...and now Smugmug.

[mbonocore]

I think SmugMug works well if you live and sell your work in the US.

I started a SmugMug Pro a few years ago, and had trouble with the tax bit. Prints took a long time to deliver to Canada as well. The gallery pricing system is confusing to me. I'm sure it's powerful, but you need to spend a lot of time with it to understand how it works because there's a bijillion options.

The ordering interface was confusing to some of my clients. One fellow didn't know about the cropping features, and ended up with prints that were improperly cropped, cutting off parts of the images.

I downgraded to non-pro account, and do my printing and selling outside of SmugMug. Maybe it's much better now, but long shipping times to Canada is odd. B&H ships Purolator and it's rarely more than 3 business days to deliver.

The shopping cart overhaul is not included in this release....but it is coming

 

[mbonocore]

OK I'm sold: it's not blocked at work. Wahoo.

Score!

Only 2 of 6 on a test successfully uploaded. (after a day and a half)

Not really a rousing endorsement.

Are you referring to photos uploaded to SmugMug? We had a very large increase in users on launch day, so most likely this was tied in. Are you still experiencing this issue?

Thanks!

Michael

 

[mbonocore]

.
OK, today's the day. It's been "rolled out."

Any comments??

Color me skeptical so far. The pre-done themes are very "modern", in the Windows 8 sense (for good or ill depending on your taste), right down to the inscrutable icons barely noticeable on the screen. Not quite mystery-meat navigation, but not real obvious to new visitors either, IMO. I'm also finding it hard to recreate the simple gallery-centric layout I have been using on my "legacy" SmugMug site this past year. In fact, my existing galleries and collections don't seem to be recognized when I enable a gallery "block" - I needed to drag a folders block onto the home page to display them. Probably a semantic change I need to read up on, but it appears I'll have to revisit my photo organization scheme.

I think there's a lot of potential for making a more dramatic-looking website with pre-done themes (the old ones were definitely "dated"), but I'm going to have to completely rethink my approach to the site and that's always a pain. The good news, though, is that they let you try out the new layout tools and themes indefinitely without fully committing (as far as your visitors are concerned), so you can take your time. Once you do switch over, though, it's one way.

Hi! Are you referring to the SmugMug Gallery style? If so, we do indeed have that baked into the New SmugMug.

 

[mbonocore]

I went live with it and I'm reasonably happy. Here's a link to my site

http://khb.smugmug.com/

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. They made a number of big improvements. Customization is much easier than the old site. Their approach to organization is MUCH better. They now support folder/gallery depths of 5 levels. I had a few hiccups in the conversion (folders showing up named a little funny: like add -1 at the end, a few empty folders in weird places I had to delete, etc.).

Michael,

There are a couple of features that used to exist that I don't see that I'd like to ask either how to access them or if they can added.

[list type=decimal]
[*]I see how to put a map on the front page and I see how to put a map on every gallery, but the 'map it' button no longer appears in each gallery where it would pull up the map if the user wanted to see it.
[*]I prefer the SmugMug gallery setting but on occasion I want to view a gallery in journal mode. I used to be able to set up galleries with the SmugMug default and allow users to select the view to get the journal mode. All I see now is the ability to choose a slide show. Can the ability for a user to chose the mode be added back?
[*]I don't see a visitor view any longer. I can logout and get that view but it was nice to be able to see they layout when hidden galleries/photos weren't included as visitors see it.
[*]I see how to edit the caption and keywords (tools button, edit photo details) but I liked the old style where there was an edit button I could click and immediately edit them on that page not on a pop up menu. Can this be added as an option?

[/list]

.
If anyone goes live with one of the new layouts, I'd appreciate taking a look at it.

Thanks.

Your site looks awesome! Especially the cats from the zoo

As for your feature requests
1)Map It - Known and in the system
2)Viewer style change - I haven't heard this yet...I will add it!
3)Visitor View - In the works!
4)Keyword Edit In the Gallery-Known and in the system.

Thanks for your great feedback!

 

[mbonocore]

Re: Two thumbs up for the new SmugMug

I was not sure which forum section to start this thread in and if this is the incorrect section, a mod should feel free to move it. Thanks.

Well, for the last two days I have been playing with the 'new' SmugMug'. I'm giving it two thumbs up. It provides a very much up-to-date look. It's also very much customizable. I am a basic service user and was impressed by how much I can do to make my site look unique. So many themes and layouts to choose from and adjust to suit one's taste. SmugMug, in my opinion, you have hit a home run with this. A big congrats.

To put it succinctly..... I LOVE IT !!!

I have not yet gone live with the 'new look', but will shortly as I am now a lot more comfortable finding my way around things.

If you are a SmugMug user and have not looked around the new 'digs', I suggest you spend some time with it. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Great site!! Thanks for your kind words

 

[mbonocore]

In some cases it looks like it can get a bit too flickerish now, but it seems OK if you avoid going too far in that direction. It certainly sounds great that they let you have more levels and such, when I used to use smugmug that was such a drag, so limited on the levels and some tools for organization and doing this and that were such a drag.

