It is very hard to tell the difference between a Smugmug-medium sized 400x600 pixel .jpg thats been sharpened (for print) and one that hasn't. Smugmug also autosharpens these pictures anyway so there won't really be a difference in what the customer sees on the site.
There WILL be a difference in the print though!
I take it back...Just did a test with a sharpened vs non-sharpened pic in Smugmug medium size...BIG DIFFERENCE!
FYI Andy, I might be starting a new thread soon with questions about Noise Ninja and USM sharpening...We'll see if I can figure it out first
We the end user won't know any thing till the end product has been added.
Canon and Nikon don't do much pre-release promising. We the customers tell them what we want and they the business decided what they can provide based on available technology, cost and the market. Many chat pages are wasted based on outsiders speculating on what their next move may be and when. Common thread.
Greg "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
Canon and Nikon don't do much pre-release promising. We the customers tell them what we want and they the business decided what they can provide based on available technology, cost and the market. Many chat pages are wasted based on outsiders speculating on what their next move may be and when. Common thread.
I will re ask the question, in a form I normally see.
Will Smugmug offer digital downloads, its a simple answer yes or no.
I don't work for smugmug but I've worked in the software industry for close to 20 years, and while that may seem like a simple question that would have a simple yes or no answer, things are not really that simple behind the scenes from a technical or business standpoint.
And features that may seem like a simple thing to a user can actually be incredibly complicated from a technical standpoint and have far reaching implications that may not be thought of by the user. And if those things are not properly addressed, you've got a disaster on your hands.
I ran into this thread after doing a search to find any new information on a feature I badly need--custom watermarking.
There is a lot of good information here. I looked at EM and what they offer. I looked at one example gallery. There's some features in there I could really use (watermark, digital downloads). And some that are really missing (private galleries, full screen slideshows).
Bottom line? I've already got over 50GB uploaded on SM. I see that the features I want will be neccessary for SM to stay competitive in the next 2 years. Even moreso after reading this thread and seeing the competition. So I'll wait. But I will continue to search for a better solution until the features are there. I'm happy with SM, but not perfectly happy...yet. :cry
And that's the hard part in any business--pleasing everyone perfectly. We as photographers know that all too well.
A suggestion - More variety in the "gifts" area
Let me start of by saying "Great experience with SM" - forum and people on it are incredibly helpful and have helped me get something at least presentable out of my site and customization.
The thoughtful posts have given a lot of user input that will, if enough of us ask, show up. These guys are in business and you don't stay in business if you ignore your customers. So, the most requsted stuff will show up sooner or later. It's just darn hard and expensive to develop new features.
My meager contribution to the list of "Would like to see" is primarily in the list of gift items. I ran across photostockplus.com and they offered a very impressive line of gift items. SM is sort of sketchy in that area right now.
I presume SM is looking at vendors all the time that can add sales for their customers and thus, themselves, so maybe we'll see this get addressed since it is mostly external rather than developmental.
While you are looking, can you see about adding large output as an option from some custom house so we can get the 4' x 6' prints on different media done, even if it sort of a semi-custom basis thing?
Heck, if your lab can do the work of sharpening, color correcting, etc., I sure as the devil don't want to do it myself. If they can't get a good result from the upload, perhaps a good feature would be a way to email for the original file.
That said, I am a satisfied user that is encouraging SM to grow. Nope, I dont' depend on the site for a living, so I am less demanding.
Since this thread has gone a little rancid I don't know if I dare post here (I guess I can understand, but I'm not a nagger or whiner) but I'll stick my neck out. I'm comparing Smugmug to ExposureManager, not necesseraly to switch but to find out if I have use for both, or if the functions in EM are actually in SM also.
With EM you can put a gallery in a gallery, sort of the same hierachial way you handle folders on a computer. I don't know how many levels but I tried 6 without reaching a limit. (Maybe 6 is a bit much but I think this example i pretty realistic: Family\Birthdays\Stinas birtdays\Stinas 8th birthday.) Even permissions are inhereted like with folders. To me this makes alot of sense and I wonder if this is possible in SM. Maybe categories are supposed to enable or can mimic this behaviour but, if so, I need some help getting started with that.
To me this makes alot of sense and I wonder if this is possible in SM. Maybe categories are supposed to enable or can mimic this behaviour but, if so, I need some help getting started with that.
