Desperate to make some albums but you sit down to get started only to feel completely overwhelmed? Don’t know where to start? Sarah Wilkerson got the opportunity to play with Fundy’s SOS Album Builder and has provided us with this fantastic review – it must just be the answer you’re looking for!
(Heads Up: It’s a long review. IF you already know all about Album Builder and just want a chance to win a copy of your own, scroll down to the end for more details!!)
Fundy SOS Album Builder
I’ve been looking for something like FundySOS Album Builder ($299)– and not just for the occasional wedding or portrait album but also for personal albums (A Year in Photographs 2010 … on my to-do list!) and blog collages. I’ve tried a number of other templates and programs that purported to make albums and collages easy to do, but in general I’ve found them to be slow, cumbersome, and not nearly as customizable at I needed (at least not without LOTS of reworking on my part). In short, I was thrilled when I got my hands on Album Builder. Here was my experience….
Getting Set up
I click on the Create Album button, and a Start Album panel pops up … and I have no idea what to select. Luckily, the documentation for Album Builder is great, as is the customer support. The Start Album options are based on specifications that will be provided by your album company (such as suggested bleed, margins, sizes, etc), but Album Builder also includes presets for a blog collage and for a number of Finao albums, which is especially great if that’s your preferred album company. If you’re using a different album company – or if you are building something totally from scratch, then you can simply input your Guides, Cover Size, Page Size, and Spread Size manually. Once entered, you can also save your settings as a preset to grab easily the next time.
Create a Layout for your Cover/Spread/Blog
Now the fun begins: time to create my layout. I use the marquee tool to determine my design area (NOTE – You MUST select your design area with the Marquee tool, or nothing will happen. Speaking from experience. Just sayin’.), then I click the big Ninja Layout button. There are three main options in the Ninja layout: keylines (black, white, or no stroke around the image), Edge Feathering, and Maker Buttons. I select 5px white keylines and no feathering.
Time to choose the Maker. Here’s the rundown:
Grid Maker: Creates a grid of images that are all the same size and orientation. You dictate image ratio, orientation (horizontal, vertical, or square), number of rows, number of columns, and space between each image.
Puzzle Maker: My favorite! Simply select the number of vertical and horizontal
images you want in your grouping, choose the space you’d like to have between each image, and be amazed as it creates a perfect assortment of vertical and horizontal image spaces for you. You must be working with a square shaped design area .
Quick One Up: Pretty straightforward, but it’s nice to have a two button click for it. You define your design area, set your keyline width and color, then click Quick One Up to create an image box that fills your defined space.
Row Maker: Creates up to four rows of images with your selected number of horizontal or vertical images in each row.
Column Maker: Creates up to four columns of images with your selected number of horizontal or vertical images in each column.
I’m going with Grid Maker. I choose 1:1 (square) for the image ratio and opt for 2 images across, 2 images down.
Add Images
It’s time to watch the magic happen. With my image boxes selected in the Layers Palette, I hit the Fill Opening Button, and choose 100% fill to make the image fit the box. My active image box turns red, and I simply select the image I want to occupy that box.
I use my mouse to position the image within the box just as I want it, then hit enter. Voila! Another box turns red; I select my desired image; position; press enter; rinse, and repeat. I can’t imagine a more efficient way to put together an album or collage.
There is also an Advanced Fill Option and integration with Bridge. I didn’t play with these options much, but it just goes to show how powerful the program is! This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Refining, Adjusting, and Repositioning your Images/Layout
What if I need to clone out a black spot or swap the placement of two images? Or if I wanted the design area to be a little bigger? Or if I want to convert the whole set to black and white? Easy enough! I press “Pop Out Images” to edit (I have the option of editing the original or working on a copy of the image that I’m using in my album); when I’m done, I simply hit the “Return Images” button. I can select a bunch of images and then press “Apply Actions” or “Apply Filter” to batch edit multiple images in the layout . I can also reposition/recrop/resize my images within the image opening – or adjust the image opening itself.
