Category: Digital Workflow

Explore the tools, software, and techniques that streamline a photographer’s post-shoot process. From editing and culling to firmware updates and gallery delivery, this category offers insights into building an efficient and reliable digital workflow.

How To Fix NextGen Gallery Pro Thumbnail Sharpness?
Update 2025 JUN #1 – The bug that affects the gallery thumbnail sharpness on retina screen devices has been fixed. NextGen Pro users, you may download the latest NGG Pro plugin from your Imagely profile, the latest version shall be 3.31.8.
Update 2025 JAN #1 – There is a reported bug that affects the gallery thumbnail sharpness on retina screens. At the moment, Imagely team does not have any workaround/solution to resolve the issue. For NextGen Pro users, please kindly log support tickets to the Imagely team so that they could prioritize the fix on this issue.
I use the NextGen Gallery Pro for my portfolio showcase, to be exact, the Pro Masonry and Pro Mosaic gallery. Everything looked good until one of my friends gave feedback recently, “Why did your gallery not look sharp?”
I checked the gallery, and the original output images, no issue at all. I regenerated all the thumbnails into a larger dimension, purged the server and NextGen Gallery cache, nothing was changed. Soon, I discovered that the gallery only showed blurry thumbnails on my MacBook Pro and iPad Pro screens, but they were perfectly sharp on my 24″ Dell monitor.
What Happened?
I emailed the Imagely support team and described my issue and findings. From what I understand from the Imagely support team, NextGen Gallery, by default, generates a pre-defined dimension thumbnail when an image is uploaded and uses it for the gallery display. However, Pro Masonry and Pro Mosaic Gallery dynamically generate the thumbnails instead of using the default generated thumbnails. That explains why increasing the size of default thumbnails doesn’t solve the sharpness issue of the gallery.
When it comes to a retina screen, NextGen Gallery doubles up the thumbnail size for a sharper display. I summarized that there are two requirements to make the NextGen Gallery (Pro Masonry and Pro Mosaic) works appropriately on the retina display:
1. Enable the ‘Automatically resize images after upload’ and ‘Backup the original images?’ options. (More details in the following Solution section)
2. The uploaded image has a dimension at least twice as large as the maximum width (for Pro Masonry) / row height (for Pro Mosaic). For example, in the Pro Masonry gallery, you uploaded an image with a dimension of 500 x 500px, and set the maximum width to 400px. NextGen Gallery will not upscale the thumbnail into 800 x 800px for retina display because it exceeds the original image dimension.
The Solution
A hidden setting exists to display the gallery on the retina screen properly.
Go to ‘NextGen Gallery’ > ‘Other Options’ > ‘Image Options’.
NextGen Gallery > Other Options
Then set the two settings – ‘Automatically resize images after upload’ and ‘Backup the original images?’ to ‘Yes’.
NextGen Gallery Retina Display Resize Settings
Vola! The gallery displays sharply on all devices now!
Out of curiosity, I want to find out whether we must enable two ‘irrelevant’ options for the ‘hidden’ retina display support. I tried the following:
Enabled ‘Automatically resize images after upload’ option only
Enabled ‘Backup the original images?’ option only
Surprisingly, simply enabling the ‘Automatically resize images after upload’ option does the trick for retina display. I guess the recommended backup option is used as a rollback plan when the resizing goes wrong.
One More Setting To Go
I always optimize my output images’ size for web portfolio galleries. Therefore, I do not want to resize the images again in NextGen Gallery. It is troublesome to disable the ‘Automatically resize images after upload’ option when uploading images and re-enable it after setting up the gallery.
Set the resize width and height to the long edge of your uploaded image to keep your original image dimension
After playing around with the settings, I set the width and height to 1920px and the quality to 100%. Why 1920px? Because it is the long edge dimension of my web portfolio image. This dimension is sufficient for a Full HD display yet maintains a reasonably small size for general web display.
NextGen Gallery Resize Settings
The resize function preserves the image’s original ratio and does not upscale the uploaded image. Therefore, you can safely set the width and height values to be the same as your image’s long edge.
Final Thoughts
Bugs exist in almost every software, including the WordPress plugin. Having bugs in the plugin is not the end of the day, but how fast you can get it back to the right shape should be an essential consideration when choosing a premium plugin.
I have been using NextGen Gallery Pro since 2022 and have encountered numerous issues. The Imagely support team always replied swiftly (usually in less than 30 minutes) and nailed the solution every time. They set a high bar for a premium WordPress plugin’s service level in terms of responsiveness and speed in resolving issues.
Feel free to try the NextGen Gallery Pro plugin on your WordPress site. Imagely guarantees a 14-day risk-free money-back if you don’t like it (Apparently, I love it!)
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26 Apr 2023
Update Viltrox Lens Firmware On Mac
Viltrox lens firmware update is effortless and straightforward. You only have to drag and drop the downloaded firmware into the connected lens. Done! Well, I’m so lucky to experience once that the drag and drop doesn’t work in the new Mac OS (Yea, Mac OS broke the firmware update process when it was first released).
Although the latest Mac OS fixed the issue, I would still like to document the solution I found earlier as my reference and help anyone with similar lens firmware update issues with the Mac OS.
Viltrox Lens Firmware Update
1. Download The Lens Firmware
Download the lens firmware from Viltrox’s official site.
