My Criteria

I’m looking for few things in a photo gallery, but I think it will be easiest if I divide my criteria into things I want for my benefit, and things I want for the benefit of my audience, which is mainly my friends and family. So, to start, things I want for me;

• WordPress Integration – I want to easily reference photos from the gallery from 2 different WordPress blogs, while keeping the photo gallery it’s own entity.
• Upload from Lightroom – I use Lightroom to manage and edit my photos, so it would help me if I could publish the photos straight to the gallery without the intermediary step of exporting from Lightroom first.
• EXIF/IPTC support – Using Lightroom, I assign tags, titles, descriptions and location information to photos using EXIF and IPTC headers. I do NOT want to manually re-type all that information.
• Slick Admin Interface – Rather subjective, really. I want a clean interface I can easily navigate.
• Easy Photo Organization – This kind of goes with the slick admin interface; basically I want to easily organize photos within albums/sets, and move them between albums if I reorganize.
• Archive/off-site backup – I’m hoping to be able to treat the photo gallery as an off-site backup, in case my hard drive ever fails. I have a DVD burner which I’m using to archive the photos, but an off-site backup would give me some peace of mind.
• Replace/re-upload photos – I continue to fiddle with photos on my computer after I’ve uploaded them; I want to be able to swap out the old photo for the updated photo without losing any comments it may have, and without having to re-add it to any albums/sets it may have been in.
• Embed/Link Re-sized Photos – There are a few photography forums that I read, but in order to participate and submit my own photos, I need to embed my re-sized photo, linking to my original. Anything that can make this easier for me is good.
• Protect Photos – While I generally want anyone to have access to my photos, I would like the ability to protect them, as well, either by password protecting certain photos or albums, or by limiting access to full sized photos.

There are also a few things I would like for my photo gallery, that would ideally make the experience easier for my friends and family viewing it. For starters;

• No Account Required – I don’t want to make my friends or family sign up for anything in order to view the public photos. Ideally they shouldn’t need to sign up for anything in order to comment, either, but I doubt my family would actually comment on photos at the gallery, so that is probably a non-issue.
• RSS – This is probably more for my friends than my family, as most of my family probably doesn’t know what RSS is. I would like an easy way for people to subscribe to feeds for either specific albums or the entire photo gallery.
• Easy Navigation – Again, rather subjective. I want an interface that is easy to navigate, and isn’t terribly confusing. If I have to explain to my family how to navigate, it’s no good.
• Search Ability – I would like the ability to search against all fields (tags, location information, decription, titles, EXIF data), and display the results cleanly. Like navigation, a bit subjective.
• Prints – It would be convenient if my family were able to order prints directly from the photo gallery. Not required, but definitely a convenience. Of course, if they could download the images and make their own prints, that would be fine as well.

While I would prefer an open source gallery option that I can host myself, I’m not completely against a commercial photo sharing site, either free or fee-based. My husband and I are paying roughly $6 a month for our hosting and domain names, but our space is finite. If we host our own gallery, eventually I will need to remove old photos, post smaller versions or only post select photos, in order to conserve space. With our present hosting plan we get 150GB of space, so filling it up is a long way off, but with the increasingly larger sizes of digital photos, it’s still a concern.

My Options

When searching for photo gallery options, I started at Wikipedia and came across this lovely comparison chart of photo gallery software, where I started my list. After eliminating a few gallery options that didn’t meet my criteria, I still had too many options. Checking out OpenSourceCMS let me view the admin screens without going to the hassle of installing each gallery option. After checking out the admin screens, I eliminated the galleries I didn’t like the looks of. When I started limiting the options to galleries which can easily interact with WordPress, my main options are down to Gallery2 and Zenphoto. Of course, if I widen my options to include photo sharing websites, I add in Flickr and SmugMug. There are other services as well, but those two best meet my criteria.

