Remove watermarks in shopping cart.

bhockensmith

I filled this as a feature request on uservoice, but I want to see here if there is a work around.

My watermarks are showing up on the thumbnails in the shopping cart. (I don't have watermark thumbnails selected, either.) This is causing my customers to think that purchased prints have my watermark on them. I've had several customers cropping a perfectly good picture just to get rid of what they think is going to be a watermark on the print.

I have been forced to re-crop these images manually. And I'm concerned that I may actually be loosing sales because of this.

Andy

Sorry, there is no workaround. Well, you can post info in your gallery saying that watermarks are not printed on the images.... We get very few of these issues by the way. Of course, write our Support Heroes with any order that needs a recrop - and you can (and should) have proof delay set so that you can re-adjust the crop as needed.

bhockensmith

Yes I do have a proof delay, that's how I'm catching it. I would assume that if I had not checked "watermark thumbnails" then the thumbnails in the shopping cart should also not be watermark.

I'd rather re-crop in proof-delay, like I'm currently doing, rather than have to clutter my gallery with text that people tend to gloss over anyway.

Really what's the difference between a thumbnail in the gallery versus a thumbnail in the shopping cart, anyway??

Andy wrote: »

Sorry, there is no workaround. Well, you can post info in your gallery saying that watermarks are not printed on the images.... We get very few of these issues by the way. Of course, write our Support Heroes with any order that needs a recrop - and you can (and should) have proof delay set so that you can re-adjust the crop as needed.

WinsomeWorks

The first time I ordered some of my own prints, I had to ask as well... even I didn't understand why my watermarks would be showing up on the thumbs, unless they were going to show up on the print. (I knew my regular thumbs weren't marked) My relatives who were ordering had to ask me too. It really seems strange. I wish if the watermarks can't be removed from those thumbs in the cart, that a note could be put in a prominent place on all the ordering pages. People don't read everything on a gallery page before going to the "buy" pages, and they likely haven't run into this before. It makes little sense for everyone selling prints to have to add a note to every gallery about this, when clients across the board get confused by it.

Andy

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

when clients across the board get confused by it.

We have zero evidence of 'across the board' confusion on this, I'm sorry.

pilotdave

If I remember correctly, smugmug used to NOT watermark images in the shopping cart. Adding watermarks was a feature request. The problem was that people were able to steal non-watermarked versions of the photos from the shopping cart.

I haven't personally ever seen anyone try to crop out my watermark in the shopping cart (proof delay). Now facebook, that's another story! [:)]

Dave

WinsomeWorks

Andy wrote: »

We have zero evidence of 'across the board' confusion on this, I'm sorry.

You might not have "evidence" of it at the top, because few customers are going to go so far as to try to contact the company. They either leave, or try other things first, such as cropping, which I've heard other people mention. Most of all, they ask the photographer, if they know them. I haven't had many orders, because prints haven't yet been my marketing thrust, but out of those I've had, at least a third of those folks (because I knew them) asked me about the watermark. Just sayin'... it does come up frequently w/ customers even if you don't actually hear it at the top, and wouldn't a one-liner in the cart be the most un-complicated option? For me to add it to each gallery... we're talking hundreds of galleries. I'm already going through the painfully slow process of un-watermarking galleries one-by-one (to get rid of old watermarks I once used) and then re-watermarking them, because that's what support told me I need to do. So adding a line to each gallery... yikes. I confess I don't understand people's worry about photos getting stolen from the shopping cart, as the size/resolution there would be nearly un-usable, right? But if that's a lost cause & has already been voted on, I sure hope a line gets added to the cart at some point.

WinsomeWorks

pilotdave wrote: »

If I remember correctly, smugmug used to NOT watermark images in the shopping cart. Adding watermarks was a feature request. The problem was that people were able to steal non-watermarked versions of the photos from the shopping cart.

I haven't personally ever seen anyone try to crop out my watermark in the shopping cart (proof delay). Now facebook, that's another story! [:)]

Dave

Facebook photos are basically useless for "stealing", Dave. Look at the resolution & even just the # of pixels. I mean, c'mon-- it's pitiful!! Ok, someone could post it somewhere & say it's theirs (& they can do that with basically any photos we have online because there are always work-arounds) but I really can't see someone actually profiting from a stolen FB photo, even FB itself. They aren't storing originals somewhere-- it could never be free if they were.

pilotdave

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

Facebook photos are basically useless for "stealing", Dave. Look at the resolution & even just the # of pixels. I mean, c'mon-- it's pitiful!! Ok, someone could post it somewhere & say it's theirs (& they can do that with basically any photos we have online because there are always work-arounds) but I really can't see someone actually profiting from a stolen FB photo, even FB itself. They aren't storing originals somewhere-- it could never be free if they were.

