blog.gallerama.com

Assigning default photo titles, per gallery

A fresh set of updates now provides quick control over your photo titles! While previously all photos were assigned Untitled as the default title, you now have the option to set it, per gallery. Initially, photos will be assigned the file name (without the file extension) as the title, but you can easily override that for each gallery by providing the Default Photo Title. To do this, go to My Galleries, and click on the Settings button for the chosen gallery.

Sorting gallery photos by filename

Additionally, you now have a quick way to sort your galleries based on the file names. This is generally convenient if you preserve the camera assigned file name sequene, or if naming your photos sequentially is a part of your workflow. This option is available in the Photos tab on the My Galleries screen.



Special thanks to Michelle Zassenhaus for the suggestions here. Y’all should follow suit.

Layout enhancements

We’re continuing to make our gallery layouts faster, prettier and more search engine friendly. The latest beneficiary of that effort is our default layout which we think you’ll agree meets our goal in every way. Here’s an example: http://glr.me/g/636

If you follow Gallerama on Twitter, you likely noticed a few recent post or two regarding some new releases. Here are the specifics:

- Short URLs (ex: http://glr.me/g/1670) are now used by the Share (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) utilities. Gallery covers or selected photos will be displayed by capable social network sites.
- Gallery and Image page titles have been optimized such that the title is up front, followed by the artist’s name. This has SEO benefits, as well as helping with bookmarking, etc.
- Custom fonts on public Profile and All Galleries pages now use Cufon instead of sIFR. The result is much faster load times and better cross-browser support. In addition, minor visual enhancements have been made to both of these pages. (We’re working on converting remaining sIFR implementations to Cufon as well.)
- Sign Up form is now snappier and snazzier, with the help of new Ajax validation.
- Loading (and editing) of photos on the My Galleries screen is now much faster and includes a few visual enhancement. Most notably, the info box displayed as you move your mouse over the thumbnails now displays a larger preview.
- The Brick Wall layout now uses the fade effect for display of photo caption.
- A few other visual enhancements are scattered about.

Enjoy!

We don’t like spam and try to avoid contacting our members unless we have important information to share, but this month’s newsletter was packed with the good stuff and we were thrilled to announce it. If you haven’t received it click the link below for the details.

Gallerama.com November Updates

We just updated the My Photos screen a bit. In addition to displaying the full (not cropped) photos, we also reordered the data columns (gallery assignments are now all the way to the right), and made photo selection and cover setting more obvious. The page should also load faster. Sweet!

Whether you are managing your photos or viewing galleries, our new updates will make your galleries look better and load faster, while making your workflow simpler. Enjoy!

Some of the new features:
- We’ve redesigned the photo “zoom” view slightly, bringing more focus to the photo itself.
- New toolbars on MY GALLERIES and MY PHOTOS screens.
- Editing photo information on MY GALLERIES screen just got a lot easier.
- Gallerama now uses the latest version of the jQuery library (1.3.2) which provides various performance improvements.

Our print partner AdoramaPix just announced their awesome new application for creating high-quality hardcover photo books. Unlike most other print labs, their app is web-based so there is nothing to install. And with your photos stored on Gallerama, you can make your photo books anytime and from anywhere.

Visit http://www.adoramapix.com/photobooks.aspx for complete info and pricing. (Btw, prices start at just $19.99 for a 26 page 8×5.5 book!)

We’re happy to report that we’ve made a number of key enhancements to Gallerama aimed at simplifying and streamlining the management of your photos, galleries and gallery groups. The improvements are not only functional but also visual. In fact, we feel that the interface enhancements do as much to help usability as do the performance enhancements.

To give these updates a try just log into Gallerama and create, edit, assign, re-assign your photos, galleries and gallery groups. And let us know what you think!

We’d like to wish all Gallerama members and visitors a Happy New 2009!

As we reflect on 2008, we’re thrilled with the updates we’ve rolled out, such as our partnership with AdoramaPix for offering our members professional quality prints. We’ve made various tweaks to our site to make management of your photos simpler and more intuitive. We’ve also extended our presentation options making your galleries and profile pages more elegant and unique. And we’ve seen our member base continue to grow!

We expect 2009 to be even more successful. As we continue to enhance our feature set, we look forward to hearing from as well. Let us know what you like or dislike, and what features you’d like to see on Gallerama.

Major News! Gallerama members can now order prints of their photos stored on Gallerama.com directly through AdoramaPix. If you are not familiar with AdoramaPix, it is the professional print lab of one of New York City’s oldest and most trusted photography stores – Adorama Camera. Many of us here at Gallerama have used their print lab for years and have always been thrilled with the quality of both their service and the results. (Oh, and most of our photo gear is bought there as well.) Offering a great selection of print products at affordable prices, AdoramaPix was our first choice when selecting a print lab for Gallerama and we’re excited to be joining forces. Once you check out their large variety of sizes, paper types, and other print products, as well as their super easy to use and streamlined interface we’re sure you’ll agree.

Please visit AdoramaPix.com to learn more about all their print sizes and prices and to find out about some of the fantastic features of their setup flow, including manual per-photo crop adjustment and access to their color profiles for each paper type.

Shipping or Local Pickup

If you’re in New York and don’t like waiting for the mailman, why not swing by the store and pick up your prints as soon as they’re ready? AdoramaPix offers local pickup which means that you get your photos sooner and don’t have to pay for shipping. In addition to being able to track your order via the AdoramaPix website, you will also receive an email notification as soon as your prints become available for pickup. And if you’re opted to have them personally delivered, you’ll be notified as soon as they’re on the way.

While AdoramaPix presently only ships to United States, support for international shipping is on the way and slated for early next year.

Extending the Print Option to Your Visitors

Each Gallerama member can by default order prints only of their own photos, but they have the option to extend this to all of their visitors as well. By turning on this option on either the My Galleries or My Photos screen, you are enabling all of your visitors to order prints of your photos as well. Keep in mind that any of your galleries can be password protected, so you can enable printing yet expose that to only those to whom you’ll provide the password you select for a particular gallery. And enabling or disabling either of these settings takes no time so you can get creative with how you’d like to manage your print and security settings and when.

A few exciting updates have been made to the Gallerama application. We’ve increased upload limits from 100Mbs to 200Mbs (per upload), allowing you to upload more photos at once. Again, we encourage uploading zipped files containing multiple photos since that also helps speed things up.

In addition, we’ve also improved the My Photos section to allow in-place editing of photo titles and descriptions. We find that this allows much faster and more intuitive editing of photo information. Just click on the current title or description to go into edit more. Click “Save” (or just hit ENTER for the photo Title) and your update is instantly stored.

Other improvements:

• Rotating photos is now faster and more easily accessible.
• Comments can now be posted without leaving the gallery or photo page.
• Emailing gallery and photo links has been optimized and received a face-lift.
• Changing your email address and password is also simplified and optimized.
• Loading time for all Gallerama pages and member galleries has been improved.
• Loading of galleries using Brick Wall layout has been greatly improved.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for further updates.