At Pixellu, we’re all about making your album design workflow more efficient and your life a little easier. Today, we're sharing three album design tips you can start implementing today for a faster workflow on your next project.

Do the prep work

Adobe Lightroom & Bridge Ratings
As you edit your images in Adobe Bridge/Adobe Lightroom, rate your images using the star or color rating system to isolate your favorite images from the average ones. Once you have imported your images into SmartAlbums, you will be able to sort them using the rating you assigned in Adobe Bridge or Adobe Lightroom. This will allow you to locate your favorite images faster and will significantly speed up your workflow.

Bins
Before importing your selected images into SmartAlbums, organize them into folders by time of day. For example, your folder names may be “Getting Ready”, “Ceremony”, and “Portraits”. Once you drag and drop these folders into SmartAlbums, a ‘bin’ will be created for each folder. Bins allow you to find the images you need even faster.

Tell your story with Timeline

Here’s where SmartAlbums really shines - the Timeline. Simply drop your images onto the Timeline and group them into mini stories by placing a “cut” between the images that are part of the same sequence. Each group of images will instantly become a two-page spread with automatic design and composition. See your entire album come to life with just a few clicks! You can then go back and refine the design with SmartAlbums’ powerful customization tools such as backgrounds, text, and custom layouts.

Design with Keyboard Shortcuts

Your keyboard is far more powerful than you realize. Here are a few cool keyboard tricks to help you quickly maneuver through routine commands for increased productivity:

• Up & Down Arrow: Cycle to previous & next template option
• Left & Right Arrow: Navigate to previous & next spread
• Space Bar: Preview image using Quick Look
• Command-Up Arrow: Add selected image(s) to current spread

Access a full list of available keyboard shortcuts here.