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Step 1. Start Bosco's Foto Ensemble
When you start Foto Ensemble, you will be presented with an empty Foto Ensemble document. This document will hold the fotos you add to it and the captions you add to them. You might want to think about a Foto Ensemble document as a roll of film or collection of fotos from one event. This is a little different from other image organizers that throw all of your pictures in a giant database or leave them as individual files in the file system. Having a group of related fotos stored in one file will make it easy to add comments so you can remember things about your fotos, share groups of fotos with friends, and do interesting projects with your fotos.
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Step 2. Add some fotos
If you are using Mac OS X and have a digital camera that works with Image Capture or iPhoto attached to your Mac, click the "Camera" button in the toolbar. You can select the fotos to transfer from your camera. You can also drag fotos into your Foto Ensemble document. You can drop files such as jpeg, pict, png, and tiff files onto the area at the left of the window. You can also drop fotos from your web browser. As you add fotos to your Foto Ensemble document, their thumbnails appear on the left side of the window.
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Step 3. Add some topics
Click the "New Topic" button in the toolbar. You will be prompted for the name of a topic. Enter "Description" and click the OK button. You have just told Foto Ensemble that every foto in your Foto Ensemble document will have a description that you may enter later. Add two more topics: "Location" and "People". Now, for each of your fotos, you can describe the foto, note its location, and list the people who are in the foto. Each Foto Ensemble document can have its own set of topics. An ensemble from your vacation might have day/time, location, and description topics. An ensemble from the office Christmas party might have name, spouse or parent, and favorite mixed drink topics. It's completely up to you!
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Step 4: Work with a foto
Click one of the fotos you added in the area at the left. Notice that a large thumbnail and basic information about the foto appear at the right. Give your foto a name. The "Topic" popup menu at the lower right lets you choose the caption for the selected foto to view and edit. Choose "Description". Now use the text area below the large thumbnail to describe your foto. Choose "Location" and enter the location where the foto was taken. Finally, choose "People" and list the people who are in the foto. You can view the full-size foto by clicking the "View" button in the toolbar. You can rotate and flip the selected foto using toolbar buttons as well. The "Edit" toolbar button will open your foto with Bosco's Foto Trimmer if you have it installed and licensed on your computer. When you save from Foto Trimmer, the foto will be automatically updated in Foto Ensemble.
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Step 5: The Foto Dropper
Choose "Show Foto Dropper Window" from the "Ensemble" menu. A floating window appears. You can go to other applications and drag and drop fotos to and from the Foto Dropper Window. As you drop new fotos onto the Foto Dropper, they are copied into your Foto Ensemble document. When you drag a thumbnail from the Foto Dropper, it drags the corresponding foto from your Foto Ensemble document. In the picture at right, we dragged a foto of Bosco from the Foto Dropper and dropped it onto an AppleWorks Drawing document.
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Step 6: Resize all of your fotos
Smaller fotos take up less disk space, and are more appropriate for posting to the web or e-mailing. Foto Ensemble makes it very easy to resize all of the fotos in a Foto Ensemble document to fit in a standard size. Choose "Resize All Fotos..." from the "Foto" menu. Select a new bounding size of 320 x 240, specify "Reduce", click "OK". Foto Ensemble will quickly resize all of your fotos to fit within 320 x 240. Artists and photographers who use Foto Ensemble to distribute their content to potential clients should really appreciate this feature. This effectively allows you to send a portfolio sample that potential clients can explore without giving away the store!
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Step 7: Export your Foto Ensemble document
When you put your fotos into a Foto Ensemble document, you are not locked in. You can export your fotos and captions to a folder. Choose "Export..." from the "File" menu. Specify the name of a new folder. Voila! All of fotos will be exported as JPEG pictures, with their corresponding captions in text files.
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Enjoy!!
Be sure to save your Foto Ensemble document. With what you've just done, you know the basics... Feel free to play!
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