Photo Sorting

Paul Saunders said:

"Please excuse the mess - creative person at work"

I think I resemble that remark!

Paul, you asked recently what kind of "software" (baa-ad name for it, but I can't think of anything
else atm) I was thinking of when talking about sorting criteria for web presentation of photo
albums. I've misplaced that part of the thread but here's what I was thinking of.

In terms of splurging loads of photos onto a web a site the biggest problem is going to be, imho,
preparing/presenting something that keeps viewers/visitors happy, which usually means; is it easy to
find your way around, etc.. There are [quite] a few scripted bundles out there that are written to
put photo albums online.

A wee while ago (about a year akshally) I started looking around for a "package" a bundle of scripts
that would let us set up an "album" area on the NMC web site. I rummaged through absolutely
everything I could find (that was free ;-) but, as it happened, one of our guys was able to write a
couple of php scripts to create our own online album. However, we've now outgrown it ;-) and he
doesn't have the time to re-write it to expand its functionality.

Going back to the script bundles I'd looked at before took me back to a package called "Gallery"
which, I was pleased to see, had come on leaps and bounds since I last looked at it. It had [has]
several things going for it, principal of which are its very easy to set-up and administer (done via
a web interface) and, in terms of a viewer finding their way around its quite easy. It also lets you
set up sub-albums/nested albums and the piece de resistance, imho, is that it has an upload utility
that you can use on your PC to prepare photos for upload; its much faster than editting each-single-
entry -online-and-wait-ing-for-web-page-refresh etc.. (Its also useful for us because the upload
util can be used by anyone of our club members (at lreast that's the plan.))

Gallery's home page is at gallery.menalto.commodules.phpOpen ↗

There are numerous links to examples on there.The installation that recently gone live on the NMC
site is at

thenmc.org.ukgalleryOpen ↗

Its only _potential_ disadvantage is that its a php bundle.... not that you need to know anything at
all about php to use it, but your web space needs to be able to "do" php; most do, and it costs
nowt. Actually, the only web servers/web space packages that are unlikely to do php are those based
on Windows servers... good old M$oft have their own version ;-(

HTH

SteveO

NE Climbers & walkers chat forum; thenmc.org.ukindex.phpOpen ↗

NMC website: thenmc.org.ukthenmc.org.ukOpen ↗

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Pat Bennett said:

I use IMatch, and I assume from your comments during a previous thread a while ago, so are you.

I haven't actually committed myself to that yet, I thought I try a few

Trying this one myself, very pleased so far. I seem to have demos running everywhere at the moment,
I'm also trying demos of Neat Image (noise) and QImage (printing). Not used 'Neat' to much as yet
but find QImage pretty useful and thats without getting past the very basics. Recently upgraded to
C1 LE for my raw conversions (stunning compared to Canons poor effort). Have any of you any thoughts
on any of these?

Doug

Steve Orrell said:

Paul, you asked recently what kind of "software" (baa-ad name for it, but I can't think of
anything else atm) I was thinking of when talking about sorting criteria for web presentation of
photo albums. I've misplaced that part of the thread but here's what I was thinking of.

Thanks for all the info, looks very useful, but I'm afraid that's not the sort of thing I need for
my site. The design and layout will be somewhat different. You'll see what I mean when I get the new
version online.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Paul
--
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photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Paul Saunders said:

You mean this? wildwales.fsnet.co.uknewmoonvenus.jpgOpen ↗

Yes, very much the same, except that Venus was placed directly above the "cup" of the moon;
definintely a case of luckily being in the right place at the right time.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I didn't take the shot because I couldn't figure out what it would need... doubting if "point and
shoot" would have done it.

In this case it probably would have, because the sky was quite bright. In the shot above I simply
used an automatic exposure (aperture priority).

Thanks for all the replies. One of the things that's struck me is that there is a "rule of thumb and
that the, two things have struck me, that there is a simple guide and that the f-stop/shutter
combination is much faster than I would have guessed.

Quoted message said:

You should have tried. You had nothing to lose.

