During the development of the Filtering and Sort feature for Tiger (and Photoblogger) my mental model was a web shop where you can sophistically filter the products. However, a few users has suggested another use: filtering images by their “meta data” – the data added by the camera. This is something I always wanted to play with too. You can do such in Lightroom with your source images, but now visitors can do this in your web albums. Isn’t this awesome? Beyond the fun factor this new addition can be extremely useful when you sell images or just learn/teach photography.
Another important addition in the latest release is rating. (Find in Settings / Tiger / Site / Extra / Display rating.) By rating visitors can easily gather the best shots before they put them in the cart, or give feedback on them. The rating widget shows up in both the thumbnail view and in the lightbox.
One more thing. The search box was perhaps too subtle – hiding in the top bar – for a webshop use. Now you can choose to place it right in the middle of the “Hero” area, so no one has a chance to miss it. Settings / Tiger / Header / Top bar / Move search box within the Hero area
Check out all these enhancements in this Tiger sample album:
What’s more Photoblogger skin has received the same enhancements (besides the search box) the same day. Check out here:
By the way, this is a good example of how an album with sidebar can perform much better on “Above the fold content” front. Just check out the two screenshots above!
When your switch between Tiger and Photoblogger you don’t lose the settings either – don’t worry –, because they belong to the same skin family. (Note, it’s always best to start experimenting with a fresh copy: use File / Clone project, available in jAlbum 19+.)
Both sample albums have an “Instructions” page, which shows the technical details. Find below all the jAlbum variables worth checking out:
| Name | Explanation | Data type |
|---|---|---|
| fileCategory | Possible values are audio, folder, image, other, video, webLocation and webPage | Single/multiple string |
| rating | Inherits rating from the album creator, but visitors can freely modify it. | Numeric range |
| formatName | Type of image: PNG, JPG, TIFF, etc. | Single/multiple string |
| fileSize | Size of original file | Numeric range |
| fileDate | Date of original file | Date range |
| addedDate | Date of image added to album | Date range |
| originalDate | Date of picture taken | Date range |
| resolution | Original image resolution as written by camera | Numeric range |
| flash | If flash was used | Single string |
| focalLength | Focal length of the lens | Numeric range |
| focalLength35mm | Same as focalLength but converted to 35mm (film) equivalent | Numeric range |
| exposureTime | Exposure time | Numeric range |
| resolution | Original image resolution as written by camera | Numeric range |
| isoEquivalent | ISO equivalent | Numeric range |
| aperture | Aperture (F-number) | Numeric range |
| focusDistance | Focus distance | Numeric range |
| meteringMode | Metering mode (focus/exposure metering method) | Single/multiple string |
| cameraMake | Camera make (manufacturer) | Single/multiple string |
| cameraModel | Camera model (full model name) | Single/multiple string |
| sensorType | Camera sensor type | Single/multiple string |
| keywords | Keywords added in jAlbum and IPTC keywords | Single/multiple string |
| category | IPTC category | Single/multiple string |
| You can find all the fields here, in the "File metadata" table. | ||
... and some of the metadata of interest found in my pictures:
| Name | Explanation | Data type |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness Value |
Brigthness | Numeric range |
| Color Space | Color space of the recorded image | Single/multiple string |
| Contrast | Contrast | Single/multiple string |
| Exposure Bias Value |
Exposure bias value | Numeric range |
| Exposure Mode | Exposure mode | Single/multiple string |
| Exposure Program | Exposure Program | Single/multiple string |
| Lens Model | Name and spec. of the lens | Single/multiple string |
| Lens Specification | Lens specification | Single/multiple string |
| Scene Capture Type |
Scene capture type | Single/multiple string |
| Scene Type | Scene type | Single/multiple string |
| Sensitivity Type | Sensitivity type | Single/multiple string |
| Sharpness | In camera sharpening | Single/multiple string |
| Software | Software used to process the image | Single/multiple string |
| White Balance | White balance value | Single/multiple string |
| White Balance Mode | White balance mode | Single/multiple string |
| You can find the metadata recorded by your camera by Right-click → List metadata | ||
But this is not all. jAlbum provides the possibility of adding custom variables to pictures. In Edit mode look for the "Variables" panel on the right. Here you can add a variable (and it’s value next to it) which you can refer to in the Filtering and Sort data. These variables also work for the Search and Tag cloud features.
Still, if you happen to stumble upon some tricky metadata – e.g. you would like to read out lens parameters from a complex string – you can use the Create custom slide variable tool to mine out data from any available field. Download the tool and read the instructions here.
I hope you’ll find as fun in this as I did. Moreover this is something you can try with a Standard license or (Premium account) too. If you don’t want to bother with filling in the Filtering box, simply import my settings by using the File / Import / Import settings from a published album menu, and provide the link to the sample album above.
Comments are welcome,
Laza