TechMedia

I recently re-discovered the Save for Web and Devices feature for Adobe. This used to be part of Photoshop but has migrated to Bridge for the CS4 edition.

The interface was a breeze, just go to Output tab, pick Web Gallery tab and add Site Info (explanation text, copyright and contact info), pick your Color Palette, Appearance, and even upload the finished product through a native FTP interface. What could be easier?

The Flash templates are sharp, and as easy to make as browsing to a photo folder.

But there are issues with using this for an instant gallery. Where are the options for captions? That’s a basic feature.

Worse, the site wouldn’t work on the server, only the desktop. I tried troubleshooting – changing the permissions on the directory – to no avail.

Has anyone else had these problem?

The CS3 photo gallery features doesn’t appear to have this problem, works fine online. But its gallery templates are ugly.

So I will be sticking with jquery options for photo display – until CS5?

Yellowknifers have been abuzz about a new so-cool-it’s-cold reality series filmed in the city (and across the North!), Ice Pilots NWT. It debuts Wednesday night on the History channel, but since we no longer have cable TV am I checking it out online (until DVDs are released).

The show has fun video clips on its YouTube channel, and show is also on Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook, too.

But the showpiece is its website, icepilots.com.

Here, a fancy jquery/Flash home page leads to some fantastic interactive goodies such as:

• Fleet: 3-D models of the planes that you can rotate and zoom in on.
• Episodes: all have trailers – but you can’t watch numbers 2-13 yet, so be patient!
• Extras: loud plane-engine ringtones. Awesomeness.
• Storymap: text, photos, video and GPS tracking the planes in transit.

Use Metadata pulldown menu to choose what File Info to include in web photo

Photoshop CS4′s new controls for adding metadata are a handy tool to control copyright information included in your online photos.

Before you export your photo for the web, go under File>File Info to see the array of metadata options.

Most important: under the Description tab, change Copyright status to Copyrighted and put photogs name under Copyright Notice (Option, g on a Mac gives © symbol), then type the year.

Also fill out info tab IPTC Contact.

The International Press Telecommunications Council’s photo metadata was made to describe and administrate photographs and to provide the most relevant rights-related information.

Finally, under Save for Web and Devices (new in CS4) choose which metadata you want to export under the Metadata pulldown menu. Include copyright info, of course.

This feature is a useful way to control which metadata is exported in your web-optimized files. I found this tip while browsing some of the movies in Lynda.com’s Photoshop CS4 for the Web lessons. Some of the information there is a little basic, but I found the web workflow description most efficient, with emphasis on smart objects, grouping/naming layers, and keeping PSD copies of everything for ease of editing down the line when you inevitably want to tweak your design.