Category Archives: Web Galleries

Gathering client feedback via Lightroom galleries

Lightroom, Web Galleries

Having come from the world of Web design & gathering client feedback, one of my first efforts on Photoshop was to ship templates for the (now deceased) Web Photo Gallery that enabled viewers to comment on images. Now The Turning Gate offers a much more sophisticated tool for Lightroom:

The Client Response Gallery facilitates communication between the photographer and client following a shoot. The photographer publishes a web photo gallery of images from the shoot, and the client marks images as selects by ticking a checkbox for each image to be kept. Selected images are then submitted to the photographer’s email address as a comma-separated list, which may be copy-and-pasted into Lightroom’s filters to quickly isolate images in the catalog for processing.

Check out the site for many, many more details (e.g. how it works on mobile devices). The tool costs $25.

New HTML5 gallery options for Photoshop & Lightroom

Lightroom, Web Galleries

I’ve long admired the work of Felix Turner, and now he’s debuted a new HTML5 gallery called Juicebox:

Juicebox makes it incredibly easy to build beautiful image galleries that work on all devices from IE6 to iOS and Android. We offer a fully functional free version and a pro version which allows advanced customization. Check out sample galleries.

It’s available for download in both free & paid forms. You can create galleries via a free desktop app, or better yet you can export them through Lightroom & Photoshop plug-ins.

New Lightroom Website builder plug-in released

Lightroom, Photography, Web Galleries

Matthew Campagna has released TTG Pages CE for Lightroom:

TTG Pages CE is not an image gallery. It is a website construction tool used to create a home in which your image galleries may thrive. It creates pages — Home, Services, Info, About and a Contact page with email contact form — and a self-populating Gallery Index for your image galleries.

Whether you’re building your first photo website or your hundredth, TTG Pages CE is the tool you’ve been waiting for to streamline your Lightroom-to-website workflow, and to create a website you can take pride in.

The tool is $25 from Matthew’s site.

SlideShowPro for LR adds pan, zoom

Lightroom, Web Galleries

I use the heck out of Todd Dominey’s excellent SlideShowPro for Lightroom, so I’m happy to see that the tool has been updated with pan & zoom support (see example). From the site:

By (very) popular request, a pan and zoom effect has been added to both SlideShowPro for Flash and SlideShowPro for Lightroom. The popular animation style slowly moves still photos while zooming in/out of a particular area. It’s most often used as a narrative device (by, you know, Ken Burns, who built a career on it), but it’s also nice eye candy, especially when mixed with portraits and music.

SSP for Lightroom costs $35, and this update is free to current owners (download via the Account Center).

Web Photo Gallery Flash detection script revved

Web Galleries

The Web Photo Gallery export plug-in that shipped in Photoshop CS2 & CS3 (and that’s available as an optional download for CS4) featured the ability to export Flash galleries (like this). As Matthew Richmond from the Chopping Block (which developed the gallery templates) writes, however, “The release of Flash Player 10 unfortunately breaks the JavaScript Flash Player detect that was initially included in the Flash WPG templates.”

Matthew & co. have updated the templates & have provided instructions on revising already generated galleries. Check out his post for more details. (Thanks, guys, for going the extra mile on this one.)

Airtight Flash galleries come to PSCS4

CS4, Flash, Web Galleries

Felix Turner’s excellent Flash galleries (SimpleViewer, PostcardViewer, AutoViewer, and TiltViewer) have been integrated with Photoshop for some time.  Now with a little assist from PS scripter Jeff Tranberry, the processing module is compatible with CS4.  You can download the CS4 versions (self-installing via Extension Manager) as well as the CS3 versions from Felix’s Airtight Interactive site.

Enable commenting in Adobe Reader, more

Web Galleries

The Adobe Design Center crew is back on stage for a new year, posting all sorts of good content.

