Zenfolio

[klehmann]

Hi

I have just recently aquired a zenfolio-account after a long and ardent comparison between some of the major players in that area (Smugmug, Zenfolio, Photoshelter and a few more). Offcourse, as it turns out, i now see SmugMug upload-support in FPV which is kinda great for those users, however sort of a bummer for me as an otherwise very happy FPV-registered user... Obviously, im very interested to find out if Is there any future plans for incorporating this type of support in any near future??

Best regards
klehmann

[Axel]

The web publishing subsystem that was just developped and added to FastPictureViewer Pro 1.7 is not specific to any particular photo-sharing site. The top three pro-grade sites seems to be SmugMug, Zenfolio and PhotoShelter, more or less in that order according to Alexa ranking. I had to start somewhere but support for more sites will be added in the future

[klehmann]

Hi again,
Thanks for the indeed very fast and positive reply as well! i am looking forward to you implementing this feature further down the road for us zenfolio users:o) I also would like to express my appreciation in general for this added and very unexpected but most welcome bonus in FPV. Great job! I haven't regretted for one second my decision to support this application and ive been using it as my main viewing tool since i started using the free version 1.0 - Only since i went pro i decided to 'buy in' to the full version+Codec Pack - Thanks again for a really well thought out and truely usefull piece of software.
Best regards
Kim Lehmann

[Axel]

Thanks for the kind words! About ZF: looking good so far: I've contacted them with the project idea and after a couple of email exchanges they gave me a Developper account, so I'm all set to start working on a Zenfolio uploader for FPV Pro...

[Axel]

The first version of the Zenfolio web publishing plugin ships with FPV Pro 1.7.238.0

[klehmann]

Damn Axel!
That was really really FAST!! cant wait to try this feature out... right now im using various other means of 'gettin' there' - however they are quite unreliable or in some other ways 'clunky' - crossing my fingers for this one;o) Thanks for listening to a users cryout for help.
Best regards
klehmann

[Axel]

Actually the bulk of the work for web publishing is in the subsystem that was built to that effect. The Zenfolio plugin leverages the work done on the publishing frameworks and inherits from part of the work done for the SmugMug plugin, which was the first web publishing plugin created for FastPictureViewer.

The setup of the Zenfolio plugin is straightforward: you need to enter your ZF email/password in the plugin to give FPV the right to publish to your account.

This data is stored securely on your computer in a way that only you can access it. Your password is never transmitted over the internet as the ZF plugin uses the challenge-response authentication mechanism available on Zenfolio, which allows the server to validate your access credentials without ever exchanging the password.

You can pick an existing gallery, or navigate your "groups" (aka folders) and create a new gallery where you see fit. I did not use a "tree" to show the folder hierarchy as there tends to use up a lot of screen space and becomes messy to use if you have nested folders and the tree starts to scroll both horizontally and vertically.

Instead I created something inspired from the Vista "breadcrumb" concept. It may take a short while to get used to it but you should eventually find it easier to use than a traditional tree view on a tiny window. The breadcrumb operates much the same on XP but looks so-so, it's looks best on Vista and later, hopefully you are on a modern OS already.

When creating a new gallery you must give it a name and can optionally add a description and assign it to one of the pre-defined Zenfolio categories.

As with the SmugMug plugin, you can upload JPEG files as-is, or upload rebuilt files with more or less metadata (with original pixels losslessly transmitted), or rebuilt files with resampled pixels (smaller upload size), extra compression (even smaller upload size) or downscaled dimensions (smaller images in pixels) with a number of presets for screen and print.

There is a big fuss on the interweb about JPEGmini.com, which reduces JPEGs without losing (too much) quality.

I tried JPEGmini.com on a 33MB Nikon D800E full resolution sample image and it just did not work, I then tried with a 17MB sample file from a Nikon D800, which gave the following results (you can click on the links to download the files):

• Original full-resolution file: 17,420 KB (link to Nikon's website)
• FPV full-resolution upload (resampled): 5,010 KB (3.5x reduction)
• Full-resolution minified by JPEGmini.com: 3,531 KB (4.9x reduction)
• FPV full-resolution upload (resampling with extra compression): 2,044 KB (8.5x reduction)

All four full-resolution (36MP!) files were virtually undistinguishable to the naked eye at 1:1 view (100% zoom), save for a slight loss of detail in the JPEGmini version.

At 400% zoom some differences in noise and compression artifacts could be distinguished, which confirmed some loss of details in the JPEGmini version (it looks like they apply a touch of noise reduction to ease the compression).

Just for fun, I throw in a couple of FastPictureViewer Professional's specialties:

• FPV downscaled upload (for printing, up to 10"): 857 KB (20.3x reduction)
• FPV downscaled upload (for screen viewing: 1,280 pixels): 174 KB (100x reduction)
• FPV downscaled upload (extra compressed for screen viewing: 1,280 pixels): 83 KB (210x reduction)

Of course FPV Pro processes the files locally at the full speed of your processor, then uploads the resulting smaller file on-the-fly, a much smoother and faster process than uploading files to some web site, wait (sometimes hours) for them to be processed, then download the minified files and finally upload them to their final destination on your own website.

If you use the built-in on-the-fly downscaling for prints, you'll have to trust me regarding the pixel dimensions vs. paper sizes (i.e dots per inch of paper) that I elect to create. If you downscale for, say, 10" prints the program will calculate what it thinks is the best compromise between quality and size and use that value to rescale the images.

The resulting file should print perfectly at 10", with comparatively much smaller JPEGs than the out-of-camera originals (more than 20x smaller in the above example). Downscaling for screen is a no-brainer, just say for example 1,280 px and the images will be reduced to that size on-the-fly during the upload.

Of course you can always downscale and process your images using any other mean and just upload the finished products as-is from FPV, bypassing any on-the-fly processing.

There is a tutorial to help you get started, illustrated using SmugMug but publishing to ZF is identical, except the initial login/authorization procedure the first time the plugin is used : http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/help/#webpublishing