Lightroom Web Gallery photo display problems

[prbimages]

I've shared some photos by creating a Lightroom Web Gallery - this is a very nifty feature which I haven't seen discussed much at all, but it's well worth checking out.

Anyway, after creating a Lightroom Web Gallery, the "Settings" option allows a choice between three display themes: Photo Grid, One-Up, and Column.

Problem 1: The Photo Grid display option is my preferred choice. It is described as "edge-to-edge grid of photos, adaptively arranged to maintain their aspect ratios." The problem is, it doesn't always maintain their aspect ratios; some of the thumbnails are cropped, usually on the left and right sides. For example, a square image may be displayed as a slight rectangle (portrait mode). It seems strange that this would be the case, since sharing a Collection uses the same layout and it seems to do it perfectly. Is this a known bug?

Problem 2: When choosing the Column display option, most of my photos do not display at all. Specifically, all the photos after my first section divider with a title fail to appear. The text associated with my section dividers appears, but no photos. Is this a known bug?

Problem 3: Looking at the same shared gallery, in Photo Grid mode, using both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge side by side, I notice that the photos in the grid are much sharper in Edge, while the Chrome images appear relatively "soft" and fuzzy. Not sure what's going on here; any ideas?

Thanks

 

[prbimages]

No one? Apparently I was right when I said "a ... feature which I haven't seen discussed much at all", maybe no one is using it?

 

[johnbeardy]

No, I use it but you are right, there isn't much discussion. Part of the problem is that it keeps changing in little ways, and you are describing something relatively new. By the time there's discussion, it may have changed again!

 

[Jimmsp]

I don't use it, but maybe I should; esp for some personal images.
I do use Flickr.
What are the advantages, if any, of the LR Gallery vs Flickr? Disadvantages?

 

[johnbeardy]

Advantages? Simplicity and lack of manual effort. So let's say I wanted to let you see some pictures. I'd simply select them in LR, create a collection and enable the Sync check box in the New Collection dialog, right click the collection to make it public, and then email you the short URL. That's it - no exporting or setting up a publish service. Let's say I'm still editing the images. As I adjust or add/remove images from the collection, the shared photos are updated. I find it's a big plus that I don't have to do anything to update the online content.

The disadvantages are that it's quite limited in terms of options. You can't change much about the layout, just a grid or slideshow and now a story-style layout. But you can enable downloads, choose to include flagged/rejected, and exchange comments. That makes it more suitable for one-to-one conversations rather than the more social Flickr experience.

But if you have CC, you already have Lr on the Web - just log into your account at lightroom.adobe.com.

John

 

[Jimmsp]

John - that was pretty easy. Thanks for the quick set of instructions.
I just created a quick test collection, and shared it with myself.
I see a big advantage for sharing family photos that I don't want shared/viewed by every Flickr account.
I suppose I need to watch my Adobe web space usage now.

Re Problem 3 (above) - I looked at a group of 9 photos side by side in both Edge and Chrome, and see no difference. I just created 800 px photos.

 

[prbimages]

I see a big advantage for sharing family photos that I don't want shared/viewed by every Flickr account.

Exactly! Very easy to share with friends, family, or clients. And as John says, always automatically up-to-date with your latest edits. Further, the people viewing your photos can (if you allow it) see your basic metadata, including title and caption, and geo-location.

In addition to the basic Collection sharing, with very little effort you can set up so-called Web Galleries which are like Collections but have the added functionality of showing a proper cover image and collection title, along with descriptive text dividers between groups of photos. Good for sharing, say, vacation photos, where you can divide the collection up into logical blocks, e.g. Day 1, Day 2, etc., or by location, or other theme.

I suppose I need to watch my Adobe web space usage now.

No, I believe you get unlimited space on the Adobe servers (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

Re Problem 3 (above) - I looked at a group of 9 photos side by side in both Edge and Chrome, and see no difference. I just created 800 px photos.

Thanks for checking this But I believe full-size photos would be a better test. I've done a bit more checking, and I consistently find that my photos appear sharper in Edge than in Chrome - not just in the Photo Grid mode as I mentioned above, but in browser-sized mode and full-screen mode as well.

... it keeps changing in little ways, and you are describing something relatively new. By the time there's discussion, it may have changed again!

I saw somewhere that there is a mechanism for reporting bugs to Adobe - maybe I should use that?

... create a collection and enable the Sync check box in the New Collection dialog ...

I find the "Sync with Lightroom mobile" nomenclature a bit odd; surely "Sync with Adobe Cloud" or something would be a better descriptor? Most of the time, I'm using my desktop and the web interface (or Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly known as Adobe Spark) or Adobe Portfolio or Behance), no LRmobile is involved. I think Adobe would do well to promote this "inter-connectedness" of their various products, all of which are included as part of your CC subscription, rather than implicitly promoting the "mobile" angle.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Further, the people viewing your photos can (if you allow it) see your basic metadata, including title and caption, and geo-location.

How do you do that, allow them to see the geo-location?
I tried it yesterday but the only fields my guests ar seeing are the filename, copyright information, title and caption. No Keywords and geo-location however. Is this a setting somewhere?

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

I saw somewhere that there is a mechanism for reporting bugs to Adobe - maybe I should use that?

That can be done here: Photoshop Family Customer Community

 

[Jim Wilde]

How do you do that, allow them to see the geo-location?
I tried it yesterday but the only fields my guests ar seeing are the filename, copyright information, title and caption. No Keywords and geo-location however. Is this a setting somewhere?

Roelof, it's an option in the "Share" panel of the Collection Settings.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Roelof, it's an option in the "Share" panel of the Collection Settings.

I found it, thanks!

 

[johnbeardy]

Something else you may want to look at....

In LRWeb, activate a collection (or all photos) and select a number of thumbnails, then click the Share icon and choose Lightroom Web Gallery. This LWG exists as a new virtual collection (ie it's only in LrWeb) with a poster frame, the ability to divide into sections and add text etc.

This is quite new - announced 21st July on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

John

 

[prbimages]

Something else you may want to look at.... In LRWeb, activate a collection (or all photos) and select a number of thumbnails, then click the Share icon and choose Lightroom Web Gallery.

Ummm, yeah, that's what this whole thread is about ...

And the web galleries have been around quite a bit longer, it was web gallery themes which were annouunced on July 21.

 

[johnbeardy]

Yes, I can see you knew about it - I don't think that's so of others here.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Something else you may want to look at....

In LRWeb, activate a collection (or all photos) and select a number of thumbnails, then click the Share icon and choose Lightroom Web Gallery. This LWG exists as a new virtual collection (ie it's only in LrWeb) with a poster frame, the ability to divide into sections and add text etc.

This is quite new - announced 21st July on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

John

I didn't know about this and i'm using LRweb quite often. Thank you for clarifying!
I see the new created collection does not turn back to LR-desktop.

 

[johnbeardy]

Yes, that's why I said "a new virtual collection (ie it's only in LrWeb)". I've already found this quite handy, a simple alternative to Adobe Creative Cloud Express Page (formerly known as Adobe Spark) or other story-style layouts. Best of all, photos update automatically.

 

[Fausto Rowlan]

Once a Theme is selected (Photo Grid or One-Up) and he Gallery is created, is it possible to change the Theme or Appearance?
I can't seem to find any way to make these changes, other than making a new one.

 

[prbimages]

Easy, click on the title of your shared gallery in the left-hand panel, then when the gallery is displayed, there's a "gear" icon on the top right of the page. Click on that to edit the settings of the gallery.