New Galleries

 
New Think Tank


New Tutorials

As always, Adobe training mavens Luanne Seymour and Jen deHaan are kicking out the jams, so check out their sites for fresh material. And as always, check out some of the 1000+ Adobe links on del.icio.us. Info on how to contribute links is here. [Via Luanne]

Get your wet floor on in Lightroom

Lightroom, Web Galleries

SlideShowPro developer Todd Dominey reports that he’s issued a free update to this Flash gallery component for Lightroom.  Changes include:

  • New "Header" area to display a logo (with link), gallery title and gallery description
  • New "Wet Floor" effect (see example)
  • 4 template groups, each containing 8 variations for landscape/portrait, dimension and aspect ratio (32 options total).
  • New inputs to directly assign an audio file and caption
  • New Director formatting panel

Todd notes, "The templates are also a great way to get a "fitted" look really quickly, as it calculates all the dimensions for handling 3:2 / 4:3 imagery
without gaps."  SlideShowPro for Lightroom is $25.

Note: It’s also possible to use SlideShowPro together with Photoshop; see previous.

Crazy-fast 3D slideshows for Flickr, Facebook, more

3D, Web Galleries

Several times now I’ve expressed my appreciation for PicLens, a beautiful (and free) little browser plug-in that enables full-screen, hardware-accelerated slideshows from Google Images, Flickr, MySpace, deviantART, and other sites.  It’s changed my whole online photo viewing experience.

Now Alec from PicLens writes to say that there’s a new version available for Firefox (Safari & IE updates to follow):

It features the all-new “3D Wall,” a magical virtual interface that can exhibit 100s, if not 1000s of images. There, you can drag, scroll, zoom, and, of course, jump into full-screen mode. You’ll have to try it out to really experience it. It brings the user one step closer to a fully immersive multimedia experience on the Web.

Once you download the 1MB plug-in (Mac or Win), go into a slideshow and try holding down and arrow key to cruise through the images.  I’d take a screenshot, but it doesn’t seem to get along with Snapz Pro.  [Update: Here’s one, though it doesn’t capture the motion.]  Really nicely done, guys!

[Update: Matthew from The Turning Gate has updated his free TTG Slimbox Gallery for Lightroom to offer PicLens compatibility.  I’ve confirmed that it does indeed work, provided you upload the exported gallery to a Web server.]

SlideShowPro Flash gallery comes to Lightroom

Lightroom, Web Galleries

I’m glad to report that Dominey Design’s excellent SlideShowPro Flash gallery is now available for Lightroom.  As the site notes, you can “change any of SlideShowPro’s 60+ parameters and preview your changes inside a real, working preview of SlideShowPro before you publish.”  The gallery offers a slick full-screen viewing option (click the icon in the lower right corner of the example here).  From within the Lightroom Web module you can upload directly to the Web server of your choice.  You can also upload to Dominey’s SlideShowPro Director hosting service, which offers online tools for browsing and managing your uploaded library.  The gallery costs $25, and hosting is available at various rates (free for 14 days).

In covering this announcement, Rick LePage from Macworld also notes that Felix Turner’s great Airtight Galleries for Lightroom (previously downloadable on their own) are now included with Lightroom 1.3.  So, if you’ve run the update and haven’t looked at your Web module for a while, take a peek; you might be pleasantly surprised.

[Update: At Inside Lightroom Michale Clark talks about SlideShowPro in LR, calling it "one heck of a deal for the money."]

[Previously: You can also create SlideShowPro galleries and Airtight galleries directly from Photoshop.  See the whole Web Gallery category for more.]

Full-screen Flash slideshows come to Photoshop

Flash, Web Galleries

I’m pleased to report that designer/developer Todd Dominey has connected his excellent SlideShowPro Web gallery technology to Photoshop.  SlideShowPro is a highly customizable Flash component that works with Flash MX 2004 and above, enabling Flash authors to create slick SWF galleries that support goodness like full-screen mode (click the button in the lower-right corner of the gallery on the home page) and streaming audio (example).

