[Mike Reilley]

The Photography Contest part of MLS looks to be back up...but it's got a problem that needs a fix.  What I see now is a site design that allows 9 photos per page...then there's a next page button to get to more photos.  The problem I'm having is that the order the photos are placed on each page is RANDOM.  

What that means when you're viewing the photos, is that they move...not only within a page...but from one page to another.  This makes reviewing all the submitted photos very difficult as you can't just go from one to another without remembering what you've already looked at...kinda frustrating.  Reminds me of the WACK A MOLE game.  I expect that when the picture count per month gets in the 20s and 30s, it will be very hard to be assured you've viewed all the photos...they'll scramble too often.

Recommend that the RANDOM order display be shut off....or put all the pictures on one page and let us scroll down.  Better yet, a slide show presentation option would be even better.  Not sure which is best...or how much work this takes...but as it is, it's not working very well for the intended purpose.

 

[altterrain]

Aw, c'mon Mike! Its just a photo contest and memory game all in one. Concentration anyone?

-Brian

 

[Mike Reilley]

Yeah....but in Concentration, the pictures don't move.

 

[noelw]

You are right Mike.... I lost mine on a few tries. Backing out and back in again, then it came up but hard to see any details ??

Looks like mine was taken next door or over the neighbors fence.. ... hahahahha

Is there some way to hit on photos and enlarge them ?? or maybe I need to make close up photos and not distance views ??

Shad must be still working out the bugs yet I guess..

 

[altterrain]

I went and looked at them and did not have the problem you described. I went a looked at the large pic and hit back and returned to the page as it was. Same when I went to page 2. I'm running Firefox here is that makes a difference. The enlarged pics were small at only 400 pixels wide though, too small for a photo contest.

-Brian

 

[desertrat53]

I too am running Mozilla Firefox and if I use my browser's 'back' function, I return to the same page order of that page;  similarly, after moving to the next page, I return to that page's photos.  However, if I select "view contest" they do come back in a different order.   Also, on Firefox, select the picture (which enlarges it somewhat), then try right-clicking on the photo, then select 'view image'  then from the drop down under 'file' select 'print preview' and select a percentage range under 'scale' by which to view the picture.  This allows a big improvement size-wise of the photo (although it may be of slightly lesser quality, depending on the percentage you select).  Just remember to re-select 'shrink-to-fit' under 'scale' so your next actual print job will not be outrageously huge!  Sound confusing?   it actually is a neat way to select any photo off the web and enlarge it for viewing, or by selecting other options, you can save it in your photo files. 

But, bottom line is: glad to have the photo contest back!!!!!!

 

[Becky Francis]

I'm running FF  they didn't move around using the back button.  When I went completely out of the contest and then went back to view they were in a different order.

Becky

 

[Semper Vaporo]

The "Back" button MIGHT just re-display the page that you previously viewed without re-accessing the web site server, showing what has already been downloaded into your computer's temporary internet directory (Cache).  Thus the photos MIGHT not change.  If there is a page selector list on the pages and you click on Page 2 and then Page 1, that will cause the browser to re-access the server and it may then send you a "new" arrangement of photos, (assumming the server is actually randomizing the photos on each page from the total list of photos).

The "Forward" button will do likewise.  If you start on Page 1 and then go to Page 2, the back button MIGHT just show the original Page 1 you saw before and then the "Forward" button MIGHT take you to the original Page 2 you saw.  Of course, the randomizer function may have randomly selected the same photos in the same order for the original Page 2 as the original Page 1 so it is conceivable that you will only see the page number change! (not very likely, but possible).

You MIGHT be able to alternately click the "Back" and "Forward" buttons and see the same two pages repeatedly.

I capitalized "MIGHT" up there because there are settings that you can make to your browser that will cause it to always re-access the web site when using the BACK and FORWARD buttons, regardless of what is in the cache. So, if your particular setup has the brower reloading each page, then you may see new photos each time, no matter what.

 

[ShadsTrains]

I've set the layout up so that all entries will show up on one page. That should eliminate the multi page browsing issue. As far as different order on that one page, it'll have to be that way for now. I've submitted a feature request to the developer to have the option of displaying the entries in the order they were submitted. That should prevent the jumping around. I just don't know what the timeline would be if it happens at all.

 

[jimtyp]

Shad, why are the photos so small? The old site showed pics bigger. Some of these are so small I can't tell what they are?

I'm not referring to the initial thumbnails but after you click on the pic it gets bigger but still small.

 

[noelw]

Just testing and cking and see if i can copy my photo and bring it back to my hard drive to see the photo using Infranview can make it larger to see the detail..
Look like the photo contest program changes it from.. Dim (pixels.)size 3264 X 2448 ( 3.10 mb. ) to Dim.(pixels) size 400X 300  (39.0 kb.) then i copyed it and put it  in a file back on my  hard drive,  then use Infranview to see what the photo looked like to get it larger.  Nope bad..... So that didn't work.. It had to be twice as small to get any good detail back out of photo when back on my hard dr...   
Looks like to get a good photo is to make close up with not  a lot of bits.  and set camera down to smaller pixels.. that seams to work ok.. 
OOps I forgot.. maybe i should change my photo  to 640 X 480 pix  and bring the Bits down to 400kbs ... then upload it to my site...That may look better.. Need to try that now. Will delete the bad photo off that is showing.   and insert a close up photo.. see if that not better....Are we have fun yet??? Least we are able to show photos again.  Tks. Shad.
Any one else tried any thing yet???? 
Any other Idels?/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif

New close up is much better.. 

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Noel, once your picture was reduced in quality via the web site, you cannot "get" it back. JPG is a compression algorithm, and once the data is gone, it's gone.

Basically, keep the picture at high resolution and high color depth. Then you crop it to the dimensions you want in pixels, THEN you play with the compression ratio. I don't know what the forum rules are to process prictures, and file size limit. There are two things at work here.

Regards, Greg

 

[noelw]

Tks Greg..
 I see that.             ....Best way to really see a good close up, is to up load to a web site and just make a link to it.  Contest is just is difference type of program like you said.  It does what it supposed to do. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif
Very interesting...

Mike R.      
tks for bring this up..Learn a lot of stuff from this post.  Noel