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We’re answering more of your most pressing questions in this mail episode.
Joining the Discussion:
Peppermint Granberg
Katie Nelson
Steph
From the Mail:
- Studio Wendy’s Paper Sizer Action
- Heddy’s Reorganization
- Lightroom organization
Steph’s Process (including a video for the visual learners):
Katie’s Folder-based System (along with Ali Edward’s)
Katie and Steph’s Lightroom Showdown - Where to keep your inspiration
Springpad
Picks:
Peppermint: Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker
Katie: HostParty.com, That 60’s Party and A Fatal Fairy Tale
Steph: JustFamily.com
Sponsor:
For the best deal in digital scrapbooking, become a member at TheDailyDigi.com.
O.M.G. I am dying laughing about designers ring disqualified for tweeting porn. I wasn’t completely paying attention but I am now! Will have to rewind because I suspect I’ve missed something. Also I hope that innocent designers didn’t miss their chance tone I the digi files due to hacked twitter accounts.
I assure you no one has been disqualified because an account was hacked!
And, iPhone autocorrect made my comment into gibberish. Sigh..
When you do the shows with just the three of you, your personalities just shine! Loved the show as usual. Keep up the wonderful work.
So sweet of you! We have a good time together
Thank you sooo much for the kind words! These shows are very much what our discussions are like before and after we hit record.
Mini Bridge is great! I tag in Lightroom and open from Bridge, all the tags and metadata is automaticly updated, and I don’t find it too slow. I guess I don’t have that much supplies though… The great thing aboute Bridge is that you can make a smart collection with all your previews, right click the kit you want to use and select “open” folder in Bridge. You can decide what your default program should be to open your files in, so all you have to do is to select your files and double click it to open in PS. I love using Mine Bridge, as you can either just drag and drop onto your LO, or double click to open the file as a seperate document. It also let you search by tag, or just watch your collections. It is a great addition to PS! And Bridge is a great program when you clean it up! I love how you can decide that you want to see all files from sub folders
I can just select a designers folder and click to see all products in that folder. It is great 
I’ve never used any other programs though, so I don’t know what they do.
As much as I love when you have guests on, I LOVE mail shows with just you guys.
A couple of questions I’ve had for a while: I know you all probably have galleries at specific stores and sites– but any of you have a gallery of ALL of your pages, no matter what store/designer you use? I’m sure Katie uses Flickr, and that’s probably what I will end up doing, but I just wasn’t sure if this was common practice or not. I’ve been applying to CT’s, and they always ask for the most recent gallery– but I don’t want to send them to a store gallery that doesn’t have any of their products used!
Thanks for a great show ladies!
You can store layouts using products by any designer at one of the “open galleries”. There is DigiShopTalk, MyScrapbookArt, DigiScrapAddict, LogYourMemory, 2Peas and more. Always check the rules before posting at an open gallery though – some do not allow outside linking or mentioning other stores.
I keep a gallery of all my pages on Flickr. Although, I’m pretty sure I haven’t added a few pages now that I think about it. A lot of times if you’re applying for CTs they want to see that you’re posting at a public gallery, though, so you should definitely take Heddy’s advice and post at one of the public galleries and also regularly leave comments on other layouts in those galleries so that you can get some return praise on yours. Most designers want to see that your pages actually get viewed by people and you’re not just a ‘post-and-run’ sort of gal.
I save mine on Flickr and on the daily digis group becuase you can save anything you want and Katie won’t fine you (tee hee).
lol!
Grab a hankie because here’s a sad story of technology doing in memory keeping: My sister and her husband recently visited the Strauth Museum in Montezuma, Kansas. Donnie & Clyde Straugh traveled the world taking many photographs (she was professional) and collecting souvenirs. They left their collections and their money to start a travel museum. The sad part? They put images on the latest and greatest technology: Laserdisc. Yeah, try getting that to work these days. My sister says they have a sign explaining that much of their material is on these discs and they don’t know how to get it off. They are asking for technical help from anyone who visits the museum. Don’t rely on the “latest and greatest” without backing up in another media (such as paper!). Does anyone know how to help them?
Joyce
Wowza. They should be able to find someone online who’ll convert from laserdisc. I remember when the shift was made from VHS to DVD a lot of videographers offered conversion services.
My mom still records TV on a VCR and finding blank VHS tapes is like striking gold in most stores at this point. I put a pack of 10 blank VHS tapes in our garage sale last year and my mom practically slapped me – then she snatched them right up. She didn’t pay me for them, either!