Thanks,
Malte
Hi Malte, thanks for posting, and for the question - it's a good one. We're setup with the following: Homepage>Category>Subcategory>Gallery
Beyond that, we feel that more levels creates "click fatigue" - we know that some (actually a small percentage, based on feedback just like this) folks want to organize deeper - but we don't have it and I don't see it changing anytime soon. I wish I had a better answer for you.
Since this thread has gone a little rancid I don't know if I dare post here (I guess I can understand, but I'm not a nagger or whiner) but I'll stick my neck out. I'm comparing Smugmug to ExposureManager, not necesseraly to switch but to find out if I have use for both, or if the functions in EM are actually in SM also.
With EM you can put a gallery in a gallery, sort of the same hierachial way you handle folders on a computer. I don't know how many levels but I tried 6 without reaching a limit. (Maybe 6 is a bit much but I think this example i pretty realistic: Family\Birthdays\Stinas birtdays\Stinas 8th birthday.) Even permissions are inhereted like with folders. To me this makes alot of sense and I wonder if this is possible in SM. Maybe categories are supposed to enable or can mimic this behaviour but, if so, I need some help getting started with that.
Thanks,
Malte
Discussions about this topic have become heated in the past too. May I suggest that you can use the keyword capabilities of SM to create virtual galleries. You can tag each photo with the pertinent information like who is in the photo what it's from etc etc. Then you can leave out Stina's 8th birthday from the heirarchy and simply post all of Stina's birthday pics in one gallery. Assuming you keyworded the pics so that each pic has the appropriate year - i.e. each pic from Stina's 8th birthday party could have Stina's 8th or Stinas 8th birthday as a keyword - then you can link to username.smugmug.com/keyword/Stinas+8th+birthday to quickly allow your guests to filter out only the 8th birthday party.
This is really much more powerful than people give it credit for. It is essentially unlimited heirarchy using a flat keywording system. What if you want only pics from Stina's 8th birthday with Uncle John in the pic? If you've keyworded correctly, you can now in effect have a gallery with only pics of Stina's 8th birthday and uncle John in them by going to username.keyword.com/keyword/Stinas+8th+birthday+uncle+john
Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.
With EM you can put a gallery in a gallery, sort of the same hierachial way you handle folders on a computer. I don't know how many levels but I tried 6 without reaching a limit. (Maybe 6 is a bit much but I think this example i pretty realistic: Family\Birthdays\Stinas birtdays\Stinas 8th birthday.) Even permissions are inhereted like with folders. To me this makes alot of sense and I wonder if this is possible in SM. Maybe categories are supposed to enable or can mimic this behaviour but, if so, I need some help getting started with that.
Thanks,
Malte
Malte,
Maybe what we've done with our Tutorials Table of Contents Page would work for you? I know it's a workaround, but hey, it's something!
Thanks Mike! Metadata searching is the way of the future isn't it. I never knew you could put the keywords right there in the URL, cool stuff. Trouble is keywording doesn't work on protected sites or galleries, logged in or not.
Features don't fill your print sales coffer. Yes, they make life easier, but they don't fill the coffer all by themselves. Go out make a phone call, get that extra job
That comment got my dander up Andy... Digital downloads would help fill my sales coffer.
(snip)
...I'll tell you what though -- except for a few features like package pricing, and digital downloads, none of those features make the pro any more money...(snip)
Note the use of the word "except" ... so, I totally agree with you on this.
All the best,
then you can link to username.smugmug.com/keyword/Stinas+8th+birthday to quickly allow your guests to filter out only the 8th birthday party. This is really much more powerful than people give it credit for. It is essentially unlimited heirarchy using a flat keywording system.
Is it possible to give a keyword gallery a description and a theme, and have it automatically listed alongside other galleries on the home page or category pages? I remember a long time ago a post said keyword galleries could not be customized, but I don't know if the capability has been added since then. I was holding off on trying them if they couldn't be first-class citizens.
Note the use of the word "except" ... so, I totally agree with you on this.
All the best,
Cool, I'm a patient guy and I am sticking with smugmug, have been for a couple years now. DD's are high on my list of things I need, not want, for my business.
