Did you know that, on average, JAlbum is downloaded 3,500 times each day and more than 3,500 skins are also downloaded each day?  Which begs the question, what do you look for in a skin?

You've chosen to use JAlbum - that's why your reading the blog after all.  And you know it ships with 12 skins and that there are over 100 that can be downloaded from the JAlbum website.  Some skins are plug and play, that is nothing to setup, you just need to select it and click Make Album.  Others have user configurable options, varying from just a few to over 100.

For the skin(s) you're using is it the 'look' of the generated pages, the 'special features', how it lets users navigate around your photos or how easy it is to use that is most important to you?  Is integrating the photo album into a web site important, and if so is it easy or almost impossible with the skin you use?  Do you use different skins for different projects or mix-and-match skins on your site?

Would you like to try making a skin but have been put off by the technical stuff?  Maybe you would like more information on how to make a skin from scratch, or modify one that is already available?  Possibly you've made a skin but not published it, if so why not think about sharing it - it's free after all and its a great way to get your design tested on different computer systems and browsers!

If you're reading this then you must have an interest and if you are interested you must have an opinion.  So, there are plenty of skin developers out there, why not let them know what you look for in a skin?  Have you made a skin that's different, then why not share with the JAlbum community your reasons for making it the way you did?

Post your comments here, or for specific points, in the Forum.  Get involved and make it your JAlbum.

With PostcardViewer now released, I took the opportunity to swap out the flash software with another similar software from Airtight Interactive called AutoViewer.  This is useful when you have a storyboard to tell.  The play buttons currently don't show up in IE7, but other than that, it works quite well.

Have fun!

Albert
 

We recently released JAlbum 7.3.1. Apart from fixes to some really annoying bugs, this release focused on addressing small usability issues that we were totally unaware that people were having trouble with. You are probably aware of this phenomena: When you start using a piece of software you bump into all kinds of smaller issues that you might figure out to work around, and then you forget about them. However, if you get stuck, you might just dump the whole software in frustration. Our problem is that we've been using JAlbum for so long so we have become blinded to some of these issues.

So, a couple of days back, we conducted a user study, kindly asking a bunch of people that had no previous experience with JAlbum to make an album with JAlbum and put it online (and paid their lunches ;-) ). We ended up going through 3 hours of film. I can tell you it was a very good experience. I think we ended up finding about 50 items for improvement of which some have made it into the 7.3.1 release. Let me give you one exampe. Half of the group tried the local slide show option in JAlbum and most of them got stuck in the slide show. For me it's natural to "simply" hit the ESC key, but perhaps it isn't for others? Here is another one. Most users went for the Publish button without making an album first. JAlbum eventually tells that you have to make an album before publishing it, but at that point, users look for how to make the album within the publish window and get frustrated.

Learning from this, we will rearrange the user interface of JAlbum somewhat so the buttons are ordered according to the work flow. It's obviously not very clever to have the make album button in the lower left corner while having the publish button in the top right for instance. We who are used to using JAlbum don't reflect on this, but this study made us realize some steps needed to make the average computer user get along with JAlbum. Don't worry though, we will not remove features for power-users. The challenge is to meet everyone's needs.

I am currently staying in Stockholm, even though I'm originally from Berlin. I have a blog, so that my friends and family from Germany can read how I am doing here in Sweden. Of course I also make a lot of pictures and I want to share them with those at home. I use JAlbum to publish them but I also want to include some of the newest pictures in my blog and write about the things one can see on those pictures. Because it can be quite annoying to embed several pictures as thumbnails in the blog and linking every single one of them to the fully sized version of it, I created the CodeGenerator-Skin.

Even though it is technically a skin, it is not suitable for publishing albums with it. Instead it generates either HTML or BB-code one only has to copy and paste in blog or forum of your choice. This really helps showing your pictures outside of your album without much extra effort. You can optionally have the links show on the slide pages of your album so that people can also see your other pictures, even though you didn't post them at you blog/forum entry as well. It is a great way of getting more people to view the pictures and albums you made. Of course this only works if the forum or blog itself allows you to insert HTML or BB-code.

