It's been a long time coming, and it's been requested by many many of you, so without any further ado we're pleased to announce that focus points can now be selected for your featured images!
At first glance this may not seem like a very significant update, but the visual impact it can have on your gallery cover photos can be HUGE.
What's a Focus Point?
A focus point is a selectable spot on your featured images that's used as the center point when the image is cropped and displayed as a cover photo.
Horizontal Example
When your galleries are viewed on a standard computer screen, the featured images are displayed as cover photos using a horizontal crop. Here's an example showing what a default (top-center) crop might look like when compared to a crop that's been created through the use of a different (custom) focus point selection.
Vertical Example
On the flip side of that, when your galleries are viewed on a mobile device the featured image cover photos are displayed with a vertical crop. Here's an example showing what a default (center) crop might look like when compared to a different (custom) focus point crop on the same image.
Selecting a Focus Point
Selecting a focus point on your featured images is fairly straightforward, and it can be done as follows:
Navigate to the list of images within your gallery.
Select the image you'd like to use as the featured image.
Click the "Actions" button, and select "Set Gallery Featured."
Select the focus point for the image.
Save your changes.
And that's it! The focus point selection functionality is also now available for your category featured images, and it can be set using the same method described above for the gallery featured images.