Is it possible to give a keyword gallery a description and a theme, and have it automatically listed alongside other galleries on the home page or category pages? I remember a long time ago a post said keyword galleries could not be customized, but I don't know if the capability has been added since then. I was holding off on trying them if they couldn't be first-class citizens.
Customize? Yes. Descriptions? No. The keyword galleries respond to themes and cobranding. One thing you can't do is offer a choice of gallery styles unless you have the smugmug header turned on site-wide (could be hidden everywhere but the keyword gallery I suppose).
Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.
Hi Malte, thanks for posting, and for the question - it's a good one. We're setup with the following: Homepage>Category>Subcategory>Gallery
Beyond that, we feel that more levels creates "click fatigue" - we know that some (actually a small percentage, based on feedback just like this) folks want to organize deeper - but we don't have it and I don't see it changing anytime soon. I wish I had a better answer for you.
All the best, and thanks again for posting!
I've seen other analysis on click fatigue as well. It's important to not have too many clicks to get to what the user wants. Having less levels is one way to accomplish this.
Customize? Yes. Descriptions? No. The keyword galleries respond to themes and cobranding. One thing you can't do is offer a choice of gallery styles unless you have the smugmug header turned on site-wide (could be hidden everywhere but the keyword gallery I suppose).
Thanks! Not exactly the answer I wanted but I just had a brainstorm. I suppose I could create one of those "no photos" galleries, which will list normally and contain a description, then have the only thing on the page be a link or image link to the actual metadata-driven gallery. That oughta work, since I only need a description on the intro page.
The lack of gallery style choice will not a problem for me since I usually force All Thumbs in the applied theme.
Comments
Here, here!
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
I take it back...Just did a test with a sharpened vs non-sharpened pic in Smugmug medium size...BIG DIFFERENCE!
FYI Andy, I might be starting a new thread soon with questions about Noise Ninja and USM sharpening...We'll see if I can figure it out first
Thanks Andy!
www.newenglanddigitalphotography.com
Canon and Nikon don't do much pre-release promising. We the customers tell them what we want and they the business decided what they can provide based on available technology, cost and the market. Many chat pages are wasted based on outsiders speculating on what their next move may be and when. Common thread.
"Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
that's a much better analogy than mine.
bodley = king of analogies.
I don't work for smugmug but I've worked in the software industry for close to 20 years, and while that may seem like a simple question that would have a simple yes or no answer, things are not really that simple behind the scenes from a technical or business standpoint.
And features that may seem like a simple thing to a user can actually be incredibly complicated from a technical standpoint and have far reaching implications that may not be thought of by the user. And if those things are not properly addressed, you've got a disaster on your hands.
I invite you call up Apple Computer and ask them what products they're planning on releasing this year - new Macs, new iPods, etc.
There is a lot of good information here. I looked at EM and what they offer. I looked at one example gallery. There's some features in there I could really use (watermark, digital downloads). And some that are really missing (private galleries, full screen slideshows).
Bottom line? I've already got over 50GB uploaded on SM. I see that the features I want will be neccessary for SM to stay competitive in the next 2 years. Even moreso after reading this thread and seeing the competition. So I'll wait. But I will continue to search for a better solution until the features are there. I'm happy with SM, but not perfectly happy...yet. :cry
And that's the hard part in any business--pleasing everyone perfectly. We as photographers know that all too well.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Let me start of by saying "Great experience with SM" - forum and people on it are incredibly helpful and have helped me get something at least presentable out of my site and customization.
The thoughtful posts have given a lot of user input that will, if enough of us ask, show up. These guys are in business and you don't stay in business if you ignore your customers. So, the most requsted stuff will show up sooner or later. It's just darn hard and expensive to develop new features.
My meager contribution to the list of "Would like to see" is primarily in the list of gift items. I ran across photostockplus.com and they offered a very impressive line of gift items. SM is sort of sketchy in that area right now.
I presume SM is looking at vendors all the time that can add sales for their customers and thus, themselves, so maybe we'll see this get addressed since it is mostly external rather than developmental.
While you are looking, can you see about adding large output as an option from some custom house so we can get the 4' x 6' prints on different media done, even if it sort of a semi-custom basis thing?
Heck, if your lab can do the work of sharpening, color correcting, etc., I sure as the devil don't want to do it myself. If they can't get a good result from the upload, perhaps a good feature would be a way to email for the original file.