I really enjoyed listening to you three conversing about my question regarding Lightroom vs. Bridge. I truly appreciate your time and talent discussing this and had laughed at your eventual interest in revising Bridge and Mini Bridge. Thanks ladies.
You brought a big smile to my face with the part on the page protectors! And when Katy asked “Counseling?” I wanted to yell out “you are my people!” lol! I wanted to share with you that I have retrofitted all my post albums with Pioneer Snapload Conversion Kits. They make the album adjustable from 1-300 pages or at least many many pages! so there is not sliding around on the posts anymore. I LOVE them. You can find them cheap but here’s a link so you know what I’m talking about… ps I’m paper and I never miss your show!
http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Photo-Albums-2-SL-Conversion/dp/B0013JR906
Thanks for the info – I must have just chosen roomy page protectors to start out with, plus I’m using ring bound and not post.
Holy Guacamole, Ladies! This show could not have happened at a better time! Just this week I decided to go in and work on my organization before heading off to our annual scrapbook weekend that is coming up at the end of the month. My group of scrapping friends all paper scrap and think it is so easy for me to just grab my laptop and head out! Oh if they only knew! Last year I bought ACDSee for Mac and spent weeks tagging everything and then haven’t kept up since. I decided to move my digi stuff to an external hard drive all on its own, but I must have done something wrong because it didn’t work! I spent days reading forums to try to figure it out and I’ve just finally had enough. So I turned to you guys to help me out. I searched the Daily Digi for organization posts and devoured the 3 ways post. I decided to go back to basics and adopt Katie’s method but with a twist. I organize and move the folders around within ACDSee it just makes it way easier because I can see the thumbnails of what I am moving around, I don’t know if this is a mac thing. I can also delete things I think I won’t use. Then using ACDsee I used Katie’s tip and changed all my folder icon’s out to the preview thumbnails and WOW! What an amazing difference this has made. It took about a day but was so worth it! Now I’m not tagging anything but still using ACDSee. Clear as mud? Anyways, I was actually in the middle of doing this when I listened to your show and when you got to the part about Bridge, I started out feeling the same way, I wanted nothing to do with it, but when you mentioned mini bridge and not tagging I sat up and started paying attention. I have CS4 so I don’t have minibridge but it doesn’t really matter. In about 10 minutes I figured out I can open Bridge go to Edit – Find navigate to the folder I want (my extremely huge digi scap file), make sure that the Include all Subfolders box is checked, type in my search criteria (ie. red) and click find. You can also click a little + button and add more than one search criteria (make sure you select Match All Criteria). I put in bird and blue just to test it and all of peppermint’s stuff that is blue came up along with a couple of blue birds! Ha Ha! So as long as the designer names their items with the element name such as button and the colour it will come up. It’s not going to bring up every item because of this but when you have a stash as big as I do you’re bound to find something that will work and I can live with that if it saves me all the tagging! Katie, I think you totally have to try it, it’s like the folder system amped up! Oh and I almost forgot, CS4 doesn’t have mini bridge but there is a little button in the top right hand corner that can switch it into compact mode then it is just a little window in the corner of your screen and you can drag and drop stuff into photoshop! You guys are a lifesaver because I was just feeling really bad about losing my tagging and now I realize I didn’t even need it in the first place. I’m telling ya, this is revolutionary stuff! Not that we really need to add more craziness to the organization debate! Love you guys, you make my week!
Great show! I love to hear you all just chatting like this. Mail shows are awesome!
I wanted to comment on Peppermint’s template scrapping issue. I used to feel the same way about using templates. It felt like I was cheating by relying on someone else’s design skills to scrap instead of relying on my own design skills.
I think because I spend so much of my computer time designing, sometimes when I sit down to scrap, it feels like chore instead of the fun hobby that I love, so I have scrapped much less often than I would like.
I have come to the realization that I get enough “designing” fulfillment from my actual design work. When I use a template, the “thinking” part of the page design has been done by someone else and scrapping becomes just a fun and easy process for me. I scrap so much more now that I mostly rely on templates when I scrap.
If templates help you want to scrap more frequently, I say do it! Forty years from now, no one looking at our albums is going to care if we used a template. But they’ll love that we preserved the memories!
That’s a healthy way to look at it, Kristin! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter.
