Were you publishing images via the Backlight publisher rather than Lightroom publisher?
No, I published them via LR.
Then the watermarks you set in Backlight will not be applied. That is only for images published via the Backlight Publisher.
Ah, there’s an option in settings:
Publish Master Renditions from Lightroom
This enables Backlight to create image renditions from the Lightroom published photos, and would therefore allow Backlight to apply the watermarks. I believe this option needs to be enabled.
Thank you, problem solved.
Apparently I need more hand holding. For the first time in several years, probably BL1, I decided to update the size of my images and thumbnails. I use LR to do the publishing, New larger images and thumbnails look good but I have also managed to loose all of my watermarks. Worked my way though the discourse here without result.
-Publishing from LR, v6.0.2, tried redownloading and reinstalling
-Rechecked the Watermark image, same for several years, LR exports using HD export with Watermark without problem, also uploaded .png to BL4
-Tried using a different image for the BL watermark, no help
-Turned on “Publish Master Renditions from Lightroom” no help, off again, still no help
-When PMRFL is on, a new directory is created on the server /master that contains images without a watermark, the photos and thumbnails images also do not contain a watermark either when downloaded from the server or when viewed on the website. Sizes on the server are 1016.6KB, 737.23KB and 344.43KB respectively.
-Tried publishing without watermark from LR and turned on BL Watermark in album template with PMRFL on, no help
-cleared cache, history, reloaded browser and BL multiple times
Not sure where to go from here. I intrinsically like the idea of uploading a single image and letting BL to the work of generating images but not yet sure of the result, I am just not sure as there is not an opacity setting like LR.
Thanks,
After turning on watermarking in Backlight, did you republish images?
I think that the watermarking in Backlight occurs just after the master images are uploaded. So you may need to publish again
Yes. Republished. Made sure the check boxes were unchecked to force images to reupload. Indeed the server shows the new “/master” subdirectory.
Tried both with LR watermarks turned on and off as well as BL watermark on and off.
Also tried an “in your face” watermark image to make sure it wasn’t being applied but not visible due to an odd opacity setting problem.
In your album template, have you both configured watermarks and enabled watermarking for photos and thumbnails in the Image Renditions section?
Yes to both. Just republished with LR turned off and BL on with both activated and using bold watermark.
Technical question? When I look at the image files on the server, Should I see a watermark on the images in the photos and now thumbnail directories? And not on images in the /master directory?
Yes, as long as you set the album template to create them.
Just a thought, can you double check that the album template you’re changing is the same one being used by the album?
Chuckle. That thought also crossed my mind. Alas, I don’t seem to have done anything foolish there.
I let the whole affair simmer overnight. Looking at it with fresh eyes. I now have three subdirectories on the server. /master, without watermark. /photos, with watermark. /thumbnails, with watermark. that part now seem to be working.
Still do not see the watermark on the webpage images. Tried clearing the cache and clearing browser history on Chrome, Firefox and MS Edge. and logging out of BL and re-logging in. Also tried clearing any hosting caches such as CloudFlare. This last was a hail Mary as the image dates and times are updated very quickly and the download images have the watermark… Didn’t help.
When I use the BL built-in download tool, the downloaded image has a watermark. If I right-click on an image and save, it is is saved without the watermark and none of the thumbnails, either as presented or as right-click downloaded have a watermark.
In summary,
- BL watermark application to LR uploaded images seems to be working
- I can see 3 subdirectories on the server and the watermark is applied to /photos and to /thumbnails
-The web page still presents images without a watermark and those can be downloaded with a right-click.
Thoughts?
Can you post a link to an album?
Further troubleshooting. I think I may have better isolated the problem. Seems to be related to updating existing galleries. BL watermark turned on and LR watermark turned off Everything published with LR.
-
New album - creates the correct images in the /photos and /thumbnails directories and displays the correct watermarked photo and thumbnail https://jamesherman.net/galleries/travel-testing/
-
Previously published album - republished with correct LR settings to reupload images, generates the correct images in the 3 subdirectories, but displays the unwatermarked photo and thumbnail
-
Removed images from previously published album, published, checked server and 3 directories are empty, add images back and publish. Now correct images are in the 3 subdirectories but site displays no watermark on thumbnail and duplicated watermark on image. Downloaded image has correct watermark. https://jamesherman.net/galleries/ytravel-with-a-carry-on/
This is strange. When I look at the album linked to for this point, I’m seeing watermarks on the thumbnails and only a single watermark on the large images.
Let me guess. You are using an Apple product.
Works - meaning thumbnails and images load with correct watermark
Tried on multiple browsers on multiple OS’s, again tried clearing browser history for each.
Works:
iPhone Safari
iPhone Chrome
iPhone Firefox
Doesn’t work:
Android Silk? OS browser
Android Firefox
WIn Edge
WIn Edge InPrivate
WIn Firefox
WIn Chrome
WIn Chrome Incognito
WIn 2 Edge
WIn 2 Edge InPrivate
WIn 2 irefox
WIn 2 Chrome
WIn 2 Chrome Incognito
I have a Windows machine. I was using Firefox when I last looked
Thanks Rod for your patience. Everything seems to be working now. One of those frustrating issues where I apparently became involved in some server, mine or otherwise, caching issue while updating the image and thumbnail sizes on my entire site. I have concluded this was the primary issue and allowing time to to allow caches to flush was the resolution.
Further experimentation, for example, revealed that small albums, less than about 20 images, (lazy loading is set at 15 -default) the site serves up previously cached images of my old 168 px resolution and no watermarks on the thumbnails and older smaller photos. Particularly prevalent on albums which had recently been accessed. Large albums, much more than 20 images, initially load thumbnails without a watermark and as lazy loading progresses the watermarks begin to appear. Could this be a phenomenon related to the evolution of AI predictive algorithms promoted by Amazon, Google and others? Possibly. Helpful with site presentation, not so much with development. I now am being taught patience grasshopper.
While trying to troubleshoot the problem I also worked through changing from LR watermarks to BL watermarks. This post and Rod helped sort out using BL to apply watermarks which I am going to stay with. Matt’s comment regarding a potential upload speed improvement, particularly with larger image and thumbnail sizes, by letting LR upload a single image and BL generate appropriate photo and thumbnail renditions on the backend seems appealing.
Lastly, I chose to increase the size of my thumbnails for better look and feel on high resolution displays. Full implementation of lazy loading of the thumbnail images and improved internet speeds make this possible. Also the first time I considered how a watermark on thumbnail images would look. All of this was prompted by the lousy look of my first experiments with the new Journal albumset templates which used existing thumbnails. Topic for another thread.
Egypt favorites with larger thumbnails and images with watermarks
Thanks again all.
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This what makes Backlight a true user community. Support to the end with sharing.
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Here we are 2 years later and I spent a morning rehashing an old problem. I have 5 separate LR publisher instances for different segments of my website - why? Mostly historical dating back to CE or before. Today I found a collection of albums with duplicated watermarks and only after several hours decided to search the forum. Found this thread, embarrassingly, I was a contributor - problem solved shortly thereafter.
I had neglected to remove the LR publisher checkbox and had both LR and BL adding watermarks. Easy enough to fix - this thread and today’s exercise drove home the importance of clearing the browser image cache … Again.
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