Photos and Scenes Workspace
Upload and review photos, arrange scenes, and save your story before designing spreads.
Prepare your album in two views: Photos for browsing and selecting, and Scenes for arranging the story. Both live in the same workspace.
Workspace Overview
Switch between Photos and Scenes in the header. Scenes is available when scene management and album editing are enabled for your account.
The header keeps the album name and photo count visible. In Photos, an active filter shows the matching count alongside the album total. A smaller filtered count does not mean photos were deleted.
People and Henry open a side panel when available. Scenes uses the main workspace, with its own scene navigator and editing controls.
Photos and Scenes workspace
Photos and Scenes are two main views. People and Henry open beside the workspace.
Johnson Wedding Album
9 photos
Analyze is available when your account has photo analysis access.
Use View options in the bottom toolbar for Justified, Grid, or List view, thumbnail size, filters, and sorting. Selecting photos replaces Add with actions for that selection.
Illustrative workspace with sample photos. Switch the two views; the other controls are shown for orientation and do not change an album.
Try the Photos workspace exercise: switch to Scenes and back in a local practice album. Exercises use supplied sample photos and leave your own albums unchanged.
Workspace Controls
The bottom toolbar changes with your selection. With nothing selected, use Add, View options, and Analyze when AI analysis is available. Selecting photos reveals actions for that selection.
Add Photos
- Choose Add to open the file picker.
- Open the arrow beside Add for Choose files, Upload from phone, and Import from Dropbox when Dropbox import is enabled.
- Upload from phone opens a QR handoff. Dropbox may first ask you to connect your account before choosing files or folders.
- You can also drag local files onto the Photos workspace.
Clear the current photo selection if you need to bring Add back. Upload progress remains in the upload dock. Follow any activation, storage, or recovery message before starting another upload.
Add photos
Use Add in the Photos bottom toolbar for local files. Open the arrow for other upload routes.
You can also drag files from your computer onto the Photos page.
In your album, Add or Choose files opens the file picker. Choose the photos from your computer to upload.
Illustrative menu only. No files are selected or uploaded, and no Dropbox connection is made.
In the adding photos exercise, choose and confirm a supplied sample batch. This simulates adding photos; it does not upload files from your device.
Browse Photos
Open View options in the bottom toolbar to change:
- Justified, Grid, or List view.
- Thumbnail size in Justified and Grid views.
- All Photos, In Scenes, or Not in Scenes filtering.
- Sorting by Filename, Date Taken, Date Added, Size, or Photo score. Choosing the current sort again reverses its direction.
- AI Filters, when available, for analysis-based attributes.
Active filter labels appear above the photos. Clear filters returns to the unfiltered library. If there are no matches, clear filters before assuming the album is empty.
List view keeps filenames visible and shows date and size where there is room. Try the browsing exercise: switch to List, filter Not in Scenes, and select the two unassigned sample photos.
Select and Inspect Photos
Use a checkbox to add or remove one photo without clearing the others. Ctrl/Cmd-click also toggles individual photos; Shift-click selects a range from your selection anchor.
The bottom toolbar shows the selected count and relevant actions:
- Preview reviews the selected photos. The preview can switch back to all photos in the current browsing set.
- Move to scene opens a destination chooser. Choose an existing scene or create one, then use Save scenes to apply the change.
- Delete opens a confirmation for deleting the selected photos.
- Analyze targets the selection when analysis is available. With no selection, it opens the album analysis flow.
Double-click a photo to inspect it and move between photos in the preview. In the inspection exercise, open the sample portrait, give it four stars, and make it the featured photo of the practice album.
Featured Image
Use a photo's star action or context menu to Set as cover photo. The featured image represents this album on the dashboard and in album listings; it does not place an image on a spread. Remove cover photo clears that choice.
Choose or remove a cover photo
Use a photo's star action to set the album cover. Use Remove cover photo to clear it.
Dress portrait
Confetti exit
Golden hour hug
No cover selected in this example.
If the album has no featured image when you choose Design My Album, the app prompts you to choose one. You can also choose I'll pick later.
Illustrative cover selection. These sample controls do not change an album.
Scenes Workspace
Choose Scenes in the header. The overview shows a card for each scene with its name, photo count, color, and up to three photo previews. Scenes with fewer available thumbnails show fewer images rather than repeating one.
Open a card to review its photos. The navigator also gives you All photos, Unassigned, and Needs review when there are suggestions to check. On a smaller screen, use the scene selector. Within a photo view, Search filenames and Photo size help you inspect the set.