I’m not done listening yet, but I’m listening to you ladies talking about Bridge and Mini Bridge. If you are still terrified about Bridge you can just search it on YouTube. I use it for natch processing because I can just CTRL+ALT+C/V any post processing I’ve done in ACR, and I can tag pretty quickly, although my organization needs a lot of work. I mostly use it for pictures and find that Bridge plus Ador Camera Raw is really what Lightroom is. Also, if you have taken Finding Your Photo Flow by Kayla Lamaraux, she has a whole section on Bridge. It’s focused on photo flow, so she doesn’t cover everything that Bridge can do, but I can’t wait to hear your experimental results because I’ve still got the hankering to invest in Lightroom. Bridge is slower than Lightroom because Lightroom builds a catalog, and Bride is more of an explorer program.
Dude…just came back and iPhone autocorrect killed that. Sorry!
Great shows ladies. I spent this past week getting caught up on the last 4 shows during my daily walk and was inspired to start working on my digi file organization this weekend. I have sorted all my files by designer and converted all the PSDs to TIFs. Now I am ready to start tagging. But before I do, I have a few questions about filing and tagging digital supplies in Lightroom.
First – when you say you are tagging your previews, what exactly do you mean? What tags do you use? Do you just put the designer and theme as tags or do you add other descriptions (color, type of elements, etc.)?
Second (this is mostly for you Katie) – when you are sorting your files into folders by designer, do you set up a folder for every designer even if you have only a few files in there? I have a lot of files that I downloaded early in my digi career that have less than ten files by the same designer.
Third – I am still not sure if I should file my TDD downloads under a Blanket TDD folder or by designer. With some this isn’t a problem because I only have the TDD files by that designer, but for others (like Peppermint and WendyZ) I have TDD folders for them and then another folder with the downloads I purchased separately. How do others sort these?
Thanks for your help and please keep calm and keep on podcasting!
Sue
Hope it’s okay to jump in here! At a minimum, I tag each of my previews with the following info:
– the designer’s name
– what the product is (kit, element pack, template pack)
I add some additional tags, which you can read about in my Reorganization post at TDD (linked in the show notes).
I set up my folders to match stores — so the store name is the parent folder and then each designer goes into their own folder under that parent folder. That way if a designer moves stores, I only have to move their folder from one store folder to another. (My tags are retained.)
As for your 3rd question — I keep all my TDF downloads together and tag by designer. By searching using the designer tag (say, Peppermint), I can find all of Peppermint’s products in one click, regardless of which folder they are stored in. I like it this way because it helps me remember which kits I got from TDD and which ones I purchased directly from the designer. I suppose this isn’t critical info — more “interesting” to me than anything else.
If I only have 1 kit by a designer, they go in my MISC folder. If I get a second, they are upgraded to their own folder. I also divide my stuff by kits, alphas, templates, etc. before sorting by designer. I do separate templates from kits but other than that, if a kit has an alpha it stays with the kit. Mistly this is because I am a kit scrapper and want to search by entire kits most of the time. But I see how this step becomes unnecessary when I start tagging previews in LR. For me sorting by store doesn’t work because designers move too frequently!
I think we need the recipe for the cake batter and strawberry rhubarb ice creams too!
Leslie
Cake Batter Ice Cream
Strawberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
The strawberry rhubarb one winds up being more like a sorbet in texture, I think because of all the extra sugar from the fruit? It’s delicious, though.
My husband and I have the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker mixer attachment and love it. You do have to plan ahead and freeze the attachment the day before.
I wanted to comment though on our favorite recipe book – Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home. It is fantastic and the recipes are sized for our attachment (and I’m guessing other counter top mixers).
http://www.amazon.com/Jenis-Splendid-Ice-Creams-Home/dp/1579654363/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348506086&sr=8-1&keywords=Jenni+splendid+ice+cream
That looks like a great book!
Hey girls! I have a question for the Lightroom experts! I upgraded to Lightroom 4 and decided to start all over with importing my photos and tagging to do it right. So, I’ve been using the Auto Tone preset that Peppermint recommend and automatically applying it on import. My question is… How do you unapply a preset after the fact? I imported a bunch of beach photos and they are all overcorrected and blown out. I went through and dialed each one back down manually, but the entire time I was thinking there must be a way to undo that preset! Thanks for another great show ladies!
Hi Wendy! In the Library module, select all the photos that need adjusting, then right click and select Develop Settings > Reset. That should do it!
Thank you, thank you! I figured it was in there somewhere if I wandered around the menus enough.
I don’t know if this has been addressed before, but when I am listening to your fabulous podcast, every once in a while I hear a sound that sounds like a big bubble in one of those 5 gallon water dispensers….am I hearing things or is someone drinking that much water on the call?
it was at 20:01
I listened for a minute before and after and I did not hear anything. Lately, I’ve had an issue with accidentally hitting my mic as I talk with my hands (even though NO ONE can see me)! So maybe that’s it?
