I used the CRG gallery extensively in my Corporate/Industrial photography business and loved it! Of the several parts of it that I thought were the best, was being able to “frame” the thumbnails with the color coding that I had put on various images in the LR. For instance, whenever I did multiple images of the same setup or portrait, I would select the images that I thought were the best, I would mark them with the purple color tag in LR and that tag would carry over to the CRG web gallery so that the client could see which images I thought were the best.
That was something that I felt was an important add on service for them, they could then use their “political” knowledge about the people in the image and the situation represented either to go with the images I had pre-selected for them or choose another one more appropriate for their situation. I don’t remember if it was the CE4 version or an earlier one, but I was using it in the 2000’s and well into the 2010’s.
I “semi-retired” in 2014 because of a health scare [no longer applicable, as in total remission now] but in the last 6 or so years and with LR moving to a subscription model, I have lost track of that template.
Would that template still work with LR v11 and is there anyway for me to get a copy of it again? Or would I have to get the Backlight template and do a great deal of modification to it to get all of the original features that I loved?
color labels set in Lightroom can be shown in Backlight albums.
Framing with color is no longer used; it’s now a colored icon (the icon itself should be replaceable with custom css)
CE4, while it still works, is no longer supported and it may have issues with newer versions of php.
Backlight is compatible with the newer versions of php.
BL4 Client Response is also an improvement over CE4. I doubt you would need to do much, if any, modification.
You would need to create your clients and set up feedback profiles as I don’t believe there is a way to migrate those settings from CE4.
Further upon Rod’s points, the Client Response Add-on for Backlight is much improved over CE4, definitely. Also, I cannot guarantee our older plugins will continue to work in Lightroom Classic. Given Adobe’s lack of concern for the Web module, we have long since stopped supporting it. Many of our older plugins simply stopped working, for reasons I was never able to discern, and I’m not sure the current status of CE4 in the current Lightroom.
Rod and Matthew [and anyone else who may step into this question],
Thank you so much for the guidance! I have now purchased Backlight and the CR module but I’m stalled right now. Firstly, because it’s the end of the semester and I am locked down finishing up grades for my classes and secondly because I don’t know how to install BL and the module!
Your instructions say “1. Log into your Backlight admin.” and I don’t even know how or where “BL admin” is located! Talk about NOT being a techie! I really am just a photographer. ;-). And I may have other really simple questions as I make my own design [although that is less likely after I get into it!].
Again, I really appreciate the assistance and as stated before, TTG has always been my go-to place for the web galleries!
Rob,
I’m not upgrading from a previous version of Backlight or from CE4 so I don’t believe that document on upgrading is important. I am using Transmit to get into my ftp so do I simply drag the Backlight-4-Installer-116(1) folder with the files off my desktop and just put the folder inside the admin folder?
I’ve watched the video that Matthew has suggested and I have the four items from the download in my admin folder, but when I go back out of Transmit and try “Step 2: Run the Installer” I simply get the message
“Oops
We were unable to locate the page you requested” so something is not working correctly or I’ve got the four items in the wrong place. As I’ve said I know nothing about coding or any of the items you and many of your clients seem to know, And I want to get this gallery up and working so that I can help my clients get to their work that I’ve shot for them.
Nat
Just use the normal installation outlined in that document. You must first unzip the zipped folder you received from TTG.
Upload the four unzipped items to the root of your site. unless it’s a WordPress site. Then don’t upload the index.php or .htaccess files.
Sounds like the problem is you’re putting the files into the wrong location. As Rod says, upload to the root of your site, not into any folder. If you do upload into a folder (not recommended), then you will need to adjust the login address accordingly.
Matthew & Rod,
I really appreciate you folks hanging in there with me on this! I desperately want to be using Backlight as a web gallery template but I’m afraid I simply don’t know the words that you are using because I’m not a techie!
I’ve been opening up my ftp site as the place to “install” the pieces of Backlight and I guess from what you are saying Matthew, that ain’t the place to do it.
Where is the root of my site? And how to I get there?
I have a screen grab of the window of my ftp but I guess that isn’t where it goes …
See the installation document. Under Step 1 it tells you to upload to the root of your site, which is typically the public_html folder.
Your FTP program may already be set to enter your public_html folder (or whatever folder your host is using.
In the doc linked to above, click on the link named Introduction to FTP (also under Step 1), it will outline a lot more about the root of your site.
You can simply paste a screen shot into you posts.
Rod,
I have read the Installation & Setup, The Introduction to FTP and watched to video but I have no idea where the root is because I cannot find any of the files that are named public_html or any of the other files referred to in the doc or the video. cAn you just point it out to me in the attached photo of the Transmit page?
Nat
As Rod says, you should ask your host. Every host sets up their servers a bit differently. On some hosts, there’s a public_html folder; on other hosts, the folder will have a different name, or the server will be organized altogether differently. What you’re looking for is the “public root” folder, which is basically the location you’d land in if you were to enter your domain name in a web browser. natclymer.com will hit either an index.html or index.php file in your root folder. Which is to say that natclymer.com and natclymer.com/index.php are equivalent; they would land you in the same place.
Matthew and Rod,
I have just gotten my MacBook back from repair [needed a new battery] and have finished with my grading so I’m back to attempting to install Blacklight 4 again. I have a call into my ISP to find the “root” so I should be able to get everything where it’s supposed to be but I have one large over riding question. I am not trying to create a whole website with Blacklight, I am just looking to use it as a web gallery for present clients to look at and select their picks from a shoot. When it is installed in the root of my site, will I be able to get to it from within LightRoom’s Web Module? And if so, will I be able to modify it to look like my business with logo at the top etc., etc.
Thanks in advance …
Short answers: yes, and yes. (Edit: LIghtroom Publisher, not the Web Module - as Daniel points out)
Do you already have a non-Backlight site running and you only want to use Backlight for your albums?
If so, when you go to install, do not upload the index.php and the .htaccess files found in the root of the unzipped Backlight-4-Installer-xxx.zip file. Just upload the backlight/ folder and the galleries/ folder.
(assuming you don’t already have a galleries/ folder in the root of your site).
With the design tools in Backlight, you should be able to come pretty close to whatever design you already have.
To get started, you might want to look at some of Matt’s videos over on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MatthewCampagna1978/videos. While some things might look a bit different in Backlight 4, I would start watching everything starting from Backlight 2.
When it is installed in the root of my site, will I be able to get to it from within LightRoom’s Web Module
Lightroom’s Web Module is not used anymore. All the design work is done on yoursite.com/backlight. This is so much better. The videos will show you well how this is done. You can use Lightroom’s Publisher to manage the content of your galleries, or use Backlight Publisher web module.
If you have new questions, I would suggest to open a new thread.