Create and Arrange Scenes
- Open All photos or Unassigned and select the photos for a chapter.
- Choose New scene, enter a name, and choose its color. You can also create an empty scene and add photos later.
- Move selected photos with Move to scene, or drag them onto a scene in the navigator. Dropping onto New scene opens the creation dialog.
- Open a scene to rename it, change its color, or delete the scene.
- Drag cards or navigator rows to reorder scenes. The active scene's menu also offers Move scene up and Move scene down.
- Choose Save scenes when the arrangement is ready.
A photo belongs to one scene at a time. Remove from scene sends selected photos to Unassigned. Deleting a scene also leaves its photos in the album. These actions change organization; they do not delete the original photos or remove photos from designed spreads.
Practice with the same scene controls in the scene creation exercise, then rename, recolor, and reorder sample scenes. Save scenes applies only to the local practice album in these exercises.
Save Scene Changes
Scene edits are a local draft until you choose Save scenes. Undo and Redo step through changes in the current draft. Do not rely on a browser reload to preserve unsaved work.
When you leave Scenes with unsaved changes, including through the Photos tab or browser history, choose one of these actions:
- Keep editing stays with the draft.
- Discard changes leaves without applying the draft.
- Save and continue saves before completing the requested navigation.
If saving fails, the error remains visible and the draft stays open. If the save result cannot be confirmed, use Check saved scenes. When the album changed elsewhere, review the message and use Load saved scenes to adopt the saved arrangement. Loading that arrangement replaces the local draft; it is not a merge of both versions.
If the page says scenes were saved but need refreshing, check the saved scenes to finish loading the confirmed arrangement. Repeatedly submitting the old draft is not the recovery step.
Try Keep editing and Save and continue in the saving exercise. Its saved result belongs only to that practice attempt.
Review Scene Suggestions
Manual scene editing does not need AI analysis. When AI suggestions are available, they offer a starting point that you can review and change.
- AI suggestions works on eligible unassigned photos and preserves existing scene assignments. Photos deliberately removed from a scene stay unassigned instead of being immediately suggested again.
- Rebuild suggestions, in the additional actions menu, proposes a new arrangement across the album. Saving that draft replaces the existing scene arrangement.
- If photos need analysis first, use Analyze missing photos when prompted. Opening a suggestion view does not mean that missing analysis has finished.
- Review uncertain photos under Needs review, then move them into a scene or leave them unassigned.
Suggestions remain a draft. Adjust names, colors, membership, and order before choosing Save scenes. Cancel leaves the saved arrangement unchanged. Starting a new suggestion draft while you have unsaved edits asks you to settle those edits first.
The suggestions exercise loads a prepared sample draft. Resolve its uncertain photo and save the grouping locally. No AI analysis or suggestion job runs in this exercise.
People Panel
Open People from the header when face grouping is enabled. Use it to group and filter photos by person. Drag a photo onto a person's avatar to assign its face. If several faces are detected, choose the correct face in the review panel. Person filters can narrow the photos you see while organizing scenes too.
People and Henry share the side-panel space. Switching between them does not turn Scenes into a side panel.
People and Henry
People and Henry share the right-side panel. Scenes has its own main view.
Keep your place in the workspace
Use the People or Henry icon beside the Photos and Scenes tabs. Opening one replaces the other in the side panel. Close the panel when you want more room for photos.
People
When People is available, select a person to filter the Photos view. Use the panel to review and correct face grouping.
Example names only. This demo does not process faces.
Illustrative panel switcher. It does not identify people, tag photos, or send a message to Henry.
Design My Album
Choose Design My Album when you are ready to work on spreads. It is disabled while uploads are being checked or uploaded, while interrupted uploads need recovery or dismissal, or when the album has no photos.
If no featured image has been chosen, this action opens the featured-image chooser. Choose a photo and confirm to continue. Closing that chooser keeps you in Photos.
When you opened the workspace through the editor's Manage / Upload or Manage scenes action, use its return action to go back to your design. The editor's photo shelf and scene filters remain the lighter tools for choosing and placing photos on a spread.
To return to the album list from the standalone workspace, hover or focus the Spreadu name in the header and choose Exit.
Loading and Recovery
A failed read is different from an empty album. If the workspace says it could not load photos, choose Try again. If loading more photos fails, retry from the gallery without uploading the same files again.
Upload warnings, interrupted-upload recovery, Dropbox import status, and activation requirements appear in the workspace when relevant. Read the specific message before retrying or discarding work.