scraptastic Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Hi! I'm BRAND new to digital scrapbooking and want to figure out the best way to get started. As I understand it, I'll need some photo-editing software. Within that, I can layer the digital scrapbooking "stuff" like backgrounds, letters, stickers, and "embellishment" type stuff as I used to call it in traditional scrapping. And of course, the actual photos would be layered here too. I can see the organizing of all that "stuff" might start to be tricky. I did read Ro's e-book and like her suggested method - it makes sense to me. Is there a way for me to keep my original photos in iPhoto, and then just use the ones I want to put in layouts in the photo editing software? So I'll always have what I pulled off my camera saved in iPhoto, and any changes I make to the photo would be saved somewhere else? I'm ready to buy some software, and don't want to spend too much. Can someone recommend one that can work with iPhoto like I described above? I'm not even sure my question is making a lot of sense. Please bear with me! I appreciate any help you guys can give! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsyt Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Welcome to ScrapGirls. I don't use iPhoto or a Mac so I can't answer your question but I thought I'd bump it back to the top so maybe a Mac and/or iPhoto user will see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Hi- I use iPhoto and have a Mac! Welcome! I have been a Mac user for years and a digital scrapbooker for about 3 years or so. I went through several methods of organizing my digi stuff. What I am using now is Picasa-it's free and so far it's working for me. I choose not to keep kits together but many do. It just didn't work for me. What I do do when I tag in Picasa is to put in the kit name so I can put that kit name in the search field and find all the related stuff. That's my method in a nutshell. If you want to know more details, just ask. As far as using iPhoto to organize photos that is the way to go as far as I am concerned. If there are alot of photos that I want to use on a layout, I select the photos in iPhoto and then Export them-the first window that comes up gives you the option to make a New Folder and I do that-name it whatever makes sense. Then I export all those photos into the folder-I save the folder to the Desktop so it's easy to find-forgot to mention that earlier. The original photos stay in iPhoto so you will always have them there. As for software, I use Photoshop Elements 8. It is pretty inexpensive and there is typically a rebate of about $20. You could go first to Adobe's website and see what they have there as far as rebates and then alot of the time I use Amazon to place the order. It's not quite as fancy as Photoshop but a heck of alot cheaper and there is far more to PSE than I use. So that would be my recommendation. So that simply is what I use. I hope that others chime in to but at least this will give you something to look into. If you have any other questions, just post them and you will find that the Mac community on ScrapGirls is wonderful!!! Judy in slightly warmer Maryland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyChron Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Hey there! Welcome to ScrapGirls! I organize all my scrapping goodies in finder. I have a folder on the dock that is titled "scrapbooking" (original, huh? ) and a system similar to Ro's inside that. I like finder because I can search, filter, and easily see everything I have... I'm sure the other programs are fine, but they also use RAM, and I need all the horsepower I can get for my other programs. lol! I edit quite a few of my photos directly in iPhoto and then drag them to the Photoshop Elements. I would also recommend PSE 8 to you for scrapping. It's user friendly, relatively inexpensive and you can always upgrade to the full Photoshop if you find that you need more functions... but I've been using PSE for almost 3 years and I don't really need the full version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scraptastic Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 Thank you guys so much for your quick answers! I'm glad to hear you like PSE 8. That's the one I was really leaning toward. And I'm so glad I can keep my original photos as-is in iPhoto. I downloaded Picassa, just to see what it was. Haven't done anything with it yet, but it did seem to find every photo, jpeg, etc on my computer! Am assuming when I start downloading scrapping stuff, Picasa will find that also due to their file extensions? Is there a way to hide all the photos in there and just have it show me the scrapbooking stuff? I think my next step is to work on setting up a file system and download a few things to play around with. I'm starting to see how all this works but have one more question...how do PSE and Picasa work together? When working on a layout in PSE, I'll have already selected and "set aside" the photos I want to work on, but do I also have to do that with the scrapbook stuff I want to use? i.e. in whatever folder I save the pictures I want to use, do I also have to save the scrapbooking stuff? Or can I find it through PSE? I hope these questions make sense...sometimes when I think too much about it I get overwhelmed! Thanks again for your patience with me! Melissa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elisha Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Sounds like you've found the answers you need to get started. I know from experience that you will have many more questions once you get started! Continue to ask questions as they come up. This is the just the best place! Welcome to Scrap Girls!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Hi-you will like PSE-it has just enough "stuff" to get the job done but not too complicated and the price is right! As for Picasa-I have mine set up to not import my photos. It would probably be easier if I did but I have so MANY photos that I didn't want to bog down Picasa with that. If you go to the menu bar of Picasa you will see Tools-select Folder Manager. From there you can select which folders it will scan and which ones it won't. I have selected to have it not scan my Pictures folder. I prefer to find my photos via iPhoto and either drag to the desktop (if it's only a couple or use the folder method I described in an earlier post). Once I get PSE open, then I select Command + O and get my pictures to my layout that way. When you are ready to start adding papers, embellishments, etc. to your layout and you are using Picasa, find the items you want and right click on it and a list will open up-select to have Adobe Photoshop Elements open it. It will then open up in PSE and you can start creating! The one real serious drawback to Picasa that I wish would be fixed is that you can't select more than one thing at a time. So you select one paper and have it open then go back to Picasa and select the next thing. And so on. I have a MacBook Pro and also an extra, large monitor so when I am working on a layout I have PSE open on my laptop and Picasa open on the large monitor-love that! Well, hope that answers your questions but like elibar said, ask away as the questions pop up! Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandiC. Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I'm like Judy, work on a macbook pro and use picasa for my scrapping supplies and iphoto for my photos. I am currently using CS4, but have used PSE in the past and I think its a terrific program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scraptastic Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share Posted January 16, 2010 Thanks Judy! I think I'd prefer to just have Picasa manage my scrapping supplies too. Ok! I'm going to take advantage of the sale and download some cool Asian stuff I saw when I was browsing! Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 I am sure that there are advantages to having Picasa do it all but I have tons of digi stuff and tons of photos.......... Good luck, have fun shopping!!! Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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