Yup. I'm regretting my decision not to even try, lame excuses at the time stopped me, who knows what
may have come of it. Its usually the case that yu see something that woiuld make a good photo and
you don't have your camera with you. Rarely do you see something worth photographing, have your
camera with you but decide not to use it <doh!>

SteveO

NE Climbers & walkers chat forum; thenmc.org.ukindex.phpOpen ↗

NMC website: thenmc.org.ukthenmc.org.ukOpen ↗

"Doug" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
|
| "Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
| "]news:[email hidden]...
| > Pat Bennett wrote:
| >
| > > I use IMatch, and I assume from your comments during a previous thread a while ago, so are
| > > you.
| >
| > I haven't actually committed myself to that yet, I thought I try a few
|
| Trying this one myself, very pleased so far. I seem to have demos running everywhere at the
| moment, I'm also trying demos of Neat Image (noise) and QImage (printing). Not used 'Neat' to
much
| as yet but find QImage pretty useful and thats without getting past the
very
| basics. Recently upgraded to C1 LE for my raw conversions (stunning compared to Canons poor
| effort). Have any of you any thoughts on any of these?
|
| Doug

I'm using Neat Image and I think it's excellent. I've also got Focus Magic, but not used it much.
Paul's the man to speak to about these though.

I've recently installed BreezeBrowser for my raw conversions, and Michael Reichmann of The Luminous
Landscape said "if you are a Canon digital SLR owner this is the program for viewing and converting
your files:": luminous-landscape.combreezebrowser.shtmlOpen ↗

What's QImage like, I've not heard of that before?

Ste

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
| Steve Orrell wrote:
|
| > Paul, you asked recently what kind of "software" (baa-ad name for it, but I can't think of
| > anything else atm) I was thinking of when talking about sorting criteria for web presentation of
| > photo albums. I've misplaced that part of the thread but here's what I was thinking of.
|
| Thanks for all the info, looks very useful, but I'm afraid that's not the sort of thing I need for
| my site. The design and layout will be somewhat different. You'll see what I mean when I get the
| new version online.
|
| Thanks for the suggestion though.
|
| Paul

It sounds interesting Paul, have you get any draft pages up at all yet?

Ste

gawd, this photography lark will be the death of me, another sheaf of snaps [ ;-) ] from the weekend
and all that sorting, binning, processing to do <doh!>

Here's a Q someone might be able to help me with. I'm sorting lots of little groups of shots into
individual folders to help with finding contiguous groups of shots to later stitch into panos.
However, this is fragementing everything immensely so that the "whole" page of thumbnails that I
used to peruse (in ACDSee) just isn't there anymore and I've to delve in and out of folders,
etc., etc..

Do any of the "sorting" software packages out there cater for a multitude of sub-folders but _still_
give you the opportunity to view a page of thumbnails as if everything was still in one, primary,
directory? (perhaps as something like an interactive contact sheet???)

Does that make any sense? The idea seems simple enough to me but I can't get my head around trying
to explain what I mean ;-)

SteveO

NE Climbers & walkers chat forum; thenmc.org.ukindex.phpOpen ↗

NMC website: thenmc.org.ukthenmc.org.ukOpen ↗

<Steve Orrell> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

gawd, this photography lark will be the death of me, another sheaf of snaps [ ;-) ] from the
weekend and all that sorting, binning, processing to do <doh!>

Here's a Q someone might be able to help me with. I'm sorting lots of little groups of shots into
individual folders to help with finding contiguous groups of shots to later stitch into panos.
However, this is fragementing everything immensely so that the "whole" page of thumbnails that I
used to peruse (in ACDSee) just isn't there anymore and I've to delve in and out of folders,
etc., etc..

Do any of the "sorting" software packages out there cater for a multitude of sub-folders but
_still_ give you the opportunity to view a page of thumbnails as if everything was still in one,
primary, directory? (perhaps as something like an interactive contact sheet???)

Does that make any sense? The idea seems simple enough to me but I can't get my head around trying
to explain what I mean ;-)

SteveO

I use Adobe Photoshop Album 2, and it's excellent! ;-) But if you want to browse the actual folders
too, then I think you want to look at IMatch. Paul and Pat will tell you more though... ;-)

Ste

Steve Orrell said:

Here's a Q someone might be able to help me with. I'm sorting lots of little groups of shots into
individual folders to help with finding contiguous groups of shots to later stitch into panos.
However, this is fragementing everything immensely so that the "whole" page of thumbnails that I
used to peruse (in ACDSee) just isn't there anymore and I've to delve in and out of folders,
etc., etc..

