I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
Edward Steichen
New page design.
Ok I tried it out. I finally got it to work after some trouble understanding how to make it work. then I did not like it. Nothing wrong with the design and function however I have a color theme going on and did not like the colors. So I "leave" and nothing happened. I had to go in and clear out all my browser information and now I have to put it all back in.
Still have not been able to get the gallery to load to facebook right either. I can however get one picture up there and love this feature and how it refers back to my page.
I am not a computer programer so its was not real clear for me to understand.
Looks great BUT... (missing features)
I love the new look, but I quickly found out that in order to use another new feature - the Facebook upload - I had to "un-join" the new gallery look in order to access the share button and its features. I also had to disable it in order to set a featured photo. Looks like a few of the "old" options just aren't there with the new gallery.
So I love it, but when this feature moves out of the darkroom / beta mode, will we be losing some of these crucial features? Or are they just being left out while it's still at this testing phase?
I like the new design - cleaner and intuitive - but I think the page bullets (buttons for direct page access) are a little too small to click - or at the least the first/last buttons should be bigger.
New Gallery
I left the new gallery style to take a look ("join") at Facebook Publishing. A move from that new style to the old gallery style (Facebook Publishing doesn't work with the new style beta I finally figured out) was really revealing.
The older style when immediately contrasted with the new now seems cluttered, a bit harsher, and busy. I haven't spent more than the 30 minutes wandering in the new style, but this inadvertent near side-by-side comparison spoke volumes. Nice work on this--and the Facebook Publishing.
I'm excited to see the new site. When did clicked the green button, nothing happened...
My biggest question with this new UI is will it include a "lightbox" feature where my end clients can edit down their images and share their "lightbox" with others? I'm a assignment/stock photographer and when I share shoots - my client wants a way edit them down to their selection for me to deliver to them.
Cheers,
Craig
Exactly! I have started using the Collect Photos option to select a subset of images from a gallery and would like to make it really easy for clients to select a group of images for me to send them full res files.
Ideally they will not have to navigate a ton of menus, but have a simple button to collect, like the owner does.
Cannot believe...
how awesome this looks and works. It is a very refreshing change and much faster to use.
The Facebook publish option is very cool as well. However, the Xlarge picture isn't as big as what you get when you load directly to Facebook. That's the only drawback I see so far.
We never said the homepage box would go missing What we did say, is that we want to use other factors (FB comments, FB Likes, Twitter shares, [G+?], SmugMug comments etc to determine popularity. Stay tuned.
And what about us that don't use 'farcebook' or 'twatter' ? Not everyone is suckered into the whole "I don't have a life - on line community" thing.
Why can't you just concentrate on the important things like less downtime, PAYPAL, as everything else is great as it is.
Update from SmugMug time
Can we please have an update on where we stand on this?
Several months have passed without a coherent response and this thread is way to big to read right through just to find individual comments.
My renwal is due in 6 weeks and I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to know this.
Can we please have an update on where we stand on this?
Several months have passed without a coherent response and this thread is way to big to read right through just to find individual comments.
My renwal is due in 6 weeks and I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to know this.
Caroline
Caroline, the new design is still in our Darkroom and it's still in an alpha-state. We've been taking feedback here in this thread. If you've got specific questions that aren't answered in posts 1 and 2 by onethumb, fire away and I'll do my best - thanks!
Caroline, the new design is still in our Darkroom and it's still in an alpha-state. We've been taking feedback here in this thread. If you've got specific questions that aren't answered in posts 1 and 2 by onethumb, fire away and I'll do my best - thanks!
Hi Andy,
My main concern is regarding the ability to use html in captions - unless I've missed it I believe this was not going to be available in the design? Is this still the case?
I believe html will still be OK in gallery descriptions - yes?
Otherwise, I'll sit patiently by and see how things develop, alpha to implementation 18mths wouldn't be unreasonable.
Photo info issue
When I click on the "i" button it shows me date modified in the DATE FIELD, and not date taken. Is there a way to change that.
In the earlier older gallery thingy, both used to be shown in basic info
background
one request I'd like to make is that when you click on a photo to make it full screen, a faint hint of the page is still visible in the background, and this can be somewhat distracting. It would be great if the background went completely black, (or white, or whatever background color someone has selected) so that when viewing a full screen photo the viewer isn't distracted by anything else.
If there is a way I can customize this myself using code, I would love to learn.
It would be great if the background went completely black, (or white, or whatever background color someone has selected) so that when viewing a full screen photo the viewer isn't distracted by anything else.
