Setting up and Managing Video Previews

When uploading videos to your Galleries, it may not always be desirable for visitors to have access to the entirety of the content. This approach can be essential in reducing the risk of unauthorized video capture, or you may wish to reserve the full video for a purchasable digital download product. Regardless of the circumstances, you have the option to establish a video preview per video or for future uploaded videos – restricting the amount of your uploaded videos that visitors and clients can freely access.

Setting Up A Video Preview

Individual Video Preview Settings

1. Access your Zenfolio account and select the Galleries icon on the left-hand side.
2. Proceed to the specific Gallery that contains the video(s) for which you wish to create a preview.
3. Identify the video within the Gallery, hover your mouse pointer over the video thumbnail, and click on the vertical dots icon.
4. In the menu that appears, select the Customize Video Preview option.
   
   
   
5. In the window that appears, ensure that the Disable Preview option is unchecked. This action will make sure that the preview is enabled.
6. Select the desired length of the preview. You may choose from the predefined options of 15-second or 30-second, or alternatively, you may create your own video clip outside of Zenfolio and upload it as a custom preview.
7. If you opt for one of the predefined preview clip lengths, you can utilize the highlighted selection slider to determine which 15 or 30 seconds of the video will be utilized as the preview.
8. Upon selecting your preview, you may then generate new thumbnails based on the highlighted selection. Additionally, you have the option to set the currently viewed frame of the video as the thumbnail, or you may upload a custom thumbnail image.
9. After finalizing your selections, you can Preview the clip that will serve as the Video Preview.
10. Finally, be sure to Save your settings once you have completed the configuration of your Video Preview.
    

Upon configuring a video preview, the preview duration, along with the full original video length, will be displayed on the video thumbnail within the Gallery.

Account Wide Video Preview Settings

In addition to configuring video previews at the individual video level, within a Gallery, you have the option to establish a video preview setting that will be applicable to all videos that you upload in the future. 

1. In your Zenfolio account, click on your name located in the upper right corner.
2. From the dropdown menu, select Account Settings.
3. Ensure that you are in the Account tab.
4. Navigate to the Video Preview section.
5. Activate the Video Preview setting by turning it ON.
6. Once activated, you can specify the Start Time (in seconds). This represents the elapsed time of the video at which the preview will begin. For example, setting the 'start time' to 05 seconds will initiate the preview at 0:05 seconds into the video.
7. Additionally, you can define the Duration of the preview, choosing between 15 or 30 seconds. For instance, if the preview 'start time' is set to 05 seconds, and a duration of 15 seconds is selected, the preview will encompass the segment from 0:05 to 0:20 of the video.