Once I have my images placed within my custom layout, a push of the “Add Element,” “Black Background,” or “Background Color” button allows me to enhance the page with additional elements– backgrounds, textures, logos, borders etc. I add my logo to the front.
Moving On …
Okay, so I feel pretty good about my cover layout. What now? I simply press the “Save and Next” button; my cover is automatically saved as a PSD, and a blank spread opens for me.
I select my design area, press Ninja Layout, select my Keyline color/width and edge feathering, and now I get to choose a new Maker Button. I choose Puzzle Maker and try to throw it for a loop: 14 horizontal, 11 verticals. Make a puzzle out of THAT!
It’s no problem for Album Builder.
All of my image boxes are selected, so press Fill Opening, select the images I want in each box, and … Save and Next. It’s seriously THAT fast (faster yet if you don’t have a 25 image layout, but even so, it only took me a few minutes).
I’m a machine with the page spreads. Create, Fill, Save and Next. Create, Fill, Save and Next. Oops! I got so carried away that I put in the wrong pic! Save and PREVIOUS. Nice!! Swap out for the correct image. Save and Next (and on, and on)…. Save and Final. And DONE!!
That’s It?
That’s pretty much it! Of course, now that I’ve developed an Album that is a work of sheer genius, it would be a shame for it to be used only once. Not a problem – I can save the entire album layout as a template (I can also save individual pages). The DesignMatic button makes life even easier – once I’ve saved and installed my album design preset, DesignMatic carries me through every image box in the layout, prompting me to select my desired image for each space for page-after-page. I could build an entire album in twenty minutes (unless I’m indecisive about my image selection for each spot, but there’s not much anyone can do about that!).
Top all of that off with efficient little extras (like custom preset buttons) that show just how much thought went into the software, and we have a big winner.
The Bottom Line
Fundy SOS Album Builder is marketed to those who develop Portrait and Wedding albums, but other pros and photo enthusiasts are likely to put this one to good use for Family Albums, Blog Collages, and even Facebook Layouts.
However, be forewarned: it is a little overwhelming at first. This is not a two button Album Maker; it has lots of options (that’s what makes it so powerful). As it turns out, powerful tools usually do have a bit of a learning curve (did YOU think Photoshop or your new DSLR was intuitive the first time you laid your hands on it?), but if you set aside a little time to learn Album Builder, it will pay off for you tenfold.
I enthusiastically recommend this to anyone who works on image albums or collages.
I’m telling you, you NEED this … but we want to hear why you need it in your own words! Leave a comment on this post telling us why you deserve to win a free copy of Fundy SOS Album Builder. Fundy himself will select the five comments that catch his attention the most, and we’ll select the winner randomly from among those five. You have until Sunday, December 19th midnight EST to get your comments in. The winner will be announced later in the week on the blog!
Can’t wait? Want to try Album Builder out yourself now? Get your free trial over at Fundy SOS, then use code clickinreview to receive 20% off your Album Builder purchase! Code expires Tuesday, December 21.
I could really use this because I design albums of birth photography, and after being up all night at a birth, I could really use something that walks me through the creative process. My exhausted mind tends to be a bit mushy (or overwhelmingly mushy if it has been a 40 hour induction!) and album design can befuddle me.
Our church is throwing a wedding for a very poor couple in the congregation that has not married because of finances, although they've been together for 16+ years and had two children. I'm taking the photographs of the wedding. It's my first wedding and I'd love to surprise the bride and groom with a beautifully designed album using your software. I'm not a pro. I'm doing this becuase I feel called to provide this blessing for someone I do not know. Won't you help me be in blessing this couple's new life together?
I must have this for our vacation albums and annual family yearbook, as well as for our daycare yearbooks!
