Set photo sort order via metadata

bcuzz

I am trying to do as much work in Lightroom as possible with regards to managing photos. I am converting all my Smugmug galleries to Smart Galleries because I think this will make the workflow better. The problem I face is I can't find a way to control the order of photos in a gallery via metadata. I know there are sort by x, y, z options, but those don't always suffice. For example, sort by date taken can get out of whack if I am using 2 cameras and the date/times on them are not synchronized.

What if I could set keywords, say order-1, order-2, order-3, and Smugmug would read those keywords and order the photos accordingly? Then I could control the order via Lightroom. I would not have to log into Smugmug and drag photos around for the cases where one of the built-in gallery sort options is not sufficient.

Maybe there is a metadata field already for this, but I couldn't find it.

mrneutron

The latest version of the plugin allows you to retain the sort order in Lightroom. Get version 2.1.6 here. http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/121321

If you're using a custom sort order, two things need to happen.

1. The gallery "Sort By" parameter needs to be set to "Position", as shown in this screen capture: http://screencast.com/t/Jx9pYLId (3KB)

2. In the LR publish folder, change the "Sort" parameter to "Custom Order", as shown in this screen capture:
http://screencast.com/t/AIHVPwxzPepr (3KB)

Reordering of images occurs at the end of the publishing process. The published gallery on your site should retain the custom order set in Lightroom.

There is no way to sort by keyword. Only date uploaded, filename, date taken, date modified or, caption.

bcuzz

I have the latest plugin, thanks.

I don't think the workflow you outlined works with Smart Galleries. I am uploading from LR to a "File Cabinet" gallery on SmugMug. Then I create a Smart Gallery (ex: Trip to Mars) on SmugMug to query the File Cabinet for the photos it should contain. Your workflow will set the order in the "File Cabinet" gallery, but not in the Trip to Mars Smart Gallery.

Since there is not currently a way to sort or set the order via a keyword, what about adding a feature request/enhancement for you guys to add something to accomplish this? It doesn't have to be done with keywords, but I couldn't think of another way to do it.

Thanks,
BC

rainforest1155

Due to the automatic and fluent nature of smart galleries there's not a way to specify a sort order other than the sort options available in the gallery settings > appearance section.
What you might be able to do, is to rename all your photos in a way that it would give them a unique sequence even across cameras that would allow you to use the sort by filename setting. You might even be able to use the rename feature that's part of the publish service to set up a filenaming scheme that always names the files so they can be properly sorted on SmugMug without any manual intervention.

Other than that, I can only suggest that you create a suggestion on the SmugMug feedback page.