mostly because I didn’t have very much digital product, so I could remember what I had, and if not, I could scroll through pretty quickly. In the last few months, I discovered several new stores, and have greatly increased my stash. I’m working in PSE 9, so there is a tag based organizer included with that software. I don’t hear you talking very much about that organizer. How does it compare with other organizational software? I’m a PC user (definitely anti-apple). I’d really like to get things organized, but I would rather spend my money on product than organizing software.
I think the biggest reason we don’t talk about this program is because we don’t use it. We are most familiar with programs we have used and tried. I did try the organizer that came with PSE back in 2004 or 2005. Then, I found out that it was pretty easy to lose all of that tagging and decided not to do anymore with it. I’m sure you could Google how to add the tags to the metadata. That way, if you lose your main harddrive, all of the tagging information is embedded in the back up files you have stored somewhere and you will be able to easily add those files back into the PSE organizer with the tags intact. Does that make sense?
It does seem to write to the metadata, but it doesn’t save the tags in a hierarchy. So if you use the files in other programs, the tags are there but not categories and subcatagories. Does the other softwar save hierarchical iptc data?
I think LR does. I will have Kayla come answer because she IS the pro at all of this!!
This really depends on the software you use. For example when I look at my Lightroom photo files in Adobe Bridge, the keyword hierarchy is completely intact. However, if I view those same files in the file explorer I get flat keywords and no hierarchy.
One thing you might consider doing is downloading trials of other programs you are looking at and then looking at your PSE photos in those programs to see what they see in the files.
Hope that helps – this stuff can get very complicated so I hope I have explained it well enough.
We cover PSE Organizer in Finding Photo Flow. It compares well to other software programs. Over the years the biggest complaints I hear about the program is the slowness of the catalog and bugs with the catalog over time as it gets larger. There are also issues with Face Recognition over time.
However, it is definitely a workable solution. It is a catalog software, has GPS, hierarchal tagging, face recognition, star ratings and excellent search capabilities.
My biggest complaint about this software is that to ensure you truly have your tags saved you really should manually write your metadata to the file.
I also know several who have switched from PSE to Lightroom as Lightroom seems to have a more robust catalog. In fact one high profile PSE user finally switched to Lightroom after years and years of running a helpful blog supporting PSE – http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm
On the flip side over the years I have had several students who love it and don’t have any issues. The most important thing is to find a software you love and then maximize its technical capabilities in helping you stay organized.
Great show ladies, as always. The comments about supporting the designers you love really hits home. Too often we don’t let people know we love them and for designers, making a purchase is the way to show our love! I love Peppermint’s contributions to the show but only have one of her kits because I usually use much more vibrant colors in my scrapping. But I found several other items in her store that I can use and now she can feel the love from a fellow ‘sconnie. I already have an annual membership to Digifiles so Steph and Katie you are also loved….
We really appreciate the support!
Thanks so much
Great show ladies and welcome back! I was listening yesterday as I was working on a large D-I-Y project and unfortunately, the project was longer than the show. After the show ended, I found myself wishing a couple of time that you guys were still hanging out with me and chatting away. I missed you guys!
I just wanted to say that I really appreciated the conversation about the business side of digital designing. I know for me, it was the biggest surprise when I first started designing and I think that many others would agree. As a digital designer you will spend far more time marketing and building your brand than actually designing, so it is very important to work on building up your marketing tools as well.
And a really big thank you for your comment about supporting your favorite designers! That warmed my heart.
I agree, successful designers spend far more time on the marketing, packaging, admin., side of things than they do actually designing. It can be a big turnoff for many when they first become designers.
I had to laugh when Peppermint said that she held her breath and deleted all her tags in ACDSee (I think) because just I deleted all my old PSE tags yesterday. I have decided instead to tag just the previews with “preview,” as Steph suggested. I did my preview tagging in Picasa. I have a question that one of you may know the answer to: when I used to tag in PSE, I had to “write metadata to file” in order to save the tags. When I add in tags in either Picasa or Windows Explorer, do I have to “save” it somehow, or does it write to the file automatically? From what I can tell, it seems to be doing it automatically. I hope I’m correct. I <3 Google!
I have no idea on Picasa. Windows Explorer you don’t need to do anything for it to save the info…I’m pretty sure. One way to test it would be to take a preview you have tagged in Picasa and open it in Windows Explorer. If the tags are still there, then it is writing the data automatically. If they aren’t there, you will need to figure out how to do that.
