PhotoPressPro: WordPress Photo Blog Theme for Professional Photographers

The Snapshot Chooser plugin, available as a free download for PhotoPressPro versions 1.2.1 and up, provides a widget that allows your users to choose from any or all of your saved theme Snapshots to view your blog. The Snapshot is saved in a cookie, so the user sees the same Snapshot on the next visit.

You choose which Snapshots your users can choose from in the Widget admin, and it works well in all of the theme’s widget areas. You can even have multiple Snapshot Chooser widgets.

Download the plugin here.

You may be wondering why I didn’t just include this in the PhotoPressPro theme. To be honest, I don’t think everyone wants it. Almost no one asked for it, actually. I just really wanted to use it on the demo. To be even more honest, this was a great opportunity for me to work out a process for building more multi-widget plugins in the future. But that’s a topic for another post.

To install the plugin, simply download and extract the zip file, and upload the ppp-snapshot-chooser folder to your wp-content/plugins folder. Go to your WordPress admin Plugins page, and activate “PPP Snapshot Chooser”.

Now you need to add the widget to the dropdown menu or the footer. Go to Appearance -> Widgets and choose your widget area on the top right. NOTE: If you don’t have any widgets in the selected widget area, adding this widget will replace your current default widgets in that area. On the widgets page, click “Add” next to PPP Snapshot Chooser to add the widget to the right side of the page. Click “edit” on the new widget to change the settings. You can change the title, choose a sort order, and choose from a list of your Snapshots. Hold down the Ctrl key (or the mac equivalent) to select multiple Snapshots. Click “Done” when you’re done, and click “Save Changes”. After refreshing your blog, you should see the Snapshot Chooser.

If you use the widget, be sure to let us know in the comments!

This release takes care of a few more-or-less “minor” bugs. Speaking of less minor bugs, if you’re using PPP 1.2 and you’re using the Simple Slideshow, make sure you check that the header images are, you know, still there after updating.

On a happier note, this update also adds support for the new Snapshot Chooser widget plugin, which allows you to offer several different Snapshots for your users to choose from.

If you previously purchased PhotoPressPro, you should have received an email with a link to download the updated theme. Check the Update page or the README.html file in the downloaded theme for instructions and details about the update.

New to Photoshop? Or have you downloaded an action and have no idea where to begin? In this quick tutorial I’ll show you easy it is to save, load and run an action. Note: an action will always have the file extension of .atn. Let’s get to it.

First, you need an action to download. Here are a few free web actions I made. Sweet, simple, and to the point. Enjoy!
Free Web Resize Actions

After you’ve downloaded the action, it needs to be loaded into Photoshop. The .atn file needs to be put in your “Program Files/Adobe/CS3 (or your version)/presets/actions/” folder.

Now switch back to Photoshop, and go to the actions palette. (If your actions palette is not visible, go to windows-and make sure actions are checked). Click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the palette. Locate the .atn file you want load and click. This will load the action into your palette. Once loaded, find it in the actions palette, and assuming you have a file open, press play. That’s it.

Hint: If you need to go back a step, you can undo in the History palette.

Posting large images is easy with PhotoPressPro, but too many large, slow files can really start bogging down your blog. If your blog suffers from blog-bog, you should optimize your images for the web. Reducing the resolution of hi-res images not only keeps your blog loading quickly and smoothly, but it also helps to prevent others from saving your print quality images.

These convenient, easy to use resize actions can help you post images to the web.

Download the action set here.

Read this post if you need help installing the actions.

Use these time-savers on a processed and cropped, 300 dpi image. After the action is done, save the file. I like to add “WEB” to my file name. Don’t forget to always save as a copy and file quality at 8 (you can adjust this if you like). For my examples, I processed the image, then cropped it to 4×5 300dpi. Then I ran the actions. Click the link below for the full-size original image.

Warning: Very large image.

Easy Web Resize

Easy Web Resize reduces your cropped image from 300dpi to 72 dpi. That’s it.

Web Resize w/sharpen

Web Resize w/sharpen reduces your cropped image from 300dpi to 72dpi, then adds an unsharp mask at 35-1-0.

Web Ready

Web Ready reduces to 72 dpi, runs unsharp mask at 35-1-0, and extends the canvas 1 inch all around, creating a thick white border. (Don’t forget to account for the border making your image larger.)

These are just a few options; many users have different workflows that work for them. Do you have any tips for resizing images for the web? If so, we’d love to hear them in the comments.

So Google alerts me that someone blogged about PhotoPressPro. Turns out it was a spam blog (not uncommon), but this one had a review unlike any I’d ever seen. In the interest of not supporting spam, I won’t link to the blog. But I pasted some highlights below (and a brief reaction), along with the URL of the spam site that I believe is located in Brobdingnag.