You can read more about the CodeGenerator in the skin section.

I hope this is helpful to you.
  david-f (aka David Fichtmueller): david<at>fichtmueller<dot>de

This photo was taken at 4 in the morning in the Dominican Republic. It was a starry black sky with no sign of sunrise, perfect for taking star trail shots. Film SLR cameras (the kind with removable lenses) work far better than digital cameras, however it is possible to take these images with professional DSLR cameras, as long as you can keep the shutter open for long periods of time.

STEP 1. Use a 50mm lens or a zoom lens set to approximately 50mm. Set the camera on the tripod, and set the focus to infinity (manual focus, as it will be too dark to operate auto focus)

STEP 2. Compose your photo so that a foreground object is in the image, such as a tree or building. Make sure it is a fair distance away, and that it does not fill the frame entirely.

STEP 3. Set your aperture (f-stop) to the lowest number (ex. f2.8, or f4.5, etc.). Your shutter speed should be set on the Bulb or Time setting "B" or "T"

STEP 4. With a cable release attached to the shutter, take the picture. The shutter will now be open for as long as you desire. For the first shot, try 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, and if you feel adventurous, a few hours. The longer you keep the shutter open, the longer and more dramatic the star trails become.

STEP 5. When you are finished close the shutter via the cable release. Now go to bed.

An added benefit to waking up before dawn is that your long exposure may pick up some early morning pink and red pre-sunrise light. In this photo I was fortunate enough to have the sky dark with shooting stars, but the bottom part warming up with reddish light. You will need to experiment with sunrise times; start your long exposure well before you see any hint of morning light. Good luck!

Thanks to professional photographer Mark Hemmings (www.markhemmings.com) for writing this photo tip.

In compositional theory, certain geometric shapes are often used by artists to guide the viewer's eye throughout a picture space. Triangles, circles, arches, and curves have shown up in countless images throughout the history of photography and painting, and the "S" curve is one that bears mentioning.

While this image of a spiral staircase is an interior, S curve compositions can be found in any location. Look for elements within a potential picture space that aid in allowing the viewers eye to follow the winding path from a starting point to an ending point. In this photograph, we naturally begin our exploration of the photo at the bottom, working our way up the banister until we reach the top of the image. While not always the case, the viewer will usually begin a photo with an S curve viewing from the bottom left to the top right.

Other geometric designs within your compositions can evoke a sense of authority, empathy, rigidity, and countless other emotions. The S curve composition has a sensual feel to it, slightly dangerous and very compelling. The next time you have a camera in hand, keep an eye open for visual pathways that mimic this serpentine geometry.

Thanks to professional photographer Mark Hemmings (www.markhemmings.com) for writing this photo tip.

I've been waiting for years to write this. We now finally have a smoothly working, free album hosting solution for JAlbum. Most people you and I know probably have a digital camera and a computer these days, but to be honest, hardly anyone has their own web site. Perhaps you're one of them? This has obviously limited the use of JAlbum as JAlbum requires a separate hosting solution for publishing images (unless you want to share them using the internal web server of JAlbum).

Over the years, I have tried a couple of partnerships with web hosting companies to simplify this process, but they haven't turned out very well. We eventually decided to do it ourselves and can now proudly present JAlbum hosting - the easiest way to get your JAlbum albums published!

This is how it works:

• Create an album using Jalbum 7.2 or later
• Press the "Publish" button, then the "Add account" button
• Enter the username and password you entered when downloading JAlbum. (If you don't have a username, sign up at http://jalbum.net/download)
• Follow the account activation guide and publish your album. The final address will be username.myjalbum.net

The free account holds 30MB. That's good for about 200 images. If you need more, we offer two upgrade options, a premium account of 1GB and a power user account of 10GB. I hope you find this a fair deal. More details at http://jalbum.net/hosting