Do any of the "sorting" software packages out there cater for a multitude of sub-folders but
_still_ give you the opportunity to view a page of thumbnails as if everything was still in one,
primary, directory?

I thought that IrfanView could do that, but I've just checked and the option is only available when
viewing a slide show.

I know that IMatch will let you do that, if you categorise everthing appropriately. For example, if
I have a Brecon Beacons National Park folder, with subfolders for Mynydd Du, Fforest Fawr, Beacons
etc. within it, if I click on the National Park folder it will show everything within the
subfolders. You have to categorise your files that way though, it won't show the sub-folders in the
normal tree viewing mode.

Paul
--
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photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Paul Saunders said:

Quoted message said:

Who are your intended audience? Your pictures are marvellous but why would people suddenly think
"ooh I must see pictures of Snowdon now" for example? If you can think of reasons, this would
help your categorization.

One section of my website is going to be divided up into areas (similar to how my Photo Galleries
started off, but a bit different). So if someone wanted to see what Snowdon looked like they'd go
to the Snowdon page to see pictures of it.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗ wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

You are assuming people want to know what Snowdon looks like. I suspect they may not. Perhaps they
want to see pictures of sunsets, pictures in Spring, pictures processed in particular ways, maybe
loads of other reasons? Perhaps you could install a database that users could use as a filter to
show all pictures with a particular attribute?

Dave

Dave Williams

Steve Orrell said:

gawd, this photography lark will be the death of me, another sheaf of snaps [ ;-) ] from the
weekend and all that sorting, binning, processing to do <doh!>

Here's a Q someone might be able to help me with. I'm sorting lots of little groups of shots into
individual folders to help with finding contiguous groups of shots to later stitch into panos.
However, this is fragementing everything immensely so that the "whole" page of thumbnails that I
used to peruse (in ACDSee) just isn't there anymore and I've to delve in and out of folders,
etc., etc..

Do any of the "sorting" software packages out there cater for a multitude of sub-folders but
_still_ give you the opportunity to view a page of thumbnails as if everything was still in one,
primary, directory? (perhaps as something like an interactive contact sheet???)

Does that make any sense? The idea seems simple enough to me but I can't get my head around trying
to explain what I mean ;-)

In Imatch, you can have them all in one category (eg Snowdonia), then you could have a category
called "Panoramas" in which you put all those shots which are panos or parts of panos. You can also
have a category tree derived from your folders structure, and you can also have calculated
categories such as Snowdonia AND Panos.

Bottom line is, Imatch will do everything you can think of wanting to do, and a lot more!

Pat

--
Pat Bennett www.cheshirewildlife.co.uk

Quoted message said:

You are assuming people want to know what Snowdon looks like. I suspect they may not.

Well Snowdon's probably a bad example because it's well known, but there are many less well known
places that people may indeed be curious about. I don't want to give too much away at this point,
but you'll see the point of it when I get the new site online.

Quoted message said:

Perhaps they want to see pictures of sunsets, pictures in Spring, pictures processed in particular
ways, maybe loads of other reasons?

In which case they should look in the galleries or the other sections.

Quoted message said:

Perhaps you could install a database that users could use as a filter to show all pictures with a
particular attribute?

But that would spoil the fun of browsing! I don't really want to bother with a database and it's not
how I envision my site being used. There's going to be a very logical structure to it so it will be
easy to find your way around, but it will be organised mainly by area rather than type (although
there will be some exceptions). I just don't think it's very interesting to to have a dozen sunsets
on one page, you just get sick of them. Better to spread them out naturally and have some variety.

Paul
--
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wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

stemc © said:

It sounds interesting Paul, have you get any draft pages up at all yet?

No not yet. As I said, I'm trying to sort out the layout and content first before putting the pages
together. I want to be happy with the overall layout so that I won't have to change it again in the
future, so it needs to allow for future expansion without having to alter the basic structure.

Paul
--
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukwildwales.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Paul Saunders said:

stemc © said:

It sounds interesting Paul, have you get any draft pages up at all yet?

No not yet. As I said, I'm trying to sort out the layout and content first before putting the
pages together. I want to be happy with the overall layout so that I won't have to change it again
in the future, so it needs to allow for future expansion without having to alter the basic
structure.