PhotoPressPro is a payment single-column 1024px-wide WordPress thought with inner features matured especially for professed photographers.

Hmm… hey, you got a couple of words wrong there, buddy.

Features PhotoPressPro is crowded with unequalled features created especially for professed photographers.

Um ok, that’s a little better. Got the point across, I guess.

Single-column, 1024px-wide info allows for Brobdingnagian images up to 10″ x 13″, or 936 pixels wide!

Brobdingnagian? Brobdingnagian? Ok, up to this point I was thinking this was one of those re-translation things that happens when you translate English text to Russian or something, and then translate back to English, with results that make you lol. But what the hell country uses “Brobdingnagian” as the national word for “large”? I really hope there is an answer to this question.

4 bespoken widgets are included

I wish I knew what “bespoken” meant.

A bespoken journal fashioned around your playing sort could be yours within minutes!

Man, I really wish I knew what “bespoken” meant.

Use PhotoPressPro’s inner “Snapshots” feature to spend mountain of bespoken designs for re-use later. Create a newborn thought for every season!

Ok, I’m past bespoken. More like bewildered and befuddled.

Use the Flashfader plugin to create a bonny 984px-wide slideshow headmast, or opt to ingest your possess noise brick image.

I can add nothing to that amazing sentence.

If you’re not completely satisfied, only telecommunicate us for a flooded refund.

Oh I get it now, this guy is telecommunicating. No wonder my boss won’t let me do that.

Note: There is a judgement embedded within this post, gratify meet this place to evaluate it.

No thanks, I never gratify someone I just met.

If you know what I’m saying.

I’m proud to announce PhotoPressPro 1.2, a major upgrade that adds even more features. Many of you have been waiting very patiently for this, and for that, I am most thankful. I hope it’s worth the wait.

Simple Slideshow Header

Since PhotoPressPro launched, we’ve used the Flashfader plugin to create the header slideshow. It’s a great plugin, but as any Flashfader user probably knows, it comes with quirks; some of which can be particularly bothersome to photographers.

We’ve added a new section to the Control Panel to easily create a header slideshow, eliminating the need for a separate plugin. (Flashfader is still supported, of course.)

As the name suggests, configuration is very simple. You can configure the height of your slideshow, the number of seconds to show each image, the number of seconds to fade between each image, and an option to randomize the images. You can upload as many 984-pixel wide images as you wish, and you can change the sequence of the images.

Why do I need this?

Good question! Honestly, the main idea was to reduce the amount of support issues I’ve received with Flashfader, but there are several side benefits.

The Simple Slideshow is written in Javascript and HTML, and does not use Flash. This is nice for a few reasons.

• The entire header slideshow becomes a link to the home page, making it optional to add an additional link to the header menu.
• Millions of people enjoy using the web on devices that don’t support Flash, but do support Javascript.
• The Simple Slideshow also degrades nicely; if a visitor’s browser does not support Javascript, the first image in the list is displayed.

And keeping to the “Simple” moniker, the images you upload are never resized, cropped, or re-sampled in any way; so photographers, be assured that your image fidelity will remain fully intact.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Stats

This update adds a new Control Panel section for SEO keywords and description, and a place to enter code provided by your web stats service; allowing you to take even better control of your blog.

“Meta” keywords and description tags are important elements used by search engines to index your blog. Using unique and specific keywords will increase your chances of being found by someone searching for your exact services.

Web stats services such as Google Analytics require some JavaScript code to be added to your site. You can paste the code in the Control Panel, and it will be inserted in the footer, just above the </body> tag.

Bugs Killed

No one likes to admit it, but bugs happen. This update fixes more than a few flubs.

• If using Flashfader, the ability to change the banner height has been restored.
• Added code to remove the WordPress-generated hardcoded CSS for image galleries. Now styled like post images.
• Fixed image uploading problems on some servers, mostly Windows web hosts.
• Fixed problems with some PPP Multi-page Widget options not being recognized.
• Major and minor CSS fixes, mostly for non-post images (galleries, comments, etc), the navigation menu, and the footer. You may find the footer text slightly larger than before; this was actually a bug, so you may need to reduce the size of the footer text in your Control Panel to restore the smaller text.
• Improved styling with Internet Explorer versions 7 and up.
• Added the missing Search button back to the Search widget.

This was the biggest update yet, and I hope it’s the last for a while, aside from the always possible bug patch. I’m working on a new venture that will eventually envelop, and greatly enhance, PhotoPressPro. I shouldn’t say much now; in fact, forget I said anything. Just enter your email and we’ll remind you when the time comes.