To find templates I just search for tif or psd files in my scrapbooking supplies folder (or pse organiser) and the it’s easy to find the templates
Oh and Pse organiser has smart albums too and I love being able to see untagged items too (ctrl+q)
Can’t you write the metadata and use Acdsee to browse them too Peppermint?
I’m trying the ctl +q command to see untagged items in PSE organizer, but it just exits the program.
Ok, I found it now it’s ctrl+shift+q.
I only recently converted from being a paper scrapper to being a digi scrapper and I’m loving everything I’m learning and this whole new approach of documenting life. I would like to find out more about point and shoot cameras. I want to buy one, like yesterday. One reader said she was researching cameras at the same time as Katie, but didn’t get the same camera as Katie. So, my questions are: What kind of camera did Katie get? And also, was there somewhere she posted her reviews/research?
I have a DSLR that I love, with a fantastic lens. I have used it for years, but this is the first year I’m trying P365(+1). It’s only been a week, and I’m already tired of the weight it adds to my purse. I’d love more info from the digi scrap/digi show community about compact point and shoot cameras. I prefer to stick with Canons or Nikons. Thanks !
Rachel, I visit http://www.kenrockwell.com any time I want information on a camera in the Nikon or Canon family – he typically reviews almost every camera they make. And while sometimes he gets into particulars that I don’t particularly understand, for the most part he always writes from the perspective of a “regular person” and is brutally honest about whether a feature is all that important in the scheme of things or not.
I got a Canon powershot S95 point and shoot and it was my pick of the week in this episode https://thedigishow.com/2011/episode-22-a-well-designed-product/
There was a listener who posted about her camera in the comments has a Canon’s PowerShot SX230. That’s the same camera my Mom got and she loves it!
Just wanted to say I really missed you ladies! And that I actually started listening to Roundtable episodes as well
Happy New Year!
I spent the holidays rethinking my year-long goals, and now I’m pretty clear on my top 3, all of which revolve around my OLW: MOVE
I have to thank you ladies for helping me figure it out. Here’s to another awesome year of The Digishow 
Thanks
Melissa, I was just coming on to post how I am using metadata in ACDSee and see you also made the suggestion. I am the listener who pulled 12,000+ scrapbook items into Lightroom and keyworded them by designer all in one day (my email praising Finding Photo Flow was read on a recent show). I am slowly working my way through the designer folders and keywording previews in Lightroom. When I get a folder done, I go to ACDSee and right-click on the folder and have ACDSee catalog the files. Then I can search in the ACDSee search bar by keyword. You can also use the ACDSee search window sidebar for more detailed searches and the ability to save them. It’s not quite as elegant as the LR search function, but offers the ACDSee convenience of being easily able to get to a folder and see “everything” (png, pdf, psd, jpg). I love the visual look in ACDSee and they keywording function in Lightroom and now have the best of all worlds!
GREAT idea!! I would think this would be a super thing for ACDSee lovers!
With all the talk about Project Life I wanted to share my way of doing it. I did Project 365 in 2009. For 2010 and 2011, I just used Project Life as our “family album”. About once every 3 months I go through my photos and print what I like. Then I just slip them into the pocket pages and do the journalling card. I still use the top left card with the blank area for the “dates”. I just use the dates for the pictures on that spread. Rarely are the dates a full week (picture a day). Examples might include: May 2-3, May 6-12, June 1-15, and even Jan 8-Feb 27. (There just isn’t that much to take pictures of in January/Feb in Indiana
I really don’t care if the layout is from one day or several weeks. The imporant thing is that I’m documenting our lives. No guilt involved! Hope that helps someone use Project Life and go with the flow.
Thanks so much for the project life scrap actions! I am following the lead of a creative team member at designer digitals and doing a combination P365/project life. I am also using Anna’s photo inspired templates to add extra pages for special events (they go great with the scrap actions from WendyZ. Thanks for the encouragment to give this a try for the first time.
I fully agree about designers needing to focus on marketing. One example that stands out for me is Anna Aspnes. For a long time I admired pages done with her products but was too intimidated to try her supplies myself. Then she took the time to blog about how to use her products. Since then I have been hooked. Posts by designers on ways to use their products is very helpful for those of us that are not naturally creative.
I love Anna’s Artsy Templates. They make even ME look like I know what I am doing with that genre, haha (I am definitely a grid-type scrapper by nature)
LEslie