If there is a way I can customize this myself using code, I would love to learn.
Thanks
Abe
Abe, if you can use CSS customizations with your account level, try this:
I don't really remember where I found this, but it works. The first value needs to be between 0 and 1, while the second value needs to be between 0 and 100. 0 is fully transparent; 1 (or 100) is fully opaque.
Since we are on suggestions... I love SM so don't take this the wrong way, BUT Zen has a killer photo view page. You can display the photos across the top (or bottom I assume) in a slide show style and beside the current photo it lists quick "select" purchase items: 8x10, 5x7, download sizes, etc...
Presenting "quick purchase" options is a HUGE marketing tool and quite often the "BUY" button is overlooked, however if visitors, clients, or whoever sees the option and price laid out right in front of them (especially for downloads of their kids playing sports) they -- in my opinion -- are probably 10x more likely to purchase.
I love this option so much it *almost* swayed me towards Zen.
Also, another thought... An HTML capable side panel would be fantastic. Maybe the ability to move the "Gallery Description" panel to the right or left side and still be HTML capable. I often find the need or desire to add information to a gallery (and sometimes a substantial amount) but if I add it to the gallery description it only pushes my photos further down the page and out of the "focus" of the page.
I've just discovered, to my regret, that the URL for the loupe view of an image in the 'sneak peek' format is different than the URL in the regular SmugMug format.
To be more specific, rather than post images directly to my Facebook page (which gives Facebook the right to use them in any way they see fit and anyone else the ability to right-click them for download), I post links to the loupe view of images I have posted to a non-public SmugMug gallery I have set up for this purpose. Unfortunately, where I have copied a loupe view image URL when in 'sneak peek' mode, the link takes the visitor to the normal page view where not only the image of interest is shown, but also a slew of thumbnails. This must be a bug, surely?
Since becoming aware of this, I have to be careful to 'leave' 'sneak peek' view before copying any URL for posting to Facebook. That's a PITA I'd like to see fixed asap!
I've just discovered, to my regret, that the URL for the loupe view of an image in the 'sneak peek' format is different than the URL in the regular SmugMug format.
To be more specific, rather than post images directly to my Facebook page (which gives Facebook the right to use them in any way they see fit and anyone else the ability to right-click them for download), I post links to the loupe view of images I have posted to a non-public SmugMug gallery I have set up for this purpose. Unfortunately, where I have copied a loupe view image URL when in 'sneak peek' mode, the link takes the visitor to the normal page view where not only the image of interest is shown, but also a slew of thumbnails. This must be a bug, surely?
Since becoming aware of this, I have to be careful to 'leave' 'sneak peek' view before copying any URL for posting to Facebook. That's a PITA I'd like to see fixed asap!
Loupe View? Are you referring to the critique gallery style? This thread only covers the Smugmug style galleries.
Loupe View? Are you referring to the critique gallery style? This thread only covers the Smugmug style galleries.
No - I mean the view of an image you get when you click on it (in 'sneak peek' format) or select and click on a view size in the pop-out that appears when you mouse-over an image (in the present SmugMug format).
No - I mean the view of an image you get when you click on it (in 'sneak peek' format) or select and click on a view size in the pop-out that appears when you mouse-over an image (in the present SmugMug format).
new design
so I used the "share" button on one of my photos (while NOT logged in) to post it to facebook. when I clicked on the link in facebook, it took me to the photo in the new gallery style. when I click on the photo and go back in to the gallery, and click on the breadcrumb link to my homepage in the upper right, it takes me back to my homepage and all the galleries look the same as before.
this is fine, i like the new look, just not sure if that's your intention at this point, since the darkroom says "Only you as the logged-in owner will notice this; guests will see your site as it always is." or am I mis-understanding that statement?
Since we are on suggestions... I love SM so don't take this the wrong way, BUT Zen has a killer photo view page. You can display the photos across the top (or bottom I assume) in a slide show style and beside the current photo it lists quick "select" purchase items: 8x10, 5x7, download sizes, etc...
Presenting "quick purchase" options is a HUGE marketing tool and quite often the "BUY" button is overlooked, however if visitors, clients, or whoever sees the option and price laid out right in front of them (especially for downloads of their kids playing sports) they -- in my opinion -- are probably 10x more likely to purchase.
I love this option so much it *almost* swayed me towards Zen.
OK, wow. I like that Zenfolio layout, mostly. First off, I initially pulled it up on my iphone and the layout allows natural swipe navigation of the main images, left and right. That's a huge deal and needs to be a feature with any new Smugmug release. The trend in mobile computing is steeply upward. Many of my clients are hitting my websites with their smart phones. I'd bet that in a few years, most of them will do 90% of their computing on their iphones/androids. It's just going in that direction. The current mobile implementation of SmugMug seems like a huge stopgap.