Paul

Could it be made into a dynamic page where all the content is made up on the fly from a data base.

Envision (if I have got this right of course)

Main page : - picture links to varios categories Snowdon, sun rises, seascapes. etc.

these call up a dynamic page that pulls the different pictures from the main data base and
builds the page.

You could even make the page pull random pictures of the themes so that even if the person comes
back two or three times they might only see the same pictures a few times. This way you could have a
hundred themes but only use the same pictures in the one drawer.

I am sure if this can be done someone will be able to tell you how to do it.

--
Don`t Worry, Be Happy

Sandy
--

E-Mail:- [email hidden] Website:- ftscotland.co.ukftscotland.co.ukOpen ↗ IRC:- Sandyb in #rabble
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ICQ : 41266150

Sandy said:

Could it be made into a dynamic page where all the content is made up on the fly from a data base.

Not really what I want I'm afraid.

Quoted message said:

Envision (if I have got this right of course)

Main page : - picture links to varios categories Snowdon, sun rises, seascapes. etc.

No, it won't be organised like that.

Quoted message said:

these call up a dynamic page that pulls the different pictures from the main data base and builds
the page.

Thing is, I don't want pages to be built from different pictures, they need to be built from
specific pictures, because most will have accompanying text on the page. Some people might have the
impression that it's just going to be photo galleries, but it's not. There'll be specific pictures
illustrating specific things with specific text attached, so random picture display doesn't really
fit it with my design plan.

Quoted message said:

You could even make the page pull random pictures of the themes so that even if the person comes
back two or three times they might only see the same pictures a few times. This way you could have
a hundred themes but only use the same pictures in the one drawer.

I see what you're getting at, I've seen that kind of thing. I suppose there are some potential
applications for it on my site but I'm not really bothered about that kind of thing. I've always
preferred the basic no-frills approach to website design.

Quoted message said:

I am sure if this can be done someone will be able to tell you how to do it.

What does it use, javascript or something like that?

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not really what I want.

Paul
--
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In article <[email hidden]>, stemc © <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

My moon photos are normally [censored] because I can't get close enough, but I just zoom in as much as I
can, use a tripod if possible, use the spot metering function, focus on infinity, use an aperture
of f8.0, and a shutter speed of about 1/200 or 1/250. Just be careful not to overexpose it, or
you'll see no detail in it.

Some very fundamental statements here Ste:

.....I can't get close enough ! Good point :-)

.....focus on infinity...... Brilliant!

Who am I to comment - I haven't even tried :-)
--
Bill Grey billboy.co.ukbillboy.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, stemc © <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

| This is what Galen Rowell did of course. His wife was a marketing expert.

That's what I'm grooming my girlfriend for too! :-) ...I just need to learn how to take stunning
photographs now... :-)

You've missed the point Ste! Never mind the stunning photos, groom your girlfriend to sell anything
you take. That's where the expertise comes in.
--
Bill Grey billboy.co.ukbillboy.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

"Please excuse the mess - creative person at work"

Uh - yes! ....:-)
--
Bill Grey billboy.co.ukbillboy.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, stemc © <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

It's funny because we were talking about this in work last week. My boss likes everything to be
neat and tidy, but one of the girls desks is such a mess, than although my boss looks at it every
time she goes past, she doesn't dare saying anything about it because she probably wouldn't even
know where to start with cleaning it up! :-)

Funny you should say this. When I was working, we had a girl in the office and she had
untidy drawers!
--
Bill Grey billboy.co.ukbillboy.co.ukOpen ↗

"W. D. Grey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
| In article <[email hidden]>, stemc © <[email hidden]> writes
| >| This is what Galen Rowell did of course. His wife was a marketing expert.
| >
| >That's what I'm grooming my girlfriend for too! :-) ...I just need to
learn
| >how to take stunning photographs now... :-)
|
| You've missed the point Ste! Never mind the stunning photos, groom your girlfriend to sell
| anything you take. That's where the expertise comes in.
| --
| Bill Grey

Come on Bill, even the greatest salesman/woman in then world have a difficult job selling some of my
photos! Maybe I could start her off with a simpler job, like selling ice to the Eskimo's! :-)

Ste