LR Plug In
Kevin Paul
Registered Users Posts: 66 Big grins
I have the lightroom plug in working and am able to publish from it.
I understand there is a way I can export to Smug Mug so I don't have to store Jpegs on my hard drive. is this true? Can I export right to the plug in and never store full size jpegs on my hard drive?
Thanks for the help, Just trying to make my ship go faster.
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Our Lightroom plug-in exports a JPEG file of each photo automatically to your SmugMug account when published. There's no need to manually convert photos to JPEG first (and store them on your hard drive) before publishing.
NOTE: The quality of the JPEG file can be specified within the File Settings section of the Lightroom Publishing Manager (view screenshot).
I hope this helps! If you need further assistance, give us a holler: help@smugmug.com
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Help Center - http://help.smugmug.com/
So how does it work then? I just drag the dng's into that folder and when I press publish it will convert them to JPG's and upload?
Is there a video or set of instructions somewhere?
I understand there is a way that I can have people select favorites in events and then retouch/sync from there as well?
I might be making it to hard, but I really just don't understand it. I appreciate the help.
There are probably instructions though I am not sure where, but here's the short version.
It's a publishing plugin, so most of the functionality is Lightroom's not Smugmug -- by that I mean the way in which you use it is the way all lightroom publishing plugins work, so starting with lightroom documentation may help.
Basically you first set up the plugin - you give it your credentials to connect (I think there's a step that you have to authorize it), and basically review all the settings under the plugin itself (lefthand panel). Once that's done, it has not created anything per se, but you have a placeholder.
Most people then sync to get their Smugmug folder structure shown (there's an option in the smugmug planel. you CAN sync to have it try to find photos not just folders and galleries, but that takes a long time, and has some quirks. You might want to save that for after you get familiar, so consider syncing just structure not photos first.
Now under the plugin you should see all your folders and galleries at Smugmug. You can go there, right click (or whatever Mac people do if on a Mac) and create new folders or galleries. Fill out all the info as appropriate when you create the gallery; it starts empty of course. The thing you create is called a collection in Lightroom, gallery in Smugmug. Only galleries/collections can hold folders. The published Folder option is a Smugmug folder, and holds galleries, never images. Be careful which one you create.
Now... after you get to this point, just drag and drop images from any gallery/collection you created. These are a copy -- it is not going to "move" your image there, it just makes a copy in the collection. Then you publish (either right click on the collection, or go into the collection and there's a button on the top right).
It's easy, I create multiple galleries a week, works great.
EXCEPT: you cannot control the order of galleries within folders in the plugin, you have to do that on Smugmug. You also cannot set up some settings (cover image is one) and features (smart galleries -- there is a Lightroom Smart Gallery but it has nothing to do with Smugmug Smart Galleries, unfortunately, other than sharing a name). But image management is then simple. If you change the image, it automatically queues to re-publish (it still waits for you to pick the button but it keeps track of which images were changed all by itself, one of the nicest parts.
If you change the image, it automatically queues to re-publish (it still waits for you to pick the button but it keeps track of which images were changed all by itself, one of the nicest parts.
Man, I really appreciate your time to type all of that out.
I was with you and have now done everything you said up to this point.
So if my client says they like 1,6,9,10 I can go in and retouch those dng's in LR and then drag them back over to the smug mug gallery and it will replace the images on my site when I click publish?
Did I get that right?
I understand there is a way to access event favorites like this too. Have you done that? I would LOVE to change my workflow to that and stop having to have people write down the wrong file name.
Thanks again for your time.
Almost -- there is no need to drag it over again if you retouch the same image. If you produce an additional copy in lightroom -- so there are two images, the old and new, you need to drag the new image over. And if you delete an image in lightroom (say an intermediate TIFF), it will prompt you asking before it deletes if you want to remove it from the published collection.
But it automatically queues any changed image (including metadata changes) to publish.
You might want to set up a private gallery(s) and experiment. it's pretty easy to see what it is doing inside the published collection, you will see potentially several areas inside that display when you click on it in library mode - published, new to be published (not yet sent), modified to be updated (not yet sent), removed to be deleted (not yet removed), etc.
So when you first drag them in, all are new to be published. If you hit publish, in a bit it becomes "published". Do that with a few photos, then go into develop and change one. As soon as you do, it shifts to modified. If you publish it goes back to "published".
Basically all you have to do is get the photo in the collection once, and periodically remember to go hit the publish button -- it will keep track of which photos need to be modified or deleted.
No, I have not. There is code around that will show an image number (counted from the first in a gallery), which is easier for people to provide, but that number changes if you add or remove images, so it is not a stable identifier. I have not tried any of the collection tools Smugmug has for users.
One last comment -- if you sell digital downloads of the original, there is a quirk of the publishing tool.
If you put metadata into an image (say captions, copyrights), provided you allow it (publishing setting) it will include this in the JPG uploaded to Smugmug, and people who download that original will see that metadata.
If later you change the metadata and the image itself (develop settings) it sends a fresh image copy and the changed metadata is still there.
If however, you change JUST metadata, say a caption, Smugmug also queues that to send and when published the image as you see it on Smugmug has the new caption -- BUT, it is a cheat. It's visible on Smugmug only, it does not upload the image again (to make it run faster). So people who download that original do not get the new metadata.
This has been a longstanding complaint of mine. I work around it by a complete waste of bandwidth -- if I have been changing Metadata, I periodically go through and get everything published, then I "Mark for Republish" and send all the images again to make sure they have the metadata current.
This is only relevant if people download originals AND you change metadata without changing the develop settings AND if you care that the metadata is current when they download. But to me it's a bug, but to Smugmug it's a feature, so I doubt it ever gets fixed. Essentially they save bandwidth and keep Smugmug's web display correct, but not digital downloads. All this is moot if the image itself is changed, it always uploads both then.