Does anyone know if:
1. they allow wide gamut images yet?
2. you can now quickly clone galleries without having to one by one duplicate each photos and then grab each duplicate over?
3. or do stuff like in zenfolio where you can upload a gallery and then re-use any of the photos, maintaining their captions and everything in multiple collections instantly (so you could say upload a master gallery of say all decent photos from a hike and then make a collection that just contains the very best few shots and then maybe another where you give people PW access to full size originals or then re-use some in other collection that is maybe best shots from a certain state or whatnot?)

1. they allow wide gamut images yet?
Can you provide an example?

2. you can now quickly clone galleries without having to one by one duplicate each photos and then grab each duplicate over?
Not currently, but I will put it in as a Feature Request

3. or do stuff like in zenfolio where you can upload a gallery and then re-use any of the photos, maintaining their captions and everything in multiple collections instantly (so you could say upload a master gallery of say all decent photos from a hike and then make a collection that just contains the very best few shots and then maybe another where you give people PW access to full size originals or then re-use some in other collection that is maybe best shots from a certain state or whatnot?)
Sounds like Smart Galleries is what you are looking for http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93308-what-are-smart-galleries-gather-photos-based-on-keywords-

Hope this helps!

 

[mbonocore]

.
Thanks, Michael. Looking at your site I notice something I have to ask about.

The Copyright notice on your pages say "Copyright Smugmug."

The notice on my current site says, "Portions Copyright Smugmug."

Anyone know what's up with that? I haven't read terms of service, and I haven't seen any change in Copyright status.

Can you point me to the exact location of this copyright notice? I am having a heck of a time finding it. Thanks!

I went live with it and I'm reasonably happy. Here's a link to my site

http://khb.smugmug.com/

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. They made a number of big improvements. Customization is much easier than the old site. Their approach to organization is MUCH better. They now support folder/gallery depths of 5 levels. I had a few hiccups in the conversion (folders showing up named a little funny: like add -1 at the end, a few empty folders in weird places I had to delete, etc.).

Michael,

 

[mbonocore]

Not sure if anyone has asked this before (I haven't read through the entire thread) but as I understand it, you can upload your photos and allow people to purchase prints at various sizes and Smugmug will print them and send them to your clients while you set the prices and markups.

I live in Australia and have used PhotoBox which is a similar service (correct me if I'm wrong). The problem with PhotoBox is that it's in the UK and clients have to purchase in Pounds. I understand that some clients are not totally comfortable with the fact that the prints are coming all the way from the UK and the conversion rate thing.

Where does SmugMug print and deliver from? Do they offer other currency options for purchasing?

While we don't have a print lab in Australia, we do accept AUS currency. You can see the help page here.

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/98049-does-smugmug-accept-currency-other-than-u-s-dollars-and-can-the-site-be-configured-to-show-other-currency-

You can choose from a US or UK print lab when using SmugMug

 

[mbonocore]

Michael,
Biggest complaint I have with the whole upgrade is that as a basic user, the majority of the cool customizable stuff is left out. What's the deal with that? Sure the videos look stellar but if you are stuck in basic-ville, you're hosed. I'm not a flickr user and nor do I want to be...been with Smugmug for for 7 years and it serves as the portal for my parents to view their grandchildren growing up...thought that the upgrade and the coolness might get me a site that looks better than flickr. Very disappointed. Still have a bit of flickr envy....

I understand. The $40 Basic account includes only Homepage customization, but the $60 Power account gives you full customization and all 24 Designs.

 

[mbonocore]

.
If anyone goes live with one of the new layouts, I'd appreciate taking a look at it.

Thanks.

Distant Star... and what the heck, everyone else, here's my new page, I still need to upload about seven-ish galleries, but the layout will remain the same.

http://photosbytabor.smugmug.com/

Cheers,
-Tabor

Looks awesome!!! Great work ;D

 

[mbonocore]

OK. I am "converted." Bear in mind that I am not a professional and merely use the site to share stuff with friends. I've still got tons of galleries to load. This is just one thing to add to my list......

I'll live with this a while and gradually change it.

www.jpacker.smugmug.com

Looks great! I love your photos from Myramar!

 

[mbonocore]

I haven't rolled yet, need to spend some time playing with it. http://www.soundersfcfan.com

There are 2 big issues for me:
- Image size (max 50mb) and type (jpeg)
- Dualing identities (lots of historical data under one profile, but not stuff I want to carry forward into new brand)

Next week I start shooting 50mp at 16bit, so I'm looking at quickly needing solutions. I'm already needing to chase down a local print shop.

We do have a SmugVault, which would allow you to accomplish this http://www.smugmug.com/price/smugvault.mg

You can easily have dueling identities on one site, as long as you build it in such a way that the links you build stay within your current identity. You could manage all the content for both identities through one organizer.

 

[distant.star]

.
Still no answer on the copyright issue???

 

[mbonocore]

.
Still no answer on the copyright issue???

Hmmmm, I replied in comment #86, but for some reason my text isn't there...just the quote. I sincerely apologize.

I had asked if you could point me to the specific location on your site or in your Source code where you are seeing this.

Thanks!