I listened to more and toward the end of the 17th minute, there is an electronic noise that could be like water dropping. It’s a Skype thing and I haven’t been able to figure out how to not have those noises record using the new recording program that I’m using.
it’s no biggie…I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t me losing my mind. I posted this note on the wrong episode also…the time I noted was from Episode 52. Sorry about that!
I heard the same thing on other podcasts, I think I was Debbie Hodge’s Podcast. I think it is an IM program of someone popping up (yahoo or messenger) something like that.
i LOVE my trackball! Once you use a trackball….you won’t go back!!
oops! posted this on the wrong show!
For the listener who asked about rectangle scrapping, in addition to the paper sizer I do have a template adjuster for letter and A4 that will convert to rectangle sizes. There is no reason it will not also work on layered layouts as well, but like the ladies said, you have to rework the look to fit everything into the different aspect ratio.
Thank you for answering my question about Auto Mode on the camera vs. Presets in Lightroom. Describing Lightroom presets like Instagram filters really helped. I think the reason why I was confused because of the name of the presets you were using had Auto in them like Auto Tone. Any thing you can do to speed up the photo flow is very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to record the digi show! Love IT!
Love reader mail shows because I always learn sooooo much. It got me thinking about a sorta pesky problem I’ve been having–
I have PSE 9 that came free with my Bamboo tablet, but I only use PSE for certain things since I’m still a Paint Shop Pro hold out (I know I’m weird). One thing I LOVE about PS products in general is how simply it is to save an image to post in galleries (the Save For Web option, which PSP doesn’t have). Paint Shop Pro X4 latest patch really screwed up their image size math so that saving at 72 dpi at 600 x 600 requires a PhD in math and the quality is lost crap when you do get the math right–it’s a really terrible issue. Anyway, I always save my supply credits and fonts used in the meta data. In regular PS, I know it saves that meta data when you run the save for web (and conveniently I don’t have to copy and paste whenever I upload to Flickr or other galleries that display meta data) and I think it does that in PSE 10. In PSE 9 I can’t figure out how to save the meta data in a web image. Am I missing something or do I need upgrade to the latest PSE?
Steph, have you used JustFamily very much yet? How do you like it? I love the idea because I am right with you on the privacy thing (I use Facebook under a pseudonym) but I never remember to email photos to the grandparents. I have a couple of questions that maybe you can answer. Can all members of the group post photos? And if they can, can they also designate which group can see them? For instance, can my husband’s brother share a photo with just my in-laws?
Yes, I have used it quite a bit! I really like it. There are a few little quirks with the app, but nothing that would make me stop using it.
You can only post photos if you sign up for an account (which is SUPER easy). You can set up different groups and select which group/s you share with. So, I have my home and my family of origin set up right now and that’s all. Because I added my parents email addys and connected with them that way, they receive my emails with photos (which they love) but they haven’t signed up for an account. My sisters also added my parents, so my parents also see our comments and banter back/forth. They can also reply to the emails and those comments are posted within JustFamily for all of us.
Yes, your husband’s brother can share a photo with just your in-laws, if he sets them up as a special group to do that.
Ah, I understand now. It’s nice that they don’t have to sign up for anything to receive the emails. Our families are all over the U.S. and my inlaws are in Europe so they all appreciate pictures, which I never remember to send. Thanks for your feedback!
I just listened to this episode yesterday but wanted to comment about Bridge. I use Bridge to convert PSD’s to TIFF. I had recently upgraded to CS6 and when I went to convert a PSD the CS6 version of Bridge opened. I found it way faster then the previous version, in my case CS5. Like Peppermint said, I could go to the bathroom, make lunch and feed my kids before Bridge opened, not anymore. Give it a try!
I was just listening to this episode and I’m not even 5 min into it, but I had to pause so I could write this comment…
The batch editing capability has me swooning. It’s too bad that Adobe doesn’t give you all a commission!! They really should!!
Thanks for all your inspiration. I just love listening to the show!
I was so excited to hear Peppermint talking about the “digital haze” that she sees in her photographs!! I have a fairly advanced point-and-shoot (it has manual modes that I am very slowly starting to learn) and I’ve been learning more about photo editing in general recently. I’ve been dismayed by the haziness of my photos and thought that it was something I was doing wrong or a flaw in my camera. I am so relieved to know that this is something even people with “fancy-schmancy” cameras deal with!
With all the discussion of Lightroom on this show (and also some that I’ve seen elsewhere online), I’m beginning to think that it’s a program that I “need”
Okay, I’d better get back to the rest of this episode now…