PSitez Blog |

HTML5 vs. Hybrid Flash

Posted on July 17, 2012

We have officially launched our first, of many, HTML5 templates! If you haven’t seen it check it out at https://www.portfoliositez.com/htmlsites.php . We decided to change the format we build out in due to the high demand for a template built in the programming language html5. When building out in this new format we included some highly requested features such as a form builder, ability to upload custom fonts, advanced menu, and ability to add images/html code into the text pages. We are very proud to now offer the best hybrid flash templates on the market as well as the most advanced html5 templates for photographers!

There is a lot of talk going on about which is better, flash or html5 so we thought we’d take this opportunity to shed some light on the debate. First we will start on the flaws of each format and what we’ve done to bypass them

FLAWS OF FLASH:
* not supported across all platforms (ipad, phone, etc)
* not SEO friendly
* outdated

Our hybrid flash sites suffer from none of these flaws We have come up with a unique system that shows a beautiful presentation site in flash to visitors, while displaying a basic html site full of your content when a search engine is viewing the site. This means that as far as SEO is concerned your site IS html and all pages/content are crawlable – all without losing the professional feel of flash! We have also built two mirror sites that can accompany your template. This is even better then straight html because the mirror sites are designed specifically for the device. The IPad mirror site has special code to utilize the swipe functionality that has made IPads popular. The phone mirror site offers an easily navigated quick loading site to allow your clients to see your information quickly while on the move. Lastly the ‘flash is outdated’ argument usually is referencing flash for online video gaming, or the old school flash header look of websites. Our sites are designed by professionals to highlight your images in a multimedia presentation. Since your clients are most likely going through and looking through all the photographers in the area it is important to leave a lasting impression with your website images. When debating about the format of a site we recommend asking yourself which site a non-photographer would find more stunning and impressionable.

FLAWS OF HTML5:
* not fully supported across all browsers
* can display differently in different browsers
* Not as visually impressive and professional as flash

First, there are still some issues with cross-compatibility with HTML5, specifically, when playing media such as videos and music. We have done extensive testing and are including flash based players as backups to play the media when html5 is not fully supported. We have also done extensive testing and have created workarounds to ensure the site appears the same in all browsers. Lastly, we have been working for months to develop the perfect front-end system that utilizes html5, javascript, and advanced css to ensure we could deliver an html product that did not lose the professional presentation value our flash templates offer. We have included elegant animations, advanced sizing code (so the site can grow and shrink with the browser), and much more to accomplish a professional look and feel to help your html site stand out from countless others your clients are bound to experience within their search for the perfect photographer. We have also included some features such as the ability to share and pin images to allow your site to integrate with the social networking world of today.

BENEFITS OF OUR HYBRID FLASH TEMPLATES:
* beautiful high-end presentation of your images
* as SEO friendly as html sites
* mirror sites designed specifically for the ipad/phone to give your user a truly unique experience
* built in client proofing

BENEFITS OF OUR HTML5 TEMPLATES:
* new features and more social networking integration
* ability to upload custom fonts
* beautiful animation and presentation so it doesn’t feel like an outdated html site
* SEO friendly
* free updates for bug fixes and new features

As you can see you cannot go wrong with either portfolio website product. We recommend choosing based on the template design you like, which features fit your needs better, and of course going with whatever format you personally find more appealing.

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Just For Fun : Summer Treasure Hunt

Posted on June 25, 2012

Every year our family goes to Lake Mcconaughy in Nebraska with our friends. It is always a blast with the beach, water floats, and campfires. The kids are getting older so this year I decided to create a fun treasure hunt for the kids to do. The majority of kids that go with us are between 4 and 5 years old, so I wanted to create a treasure hunt that was exciting enough to keep their attention and long enough for the older kids to still have fun. The first step was creating the map paper.

STEP 1: CREATE THE TREASURE MAP PAPER

To create the paper I did a lot of research online. I found the following to be the way to create the most realistic paper out of all the methods I tried.
1. On a regular white piece of paper print the look of the map you’d like. For this I went into photoshop and created a parchment paper graphic layer. I then went online and found some free hand-sketched pirate drawings of ships, pirates, and treasures that were free for non-commercial use. Once I created a really cool looking graphic I printed full bleed on the paper.