Now it’s possible to use Photoshop to batch-resize images & generate the XML file needed to power a gallery.  Scripts for Photoshop CS2 & CS3 are downloadable from the site by anyone who purchases SlideShowPro ($29.95).

New Flash gallery power for Photoshop

Flash, Web Galleries

Felix Turner, creator of the slick, elegant SimpleViewer Flash Web gallery (example), has provided a SimpleViewer script for Photoshop.  The script makes it possible to set parameters and punch out a gallery right from Photoshop, and it’s a free download from the Airtight Interactive site. 

If this is up your alley, check out the earlier PostcardViewer script for Photoshop (example), as well as the same templates for Lightroom.  Thanks to Felix, and to Jeff Tranberry in Photoshop QE for his help in making these happen.

In related news, the source code for the Flash gallery used by the Adobe Media Gallery extension for Bridge (see earlier announcement) as well as Lightroom has been updated (example).  Gallery developers Bluefire have posted details of the enhancements on their blog.

New Web gallery goodness

Flash, Web Galleries

Fresh new Web gallery technology:

PS–Due to a power system shutdown this weekend, I won’t be able to post new entries or approve comments until at least Sunday night.  My God, I might actually have to go outside; wish me luck…

Slimbox & more Flash galleries for Lightroom

Flash, Lightroom, Web Galleries

Matthew Campagna, a kindergarten teacher in South Korea, has modified the slick, lightweight (7kb), JavaScript-powered Slimbox Web gallery for Lightroom, offering it as a free download from his site.  Here’s a sample gallery generated using the template.  The site features installation instructions (straightforward once you know the file path, but something I’d like to make one-click easy in the future), as well as details on hacking the template for more options. [Via Richard Earney of Inside-Lightroom.com]

Elsewhere, LightroomGalleries.com is devoted to just what you’d imagine.  I’m enjoying the LRG FlashFlex gallery.  It has some wonky qualities, and I’m not sure what purpose the draggability of images is supposed to serve, but fortunately it’s possible to tweak these parameters inside Lightroom (e.g. disabling dragging).  Use the installation instructions mentioned above to find the path to your templates folder. [Via]

If you know of other good Lightroom templates, please let me know.

Slimbox & more Flash galleries for Lightroom

Flash, Lightroom, Web Galleries

Matthew Campagna, a kindergarten teacher in South Korea, has modified the slick, lightweight (7kb), JavaScript-powered Slimbox Web gallery for Lightroom, offering it as a free download from his site.  Here’s a sample gallery generated using the template.  The site features installation instructions (straightforward once you know the file path, but something I’d like to make one-click easy in the future), as well as details on hacking the template for more options. [Via Richard Earney of Inside-Lightroom.com]

Elsewhere, LightroomGalleries.com is devoted to just what you’d imagine.  I’m enjoying the LRG FlashFlex gallery.  It has some wonky qualities, and I’m not sure what purpose the draggability of images is supposed to serve, but fortunately it’s possible to tweak these parameters inside Lightroom (e.g. disabling dragging).  Use the installation instructions mentioned above to find the path to your templates folder. [Via]

If you know of other good Lightroom templates, please let me know.

Great new Flash galleries for Lightroom

Flash, Lightroom, Web Galleries

Here’s a little Friday afternoon treat: the Lightroom team has been working with Felix Turner, creator of the excellent Airtight Flash galleries, to integrate support for the galleries.  Lightroom engineer Andy Rahn has posted three gallery templates on the LR team blog, along with installation instructions.  Here are examples I generated using each one:

What’s really sweet is the way the Adobe Flash Player is directly integrated into Lightroom, so that as you adjust the specific parameters for each gallery (image size, colors, number of rows/columns, etc.), you see the results immediately. With other apps you’d need to set parameters, export, review the results in a browser, go back to the authoring tool, tweak, and so on.

