Largest Display Size

travischance

I'm not sure if this has been recommended or not, but it would be really nice if Power users had the ability to set the largest display size to something smaller than XL. Paying $100 more per year to have this option (upgrade to Pro) doesn't make a lot of sense considering I have no immediate plans of selling images. Please add this feature!!!

ian408

Take a look at the gallery settings and see what you've set the largest display size to. I bet it's XL

jfriend

I can't speak for why Smugmug limits the max display size control in Power accounts, but if you're interested in a work around and if you're not printing, you could just resize your images to 1024 on the long side before uploading. That would make the largest available image be the same as XL and would speed up your uploads too.

Andy

jfriend wrote: »

I can't speak for why Smugmug limits the max display size in Power accounts,

It's rather simple, we have a pro account that allows for blocking down to Mediums for pros and folks who are concerned about image sizes they display on the internet. We have three levels of service, and we need to differentiate them all.

travischance

Andy wrote: »

It's rather simple, we have a pro account that allows for blocking down to Mediums for pros and folks who are concerned about image sizes they display on the internet. We have three levels of service, and we need to differentiate them all.

But why image size to differentiate the three??? There are major differences between Basic, Power & Pro accounts with the Pro being heavily geared towards the photographer who uses his/her site as commerce (setting prices to generate profit, selling digital downloads, SM custom watermark image protection) etc etc etc.

I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only Power user who'd like the ability to select Medium or Large images sizes for display. Just because a photographer isn't selling images, doesn't negate the fact that protecting his or her images is important!!!

travischance

ian408 wrote: »

Take a look at the gallery settings and see what you've set the largest display size to. I bet it's XL

XL is the smallest size available for Power users...

SamirD

travischance wrote: »

Just because a photographer isn't selling images, doesn't negate the fact that protecting his or her images is important!!!

True, but because you aren't trying to sell them, you aren't marketing them and exposing them to people who will take anything they can get like the pros do. How many photo views are you getting a day?

travischance

SamirD wrote: »

True, but because you aren't trying to sell them, you aren't marketing them and exposing them to people who will take anything they can get like the pros do. How many photo views are you getting a day?

I'd have to disagree with you. The fact that our websites are of public domain, makes all material exposed to those who wish to simply view images and those who are out to take them. Additionally, the fact that we contribute to public forums (multiple in some cases), provides another avenue for people to visit our sites. While I don't track Google Analytics on a consistent basis, my site does receive a good amount of traffic with an average of 10.7 visits per day (49% referral sites, 28% search engines & 23% direct).

Having the ability to reduce the image display size to Large is not an aberrant request!!! Sorry

travischance

travischance wrote: »

I'd have to disagree with you. The fact that our websites are of public domain, makes all material exposed to those who wish to simply view images and those who are out to take them. Additionally, the fact that we contribute to public forums (multiple in some cases), provides another avenue for people to visit our sites. While I don't track Google Analytics on a consistent basis, my site does receive a good amount of traffic with an average of 10.7 visits per day (49% referral sites, 28% search engines & 23% direct).

Having the ability to reduce the image display size to Large is not an aberrant request!!! Sorry

Hell if one signs up for a free Flickr account, they have the option of selection Large And I can't do it because I'm not marketing my work (and we all pay for SM accounts)?!?!?

ian408

I suppose there are a couple of things about this whole thread that intrigues me. First of all, you clearly value your work as demonstrated by the quality of your gear and the effort you've put into your photography (you do have some very gorgeous images in your galleries). Second, your website has the look and feel of a professionally developed site--great logo, the slideshow and the other elements are really well done (including the watermark which I didn't notice at first-love that).

If you really need to scale down the images, you can always upload a lower resolution/smaller images. But based on what I see, I bet you would benefit from a Pro account. Especially some of the printing options (which I really love btw).

I have a free Flickr account too. Can't say that I use it all that much mostly because of what it's lacking in features. Even at the Pro level, it lacks a lot of the features available at the Power level in SmugMug's world.

jfriend

SamirD wrote: »

True, but because you aren't trying to sell them, you aren't marketing them and exposing them to people who will take anything they can get like the pros do. How many photo views are you getting a day?

Samir, I'm sorry, but it's irrelevant that they aren't selling on Smugmug. If they want their photos protected, they want their photos protected. You can't say that because they aren't selling on Smugmug, they don't deserve to have their photos protected. The desire for that protection is their prerogative.

Relevant to the issue, Smugmug has decided that the premier protection functions (more control over max display size and watermarks) are only available to the pro account. It actually has nothing to do with whether you're a pro or not or selling or not (I have two pro accounts and don't sell) - that's just the level of Smugmug account you have to have to get this set of features.

Yes, there are users who need nothing else from the pro account and thus wish that Smugmug would put these protection features in the power account, but you're just asking them to give away more functionality in the power account level than they've decided to do. One can continue to ask, but it's their business what features they put in which account levels and your business which account level you want to select.

SamirD

travischance wrote: »

I'd have to disagree with you. The fact that our websites are of public domain, makes all material exposed to those who wish to simply view images and those who are out to take them. Additionally, the fact that we contribute to public forums (multiple in some cases), provides another avenue for people to visit our sites. While I don't track Google Analytics on a consistent basis, my site does receive a good amount of traffic with an average of 10.7 visits per day (49% referral sites, 28% search engines & 23% direct).

Having the ability to reduce the image display size to Large is not an aberrant request!!! Sorry

I agree that you are exposed, no doubt.

But to give you some numbers to compare by, I have over 400 visitors a day and a minimum of 2000 photos viewed a day. The high traffic days have over 30,000 photos viewed in a single day. And over 90% of my traffic is direct with only about 5-10% from search engines and forums, even though my visitors are encouraged to post images all around the Internet.

I think the likelihood that someone on my site will try to take something is a lot higher than on your site. And that's why I have a pro account.

Now, there are options to keep people from finding your images--unlisted galleries, turning off hello world and seo tools, etc. And I believe many of these options are available with a power account.

SamirD

jfriend wrote: »

Samir, I'm sorry, but it's irrelevant that they aren't selling on Smugmug. If they want their photos protected, they want their photos protected. You can't say that because they aren't selling on Smugmug, they don't deserve to have their photos protected. The desire for that protection is their prerogative.

I agree that if protection is a user's desire, then that is their prerogative. And you're right, it wouldn't have anything to do with print sales.

But then why sign up for a service that didn't offer that in the first place if that's what you were looking for? I know I researched many, many photo services before I tried Smugmug. And there have been times I almost left when the features I needed weren't here but were available elsewhere. If I had signed up for Smugmug knowing that couldn't fulfill my needs, then wouldn't that be on me? At least that's the way I see it.

And Ian makes a good point--if your gear is pro, your work looks pro, then by your work, you are a pro. And you'll have to protect your work like a pro no matter where you put it. Because now even magazines look for the work of people just like you so they can get 'free' content. It's getting bad out there.