Storybook Album Designer: Review
Storybook Album Designer: Review
Storybook Album Designer: Review
If you have need of a product to take your images and present them in the best light, Storybook Album Designer has a product for you. Storybook can work with a small number of images & layouts, but its primary function is handling all of those images and prepping them for scrapbooks, 3D Models cards for family and friends, etc. Where they get full use is for professional photographers who need an automated way to assemble images and make an attractive presentations and albums for clients.
Dealing with actions: it is not essential to know much about actions, but it helps to have some degree of comfort with how they work and how to use them. Or not. The beauty of Storybook is, if you have actions set into "button mode" the first choice in the fly-out menu you can literally "push a button" to complete a variety of tasks.
Making your own: While it is true that you can create your own actions for the ones available through the publisher, Storybook has automated all of that for you, and again with deadlines, etc., speed is of the essence. As the tutorial voice over announced, "It's better to be out taking the pictures than to be messing around with Photoshop or planning, building pages. And although I paraphrased him, he's right.
If you look at Image 1, that is a screenshot from the first tutorial. If you look at the Layers Palette, all image layers have the icon for "smart objects" which is a smart thing to do. It stands to reason that having your images as smart objects as part of your work flow, it never degrades from either sizing up or down. So this is an example of the kinds of consideration given to a professional workflow.
But this is why this product was designed w/ professional photographers in mind, as compared to other graphic positions, you still benefit greatly with the print bleed guides and other niceties geared toward print graphics, not just the lo-res needed for web images. Alot of thought was put into what kind of tools would help with the workflow of a professional photographer, and if you took twenty random professional photographers and asked them what kinds of tools would they want in their action palette, I bet if you parsed them together, a majority of the tools will have been on choices based on what they consider helpful. Tools such as those found in The fact that there is support for non-pro photographers and for average photoshop use, the learning curve (going from instant recognition of the use of say, clipping masks to those who need to watch the tutorials to use it to their benefit) it manages to cover those bases. No one product can be the do-all/end-all for every implementation, of course. But this is worth it if you appreciate automation of your most tedious tasks, and use them to set up your own for batch processing which is a lot more flexible than if it were an actual plugin, particularly with their own interface, these actions can work in any environment just add Photoshop and instantaneously you will get your sought out result.
The set of actions and panels that comprise the basis of Storybook are not really the gee, whiz, bang type of "plug-ins" that creating interesting effects (i.e. Eye Candy, Auto-FX, PhotoTools & Frames) they don't have a separate gui (how you interact with the product). Most of the power of Storybook resides in the pre-existing Actions palette of Photoshop.
Someone I once knew said he was "a push all buttons kind of guy." Well, I can relate. I like to try things out and see what they do. This led to the discovery of Photoshop actions and their incredible power. Or, at least some nifty, handy tricks. And some saving grace during work late to meet the deadline situations. The first one I got was at Adobe's Exchange and it was for creating centering guides. I also began to make some of my own, but even those most comfortable with actions can find some difficulty dealing with some variables at times.
Cons:
It will fill up your actions palette with a staggering number of actions, some of which are more suitable as part of the Photoshop interface.* Of course, there are those who will love to use a "push button panel" for creating additional choices won't mind. And there will be those who find it overwhelms their real estate.
For the most part, there won't be those who fault the additions and if some really felt it unnecessary would do best to eliminate the additional panels.
*Example: a button for each variation in opacity; now that Photoshop offers sliding gizmo right at the opacity palette, this, in my opinion is more than redundant but a space waster. Of course, you can easily delete the extras and make your own sets.
Also, some users know how to make actions, or set up masks and might not have the volume of art to produce into wedding or other events' to need expediting the workflow which is a prime benefit to the Storybook Album Designer.
Pros:
Presto Chango! You can use Storybook actions with a push of a button. You can try your hand at revising and saving different versions of the actions if you have the skills and both Adobe Photoshop & littlephotoshop.com offers tutorials and ways to try to create attractive pages that you can individualize that do not merely resemble identical pages in a gallery.
You are creating album pages. So herein lies a great deal of the value of Storybook. You don't have to do all that, let the actions do it for you. Once again, familiarity with actions will really help you, you create a unique look for each page, and yet can maintain a cohesive design as demonstrated by the tutorials. In fact, I would review the tutorials first and get a sense if it's a good fit for your needs. As a photographer or for taking your scrap-booking "upscale", you will delight in all the ways they can give you options for layouts. It might even open up a whole new door for your use of actions and teach you more about masks and how to use them if you haven't dabbled in them much before. If you have, well, it's a welcome opportunity to reclaim some time by automating the process.
Finally, with all that generous support via tutorials and built into the actions themselves, such as the free "workflow essentials" 3D Models A Little Photoshop.com offers plenty of support & tools in the Storybook Album Designer to get your page designs coming out looking fabulous. With so many options, the actions are very versatile, you can cut corners with your time, not with your presentation.
The legendary designs of Charles Eames Ecommerce web designing Magento as a web designing script Always in Style with Morris and David Rings Steel Buildings Designed to Withstand Harsh Seaside Climates How to Get the Best of Murrieta Web Design Living Room Interior Designing Antique Style Lamps Safe Weight Loss is a Natural Weight Loss Lifestyle Promoting With Roller Banner Stands The designer Coach handbags generally use the finest quality Good Content + Australian Web Design = Good results on SERPs Right Modern Living Room Interior Design