I think this is a sign of more good things to come, and if you’re a Flash developer who’s like to integrate with Lightroom, drop me a line.  We’ll work on updating the galleries to run in the new Bridge-based Adobe Media Gallery (which uses the same engine) as well.  To use PostcardViewer directly from Photoshop, see previous.

New Flash, HTML gallery engine for Bridge

Flash, Web Galleries

Feeling overwhelmed by Adobe updates yet? <:-)

Okay, just one more for now, but I think it’ll be worth your while: the new Adobe Media Gallery engine adds Flash and HTML gallery creation capabilities to Adobe Bridge CS3.  By leveraging the Flash- and JavaScript-based extensibility of the Bridge platform, we’ve been able to build a powerful little engine for cranking out both Flash-based and HTML-based Web galleries (here’s a screenshot, as well as Jeff Tranberry’s 4-minute video demo).  Any file that Bridge can preview (which is just about everything in the Suite–JPEGs, PSDs, raw files, PDFs, Illustrator and InDesign docs, etc.) can be included in a gallery.  Finished galleries can be uploaded directly from Bridge via FTP.

To get cranking with AMG, make sure you first update to Bridge 2.1, then download the installer from Adobe Labs.  The site includes a quick start guide, list of known issues, and more.  Developers interested in building on Bridge can view and reuse the code that’s in AMG (e.g. FTP upload).

Thanks to the team at Quality Process for all their efforts in bringing AMG to the world, and to the crew at Blue Fire for making the SWF templates (which have now been open-sourced).  Great work, guys!

See also previous, related posts:

Tips on Lightroom Flash galleries

Flash, Lightroom, Web Galleries

If you’re interested in wringing the most out of Lightroom’s Flash-based Web galleries, check out the Bluefire Blog.  It’s written and maintained by the guys at Bluefire, the Web developers Adobe hired to build the galleries.  They get down to the nuts and bolts of how the galleries work, revealing hidden settings and more.  Note that you can find the open-source gallery code on opensource.adobe.com.

Flash galleries are a big interest of mine, and I hope to have some more good news to share on this front soon.  Stay tuned. [Related: Flash gallery hook-up for Photoshop.]

Adobe open-sources Web gallery code

Flash, Web Galleries

A few months back I mentioned that Adobe has been working on a system to enable rich Flash- and HTML-based Web galleries to be created from Adobe apps.  That engine is currently available in Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom, and I’m happy to report that the underlying ActionScript code is now available as an open-source project. The galleries (see examples) are rather deceptively simple, but the underlying code supports good stuff like dynamic resizing, user-configurable high/low bandwidth states, multi-resolution files, and more. [Via]

If you just want to start generating slick Flash galleries from Photoshop CS2, check out Felix Turner’s sweet PostcardViewer hook-up (see example output), as well as the ones that ship with Photoshop.

Show your photos in NYC via Lightroom

Lightroom, Web Galleries

Adobe is showcasing photographers’ work via the Lightroom Tell Your Story page. Galleries created using the Lightroom beta will be on display at the PhotoPlus Expo show in New York in early November, so if you’re interested in showing your work, feel free to jump in. [Via]

By the way, the team released Lightroom Beta 4.1 today.  According to Tom Hogarty, the Lightroom Product Manager, this small update:

  • Resolves external editor conflict
  • Corrects export orientation for constrained portrait images
  • Resolves missing image error with large web galleries
  • Provides Photo Binder platform compatibility on optical media

Please see the release notes for a full list of updates and corrections.

Next-gen Web galleries: XSLT, Flash, & CSS for all

Flash, Lightroom, Web Galleries

As you might have heard in Lightroom Podcast #9 (starting around the 25-minute mark), we’re working on a fresh, new Web Photo Gallery engine for Lightroom. For those wanting to dig under the hood and start creating or modifying galleries, Adobe engineer Andy Rahn has created an overview, which I’ve included in this post’s extended entry.