Option #1 – Gallery2

Gallery is the photo gallery option I have the most familiarity with, as I’ve used it for over 2 years now to host my photos online. It meets most of my criteria, but has a few failings. While I can make it interact with WordPress via WPG2, the plugin no longer easily allows interaction without embedding the gallery into the blog, which is aggravating. As for metadata support, Gallery does support EXIF and IPTC, however “Location” is not supported by default. There does not seem to be a way to easily link to resized images, or if there is I’m not aware of it. RSS feeds are available in Gallery, via a plugin, but need to be configured individually.

One of my bigger issues with Gallery, however, is the way it handles searches. When a search is performed, it will search tags, keywords, titles and descriptions, but can not presently search any other data, including EXIF or custom fields. The search results are rather rough looking, as well; all the results are listed, without distinguishing between an image or an album.

Option #2 – Zenphoto

Zenphoto is a photo gallery solution I’ve only become familiar with relatively recently, despite the fact that it pre-dates Gallery 2. I installed it briefly after moving from by previous hosting at ikith, but gave up on it as I was unable to move or rename photos or albums, which has since changed. Overall, Zenphoto meets almost all of my criteria. Presently, there’s not an advertised way to replace or reupload a photo, although since photos can be uploaded via FTP, theoretically I could just overwrite the file on the server with a newer version. Like Gallery, there is not an automatic way to link to resized images, but it can be done.

One of the main reasons I like Zenphoto is it’s search ability; all fields can be searched (including EXIF fields), and the search results are presented as an album which can be browsed. Additionally, dynamic albums can be created as a type of saved search; as new photos are added which meet the search criteria, they show up in the dynamic album.

Option #3 – Flickr Pro

I formerly used Flickr as my photo gallery, until I was introduced to Gallery by a friend. The primary reason I switched from Flickr to Gallery was cost; Gallery was free, and in order to create more than 3 sets on Flickr required a Pro account, which cost $24.95 a year. Flickr meets virtually all of my main criteria; it especially excels at the “sharing” aspects of photo sharing. It easily allows me to embed or link to a re-sized image, or make prints or other merchandise via the print service partners. And with a Pro account, I get unlimited space and uploads, so I can never fill it up, unlike a gallery I run myself.

Flickr handles searches a little better than Gallery, but not as nicely as Zenphoto; all EXIF and IPTC fields can be searched, but the results are simply spit out in a long list. And while Sets and Collections make sense to me, I’m not sure how easily navigated Flickr is for someone not already familiar with it. My chief complaint with Flickr, however, is a result of the fact that I’m not running it myself; I can’t change aspects I don’t like.

Option #4 – SmugMug

SmugMug was recommended to me as a more professional hosted photo solution, at a higher cost. Whereas Flickr Pro is $24.95 a year, SmugMug has three different plans going for $39.95 (Standard), $59.95 (Power User) or $149.95 (Professional) per year. It seems to meet most of my criteria, while looking a bit more professional than Flickr Pro.

I’m not sure how extensive the EXIF and IPTC support is with SmugMug – I know it’s supported, but I’ve not been able to view the EXIF and IPTC information in galleries beyond the standard title, description and tags. Without creating an account, I can’t really judge the the interface for the admin or photo management. The ability to replace or re-upload a photo is not advertised, but I can’t know for sure without creating an account. Beyond that, it fares well; member can choose who is allowed to comment or download images, and folks don’t need to sign up in order to leave a comment.

My Conclusions

Between the two open source options, I would lean towards Zenphoto over Gallery. My only real complaint with Zenphoto is my inability to replace photos, which I may actually be able to circumvent by simply overwriting the photo via FTP. I much prefer the search and dynamic albums of Zenphoto, and it now has support for the Shutterfly printing service.

Between the photo sharing websites, the decision is a little tougher. I prefer the design flexibility of SmugMug, but can’t necessarily justify the price difference. Of course, SmugMug has less controversy regarding censorship, leading me to feel my photos would be more safe at SmugMug than at Flickr. Without seeing the admin interface firsthand, though, I can’t really choose SmugMug over Flickr.

Final decision? I think I’m going to go with Zenphoto. It lacks some of the photo sharing and print service aspects that Flickr and SmugMug have, but I don’t really need them. For what is primarily family photos, I think I feel more secure having them under my own control.