2. I pre-heated the oven to 225 degrees and took out 2 shallow pans.

3. I used heated black coffee and two hot tea bags (blackberry and wildberry) sitting in small cups with some hot water.

4. I placed a piece of the printed paper face down into the first shallow pan and painted it with the tea bags (using the bags) and coffee (using a brush) until every part of the paper was covered. I let some drops of the coffee/tea remain for a few seconds before wiping and distributing to make a little more realistic of a look.

5. I then took some vegetable oil and painted it on sparingly. This oil will make certain spots look a little see through and more like old fashioned paper

5. Once covered with coffee/tea I took the piece of paper and placed it into the second pan and put it in the oven at 225 degrees for roughly 2-4 minutes (checking every once in a while) until it looked fairly dry.

6. I then tore away the edges and took out a lighter and burned around all the edges.

one of the treasure map clues

STEP 2: FIGURING OUT THE HUNT CLUES

After I figured out the way to do the paper to my liking I needed to plan for the hunt itself. At the lake we get to drive down on the beach and camp anywhere so I needed to come up with clues that allowed for any location along the beach. I also wanted something that had a little challenge to it that ensured they would want to find all the clues. At the bottom of each clue I wrote a number. When they got the map they had to add all those numbers together to get how many steps it was to the buried treasure. This is what I came up with:

Clue 1: This clue I told them I have found and told them the location:
you are close to my treasure
I’d hate for it to go to waste
but be careful matey
this is a challenge you’ve never faced

There is a map in the end
but first for the clues
collect all of them
or the treasure you’ll lose

Each clue contains a number
which helps find the treasure
you’ll need to get them all
in order to measure…

the first clue is hidden
near one of the tables
get low to uncover it
if you are able

Clue 2: They found this clue slightly buried underneath the table
Your smarts are impressive
the clue you have found!
the next clue needs a giant
for its high off the ground

grab a tall giant
you will need him to reach
for the next clue is hanging
off a pole on the beach

Reading the clue while Rusty looked up to inspect where the clue was hidden

Clue 3: After they grabbed a tall adult they were able to reach the clue hidden in the poles of the EZ-Up.
you have succeeded
in finding the clue
attached is a magic crane
here’s what you have to do

find 10 cranes
hidden around here
give them to the bearded wiseman,
he will have the next clue there

Rusty showing the cranes he had found

reading the clue

Clue 4: After they found the 10 origami cranes we hid in the ‘skeleton forest’ they handed them to my Dad who gave them the next clue.
you are proving wise
now grab the swords to prepare
go to tree where the flag flies
and beware of the scare
that is where the map lies
and I have left a pirate guardian there

When they were finding the cranes my husband went to a far tree and hung a big pirate flag. They were given each a sword (a blow up snake sword from Amazon) and proceeded to the tree to defeat the guardian pirate (my husband who had a pirate sword and hat) who was holding the treasure map.

righting off the pirate guardian

Success, they've got the map!

STEP 3: THE TREASURE

The night before the treasure hunt we went out and buried the treasure box in the sand. The next day when the kids weren’t around I took out one of my spare sheets of treasure map paper I made and drew the map to where we buried it from where they would fight the pirate guardian. One thing we will improve upon for next time is being a little more exact with where we buried the treasure. The kids had to dig in a fairly large radius from the amount of steps they took to find it

The treasure map

digging for the treasure!

Opening the treasure box

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Migration of Servers 5, 6, 9 and Our Company Server

Posted on April 25, 2012

We were recently notified by our hosting company that they need to move a few of our servers as the area they are in is set to be permanently closed April 30th. If your site is on one of the servers you should have received an email yesterday explaining how this would affect your service with us. In case anyone missed it the details are below.

For everyone else, our company server is also being migrated. When the DNS changes start propagating there is a chance we will lose some emails or tickets. If you do not hear from us within 24 hours please contact us again.

In the next few days we will be working on migrating your services to a new server. The copy over will begin Thursday, April 26th and they have told us it will be complete by Friday, April 27th.

How this will affect you:

1) There will not be downtime for your site. We will not be migrating accounts during high traffic times and your site will remain up on the current server while the domains propagate to the new server.

2) The IP address for your server will change. This means the temp link you were given in your welcome email, if it has a series of numbers in it, will not work. To edit your site you should be using the following format: http://www.yourdomainname.com/sitezadmin

3) This IP address change will affect any third party programs you are using on our server, such as machforms or blogsites. If these stop working after the migration please make sure to contact us at support@portfoliositez.com and we will fix it for you. Please DO NOT attempt to fix it yourself as these changes can be difficult and often create larger issues if you do not know what you are doing.