Secondly, the thumbnail strip at the top is very linear and natural. A+ to that idea. I want that on Smugmug. With the thumbnail strip above and dynamic preloading of the main images, SmugMug could stack verticals and horizontals together below the thumbstrip and have it slide left and right with the thumbstrip. This isn't too far fetched and a very natural concept. (attached mockup)
I think the easing in/out sliding should emulate this: http://samples.bigfolio.com/burlington/#imagegalleries/wedding/poser/5 (flash)
jQuery should be able to do this. Click on the image and then cycle through the shots. This is how I'd imagine the enlargement screen would work: fade in/out.
Elegant. Modern.
I have also been a HUGE advocator for quick pricing. Several posts back in this thread, I proposed that Smugmug repurpose their current (not beta version) javascript slide-out panel to reveal a few common print/download options with pricing and +/- controls. Quick and easy.
so I used the "share" button on one of my photos (while NOT logged in) to post it to facebook. when I clicked on the link in facebook, it took me to the photo in the new gallery style. when I click on the photo and go back in to the gallery, and click on the breadcrumb link to my homepage in the upper right, it takes me back to my homepage and all the galleries look the same as before.
this is fine, i like the new look, just not sure if that's your intention at this point, since the darkroom says "Only you as the logged-in owner will notice this; guests will see your site as it always is." or am I mis-understanding that statement?
I think it looks at cookies in your browser. Can you try it in a different browser that's never enabled the beta?
Well done on the new design! I have been tweaking my site on/off for a few months, but still not quite happy with it. Already, the new design has resolved a few outstanding aesthetic issues in general. It will be a much better starting point for future new users.
This is what I like so far:
- The cleaned up folder paths (or breadcrumbs) is great.
- As is the new page navigator dots/arrows - much cleaner.
- The magnifying glass for the default SmugMug view is more obvious.
- Just one slideshow mode is less confusing.
- Overall default font is much better.
- Display of Captions and Keywords is a huge improvement.
Some suggestions for consideration:
- Perhaps add arrow buttons on SmugMug view page (at bottom, near # of #?), even though cursor keys on your keyboard do the trick, but may not be obvious to mouse-happy users.
- On the large single image view, would be nice to have an auto slideshow button - in the same image size, not full screen (i.e. a la Flickr).
- Please revise restriction of displaying either Filename or Caption. In fact, create a new field (Title?) based on the actual filename, but is editable. By default, Title and Caption should have differing font sizes, much like the difference between Filename and Keywords as shown now. Both Title and Caption could perhaps be separately turned on/off in both SmugMug and slideshow views.
- For photos with Portrait orientation, possible to have an option to display at the same dimensions as the Landscape ones?
...
First off, I initially pulled it up on my iphone and the layout allows natural swipe navigation of the main images, left and right. That's a huge deal and needs to be a feature with any new Smugmug release.
...
Just a quick note to add that SmugMug has recently update their mobile layout and it works very well in my Iphone ... including the swipe gesture.
Just a quick note to add that SmugMug has recently update their mobile layout and it works very well in my Iphone ... including the swipe gesture.
It's not very fast ... but is very beautifull
P.S.
my first post ... Hi everybody
Yeah, it looks nice but it's a stopgap meaning it's been feature-stripped; my clients can't order prints from it. You ask: "Should they?" The data shows that more and more people are ditching their computers and using their smartphones for 99% of their daily online tasks. I want my gallery provider to be ready for this, in fact, I want them to innovate and impress my clients. This means they can swipe left and right on large images and transition back and forth to a grid-view easily. This means they can add images to a cart easily. Maybe we can also have some form of easy checkout? Doesn't amazon have a pay phrase or something? It's only a matter of time; the writing is on the wall!
Yeah, it looks nice but it's a stopgap meaning it's been feature-stripped; my clients can't order prints from it. You ask: "Should they?" The data shows that more and more people are ditching their computers and using their smartphones for 99% of their daily online tasks. I want my gallery provider to be ready for this, in fact, I want them to innovate and impress my clients. This means they can swipe left and right on large images and transition back and forth to a grid-view easily. This means they can add images to a cart easily. Maybe we can also have some form of easy checkout? Doesn't amazon have a pay phrase or something? It's only a matter of time; the writing is on the wall!
Your clients will not see this new style, only you after adding cookie. They will see your galleries as they were.