That said, I am a satisfied user that is encouraging SM to grow. Nope, I dont' depend on the site for a living, so I am less demanding.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Red
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
With EM you can put a gallery in a gallery, sort of the same hierachial way you handle folders on a computer. I don't know how many levels but I tried 6 without reaching a limit. (Maybe 6 is a bit much but I think this example i pretty realistic: Family\Birthdays\Stinas birtdays\Stinas 8th birthday.) Even permissions are inhereted like with folders. To me this makes alot of sense and I wonder if this is possible in SM. Maybe categories are supposed to enable or can mimic this behaviour but, if so, I need some help getting started with that.
Thanks,
Malte
Beyond that, we feel that more levels creates "click fatigue" - we know that some (actually a small percentage, based on feedback just like this) folks want to organize deeper - but we don't have it and I don't see it changing anytime soon. I wish I had a better answer for you.
All the best, and thanks again for posting!
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Discussions about this topic have become heated in the past too. May I suggest that you can use the keyword capabilities of SM to create virtual galleries. You can tag each photo with the pertinent information like who is in the photo what it's from etc etc. Then you can leave out Stina's 8th birthday from the heirarchy and simply post all of Stina's birthday pics in one gallery. Assuming you keyworded the pics so that each pic has the appropriate year - i.e. each pic from Stina's 8th birthday party could have Stina's 8th or Stinas 8th birthday as a keyword - then you can link to username.smugmug.com/keyword/Stinas+8th+birthday to quickly allow your guests to filter out only the 8th birthday party.
This is really much more powerful than people give it credit for. It is essentially unlimited heirarchy using a flat keywording system. What if you want only pics from Stina's 8th birthday with Uncle John in the pic? If you've keyworded correctly, you can now in effect have a gallery with only pics of Stina's 8th birthday and uncle John in them by going to username.keyword.com/keyword/Stinas+8th+birthday+uncle+john
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
Malte,
Maybe what we've done with our Tutorials Table of Contents Page would work for you? I know it's a workaround, but hey, it's something!
If you need any help with it, ask Andy.
Just kidding, I'd be happy to help you with it.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Here's something where SM kicks EM's ass, customization.
One of my favourite SM sites:
http://bigwebguy.smugmug.com/
The prettiest I have seen on EM:
http://www.billyhunt.com/
(Yours is nice too andy but bigwebguy's opacity effect takes the cake!)
Malte
Malte
Malte
First is a gallery, second is a category.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Thanks Malte
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=27713
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
That comment got my dander up Andy... Digital downloads would help fill my sales coffer.
www.crh3.com
Hey, no need for the flames! I'm on your side
Please read the full context of what I said, in this very thread:
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=268768&postcount=78
Note the use of the word "except" ... so, I totally agree with you on this.
All the best,
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Is it possible to give a keyword gallery a description and a theme, and have it automatically listed alongside other galleries on the home page or category pages? I remember a long time ago a post said keyword galleries could not be customized, but I don't know if the capability has been added since then. I was holding off on trying them if they couldn't be first-class citizens.
Cool, I'm a patient guy and I am sticking with smugmug, have been for a couple years now. DD's are high on my list of things I need, not want, for my business.
www.crh3.com
Customize? Yes. Descriptions? No. The keyword galleries respond to themes and cobranding. One thing you can't do is offer a choice of gallery styles unless you have the smugmug header turned on site-wide (could be hidden everywhere but the keyword gallery I suppose).
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Thanks! Not exactly the answer I wanted but I just had a brainstorm. I suppose I could create one of those "no photos" galleries, which will list normally and contain a description, then have the only thing on the page be a link or image link to the actual metadata-driven gallery. That oughta work, since I only need a description on the intro page.
The lack of gallery style choice will not a problem for me since I usually force All Thumbs in the applied theme.
Hope I didn't drag the thread too far off topic.
A direct link on EM:
http://malte.exposuremanager.com/scripts/expman.pl?rm=view_photo&photo_id=crw_401412&dir=galleries/1&file=crw_4014_full.jpg
Same one on SM:
http://malte.smugmug.com/photos/58653027-D.jpg
Nitpicking now, I know, but a prettier link is a prettier link.
Malte
Oh, and they also don't seem to have the "-D" link.