SmugMug soft launches Bay Photo integration

Baldy

Hi pros,

You'll notice when you go to your pricing tool that it has been re-worked (yay!) to be much easier, and it has two important new features.

One is you now set your preference for color adjustment, which removes the choice from the customer's hands in the shopping cart. They no longer have to scratch their heads over what auto or true color means.

The other is we're now offering a choice of labs. We gathered preferences from thousands of existing and potential customers and tested the ones we heard the most raves about. We ended up settling on Bay Photo. Here's why.

A few notes:

- Bay Photo is only available to pro-level subscribers.

- We added the necessary things to make it work, like the pricing tool, help pages, catalogs, etc., but we haven't mentioned it on our marketing pages. That's what we mean by soft launch.

- We will be adding more Bay Photo products in the future.

- As I write this post at 1 a.m. we're still rolling it out and chasing a few loose ends.

EDIT, by Andy, 830am PT 1/28: We've a few minor bugs, working on them today - proof delay screen in your order admin may look a bit broken - we'll fix it. Old orders are also a bit broken in your history screens. We'll get it fixed.

Thanks for the great feedback that helped make this happen!

All the best,
Chris

cabbey

Cindy wrote:

Oh WOW... I don't see the wallets yet but this is starting to look AWESOME

Look now.

cabbey

Glory2Jesus4Photography wrote:

I do wonder how Bay photo handles there color correction. If it is just some computer program or if it is a more personal touch similar to Millers.

It's all human beings. A very awesome team of them with some fabulous toys to do the work.

renstar

Baldy wrote:

Hi pros,


A few notes:

- Bay Photo is only available to pro-level subscribers.

Power users strike out again. Can you throw us a bone?

cmason

Baldy wrote:

- Bay Photo is only available to pro-level subscribers.

You gotta be effen kidding! All that discussion, agonizing wait? Sure I don't sell my photos online, but that doesn't mean I don't want better options, including my panoramics and large prints shipped flat.


Sorry had to vent

DJ-S1

Lots of work went into this obviously - great job Smugmug!

(Baldy, some of the links on the "test method" pages point to passworded galleries.)

Kalrog

cabbey wrote:

It's all human beings. A very awesome team of them with some fabulous toys to do the work.

Hence the additional cost. But worth it if you don't do it yourself I am sure. Can we get a full "comparrison" of features from the old to the new?

Pupator

cmason wrote:

You gotta be effen kidding! All that discussion, agonizing wait? Sure I don't sell my photos online, but that doesn't mean I don't want better options, including my panoramics and large prints shipped flat.


Sorry had to vent

Agreed. No love for the power users.

Andy

renstar wrote:

Power users strike out again. Can you throw us a bone?

Sure, anything's possible, but right now, at this moment, the new professional lab is available to professional subscribers only.

Andy

DJ-S1 wrote:

Lots of work went into this obviously - great job Smugmug!

Thanks!

(Baldy, some of the links on the "test method" pages point to passworded galleries.)

Fixed :uhoh

Andy

cmason wrote:

You gotta be effen kidding! All that discussion, agonizing wait? Sure I don't sell my photos online, but that doesn't mean I don't want better options, including my panoramics and large prints shipped flat.


Sorry had to vent

We have tons of professional subscribers that don't sell their photos but utilize the features of the pro level account. I'm sorry that at this moment I don't have a better answer for you!

mbellot

Wow, $0.13 (per 4x6, larger sizes are even worse) added to my cost for auto color correction?

This was more important than coupons and packages? I don't think so...

Andy

mbellot wrote:

This was more important than coupons and packages? I don't think so...

Still hugely important, and still very much on and near the front burner - and we've just invested a ton more $$$ in you, our customers, buy hiring even more sorcerers to help bring these critical features out faster.

Yeah, hand color correction is used and adored by a huge number of professional photographers who use Bay Photo every day.

Kyle D

Thank you SmugMug! This is awesome and will sure please my customers! Great job on the smooth roll out and speedy time in which this was implemented! It's now worth it even more to have a pro account!

brjphoto

As a pro user... THANK YOU. I pay lots of good money for my subscription, and I need to feel like I am getting a good value.

I'll be interested in trying out some of the watercolor glicee. I see no options for specifying mounting, so I can only assume for now, all prints come unmounted. (no foam core, gatorboard, etc).

As an FYI, when I go into review old sales, products purchased no longer show up. The sales summary page is fine, but when I try to look at the details of an individual sale, there is info missing. (but I'm sure you already knew that and are working on it)

I have some color correction questions. How is the color correction from Bay Photo different than the color correction from EZprints? Also, just as a curiosity... wouldn't color correction be done on a computer monitor, and require the same amount of effort regardless of print size? I wonder why it costs more to do color correction of larger prints.

I'm probably going to have a lot of questions about the Bay Photos color correction, seeing as using it full time will be a bit of an investment, and I want to be sure I know what I am paying for.

Thanks!

Baldy wrote:

Hi pros,

You'll notice when you go to your pricing tool that it has been re-worked (yay!) to be much easier, and it has two important new features.

One is you now set your preference for color adjustment, which removes the choice from the customer's hands in the shopping cart. They no longer have to scratch their heads over what auto or true color means.

The other is we're now offering a choice of labs. We gathered preferences from thousands of existing and potential customers and tested the ones we heard the most raves about. We ended up settling on Bay Photo. Here's why.

A few notes:

- Bay Photo is only available to pro-level subscribers.

- We added the necessary things to make it work, like the pricing tool, help pages, catalogs, etc., but we haven't mentioned it on our marketing pages. That's what we mean by soft launch.

- We will be adding more Bay Photo products in the future.