2. Connect The Lens To The Computer
Some Viltrox lenses use a USB-C port, while some use a micro-USB port. It is located at the lens mount contact surface.
Kindly pay attention to the port type so you won’t damage it accidentally. That’s the only port for you to update the lens firmware.
3. Use Mac’s Terminal
Type the command below in the Terminal.
rsync <source file> <destination folder>
rsync – a command for file transfer
<source file> – drag and drop your downloaded firmware (a .DAT file) into the Terminal. It will auto-populate the path name, and it should look something like “/Users/YourName/Downloads/AF\ 85\ 1.8\ FE\ II\ V1.2.6/UPD8518IIFEV126.DAT”
<destination folder> – the default volume name should be “/Volumes/Viltrox\ DFU/” You may drag and drop the Viltrox lens volume into the Terminal, and it will auto-populate the path name for you.
Once you press ENTER in the Terminal, the rsync command will transfer the downloaded firmware into the lens, auto-eject the Viltrox volume, and auto-reconnect the Viltrox volume.
4. Check Lens Firmware Version
Go into Viltrox DFU volume, and open the DeviceInformation.txt.
The Software Version indicates the current lens firmware version, and it should be in sync with the one you installed just now.
Final Thoughts
Viltrox has provided a simple firmware update process without installing any additional driver/application or buying an external lens update console. Another brilliant feature is that we could roll back the lens firmware version by dragging and dropping the older firmware .DAT file into the lens. I hope other 3rd party lens manufacturers can learn from Viltrox to provide a direct firmware update without any extra hardware and software.
14 Apr 2023
Tamron Lens Utility On Apple M1 Mac
A new firmware v2 is available a few days after receiving my new Tamron 20-40mm F2.8 in Dec 2022. I am aware that I have to install the Tamron Lens Utility on my M1 Max MacBook Pro to update the lens firmware. So I download the installer from Tamron’s official site and read the DO’s and DON’Ts like “Do not connect a lens to your computer via a USB hub.” blah blah, etc.
I connect the USB cable to the lens and MacBook Pro, but nothing happens! The lens is neither detected by the Tamron Lens Utility nor the Mac Disk Utility. I swap a few USB cables, attach and detach the lens from the camera, and change the camera’s USB connection settings, but nothing works!
I found many Mac users having issues detecting their Tamron lens and updating the firmware, but I didn’t see any solution posted. I have no choice but to go to Tamron’s step-by-step guide, and yes!!! I found out that I missed one driver installation (yea, somehow, my eyes auto-censored it during the first installation).
Therefore, I am writing a simple installation guide and important points here, and I hope it saves some hassles for those with issues with the Tamron Lens Utility and Mac. This guide is based on the latest Mac OS Ventura 13.3.1 (as of 14 APR 2023) on an M1 Max MacBook Pro.
Tamron Lens Utility Installation
1. Download Tamron Lens Utility
Download the installer from Tamron’s official site.
2. Install CP210xVCP Driver
Yea, it is a COMPULSORY installation to make your Mac recognize the Tamron lenses.
There will be a security prompt at the last few steps of installation. Proceed to “Open System Settings” and allow the “CP210xVCPDriver.app”.
If you missed or didn’t see this prompt, you may go to “System Settings” > “Privacy & Security” and scroll to the bottom, ensuring the “CP210xVCPDriver.app” is not pending any permission.
You should see a successfully installed page once the access is granted.
3. Install Tamron Lens Utility
You may skip this step if you installed it earlier. Drag the Icon into the Application folder as indicated.
The Tamron Lens Utility should detect the compatible lens and list the firmware info now.
Troubleshooting
1. USB-C Data Cable
If the Tamron Lens Utility still doesn’t recognize your lens after the driver is installed, kindly make sure you use a data cable instead of a charging-only cable.
One way to determine if the cable is a data cable is to connect that cable between your Sony camera and computer. If the camera is not detected on your computer, the cable is likely for charging only. Try other USB-C cables until you get a data cable.
Tips: Use the USB-C cable that comes along with your Sony camera.
2. USB Hub/Converter
One of the Tamron firmware update instructions is “Do not connect a lens to your computer via a USB hub.” It is frustrating as the newer generations’ MBP only come with USB-C (yea, I know they are ThunderBolt ports, but I just wanted to simplify the terms here), and Tamron does not provide a USB-C to USB-C data cable in the box.
Luckily, a simple USB-A to USB-C converter works fine to update the lens firmware on my Tamron 20-40mm F2.8.
Besides, Tamron Lens Utility recognizes the Tamron lens through the CalDigit TB3 hub and HyperDrive USB-C hub. Unfortunately, I couldn’t roll back the lens firmware to test the firmware update through the hubs.
Final Thoughts
The Tamron lens firmware update process was as simple as Sony native lenses when Tamron introduced the WOW compact 28-75mm F2.8 for Sony E-mount cameras. Just leave the lens on the camera body and connect the camera to the computer through a USB cable, and run the firmware update, done.
The new lens firmware update process is tricky on Mac, as it requires two separate installations. I wonder if Tamron added the driver “CP210xVCPDriver.app” separately after Mac users’ feedback about the lens detection issue. I suggest Tamron merge the driver and lens utility apps to avoid confusion and simplify the installation process.
Feel free to share your Tamron lens firmware update experience in the comments so we can help more people out there. Cheers!
14 Apr 2023