On-line viewing
Upload a session for on-line viewing
Upload a photo session with optional high res images. The high res images allow you to use the zoom tool. This is especially nice when viewing a larger group such as a generations photo or sports group photo.
TIP: Test every session before you tell customers how to check them online to eliminate additional phone calls. Allows you time to upload that session and test before giving a date they will be posted and session ID in case regular activities prevent you from getting a session uploaded. Life happens.
Overview
These instructions assume that you have a folder containing the original images and that you can locate and access this folder from the computer you are sitting at.
Your photos must already be in the correct orientation (upright) before beginning the processes below. Use only alphanumeric characters (a-z and 0-9). Do not use spaces, symbols, or any other special characters if you are renaming your images. Leaving images with their raw image file name with underscores is acceptable just make sure that images DO NOT start with a dash or underscore.
If you have Adobe Photoshop CS4 or CS5 and you have not yet installed the Web Photo Gallery plugin, please visit this page first.
Uploading Proofs - The process will include doing the following:
1. Process your original images using the Web Photo gallery feature of Photoshop.
2. Optional to include high resolution images to enable the zoom feature in the Marketing Control Site panel. The zoom feature may not be available for some systems so please contact Marathon if you are interest in upgrading. (see a demo of the new session sytem)
3. Upload the images created by the Web Photo Gallery into the proofs folder of your FTP site.
4. Test the session to make sure that it is working properly.
Requirements
- Adobe Photoshop version 5.5 or above.
- FTP program
A 30-day trial version of CuteFTP is available for download from cuteftp.com. Other image manipulation and FTP software may be used, however the instructions were prepared with this program in mind. For other suggested programs to use when resizing your images, please click here.
STEP 1 - Process the Images
1.1 Create a new folder (i.e. on your Desktop or in your My Documents folder).
- Use only alphanumeric characters (a-z and 0-9)
- Do not use spaces, underscores, dashes or any other special characters when naming your session folder.
- We recommend that you use only lowercase letters.
- The name of this folder is the Session ID or password you will be giving to your client.
- The Session ID is case-sensitive.
1.2 Open Adobe Photoshop.
1.3 In Photoshop, click the File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery menu item.
The Web Photo Gallery window should be displayed. The very top of this window has a "Styles" drop-down menu. By default is it set to Centered Frame 1 - Basic. Since you will be resizing images taller than 450px, you will want to change this to Simple.
1.4 In the Web Photo Gallery window click the Browse button (Windows) or the Choose button (Mac).
1.5 Locate and select the folder containing the original images, then click the OK button (Windows) or the Choose button (Mac).
1.6 Click the Destination button.
1.7 Locate and select the folder created in Step 1.1, then click the OK button (Windows) or the Choose button (Mac).
1.8 Click the Options drop-down menu and select the Large Images option.
1.9 Set the size for the large images in pixels.
We recommend Large Images be sized to 525px high or 800px wide (no wider that 925px with other software editing programs).
1.10 Click the Options drop-down menu again and select the Thumbnails option.
1.11 Set the size for the thumbnails in pixels.
We recommend Thumbnails sized to 110 pixels.
1.12 If you want to embed a watermark in your images before posting them to the public, click the Options drop-down menu and select the Security option. Now you can select Custom Text setting or any of the other options. Then you can position the watermark and even change the font color and it's opacity. Highly recommended if you want to protect your images by placing your own watermark than using the session default.
1.13 Click the OK button to begin processing the images.
A web browser window will open to display a preview of the gallery once Photoshop has finished processing your images. You can close this window.
STEP 2 - Create High Res Images
This option is not available for all session proofing systems. If your session login page asks for the email address AND the session ID then you can proceed with sizing high res images. If not, please skip to step 3 or ask about upgrading your system. If you are not sure if your system has this option available, please contact an internet service representative at 800-228-0629.
If you want to use the zoom feature when viewing session images click here to follow instructions on how to create high res images. If not, you can skip to STEP 3.
STEP 3 - Upload the Images
3.1 Open CuteFTP.
3.2 Connect to your FTP site.
The following information is needed to connect to your FTP site:
- Host name, also referred to as host address
- User name
- Password
Please contact Marathon Internet Services Customer Support at 800-228-0629 to obtain this information if you do not already have it.
3.3 Once connected, locate and open the proofs folder by double-clicking on the folder icon labeled proofs.
3.4 Upload the folder created in Step 1.1 into the Proofs folder.
Select the folder to upload on the left and then click the Upload button at the top of the window. You MUST be withing the PROOFS folder before you click the upload button. Otherwise the folder with fall outside the folder and the session ID will not work. Very important to test every session before giving out the session ID/password to your customers.
STEP 4 - Test the Session
If your login screen simply asks for the Session ID then just key in the new session name and make sure you can view thumbnails and large images. You are done!
If your login screen asks for email address AND Session ID continue with the steps below to refresh the newly uploaded images.
4.1 Login to your MCS site at https://mcs.marathonpress.com .
Once logged in click on Web button in the upper right. Then click on the Session Proofing text link and then click Sessions.
4.2 Find the new folder you just created and click the word 'refresh' to now populate the number of images you just uploaded via FTP.
4.3 Now you can open your web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc..) and go to the Session Proofing login page on your website.
4.4 Type in your email address and the name of the folder created in Step 1.1 into the Session ID field.
4.5 Click the Submit button.
4.6 You should now be viewing the proofs.
If for some reason you do not see your images, please contact Marathon Internet Services Customer Support at 800-228-0629 for assistance.
Marathon also offers a Shopping Cart feature with your session viewing. Please ask about adding this feature to your online session viewing area. Allows for your clients to view images and order them online. You will receive an email confirmation when orders have been placed.
Categorized In: high resolution images | resizing | session proofing | session uploading