- As I write this post at 1 a.m. we're still rolling it out and chasing a few loose ends.

Thanks for the great feedback that helped make this happen!

All the best,
Chris

Allen

Noticed one thing missing, the "old" auto color correction is missing with the
new lab, only hand or none is available. This forces the higher prices with any
corrections using the new lab when in most cases the auto corrections
worked fine.

Could the auto color correction option be added?

Andy

Glory2Jesus4Photography wrote:

I do wonder how Bay photo handles there color correction. If it is just some computer program or if it is a more personal touch similar to Millers.

Bay Photo has extremely talented color technicians and the color correction is done individually, by hand

sellis

Thank you SM!
I've been anxiously waiting for this for a while (I think since the new shopping cart was launched) and glad to see it come to fruition. BayPhoto is a great choice, I use them for lower tier albums and they do a great job (Zookbinders for my upper tier albums). Hopefully, we'll be able to integrate all their products, including albums, into our SM workflow.

I certainly don't mind paying a little extra for higher quality prints and more precise color correction. The die-cut wallets will be a huge plus for senior packages.

Thanks for adding staff to make other changes happen quicker (packages, discounts, gift certificates...).

Sam

David Evertsen

Thanks SmugMug!! I really appreciate people adding value to what I pay for and not taking it away.. You guys are THE BEST!!

David Evertsen
www.phabulousphotos.com

Andy

brjphoto wrote:

I have some color correction questions. How is the color correction from Bay Photo different than the color correction from EZprints?

At EZP, it's done with our proprietary software, by computer.
At Bay, it's done entirely by hand.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-red

Also, just as a curiosity... wouldn't color correction be done on a computer monitor, and require the same amount of effort regardless of print size? I wonder why it costs more to do color correction of larger prints.

Great question, and we struggled with this too, to be honest. We've set the pricing to be what is as competitive as possible out there.

Andy

sellis wrote:

Thanks for adding staff to make other changes happen quicker (packages, discounts, gift certificates...).

Sam

Our newest sorcerer is here with us this week and he's champing at the bit to get started on packages. Coupons have been with one of the two sorcerers working on the Bay integration (bigwebguy) and the plan is for him to get back on them soon. More as we know it.

Andy

Allen wrote:

Could the auto color correction option be added?

We thought about this - but the answer is now, no - it would very much complicate every bit of the system and the UI as well. Color correction at Bay is by hand, only.

catspaw

Most. Awesome.

Glad I didn't order those Metallic prints yet!!

Kalrog

mbellot wrote:

This was more important than coupons and packages? I don't think so...

I do actually think so. The additional stuff and quality here is more important to me than coupons. But Coupons would be 1b to this 1a.

Thanks all!

PeterGar

This is awesome! I like that the business is staying in California. We all need the revenue in this state. Good job!

Do the Bay orders ship in the same Smugmug packaging as EZP?

Are there more pro goodies coming?

brjphoto

I'm hoping that a Pro Lab in CA means that I will get faster regular shipping to AZ.

Maybe?

PeterGar wrote:

This is awesome! I like that the business is staying in California. We all need the revenue in this state. Good job!

Do the Bay orders ship in the same Smugmug packaging as EZP?

Are there more pro goodies coming?

Ann McRae

I suspect that the products being offered by Bay Photo are a big part of what we want to offer with packages. Thus, one must precede the other.

If I were shooting seniors (this doesn't exist in my town) then my package would include die cut walltes.
Shooting sports - I want to offer die cuts, trader cards or magazine covers (and I hope those get added to the offering).
If I shot weddings, I would love the color correction service plus, plus, plus.

Kalrog wrote:

I do actually think so. The additional stuff and quality here is more important to me than coupons. But Coupons would be 1b to this 1a.

Thanks all!

brjphoto

This was never stated outright, but I guess I can make some assumptions based on playing around for a bit. "Only 1 lab per gallery."

You can't have a mixture of EZPrints and Bay Photo pricing in the same gallery. Correct?

Baldy wrote:

The other is we're now offering a choice of labs. We gathered preferences from thousands of existing and potential customers and tested the ones we heard the most raves about. We ended up settling on Bay Photo. Here's why.

Andy

brjphoto wrote:

This was never stated outright, but I guess I can make some assumptions based on playing around for a bit. "Only 1 lab per gallery."

You can't have a mixture of EZPrints and Bay Photo pricing in the same gallery. Correct?

Correct.

Andy

PeterGar wrote:

Do the Bay orders ship in the same Smugmug packaging as EZP?

:nono

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/pro-print-labs-test-results/
and then start here for packaging shots:
http://cmac.smugmug.com/gallery/6788174_4FCKx#442200063_ZMFwf

For now, boxes will have our sticker on them that says to email our help desk if there are any issues. There will be some new cool shipping options in the future, we hope!

brjphoto

Well, I just put in a test order for a lustre 8x10 and a matching glicee watercolor 8x10. I'm going to need to have something in hand to show customers in order to convince them that the fine art print is worth 5x the cost. None of my customers will know what "glicee watercolor" means, and so there won't be any orders based on name only.

I'm excited to get the prints. Hopefully we don't overload poor Bay Photo with our initial round of prints.

I'm also curious to see how long it takes to get the prints shipped to Arizona. I chose basic shipping just to test this out.

I'm also super excited about the packaging. My number one reason for print returns has been problems with the packaging. Bends, folds, creases, and problems unrolling prints.

Andy wrote:

:nono

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/pro-print-labs-test-results/
and then start here for packaging shots:
http://cmac.smugmug.com/gallery/6788174_4FCKx#442200063_ZMFwf

For now, boxes will have our sticker on them that says to email our help desk if there are any issues. There will be some new cool shipping options in the future, we hope!