Digital Home Thoughts: Photo Collage Fun with Lumapix FotoFusion 3.0

Other Niceties
While working on your collage, you are looking at slow-res versions of the images, so you won't have to worry about stressing out your PC while cropping photos. All of that work is saved until you are ready to Process it. This helps make the app run very smoothly. Everything about it just feels polished.


Figure 5: A sample of what you can do with FotoFusion. Click for a larger version (92 KB).

Our trip to ACE CoasterCon XXVII gave us some really fun pictures of the family having a ball. This sample shows what a great (in our humble opinion) collage that you can make with a set of photos. This one took about 20 minutes to put together. You can spend an eternity tweaking if you want.

Beth's Take
Creating collages is addictive! It's really exciting to choose pictures and have a collage created in just a few clicks. It's similar to selecting and trimming hard-copy pictures for a pre-fab collage matte, but you can resize, crop, add edges and borders, and then add text on top! Once it's rendered in high-res quality, any digital printing service (or even your own printer) can make you a top quality print to frame. It can take as much or as little time as you have available.

The initial startup is quick, but there are so many choices and variables that it will keep you busy for weeks just discovering them all. And as long as you keep taking pictures, you'll keep having fun with this software!

Kevin's Take
I agree with Beth that creating collages is really cool. This software is just so much fun to use. My only complaints are with the differences between the Standard and Pro editions. When you try to access features that are only available in the Pro version while using the Standard version, you get a message telling you that only the Pro edition has those features. I've never been a big fan of notices like these. Not a big deal though.

This Just in...
We reviewed version 3.0 of Lumapix FotoFusion. Since then, version 3.1 has been announced. Described as a maintenance release, there are some major changes to what you can do with this software. The biggest change is the addition of a Print version of the software. If you want to use the full capabilities of Lumapix FotoFusion, the Print edition will set you back $599 USD (or $299 USD per year).

With version 3.0, you could export images up to a resolution 5000 x 5000 with the Standard edition and could export unlimited sizes with the Pro edition. With 3.1, you are limited to 2000 x 2000 with Standard, 3900 x 5700 with Pro, and only get unlimited with the new Print edition.

Also, with 3.0, you could print images up to 16 x 20 with the Standard and unlimited with Pro. With 3.1, you can only print 12 x 12 with Standard, 13 x 19 with Pro, and unlimited with the Print edition.

These changes are significant. They also set a bad precedent. We're shocked to see such major licensing changes which directly affect existing 3.0 users in a "point" release. 3.1 is a free upgrade from 3.0, but when it comes to export resolution, it's actually a downgrade that many customers will probably want to avoid.

Nov. 4th Update: We've been informed by LumaPix that the changes in resolution export are only implemented on new licenses of version 3.1. Customers that bought version 3.0 can upgrade to 3.1 and still maintain the resolution export they were used to. While this is good news, it's bad news for new buyers, and ultimately still confusing.

Conclusion
Lumapix FotoFusion is a great program. It lets you create great pictures and collages, as well as organize and share your photos. Whether you take casual family snapshots or are a photography professional, this software will add a new dimension to your work. We're hooked and are sure that you will be too. There is a demo of the Standard edition so you can try before you buy. The prices of the Pro and Print editions are quite high. Be careful what edition you choose.