Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 [Old Version]
by Adobe

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Software Reviews of Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 [Old Version]

Customer Review: Adobe makes it easy
Summary: 4 Stars

Customer Review: You got that "Microsoft Feeling"
Summary: 3 Stars

I would recommend ACDsee as they take there product seriously and provide support.

Customer Review: Not What I Had Hoped For
Summary: 3 Stars

Now, on to Photoshop Album 2. I really like many of the features of this program. I did beta testing for Adobe on this, and the final release has some quirks that I'm not totally comfortable with. One of the big issues I have with Album is the batch rename. It might as well not be there. I do all my batch renaming in the browser that's in Photoshop CS. If you use Photoshop Elements 2.0, that batch rename is even better than the one in Album, although not as beefed up as the one in Photoshop CS. In both these browsers, there are more options for renaming your files than what Album offers. And from my point of view, a file manager should be exactly that....a place where you can do ALL your managing with your files. Not image correction, file management. There's a difference. If I have to leave my file manager to do renaming or some other file management function in another program, the file manager isn't doing its job.

Another annoyance is the thumbnail cache. The more you have, the slower it gets in opening them all up. Normal I guess, but annoying none the less. If you use Windows XP, you'll find that your thumbnails open quicker in Windows explorer.

The tagging idea is a good one, but I don't see the need for the collections option. It's simply another tagging function as far as I'm concerned. Other features like the EXIF data, captions, notes, etc. are handy if you're really anal about what you're doing. Again, any notes I have on files that I've edited are in Photoshop. But for someone not using Photoshop, the fact the capabilities are in Album can be a Godsend.

One thing I will give kudos to in Album is the red-eye correction in the "fix" function. This is without a doubt the single best "one-click" red-eye correction tool I've ever tried. Also, the automatic lighting correction feature is very good as well. It seems to work similar to the levels adjustment that's in Photoshop and Elements.

The greeting card thing, calendars, etc. I don't use, but I guess they're ok if you're into that. There's just not a lot of choices as far as designs go, but what is there is reasonable. The web page designs are good and the Atmosphere Gallery is a nice tool provided you have your own web site to put them on. The timeline can be handy if your sort your files by date. I don't, so it doesn't mean much to me.

Other than the above, I didn't find the program to be buggy, no crashes or anything like that. Overall, this is a decent program for the average shooter to manage their files with. It's really no better or worse than ACDSEE, Ulead Photo Explorer, or any of the others out there. The UI is clean and easy to work with. Once you learn to navigate your way around, it gets easier. At first, it can be a little disconcerting and frustrating, but you need to be patient. Sorta like you would need to be patient with Photoshop or Elements. We are dealing with Adobe here, remember?

So bottom line here is if you're considering Album as your file manager, go for it. Especially if you use Photoshop Elements since the two do work together. That would explain why Adobe saw the advantages of bundling them together in one package. Not to mention that it was a great marketing ploy. Anyway, if you take your time with it and learn the nouances, I think you'll be happy.

Customer Review: Not recommended. Concept will not withstand future needs.
Summary: 1 Stars

The program collects all images in a single window. There you have the possibility to assign tags. This will allow you to sort images according to the tags associated. Unfortunatley nobody knows where the tags are stored or where Adobe has decided to store the thumbnails associated with them. They are surely not associated to the image folder and the file where they are stored is encrypted. If you ever should decide to use a new program or to rearange the images you will find yourself in a big problem. Most likely you will loose all of your hiearchy and many hours of work. This is particularly troublesome, since Adobe Album does at no time create folders that somehow go along with the tags but rather leaves you with huge folders full of unsorted images.

Also, if you ever should whish to share photos, you can create a slideshow. Rather than creating a file with referencs to the images already stored on your computer, a new Acrobat file is created. That would be fine - yet after 30 images your computer is about to crash, since the file generated from the meagapixel cameras that we nowadays have is just too big. It is unlikely that you can share your images at all...

I would not recomend anybody to use this program. It might do a good job as long as you only frequently take pictures and as long as you do neither seriously share your images nor move images from one hard disk to another.

Customer Review: A Warning About Raw Files & Suggestion About A Download
Summary: 3 Stars