I NEED this bc being a busy momma of two leaves me very little time in front of my computer to just work. So anything that can help me cut time off my hours is NEEDED ;)
Sounds like FUNDY can put the "FUN" back into album designing from start to finish! I can't tell you how much money I've blown on album templates and I've realized quite quickly that the flexibility isn't there because if I want to go with a different album vendor-well, let's just say then the template is either useless or I waste my life away {which is time away from my hubby & 3 young kidds} resizing EVERY.SINGLE.SPREAD. I need this to give me more of my life back. I love creating and designing but albums, not so much. I think Fundy could be just the ticket to change that! Thanks for this giveaway and for the chance to win! ;)
I would LOVE this album builder!!! I have five daughters from 21 to 3 and this year will entail a new little one home from China to my 21 year old getting married… not to mention 2 daughters graduating from college and HS. SO much to put in an album and this would make ONE thing in my life easier and less stressful!!! I LOVE being the memory keeper for our family and this would be the perfect thing for me!!! Hoping so much I will be chosen!!!!! Thank you!!!
Um…my jaw is on the floor! Why do I not own this yet?? I need this because I have 3 brides that are in the process of ordering an album & this would make my life so much easier this holiday season! And…I have 20 weddings booked so far for next year & almost every one of their packages include an album! We will be bringing home our baby from Korea in the middle of all of the wedding craziness & I need something to make my life a little less chaotic!
I want this!! I have ADD of the album designs. I spend so much time going through files trying to decide what I want. Well, with this album builder, I can keep my ADD in check by having all the options I need in one place! Thanks for the opportunity!
I would LOVE to have this! With weddings coming out my ears next year- I NEED this:) Frankly- I really stink at albums. And I'm getting really sick of using the same ole' template for every.single.one. I am shooting half of my weddings in the same, small town- and I really want to make each album special and unique to each bride and groom! This product will allow me to do that without having to break my bank or my back:) I love it:) Thank you so much!
Alright, I would LOVE this for my business and I know my clients would adore custom designed albums of their sessions, BUT, I really want this for my kids. I have four. The first is 10 and was born before I went digital. He has a lovely scrapbook. My second was born when I got my first digital camera. That poor child's babyhood is stuck on my computer. Baby number 3 came along when I really feel in love with digital scrapbooking so she is like baby 1 and has a lovely album. Along came baby 4 and she has gotten the full force of my photography addiction, but alas, she too is like baby 2- no album- just images on the computer. Who has time to make albums when I am constantly shooting other people? And me?? I am the guilty momma who is overwhelmed when it comes to thinking about making nice albums for my second and fourth children. I NEED this. Please please help this guilty momma complete books for all of her kiddos!
Oh. My. Gosh! I sooooo need this. I am overwhelmed with the thought of designing albums for my portrait clients as well as for my own family. I have purchased a couple of template packages, but still find these overwhelming in the choices they offer. I take way too long customizing the layouts. This would actually allow me to create beautiful layouts without spending countless hours tweaking. Please pick me!!!
Mmm … this sounds like the deal breaker that could get me away from the computer more and back to shooting (which is also what it is really all about)! :-P
Ohhhh I'd love this to be able to make some albums and layouts of life with my daughter and to send some albums back to her orphanage in China so they could see how well she is doing. I'm also beginning a new business and this would be great to display my work.
Fundy, you're the MAN! This product is BRILLIANT! You have taken one of the most time consuming and frustrating post processing steps and made it into something I would look FORWARD to tackling! This product has definitely made my "things I need" list. In that list I have so many items I know will take my photography business to the next level but because of my financial situation I don't know how long it will be until I can afford those items! I work very hard to please my clients to deliver the best product and your album builder will give me back hours I spend in front of the computer making album templates (I can't afford album templates) and into perfecting my photographic style! Thank you Fundy!
I have been looking ALL over for flexible album templates and this is EXACTLY what I need. I've been avoiding offering albums because I just haven't found the right templates. Please, please, please choose me!
