blog.gallerama.com

We have spend the last couple of months enhancing and optimizing various components of Gallerama, in particular the upload flow, all gallery templates and our SlideShow. While some of the updates are can only be seen as under-the-hood performance improvements, many visual embellishments have been scattered about as well.

For our tech savvy readers…
Gallerama is now using the brilliant jQuery JavaScript library. We’ve been impressed by John Resig’s amazing library for quite some time and were itching to bring it into Gallerama space. With this new set of updates our own libraries were re-written to rely on and extend jQuery and maximize its potential. Big thanks goes out to the jQuery team.

That’s right, another new gallery layout is now available to all Gallerama members. Featuring our new, large thumbnail size the Grid layout aims to deliver a more structured and modern look to your galleries, with the focus being on the presentation of the gallery as a uniform photo collection.

Once again, our Zoom feature is used to display the enlarged photo version which is automatically displayed in the largest available size which will fit in the user’s browser window. (Resizing the window will correctly adjust the image size.)

Displaying captions below the photos in the gallery view is entirely up to you, as is the number of photos you choose to display per page. When specifying this number please keep in mind that the first grid “cell” is reserved for the gallery name. To display all photos on the single (first) page, just enter a high number!

So, check it out and let us know how you like it.

One of Gallerama’s goals from its inception was to offer not only a cutting-edge photo management and storage solution, but also a great way to showcase photos as well as photographers. We believe we’ve made a big step in that direction by revamping Gallerama’s photographer profile pages, making them a vital component of each member’s online photo presence - a complete photo site in itself. The new profile sites offer quick access to photographer’s most popular and most recent galleries, as well as a link to all available galleries, organized by group.

And there’s more to come. Many elements of the new profile page will soon be customizable, including colors, fonts and the background texture!

If you are a Gallerama member, you benefit from this update instantly and at no extra cost. If you haven’t joined Gallerama yet, what are you waiting for? Join Gallerama today - its free!

As you may or may not know, Gallerama automatically generates a number of versions for each of the photos you upload. (Your original photo file is kept in its original state and is not accessible by anyone but you.) The web-optimized, lower resolution versions are used for display thoroughout the Gallerama application, in Gallerama layout templates, slideshows, etc. In some cases having a consistent (square, cropped) size allows for a clearer and more attractive presentation while in others maintaining the actual aspect ratio is preferred (always for larger versions). Also, some layouts benefit from a fixed photo height, for example the Gallerama.com homepage. While the topic of file versions is briefly described on Gallerama’s site (in the help section), we felt it was time to make things clear. So, below is a list of all web-optimized photo versions created and used by Gallerama:

• Mini Square Thumbnail: 40×40 pixels (cropped)
• Small Square Thumbnail: 90×90 pixels (cropped)
• Standard Thumbnail: 140 pixels wide or tall (larger dimension is used as the limit)
• Fixed Height Thumbnail: 140 pixels tall
• Fixed Height Web Version: 400 pixels tall
• Standard Web Version: 740 pixel wide or tall (larger dimension is used as the limit)

We’re happy to announce that we’ve just added two more standard versions which we feel provide a better gallery viewing experience, and allow for greater flexibility with future gallery template designs.

• Large Squre Thumbnail: 150×150 pixels (cropped)
• Extra Large Web Version: 650 pixels tall

Keep in mind that our Zoom and Slideshow features automatically display the largest possible photo version which fits into the viewer’s browser window, making sure that no part of the image is cut-off during viewing.

PDN PhotoPlus Conference & Expo, the premier photography and imaging event took place at Jakob K. Javits Convention Center in New York last weekend. Once again, members of the Gallerama team were in attendance speaking with photography professionals and enthusiasts about their photo archiving and management needs, and about how Gallerama can help solve them. Additionally, we’ve continued to explore potential partnerships with other providers with the goal of expanding the Gallerama offering to include services such as printing, online sales, etc. Stay tuned for updates on these.

But since we’ve got a real passion for photography and technology ourselves, we couldn’t help but explore the new offerings from the many great exhibitors featured at the show. Some of the highlights included Nikon’s first full-frame DSLR: the Nikon D3, as well as its close sibling, the Nikon D300. As usual, Canon’s presence was dominant with a broad array of fantastic products. Adobe, highlighting its industry standard Photoshop CS3 as well as its new Lightroom software provided many very useful tutorials making its booth a hot ticket at all times.

Information on the next year’s Expo is already posted on the PDN PhotoPlus website. Be sure to check it out.

If you think things have been a little quiet on the Gallerama front, think again. After months of research, architecture and development we’re officially announcing that Gallerama is now fully integrated with Amazon’s Award-Winning S3 service. This means that not only are the images of our users safely stored at one of the world’s best and most sophisticated storage facilities, but Amazon S3 is also used for serving all photos from Gallerama member galleries as well.

And this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for the real benefits of this integration. To be announced here very soon.

One of Gallerama’s most popular layouts recently got a sweet update. To compliment the overall rounded look of the design, each of the thumbnails is now displayed with rounded edges. Same goes for the currently selected, large image. Additionally, the improved Zoom functionality is used to enhance the gallery viewing experience and provide greater photo details.

Click to view a gallery using this layout

Our latest (and quite possibly, greatest!) layout, appropriately named BRICK WALL is now available to all Gallerama members. We truly feel that this layout embodies the essence of Gallerama’s uniqueness and elegance in online photography presentations. Eliminating virtually all space around the photos, galleries displayed using the Brickwall layout waste no space on filler content, focusing instead entirely on the photos themselves by covering the entire page with them. To view each photo’s caption, visitors can simply mouse-over the photo.

The enhanced Zoom feature is used for detailed viewing of each photo. Click each photo for a large image which offers email, print (if enabled by photographer) and other links. Sound interesting? See it for yourself and lets us know if you agree.

Click to view a gallery using the Brick Wall layout

We liked our Zoom feature so much that we went ahead and enhanced it, making it not only more easy to use, but turning it into a much more capable gallery browsing tool! Each zoomed-in photo now has its title displayed, along with controls such as Email Link and Print (if you’ve enabled it). The Previous and Next links also benefited from this update as they now cover the entire image making flipping through the gallery a breeze. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Special thanks Scott Upton (http://www.couloir.org/) and Lokesh Dhakar (Lightbox JS) for the inspiration.

Gallerama visitors and members can now enjoy viewing all gallery slideshows while being able to control the speed and background color. In addition, controls for navigating through the gallery while in Slideshow mode have also been added and include pausing, starting over, skipping and reviewing previous photos. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

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