4) We recommend not making any changes to your site during the migration. If changes are made to your site during the migration they will not appear when the domains propagate to the new server and you will need to make those changes again.

We will be updating the News area of our support (http://portfoliositez.com/support/index.php?_m=news&_a=view) with the progress of the migration. Look for “Sitezhosting5.com Migration,” “Sitezhosting6.com Migration,” or “Sitezhosting9.com Migration” for information on your move. There you will find when we started the migration, when it was finished and what your new IP address is.

If you have any questions or concerns about the move please email us at support@portfoliositez.com. Thanks!

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Restoring Images and Operation Photo Rescue

Posted on April 19, 2012

OK so it is possible I overestimated the amount of time we would have to do these projects. Once a week was optimistic but I can promise we will try to do these as often as we can.

For now, I wanted to call to your attention an organization I sometimes volunteer with, it is called Operation Photo Rescue. I started working with them when I was in school and they were looking for volunteers to help restore photos for victims of hurricane Katrina.

Restoring images are a great way to get comfortable with using your cloning tool in Photoshop, not to mention color correction. The best resource I have found for restorations is Photoshop Restoration and Retouching by Katrin Eismann. Chapter 6 in that book is dedicated to “Damage Control and Repair.” I have used that chapter so much that the book simply opens to it now when I drop it on my desk. The main tools I use are the Clone Stamp, Quick Mask, the Warp option of the Transform tool and the lens correction filter. If you know how to use those tools you can do your own restorations for your family or friends or volunteer to keep those skills sharp! I would also recommend checking out OPR’s site as they also have a great archive of tutorials from other volunteers.

Below is an example of one of the restorations I did for a family friend. The best tip I picked up from this one was selecting the color channel with the fewest imperfections, in this case it was red, and then dumping the rest of the color channels when I set the image mode to grayscale. This gave me a much easier jumping off point than the before shows.

More amazing examples of restorations from OPR:

Operation Photo Rescue. “The Wedding.” Posted by Bambi. January 15, 2012.

Operation Photo Rescue. “Lady in Vest.” Posted by Lisarose. March 4, 2012.

Operation Photo Rescue. “Christmas in B&W.” Posted by glennab. December 19, 2010.

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Photoshop Before and Afters

Posted on April 6, 2012

In a perfect world all the photos we take would look inspired SOOC (Straight out of camera). Photography is an art form. When I take a photo of a family or child I try my hardest to capture their laugh or a particularly telling look that reflects the essence of their personality. Most of the time my SOOC shots are not doing the captured moment justice and could use some artistic touches from Photoshop. This is why I’ve decided to do a series of before/after shots for inspiration. Post processing images can be very time consuming which is why I have invested in a couple Photoshop action sets. Actions allow you to perfect your images MUCH quicker then doing each subtle change to the image from scratch. My absolute favorite actions of all time are the ones from Paint The Moon at http://paintthemoon.net/blog/ . I’ve invested in the The Essentials, Fresh, Blessings, and Moxie sets. They range from standard photo correction actions to fun actions that can turn any photo into a beautiful piece of art ready for framing. A lot of the actions allow the photos to be more artistic which works great for printing on canvas. Another good set is the Totally Rad actions at http://www.gettotallyrad.com/ .

I’ve chosen 6 images for my first set to highlight. I always love looking at before and afters so feel free to share your own on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/portfoliositez

SOOC Original

PTM Super Sharp, Totally Rad ProRetouch, PTM Brighten and Tone, PTM Simple Pop, TRA2 BurnOut

SOOC original

TRA2 Punch Out!!!, TRA2 Claire-ify

SOOC Original

Totally Rad ProRetouch, PTM Brighten and Tone

SOOC Original

Totally Rad ProRetouch, TRA2- Claire-ify, PTM Brighten and Tone, Adjusted Vibrance and Saturation, PTM Heist

SOOC Original

Totally Rad ProRetouch, PTM Brightness and Tone, PTM Ambience, PTM Hushed Softness

SOOC Original

PTM Recover Highlights, PTM Heist

PTM Recover Highlights, PTM Skin Friendly Color Enhance, PTM Pop My Flare!, TRA2 BurnOut

The last example was how to create a different feel with the image depending on the post processing. The first processed one would be great for a white matted frame. The second with the pops of color would look excellent printed on metal as more of an art piece.

If you’d like to see more just let us know.

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