Mr. Fundy, this is sheer genius. I know so many photographers who avoid making ANY albums because they're too complicated, and your flexible product answers their wishes. I'm a graphic designer-slash-photographer and I'd love to be able to sell custom albums to clients with enthusiasm (rather than cringing inside as I think of all the crazy work!), AND show all my photog (and designer) friends this amazing service. Well done!
ohh emmmm geee!! Where has this been all my life? This looks amazing, and what a time saver too. I sit down to design and it's like I have writer's block. Not to mention the trillion hours that go into designing just one album. I would love to free up my time to spend more of it with my family, I mean, isn't that part of the reason I got started in photography? But, I digress, would love to have this as part of my toolbox to really WOW my clients and continue to pull in more weddings.
THanks!!
I would love to have this, I'm shooting my very first wedding next May for a coworker and this would make life so much easier. plus I just found out (last night) that we are expecting, so now my DD will have a baby brother or sister…so of course….I'd love to use it on them too!! thanks for sharing.
The rain was pounding across my dark window as I sat staring at my computer screen. My head was starting to ache, I looked at the time…11:30pm. Not again! Where had my night gone. It seems like I just put the kids to bed, and I'm still not done processing my album. Oh well, another day of sleep deprivation to come. I lifted my stiff body out of my dark brown office chair and walked down the dark hallway to my bedroom. I crossed the cold hardwood floor and sunk into the fleece sheets on my bed. If only there was something to help me get all of my processing done faster, I thought as I drifted into sleep……
Nap-time had rolled around and there I sat again. Clickin' moms had an amazing review for a Fundy SOS Album Builder! My fingers start to tingle with excitement as I enter to win the Fundy! Oh, please. Oh, please let me win I think to myself. This could be what I need to help end my long nights, and stressed out days. I finish my comments and get on with processing, still thinking Oh, please. Oh, please let me win!
Not only am I a photographer that designs albums for my clients but I am a grandmother of 5 children, 10 and under. I document everything each year and at the end of the year I make albums for each grandchild. They are the reason I am now in photography. They are my heart!!!
What perfect timning I have trying to design an album and would love to use this product.
I LOVE flexibility. This looks like the epitomy of flex. I love lifestyle but as a busy Mom my pics don't often make it into an album. I can tell you though that those few (hard to make) albums that I do have are treasures to my kids. I need Fundy so my family memories are preserved.
I started out as a scrap booker which led to my opbsession with photography. I have 3 small children and don't have the time for all of these hobbies. I still want to display my photographs in beautiful albums, but don't have the time to create the gorgeous scrapbooks I used to do for my family. I would always hand out scrapbooks at Christmas. This is the first Christmas everyone is getting a plain album with pictures thrown into it. I have been a bit depressed about this for the past week. This album builder would be a wonderful compromise, I would be able to create great albums for everyone in my family. This would be create for collages, too. What a fun and innovative product.
I am the room mom for my twins kindergarten class and volunteer weekly in their classroom. I have so many pictures I have taken this year and this program would be amazing to put them together for their parents.
Oh my!
I haven't printed personal photos since 2006…I have wanted to but it takes so much time. If I had this I could get them all printed and all the ones I have that are pre-digital all in matching albums.
Not only that but my clients would adore me for being able to crank out their albums so quickly.
It is amazing how much time album building can take up even with templates to use. This would be a lifesaver and my family would be forever thankful to have me back in the homelife…instead of stuck in front of my pc!
It's hip to be Square! ;) Go Fundy!
This looks awesome…and I NEED it!! Not only do I want to offer my clients beautiful, professional photo albums, my oldest son will be 6 soon, and I'm 6 years behind in putting my personal photos into albums!! They all just sit there, stored on my computer, with no great way for everyone to appreciate them. I feel so overwhelmed every time I sit down to start an album, but this makes it look so easy! Please pick me!!
I am just getting my business off the ground and adding the Fundy Album Builder to my collection would really help me to create some kick a$$ products for my future clients and help to give me that edge over my local competition. I'd love to have a copy of this product.
Thanks Sarah for the fabulous review and thanks FUNDY for allowing Sarah to try it out.