Comments
Love the new buy button - big improvement
As a couple of others have said - keep the caption next to the pic, share buttons underneath. I'll play more and give more feedback.
I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
Edward Steichen
Ok I tried it out. I finally got it to work after some trouble understanding how to make it work. then I did not like it. Nothing wrong with the design and function however I have a color theme going on and did not like the colors. So I "leave" and nothing happened. I had to go in and clear out all my browser information and now I have to put it all back in.
Still have not been able to get the gallery to load to facebook right either. I can however get one picture up there and love this feature and how it refers back to my page.
I am not a computer programer so its was not real clear for me to understand.
I love the new look, but I quickly found out that in order to use another new feature - the Facebook upload - I had to "un-join" the new gallery look in order to access the share button and its features. I also had to disable it in order to set a featured photo. Looks like a few of the "old" options just aren't there with the new gallery.
So I love it, but when this feature moves out of the darkroom / beta mode, will we be losing some of these crucial features? Or are they just being left out while it's still at this testing phase?
www.tippiepics.com
I left the new gallery style to take a look ("join") at Facebook Publishing. A move from that new style to the old gallery style (Facebook Publishing doesn't work with the new style beta I finally figured out) was really revealing.
The older style when immediately contrasted with the new now seems cluttered, a bit harsher, and busy. I haven't spent more than the 30 minutes wandering in the new style, but this inadvertent near side-by-side comparison spoke volumes. Nice work on this--and the Facebook Publishing.
Exactly! I have started using the Collect Photos option to select a subset of images from a gallery and would like to make it really easy for clients to select a group of images for me to send them full res files.
Ideally they will not have to navigate a ton of menus, but have a simple button to collect, like the owner does.
how awesome this looks and works. It is a very refreshing change and much faster to use.
The Facebook publish option is very cool as well. However, the Xlarge picture isn't as big as what you get when you load directly to Facebook. That's the only drawback I see so far.
And what about us that don't use 'farcebook' or 'twatter' ? Not everyone is suckered into the whole "I don't have a life - on line community" thing.
Why can't you just concentrate on the important things like less downtime, PAYPAL, as everything else is great as it is.
.DAVID.
Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints
Can we please have an update on where we stand on this?
Several months have passed without a coherent response and this thread is way to big to read right through just to find individual comments.
My renwal is due in 6 weeks and I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to know this.
Caroline
www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+
[/URL]
Caroline, the new design is still in our Darkroom and it's still in an alpha-state. We've been taking feedback here in this thread. If you've got specific questions that aren't answered in posts 1 and 2 by onethumb, fire away and I'll do my best - thanks!
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Hi Andy,
My main concern is regarding the ability to use html in captions - unless I've missed it I believe this was not going to be available in the design? Is this still the case?
I believe html will still be OK in gallery descriptions - yes?
Otherwise, I'll sit patiently by and see how things develop, alpha to implementation 18mths wouldn't be unreasonable.
Caroline
www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+
[/URL]
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
When I click on the "i" button it shows me date modified in the DATE FIELD, and not date taken. Is there a way to change that.
In the earlier older gallery thingy, both used to be shown in basic info
FB:https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Site :http://www.tanveer.in
Blog :http://tsk1979.livejournal.com
one request I'd like to make is that when you click on a photo to make it full screen, a faint hint of the page is still visible in the background, and this can be somewhat distracting. It would be great if the background went completely black, (or white, or whatever background color someone has selected) so that when viewing a full screen photo the viewer isn't distracted by anything else.
If there is a way I can customize this myself using code, I would love to learn.
Thanks
Abe
Abe, if you can use CSS customizations with your account level, try this:
#lightBoxBG {opacity: 0.97; filter:alpha(opacity=97);}I don't really remember where I found this, but it works. The first value needs to be between 0 and 1, while the second value needs to be between 0 and 100. 0 is fully transparent; 1 (or 100) is fully opaque.
Cheers,
Brendan
Presenting "quick purchase" options is a HUGE marketing tool and quite often the "BUY" button is overlooked, however if visitors, clients, or whoever sees the option and price laid out right in front of them (especially for downloads of their kids playing sports) they -- in my opinion -- are probably 10x more likely to purchase.
I love this option so much it *almost* swayed me towards Zen.
Example on this URL:
http://www.mp2images.com/p816345787/hf7476a5#hf7476a5
Don't fret Admins. Matthew is a friend of mine and has given permission for me to share this link.