Michael

 

[distant.star]

.
Well, I finally figured out the copyright notice thing, at least in a way that works for me. You can turn off the standard footer and that takes all copyright notice out of the picture. Still not best, but at least it doesn't assign it to Smugmug.

I updated to a Smugmug design today -- so, as others have gone public....

http://wetracy.smugmug.com/

The overall look is dramatically improved. Navigation suffers though.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

1. they allow wide gamut images yet?
Can you provide an example?

Sure, if you have a wide gamut monitor set to wide gamut mode and use say Firefox browser you should see that this image (hosted by Zenfolio where they do not allow wide gamut, nor did (does?) Smugmug) looks like the reds are clipped and many of the leaves are like a single shade without much detail since many of the shades on the red leaves were too intense for the sRGB gamut:

so it looks a bit duller and less detailed than say this one (hosted by Flickr where they allow wide gamut) where the colors of leaves fit inside the ProphotoRGB gamut and inside the native gamut of most wide gamut monitors:

And same for this pair where first it is clipped to sRGB by Zenfolio:

And then allowed to be seen in full glory in wide gamut on Flickr for the times you want that and trust the viewer and/or tell them how to handle non sRGB images:

(If you don't have a wide gamut gallery you won't be able to tell what I am talking about since by definition you can't see any colors beyond sRGB on it. So they will look the same regardless of the host (unless you use Chrome which has no color-management and then the Flickr ones will looks dull and ugly). On a wide gamut monitor if you use IE it automatically converts all images to sRGB and then ignores the monitor profile so IE displays ANY and ALL on the web from text to colors to images of any gamut WRONG on a wide gamut monitor in wide gamut mode, they all look radioactive. I don't think anyone ever used IE if they are running in wide gamut mode. It does makes wide gamut hosted images look reasonably fine on a regular monitor though, basically every browser at least does that these days other than Chrome (the single worst browser for photo lovers to use). But even on a regular monitor IE doesn't really get ANY images correct unless you can a fancy monitor with full 3D internal LUT and calibration since it ignores monitor profiles and doesn't make any corrects for errors in your monitor and it doesn't remap tone responses (for instance many people calibrate their monitor to gamma 2.2 but sRGB images don't actually use gamma 2.2 but something special it is close to gamma 2.2 but different, so if you use IE to view images on a monitor that has been calibrated to gamma 2.2 you will see crushed dark tones and slightly overblown contrast and potentially slightly overblown saturation and highlight curves will be slightly off too so nothing will look quite like it did when the person was editing the photo in Photoshop, which is fully color-managed and compensates for tone curve differences).)

2. you can now quickly clone galleries without having to one by one duplicate each photos and then grab each duplicate over?

Not currently, but I will put it in as a Feature Request

That would be nice to have, back when I used smugmug I put in the request, a few years ago at this point I think, and nothing ever came of it.

3. or do stuff like in zenfolio where you can upload a gallery and then re-use any of the photos, maintaining their captions and everything in multiple collections instantly (so you could say upload a master gallery of say all decent photos from a hike and then make a collection that just contains the very best few shots and then maybe another where you give people PW access to full size originals or then re-use some in other collection that is maybe best shots from a certain state or whatnot?)
Sounds like Smart Galleries is what you are looking for http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93308-what-are-smart-galleries-gather-photos-based-on-keywords-

Well that isn't quite what I mean, but I suppose you could use smart galleries to mimic it and use that to do it.

I guess you could add as a keyboard "best" to each of the best images contained in a completest gallery and then add a rule to draw images from that gallery having keyword best.

Although one issue I see is that it says you are allowed only five rules and what if you wanted to make a best of gallery that draw from a whole bunch of different galleries, if each gallery counts as rule and searching for keyword best is a rule I'd think you could only draw from max four different galleries? If so that would be very limiting. But I didn't read that over carefully yet, just an ultra quick peek, and maybe it wouldn't end up limited in that fashion and maybe draw from gallery so and so is only one rule and it can have an unlimited list of names for "so and so". if so then yeah I guess smart galleries would do it.

Hope this helps!

thanks

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

http://diglloyd.com/blog/2013/20130419_3-color-gamut-of-fruit.html

And yet, of ALL places, Zenfolio and Smugmug BAN wide gamut images! There is no way to turn of forcibly conversion into sRGB even when you 100% KNOW you DO NOT WANT THAT TO BE DONE.

Or at least that used to be the case with Smugmug. I was wondering if that has been changed with the new Smugmug 2.0 or not.

 

[deleteme]

While I understand the desire to see a wide gamut image doesn't this create a problem for clients who lack the appropriate monitor setting and browser?

 

[mackguyver]

I'm OVER the new SmugMug and this is the last straw. I can't delete a custom URL to reuse it, despite having deleted the category using it. I tried to send an email and this is what I received. I finally got my site halfway decent and then they raised prices and unveiled this "New" crap. I haven't been able to rebuild my site worth a damn. I'm done with them.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I noticed that they were slow on the 14th, so they were having some sort of issue. Its the only time in three years I've seen this, so I'm not unhappy, it happens to all systems occasionally.

They are up and running now, and really fast, so hopefully the issue is solved.

http://status.smugmug.com/