We think this new engine provides a great foundation for the future, and while we really can’t comment on upcoming products, we’d like to see the engine make its way to, ah, other applications (something something, rhymes with “Shmoatoshop”…). So, with any luck, the time you spend working with this new engine will end up being broadly applicable down the road (no promises, of course).

Continue reading →

Next-gen Web galleries: XSLT, Flash, & CSS for all

Flash, Lightroom, Web Galleries

As you might have heard in Lightroom Podcast #9 (starting around the 25-minute mark), we’re working on a fresh, new Web Photo Gallery engine for Lightroom. For those wanting to dig under the hood and start creating or modifying galleries, Adobe engineer Andy Rahn has created an overview, which I’ve included in this post’s extended entry.

We think this new engine provides a great foundation for the future, and while we really can’t comment on upcoming products, we’d like to see the engine make its way to, ah, other applications (something something, rhymes with “Shmoatoshop”…). So, with any luck, the time you spend working with this new engine will end up being broadly applicable down the road (no promises, of course).

Continue reading →

Lightroom Podcast #9: Next-gen Web galleries & more

Podcasts, Web Galleries

In the latest installment, George Jardine puts the thumbscrews to–er, talks nicely with–Lightroom engineers Kevin Tieskoetter and Andy Rahn about where things stand with Print, Web and Slideshow. George writes,

This podcast was recorded Wednesday, June 21st 2006, in the Shoreview Minnesota office of Adobe Systems. George, Kevin and Andy talk about some of the features of the Print Module. We also touch on what’s great, and what’s still missing there, color management in the various modules, Web output, slideshows, and a host of other topics in this casual conversation. For folks who want to dive into customizing Lightroom’s Web module templates, this conversation with Andy will be essential listening.

If you feel like geeking out about the Web gallery stuff in particular (XSLT, XHTML, etc.), jump ahead to the 25-minute mark or so. I’ve been talking to Andy, and we’re working to post the authoring details soon, so stay tuned.
The podcast is available via this RSS feed, by searching for “Lightroom” in iTunes, or as an MP3 file via George’s iDisk (under “0621 Podcast”).

Lightroom Podcast #9: Next-gen Web galleries & more

Podcasts, Web Galleries

In the latest installment, George Jardine puts the thumbscrews to–er, talks nicely with–Lightroom engineers Kevin Tieskoetter and Andy Rahn about where things stand with Print, Web and Slideshow. George writes,

This podcast was recorded Wednesday, June 21st 2006, in the Shoreview Minnesota office of Adobe Systems. George, Kevin and Andy talk about some of the features of the Print Module. We also touch on what’s great, and what’s still missing there, color management in the various modules, Web output, slideshows, and a host of other topics in this casual conversation. For folks who want to dive into customizing Lightroom’s Web module templates, this conversation with Andy will be essential listening.

If you feel like geeking out about the Web gallery stuff in particular (XSLT, XHTML, etc.), jump ahead to the 25-minute mark or so. I’ve been talking to Andy, and we’re working to post the authoring details soon, so stay tuned.
The podcast is available via this RSS feed, by searching for “Lightroom” in iTunes, or as an MP3 file via George’s iDisk (under “0621 Podcast”).

New Flash gallery hook-up for Photoshop

Flash, Web Galleries

I’m delighted to report that Felix Turner’s slick PostcardViewer (see example) is now compatible with Photoshop CS2. A simple Photoshop script pops an interface for setting gallery parameters, then cranks out the JPEGs and XML needed to display your photos through Flash. Sweet.
It was largely Felix’s work that inspired us to add Flash support to Photoshop’s built-in Web Photo Gallery (example). We’re now building upon that start with Project Lightroom (example), and we’d like to standardize on an XML flavor that will let gallery templates developed for one app be used by others.
[Update: D’oh–I inadvertently attributed PostcardViewer to Felix Nelson (a very talented Photoshop artist from the NAPP). Felix Turner is the author of PostcardViewer. Sorry, guys; I will keep my Felices straight from now on.]