I’ve already checked out the ceremony location, as it’s the same church Matt & I were married at last year. There’s a little chapel with beautiful stained glass windows that I’m hoping I’ll be able to use; I’m not really sure what kind of light to expect in the middle of the day, though. I’ve not checked out the reception hall yet, and I’m not sure I’ll have the chance to before the wedding. Hopefully there are photos on their website, so I can get a rough idea of the layout, and possibly the lighting situation.

As far as camera gear goes, I’m thinking I’ll want to get an external flash before the wedding. My main issue is deciding if I want the Speedlite 430EX ($235) or the 580EX ($390). The 430EX is probably all I need at this point; the 580EX has more features and such, but I can’t justify spending that much more on a flash right now. Where lenses are concerned, I’m hoping my 50mm prime should suffice for most of the shots. Of course, if I get the flash then I should be able to use my 18mm-55mm indoors as well. I’ll probably need another memory card; I’ve got a 1gig CF and a 4gig CF, but since I plan to shoot in RAW I’ll need all the space I can get.

Overall, things seem to be shaping up well. I’d like to finish tagging and editing my backlog of photos before the wedding, so that I can have a clean slate when I get the influx of photos from the wedding. I’m up to March of 2008, so I should be able to finish tagging the photos, at least. Hopefully when I’m done editing and tagging all the photos, I can start uploading them to the gallery again; for various reasons I think I’ll be sticking with Gallery2 rather than Zenphoto, but that is for another post.

The biggest criteria to start with is IPTC metadata support. I use Lightroom to tag and organize my photos, including such information as location, title, names of people, photo description and more, all of which is stored in the IPTC headers of each image. I don’t want to have to replicate all that data, so photo software that can parse and display IPTC headers is essential. Both Gallery2 and Zenphoto manage IPTC data with no problem; Zenphoto actually appears to parse out the location information as well as title, description and tags, while Gallery2 only parses out title, description and tags.

I’d love to have software that can manage dynamic or relational albums, so that one image can appear in multiple albums. Unfortunately, Flickr is the only solution I’ve seen that will keep the original photo in multiple locations, with all the comments. Gallery2′s best solution is to make a copy of the image and place a copy in each album, which is less than ideal. Zenphoto has a solution I’m still investigating, which is “saved searchs;” a search can be saved, and will appear as a gallery that can be browsed. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but a definite step in the right direction and the closest I’ve seen any other gallery option come to Flickr.

Zenphoto, for all it’s good points, is not without bugs. The first issue I came across is the inability to create empty galleries. Not a huge issue – you can make albums via FTP, and upload images that way. But using the admin interface, I couldn’t create an album without putting at least one image in it. A little frustrating if you want to create a top level album to hold sub-albums. Another issue is the inability to move photos or albums; apparently there is not yet a way to move things while retaining the comments and such. There are also a few features I’d like to see implemented in future versions of Zenphoto – the ability to re-upload a photo (to replace a photo with a touched up version, while preserving the comments), and the ability to choose what portion of the photo is used for the thumbnail.

Between the two gallery options, it’s a tough choice. Gallery does almost everything I want, plus a lot more that I don’t really want or need. It’s a bit larger, and more difficult for me to maintain on my own. On the other hand, Zenphoto does the basics, without some of the extras. It doesn’t do as much as Gallery, but I prefer the way it does some things. Zenphoto was easy to install, and looks to be easier to maintain. In the end, I’ll probably go with Zenphoto – it doesn’t do everything I want, but it does everything I NEED, and it’s prettier.

Flickr, Pro:

• Relational/Dynamic view – I love that photos are basically all in one big folder, and that you can assign them to dynamic sets, so that the original photo (with accompanying data) can appear in multiple locations, rather than copying and pasting a photo into multiple albums.
• Licensing – Flickr offers a simple way to license every photo, allowing Creative Commons licenses or Copyrights to be attached to photos. You can have a default license, so that every photo uploaded has the default license, or change the license on a photo-by-photo basis.
• Community – By design, Flickr is like a social network for photos; it exists as a photo sharing community. And while you don’t have to participate in groups, or have contacts, it is nice to be able to easily share photos, or have your work critiqued by others.

