Watermarks in Kookaburra

Backlight 4, 5 & 6 Support
#1

My adventures with Kookaburra, after a bit of stumbling, are producing satisfactory results now. I am mainly looking into producing a clean slideshow, which mostly works now. I found an issue though with Watermarks. Loading the file to my website with the Kookaburra template through TTG Publisher, I check the box in Edit Albums/Features to apply the Watermark as Managed by Lightroom, but then nothing happens. I also exhausted other options like choosing a specific watermark file, to no avail.
If however I do the same upload with Pangolin, the watermarks will show up in the slideshow. And starting from there I found a workaround for this issue: first produce the contents with Pangolin. Then change the template in Edit Album to Kookaburra and presto! the watermarks are still there and stay there. For anyone who’s interested.

Example: Portfolio - Wim's Photo Galleries

#2

That sounds like something that would happen if Lightroom Publisher is set to “Push metadata without updating existing photos”

#3

I have never used that option. The only one checked is: ‘Show albums in browser after publishing’, which it does…

#4

I just published a Kookaburra album that includes watermarks. No problems at all.
Is your installation of Backlight and the Publisher plug-in up to date?

#5

A few things to comment on here.

  1. I have Backlight-native watermarking on my short list for upcoming work on Kookaburra.

  2. Lightroom watermarking I would expect to just work; whether Pangolin or Kookaburra ought to have nothing to do with it.

  3. Kookaburra has a different rendition set than Pangolin. Kookaburra prefers to receive 2x images, and will use them to set up srcset attributes for high-resolution displays. Meaning if you want images at 1024, then Kookaburra asks for images at 2048. Pangolin does not do this. Kookaburra is backwards compatible with Pangolin, and will accept its images, but then you don’t get the srcset benefits. All this to say, I do not recommend publishing with Pangolin, then switching to Kookaburra; you can do it, but you lose a little something in doing so.

#6

I know that Lightroom and the Backlight 6 modules are up to date. The Publisher plug-in is at 8.0.2, but I cannot check if this is the latest version, because “https://get.theturninggate.net” is down right now. I will try again later.

#7

To Matthew: I think I understood your instructions for Kokaburra in setting the slideshow page width at 2048 and the Album image rendition at 4056. Large files uploaded for large screens. Is that the way to do it?

As to publishing with Pangolin and then switching to Kookaburra: when making the switch I simply republish the whole album again. A bit bothersome but it works for me now and the watermarks stay.

#8

To Rod: I don’t know what happened, but it works now. Weird. And thanks for your time.

#9

Any Apple device with a “Retina” display – and at this point, nearly any mobile device currently available; I’m not sure the state of displays on Windows laptops – wants at least a 2x image for best image clarity.

4056 is going to lead to heavy files, though. Even if you upload images at 1.5x, that would be an improvement, if file size is going to be of concern.

#10

o.k. thanks. Will try.