Gallery help

Anyone with some connection to the Elmore family may register and create albums in this gallery. If you don't have any connection, use the REDIpix.com gallery which is available to all. Viewing, uploading, and managing photos is not difficult, in fact you should not need this help file to get started. Family Photos is run by the open-source software Gallery2. There is no limit to the number of albums and photos you can post.

Albums

Albums are arranged in a tree structure below the top of the gallery. There can be several sub-albums before you have an album with photos. You can mix photos and sub-albums in one album but this is not recommended. Click on the thumbnail for an album to see what is in that album. Click on the thumbnail for an image to see a large version of that image. You can identify albums by the stacked-photo look. Sister albums (albums at the same level in the tree) are shown on the left along with the title and description of the current album which has a white frame.

Slide show

Slide shows are the best feature of gallery2. If there are photos (not just sub-albums) in the current album, you can view them in a slide show. You can adjust the viewing time, image size, and transition effect by clicking on "show tools". We recommend that you change to full screen (press F11 on Windows) for the best viewing experience. When done with the show, press F11 again to get your header, then use the back button on your browser.

Registration

You must register to post photos. Click on "register" and enter a unique username, your full name, email address, and password. To verify your email address, you will receive an email shortly with instructions to click on a link. Registrants who have no connection to the Elmore family may be deleted. There is no such restriction to the REDIpix.com gallery.

Adding sub-albums

When you log in, you will be taken directly to your own album. Unless you plan to upload only a few photos, you will probably want to create one or more sub-albums. Although your top album can hold all of your photos (thousands), they will be easier to find if you construct a suitable album tree. See David Elmore's album for an example. You can start with one album and organize them later.

Permissions

When you run your curser over an icon in the upper left you will see a text description below it. You have full permissions to add/edit/delete sub-albums, photos, and captions. Click on "Edit permissions" to restrict who can view some or all of your albums or even individual photos. If you delete the "Everybody" permissions, then only those logged into your account can view the photos. You can add a new group "Registered Users" and give them permissions, thus making photos viewable by only our families and friends and not Google.

Uploading photos

You have two options for uploading photos. The simplest is to use your web browser (click on "Add items". If you have many photos, we recommend installing the free Gallery Remote java-based program on your computer.

Gallery Remote

When you click the "Add items" icon and "Gallery Remote", you will see the opportunity to download this great tool. Once installed (you may first need to install Java which is also free), use these settings:

Preferences/Upload: Check "Resize before upload", "force resize to 800"

Captions: Do not pre-set captions (recommended if you use IPTC)

Preferences/URLs: Click on "New"

Alias: Family Photos

Enter your username and password for your gallery account

Gallery type: Standalone

Gallery URL: http://elmore.cc/gallery2/

Click on "Log in" and wait for the list of albums to appear. Click on the + to open up the list then select your album. You can even add albums and enter titles and descriptions for each photo. Then drag files to the open window and click on "upload".

File type

Our gallery currently works only with the jpeg file type. Gallery Remote does not convert the file type. Gallery Remote should work on both Macs and PCs.

Photo sizes

You can upload very large files, but the server will reduce them to 800 pixels max so if you have a slow connection you should reduce them before uploading. You can set Gallery Remote to reduce them to 800 (or 650) before upload. The server produces three files of maximum dimension 790, 640, and 150 -- it will reduce your image to the next lower size. If you upload the 800 pixel size, viewers will have the option for the slide show of 790 or 640. Files must be at least 1 pixel larger than 790 or 640 in either dimension for that size to be included, thus the suggestion of reducing to 800 or 650 not 790 or 640.

Square thumbnails

We make them square because alternating portrait and landscape orientation uses up a lot of room. Cropping sometimes looks bad such as when it cuts off the top of a head. You can fix these rare cases by going to the large photo view and click on "Edit Photo" then choose the "Crop Thumbnail" tab.

Titles, description, and key words

Our gallery software will display a short title under each thumbnail and a longer description on the large image page. There is also a summary field that will show but we do not recommend using it. If you add key words to your photos, viewers can search for them using the box in the upper right of each page, or using Google. You can enter and edit all this information after the photos have been uploaded, you can enter it into Gallery Remote at the time you upload, or you can enter it into IPTC fields with your favorite photo editor before you upload.

Using IPTC fields

The IPTC method has the advantage that this info will stay with the file on your computer for use with other applications or for selling them on stock photo sites. Place your title into the IPTC Headline/ObjectName field and the description into the caption/description field. Enter keywords and keyword phrases with commas between them. If you use Gallery Remote to upload, under preferences to not have it set any of the gallery fields -- this will be done by the server after you upload. We suggest you upload a test image to be sure it all works before you enter data into hundreds of images.

Enjoy! -- David Elmore