Flickr, Con:

• Limited Customization – There is very little you can do to Flickr to personalize it, and make it your own. You can select from one of 4 different views (6 if you have a Pro account), and that’s about it. No colors or themes at all.
• Loss of Control – Since Flickr hosts the images, you can’t tweak the software or add plug-ins to make it do what you want. You are also at the mercy of Flickr, should they change any of their policies or Terms of Service.
• Restrictions – Free accounts have lots of restrictions (bandwidth, number of sets, file size, images shown in archives) but even Pro accounts have some restrictions. The main restriction is file size (currently 10MB per photo for Pro accounts), although who’s to say that Flickr won’t change the annual fee or restrictions?
• Censorship – From what I’ve read thus far, Flickr tends to be a bit over-zealous with censorship issues. A user’s comments, photos and entire account can be deleted, with little recourse, if someone flags a comment or photo as “questionable”.

Gallery2, Pro:

• Complete Control – Since you host it yourself, you are in absolute control. You want all your thumbnails square? No Problem. You want to crop your own thumbnails, rather than have the default? Easy.
• Customization – There are loads of themes for Gallery2, and various color packs to change the color scheme. But if you don’t like those options, you can create your own theme, too.
• Plug-ins – On the nature of customization, if there is something you want accomplished in Gallery that can’t be done out of the box, someone may have already written a plug-in to accomplish what you want. Or, you could write your own plug-in.

Gallery2, Con:

• Strictly Hierarchical Storage – Gallery was built to mimic a photo album, and so photos are stored in a series of nested albums. Photos can show up in multiple spots, but only as links to the original or as replicas, which won’t share any comments.
• Lack of Community – Since you host Gallery yourself, you’re not really part of a community of users. This can go either way, though; I wouldn’t really gain much “community” from Flickr, since few of my friends and family use Flickr, or even know what it is. And do I want random strangers commenting on my photos?

In the end, I simply can’t go with Flickr. Yes they have Dynamic/Relational sets, but I just don’t trust them with my photos. Before, I might have considered it, but with the censorship controversy I’ve been reading about, there is no way I’d entrust my photos to them. I would much prefer to run my own photo gallery and know I have complete control over it, even if it doesn’t do everything I want. This isn’t to say I’ll stay with Gallery2 forever, but at the moment it looks to be the best solution for my needs.

#1 – Get in better shape. While I wouldn’t mind slimming down a little, weight loss isn’t really my goal here. During the warmer months, we used to take a weekly 10 mile bike ride. In 2007 we didn’t go nearly as often; the heat, moving into a new apartment, and wedding planning all kind of got in our way. The few trips we did make, though, weren’t even for the full 10 miles, as we hadn’t kept in shape over the winter. My goal is to get back into shape, so that when warmer weather arrives we’ll be able to jump right back into the full 10 mile bike ride. We have the workout area in the clubhouse to use, and Matt’s friend Leonard gave us some exercises we can do without ever leaving the apartment.

#2 – Become a better photographer. Matt got me a fabulous digital SLR for Christmas, and I would love to be able to utilize it to it’s full potential. In order to become a better photographer, though, I need to practice. I was considering doing Project 365 (photo a day, not faces), but as January 1st has already passed, I wouldn’t be able to do it for the entirety of 2008. I could always start it mid-year, and still shoot for a year, just not a calendar year. Shooting a photo a day also brings up the question of what I will do with the photos; Flickr, Gallery2, or something else? For now, though, I’ll just focus on shooting the pictures; what to do with them after that can be a concern for later.

#3 – Finish what I start. I have a nasty habit of starting projects, and then putting them on the back burner, where they languish. I have at least 3 craft projects that were moved to the back burner, where they are for the most part, forgotten. I blame at least part of this on my discovery of feed readers – I spend a lot of time on the internet “catching up” on feeds that I ordinarily wouldn’t have read. What I’m trying to do is allow myself to catch up on my feeds once ( and ONLY once) a day. I may need to prune back the number of feeds I read, in order to make time to actually do things away from the computer.