Lance
To be more specific, rather than post images directly to my Facebook page (which gives Facebook the right to use them in any way they see fit and anyone else the ability to right-click them for download), I post links to the loupe view of images I have posted to a non-public SmugMug gallery I have set up for this purpose. Unfortunately, where I have copied a loupe view image URL when in 'sneak peek' mode, the link takes the visitor to the normal page view where not only the image of interest is shown, but also a slew of thumbnails. This must be a bug, surely?
Since becoming aware of this, I have to be careful to 'leave' 'sneak peek' view before copying any URL for posting to Facebook. That's a PITA I'd like to see fixed asap!
My Website index | My Blog
My Website index | My Blog
so I used the "share" button on one of my photos (while NOT logged in) to post it to facebook. when I clicked on the link in facebook, it took me to the photo in the new gallery style. when I click on the photo and go back in to the gallery, and click on the breadcrumb link to my homepage in the upper right, it takes me back to my homepage and all the galleries look the same as before.
this is fine, i like the new look, just not sure if that's your intention at this point, since the darkroom says "Only you as the logged-in owner will notice this; guests will see your site as it always is." or am I mis-understanding that statement?
OK, wow. I like that Zenfolio layout, mostly. First off, I initially pulled it up on my iphone and the layout allows natural swipe navigation of the main images, left and right. That's a huge deal and needs to be a feature with any new Smugmug release. The trend in mobile computing is steeply upward. Many of my clients are hitting my websites with their smart phones. I'd bet that in a few years, most of them will do 90% of their computing on their iphones/androids. It's just going in that direction. The current mobile implementation of SmugMug seems like a huge stopgap.
Secondly, the thumbnail strip at the top is very linear and natural. A+ to that idea. I want that on Smugmug. With the thumbnail strip above and dynamic preloading of the main images, SmugMug could stack verticals and horizontals together below the thumbstrip and have it slide left and right with the thumbstrip. This isn't too far fetched and a very natural concept. (attached mockup)
I think the easing in/out sliding should emulate this: http://samples.bigfolio.com/burlington/#imagegalleries/wedding/poser/5 (flash)
jQuery should be able to do this. Click on the image and then cycle through the shots. This is how I'd imagine the enlargement screen would work: fade in/out.
Elegant. Modern.
I have also been a HUGE advocator for quick pricing. Several posts back in this thread, I proposed that Smugmug repurpose their current (not beta version) javascript slide-out panel to reveal a few common print/download options with pricing and +/- controls. Quick and easy.
/// www.affinityseattle.com /// <-yes, you want to check that out.
I think it looks at cookies in your browser. Can you try it in a different browser that's never enabled the beta?
/// www.affinityseattle.com /// <-yes, you want to check that out.
This is what I like so far:
- The cleaned up folder paths (or breadcrumbs) is great.
- As is the new page navigator dots/arrows - much cleaner.
- The magnifying glass for the default SmugMug view is more obvious.
- Just one slideshow mode is less confusing.
- Overall default font is much better.
- Display of Captions and Keywords is a huge improvement.
Some suggestions for consideration:
- Perhaps add arrow buttons on SmugMug view page (at bottom, near # of #?), even though cursor keys on your keyboard do the trick, but may not be obvious to mouse-happy users.
- On the large single image view, would be nice to have an auto slideshow button - in the same image size, not full screen (i.e. a la Flickr).
- Please revise restriction of displaying either Filename or Caption. In fact, create a new field (Title?) based on the actual filename, but is editable. By default, Title and Caption should have differing font sizes, much like the difference between Filename and Keywords as shown now. Both Title and Caption could perhaps be separately turned on/off in both SmugMug and slideshow views.
- For photos with Portrait orientation, possible to have an option to display at the same dimensions as the Landscape ones?
Thanks.
Just a quick note to add that SmugMug has recently update their mobile layout and it works very well in my Iphone ... including the swipe gesture.
It's not very fast ... but is very beautifull
P.S.
my first post ... Hi everybody
Yeah, it looks nice but it's a stopgap meaning it's been feature-stripped; my clients can't order prints from it. You ask: "Should they?" The data shows that more and more people are ditching their computers and using their smartphones for 99% of their daily online tasks. I want my gallery provider to be ready for this, in fact, I want them to innovate and impress my clients. This means they can swipe left and right on large images and transition back and forth to a grid-view easily. This means they can add images to a cart easily. Maybe we can also have some form of easy checkout? Doesn't amazon have a pay phrase or something? It's only a matter of time; the writing is on the wall!
/// www.affinityseattle.com /// <-yes, you want to check that out.
My Website index | My Blog