Here are my reasons…1. "Fundy". Saying it makes me smile. 2. Last time I made an album I pretty much pulled an all nighter. In the morning, I poured apple juice instead of milk into my coffee. I never want that to happen again. 3. My husband and I are "giving" each other new, energy efficient windows for Christmas. I'd kind of like a real gift. 4. Did I mention how cool the name is?
Thanks for a great review Sarah! I think I'd start to really push session albums if I had this.
I'd love the Fundy SOS Album Builder to create graphically appealing pages in less time. The hours saved will allow me to create more albums for others to enjoy for a lifetime.
Thanks for sharin' the luv this season, Fundy!
I need this because I truly believe that the right tools can help transform a business. Right now I stay away from offering albums because they are so time consuming for me to make. The Fundy Album Builder would be just the right tool to help me start offering a new product for my new clients in my new town!
I would love this! the time I get to work on my photos is limited so this would help me so much!
Not only will this save me time, it will help me physically.
Having Fibro and Multiple Sclerosis, it's been documented that sitting and working at a computer for long amounts of time creates more fatigue and pain.
SO true!!!! This will free up my time on the computer and thus help me with my pain and fatigue and allow me to spend more time with my 4 year old daughter and my husband.
This will help me greatly!
I am secretly obsessed with collecting album templates. Fueled by visions of artful, well-composed albums, I collect them like crazy – kinda like a hoarder who keeps things in the vain hope that someday "I WILL use this stuff." So here's the thing…someday has come and gone many times over and I have yet to actually *use* any of these templates. The very thought of the time needed for album creation overwhelms me, which in turn leads to sadness that I'm album-less. Help me fill the void, pretty please.
OMG I would love to offer albums to my future clients. I'm so intimidated by it all and this makes it look so easy. I've been sitting my butt flat night after night trying to learn this all but i'm so overwhelmed by it. I need to win this, please help me get my badoinkadoink back!
I would love to win this fabulous prize because right now, I spend hour, after hour, after hour, trying to do album layouts manually. And at 52, well…I'm not getting any younger…!
Life? Complicated. This? Simple. It's like the Easy Button for albums. Genius. I could use a little more genius in my life.
Wow!! fantastic….simple, that's what I like to hear and will lessen the complication of creating my Albums. Love it!!!! :)
Another photographer friend of mine purchased this and said it was AMAZING and while I know I need it because I spend HOURS working on albums it's just not in the budget right now it would be great to be able to win it!
Wow…I need this not because I am a professional photographer, or because I am busy with all the weddings I have booked. I need this simply because I am a mother, a wife, a sister, an aunt with literally thousands of beautiful photos of everyday life locked away in my computer just lying in wait to share their stories! I have been looking for ways to put them together in meaningful ways, but it seems trying to work with different templates always becomes overwhelming. I love the examples you have shown! Moments we capture on camera in our everyday lives tell the most wonderful stories about us and those most important to us. I would love this! What a beautiful thing!
Holy cow! I've been a Fundy lurker and love it. Seeing your demo and reading your review just seals the deal and i would just love to own it. I've been building albums from different sites and this is just above any other product I've seen or used. Thanks for the opportunity to win.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit how many photos I have actually printed in the last 5 years. And when I do print them I just get overwhelmed and shove them in a drawer. My New Year’s Resolution for 2011 is to appreciate my own photos as much as I tell my clients to value theirs. I am going to try to walk the walk so to speak. Having your program would finally get my family pictures off of multiple hard drives and into hands.
I need this album builder so I can build albums for my husband, who is currently deployed. I know he would love to have albums of his four girls! Not to mention all the Grandmas and Aunts that live miles away! It sounds like it would be so so easy!!!!
Why do I need this? I need a faster way to tell stories – the stories of of families, old and new. Plain and simple – it would facilitate my job of presenting the client’s story to them.
What’s the major difference between being a dork and a geek? I guess I always used the words interchangeably but perhaps I was mistaken in doing so…