Currently my gallery is powered by Gallery2, and while there is nothing wrong with it, I wish it did more. The organizational structure (nested albums) lends itself well to event-based photography, which until recently was all I ever had a need or desire for. I love that it’s customizable; I can change themes, and install modules until it looks like I want, and does almost anything I want. Permissions can be assigned to nearly every task, allowing only registered members to vote on photos, or requiring a password to view certain galleries. Basically, I love that I have complete, neurotic control over every minute detail. But while I like the control, I’m starting to outgrow the nested album style of organization. Sometimes I’ll go for a walk, and take some silly pictures just to play with settings and learn what I can do. If they turn out nice, I’d like to post them to the gallery, but where? They don’t really fit into any of the existing albums, so do I just leave them loose, on the top level? Or do I make a “random” album and drop them in there? In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit neurotic about having things all put away and organized.

This is where Flickr tempts me. I don’t like the loss of absolute control, but I really prefer the organizational style. It’s like my Outlook to Gmail conversion; while Gmail has been my primary email address for a year or two now, I’ve only recently converted to using the web interface. Previously, I had been using Outlook , with it’s directory-style email storage. With the switch to the web interface, comes the use of Gmail’s organizational scheme; labels rather than folders. At first I hated labels, just because I was used to folders. But then I discovered exactly what I could do with labels, rather than folders. Email messages could have multiple labels, and show up under each label without needing to copy the email message to multiple folders. Flickr has tagging (which can also be accomplished with Gallery2, via plug-ins), but it also has sets and collections. A set is like a folder, and yet not. Photos can belong to multiple sets, a single set, or to no set at all. The sets can be grouped into collections, and those collections can be grouped into higher order collections. A good example – I took photos at weddings this summer. As I am wont to do, I ended up taking some photos at the wedding, that had absolutely nothing to do with the wedding (nature shots of the outdoors, etc.) With Gallery2, I would need to decide if they were going in the album with the wedding photos, or in another Nature shots album, since they can’t go in both. With Flickr, I wouldn’t have that problem – the photos could go in the set of photos from that wedding, and whatever other set I wanted. I could create a Collection of sets for Family Events where each set is photos from an event, and another Collection for Wedding Prep, with the actual Wedding Set belonging to both collections.
So this is my conundrum; I like how Flickr organizes photos, but I prefer having the control of Gallery2. I would actually consider springing for a Flickr Pro account, because honestly $25 a year isn’t bad for unlimited photos and unlimited bandwidth. But if I could find a free, self-hosted alternate (like Gallery2), I would seriously consider that as well. At the moment I’m trying to determine if there’s a way I can make Gallery2 more like Flickr, but I suspect it isn’t possible. So, do I sacrifice absolute control to get an organizational scheme I like, or stick with absolute control but remain unhappy with how photos are stored?

In my rediscovery, I stumbled upon many websites on the subject of photography, and quite a few photoblogs. I really like the idea of a photoblog, and being able to categorize photos by subject type, rather than event. I even stumbled upon a nice photoblog host. It’s like a combination of LiveJournal and Flickr. My problem is – I have my WordPress blog, and my Gallery already. I’m not really interested in converting my blog into a photo-blog, despite the number of plug-ins that can easily convert a WordPress install into a photo-blog. And my gallery serves a purpose – I have photos arranged by event, mainly, so that friends and family can go find photos from events, should they desire. I could get an account at Animus3 and maintain that separately from my gallery, but I know myself too well; it might start out nice, but would become more trouble than it’s worth. That’s why I gave up on LJ; I have my WordPress blog, and didn’t see the point in maintaining 2 independent sites with the same content. What I need is a way to modify Gallery to provide a way to categorize photos by style, in addition to holding them in sub-albums arranged by event. I’ve already added a custom field to photos for “category” – I’m sure with Dynamic Albums in Gallery 2.2 I can work out a way to give visitors the option to browse the established albums, or browse dynamicly created albums, organized by category. Let’s see what happens.