That's not the point. I'm not worried about someone profiting off of them. The point is that people download images, crop off the watermark, and post them. Some people choose to use big ugly watermarks to prevent this... if someone wants an image for facebook, they can buy it. If you have unwatermarked copies of your photos accessible to your visitors (such as in your shopping cart), people will choose to "steal" them rather than purchase digital downloads.

This isn't a big deal to me... I use an unobstructive watermark and just ask people to keep it intact if they are going to grab images from my site to post on facebook or whatever. But I do sometimes find my pictures with the watermark cropped off.

I do not believe the watermarked pictures in the cart hurt sales.

Dave

SamirD

I've been asked on occasion if the watermark remains on the image after purchase. At the same time, I'd rather them ask me that than have access to a non-watermarked image that can be stolen.

Allen

Seems to me Smugmug ought to add a warning message in the cart saying
something like "Watermarks shown on photo above are not printed, no need
to crop it off."

bhockensmith

My biggest concern is if someone ASSUMES the watermark stays on, they may not buy anything at all, and there would be no record of that loss.

The secondary concern has happened 3 times in the past few sales I've had... They have cropped the image to remove my watermark. I then have to be adjust it during proof delay. It's an inconvenience, but not a show-stopper, I'll admit that.

And finally, I have have had to explain to at least a dozen people this year that prints and digital downloads do not have the watermark.

So from my experience there is definite confusion over this.


That point aside, I still have to ask.....

* Why are thumbnail images in the cart being watermarked anyway....even when the 'watermark thumbnails' option is unselected. *

I would suggest the cart thumbnails be treated in the same way as the gallery thumbnails... only watermark them if that watermark thumbnails option is selected.

Seems logical to me.

Allen wrote: »

Seems to me Smugmug ought to add a warning message in the cart saying
something like "Watermarks shown on photo above are not printed, no need
to crop it off."

Allen

bhockensmith wrote: »

My biggest concern is if someone ASSUMES the watermark stays on, they may not buy anything at all, and there would be no record of that loss.

The secondary concern has happened 3 times in the past few sales I've had... They have cropped the image to remove my watermark. I then have to be adjust it during proof delay. It's an inconvenience, but not a show-stopper, I'll admit that.

And finally, I have have had to explain to at least a dozen people this year that prints and digital downloads do not have the watermark.

So from my experience there is definite confusion over this.


That point aside, I still have to ask.....

* Why are thumbnail images in the cart being watermarked anyway....even when the 'watermark thumbnails' option is unselected. *

I would suggest the cart thumbnails be treated in the same way as the gallery thumbnails... only watermark them if that watermark thumbnails option is selected.

Seems logical to me.

Those are not thumbnails in the cart I think, just a down sized display
image that has a WM.

bhockensmith

A thumbnail by definition is a down sized display image.

Allen wrote: »

Those are not thumbnails in the cart I think, just a down sized display
image that has a WM.

Allen

bhockensmith wrote: »

A thumbnail by definition is a down sized display image.

If you have any thumbs that are squared you'll see that they don't show in
the cart. The photo that has the crop adjustments is 600x400.

smileboothman

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

You might not have "evidence" of it at the top, because few customers are going to go so far as to try to contact the company. They either leave, or try other things first, such as cropping, which I've heard other people mention. Most of all, they ask the photographer, if they know them. I haven't had many orders, because prints haven't yet been my marketing thrust, but out of those I've had, at least a third of those folks (because I knew them) asked me about the watermark. Just sayin'... it does come up frequently w/ customers even if you don't actually hear it at the top, and wouldn't a one-liner in the cart be the most un-complicated option? For me to add it to each gallery... we're talking hundreds of galleries. I'm already going through the painfully slow process of un-watermarking galleries one-by-one (to get rid of old watermarks I once used) and then re-watermarking them, because that's what support told me I need to do. So adding a line to each gallery... yikes. I confess I don't understand people's worry about photos getting stolen from the shopping cart, as the size/resolution there would be nearly un-usable, right? But if that's a lost cause & has already been voted on, I sure hope a line gets added to the cart at some point.

I just made my own note-Watermarks are not visible on prints!- as part of the "Branding Box" with my logo on the shopping cart page. Seems to work.