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Many questions from a prospective SmugMug user

GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
edited May 5, 2006 in SmugMug Support
Consider me a prospective customer. I was referred to SmugMug by a poster on another message board when I posted a request for advice on an online photo album service provider. Before I even sign up for a trial membership, I have a bunch of questions that I'd really appreciate someone addressing before I proceed.

I've been exploring the SmugMug site and lurking a bit here in the forum over the last couple of days when I got a chance. The answers to my questions might exist already within, but posting them is probably the fastest way for me to come to a decision.

My Need
I want to share vacation photos with friends and family. My albums consist of between 100 and 500 photos each, shot at 5 or 6 megapixels depending on the camera. I want the access method to be simple and straightforward (they click on a link in an email from me and they get taken directly to the album -- as opposed to the Flickr methodology).

It may sound like a lot of photos for a single vacation, but a couple weeks in Paris, the Amazon, Vietnam, Tuscany, etc. can easily result in closer to a thousand or so photos that I select only the best.

My Current Situation
I had a near perfect situation, but alas, the company has gone out of business. What I was using was peer-to-peer software (ShareGear) where I could compose the photo album on my own home computer, and simply send a link via the provider's central server to the recipients. The recipient simply clicked on the link and was routed (safely) to my home computer to view the photo album.

What was nice about this was that I didn't have to upload any photos to a server, which saved me a ton of time. Also, the software had a nice feature where I could attach an mp3 file to the slide show so that music would play on the viewer's machine when they were viewing the album.

With the company going bankrupt I'm stuck without a solution. Based on what I've seen so far, SmugMug might be the answer. But I have some questions first.

1. Slide Show Capabilities?
I see that on some of the galleries people have a slide show capability, but I have not seen anyone have captions for each photo in the slide show. Is that possible? (With my photos, if it is a shot of Ankgor Wat, I want to be able to explain the picture.)

I've also noticed that in many of the examples I've perused, the photo appears so large that it requires scrolling to see it all. Is this a common problem?

2. Music?
Is there any capability to add music to slide shows? It seems like there is a lot of flexibility with the number of hacks that I see. Would this even be possible to customize?

3. Mass Batch Uploads?
I don't want to upload pictures a few at a time. I don't really see how SmugMug users do this (although I did see a reference in one thread to StarExplorer). How would I go about uploading a few hundred photos at one time?

And how do I do this without waiting days before it finishes? (Pardon my skepticism -- I once tried to upload about 50 photos to an online service, and it took forever!

4. Mass Photo Size Reductions?
OK. Let's say I continue to keep my original photos on my home computer. For letting people view a slide show online I certainly don't need to have the highest quality images available. If there is a way to do mass uploading (see # 3), is there a way to do mass downsizing?

I saw a reference in a post to JPEG 10 vs 12. What the heck is this all about?

5. Captions and Tagging?
I certainly want to have captions to my photos (see # 1). Do I do this before upload, or after? And how would I do it before, or after? I'm sure I won't be able to keep the captions that I have with my current software (sigh).

All my photos will likely be private, so I don't think I'll bother with tagging. Any advice on that topic?

6. HTML and Java Hacks; and APIs?
Sheesh. Do I need to be a web developer to use SmugMug? The posts and information on customizing or using hacks is quite intimidating. On the other hand, if it is truly that flexible, is SmugMug simply a web site hosting site (similar to 1and1?)

7. Create My Own Web Site?
Instead of using SmugMug, should I simply pay someone to design and build a web site to display my photo albums? I probably would be able to accomplish my goals just as well. (Is this essentially what SmugMug is, only with a "head start"? -- see # 6)

8. Annual Fee Payment?
I'm not a professional so I'd only need the standard package. Do you accept PayPal?

My Configuration
I'm running on a Windows XP machine with a cable modem connection.


Thanks in advance for your advice.
Regards,
Gary
SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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Comments

  • Options
    StevenVStevenV Registered Users Posts: 1,174 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    Welcome! I don't know all the answers, but I'll help where I can. I'm sure others will jump in as well.
    The recipient simply clicked on the link and was routed (safely) to my home computer to view the photo album.

    What was nice about this was that I didn't have to upload any photos to a server,

    wow. I don't know of any other service that does that; everyone I've looked (SM included) has you put your pictures on their servers.
    I have not seen anyone have captions for each photo in the slide show. Is that possible? (With my photos, if it is a shot of Ankgor Wat, I want to be able to explain the picture.)

    Yes, photos can have captions, and the user can choose to display them during the slideshow.
    3. Mass Batch Uploads?

    There are a few tools to do that, yes, both for Windows and Macintosh.
    And how do I do this without waiting days before it finishes? (Pardon my skepticism -- I once tried to upload about 50 photos to an online service, and it took forever!

    I often upload a gallery of 30-45 pictures in ~45 minutes or less.

    I saw a reference in a post to JPEG 10 vs 12. What the heck is this all about?

    that's a setting in PhotoShop (or other software) when you save the jpg file. That has to do with quality and filesize, not image size. 10 is great, 12 is considered overkill.
    before upload, or after? And how would I do it before, or after? I'm sure I won't be able to keep the captions that I have with my current software (sigh).

    Don't give up yet, tell us what software you're using.
    Sheesh. Do I need to be a web developer to use SmugMug?

    no, though if you want to have a completely-customized look then you'll want to learn something (or pay someone like Mike to do it for you).
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    wave.gif Hi, I'm your House Pro, and I'll help you today. Many thanks for considering SmugMug!
    Consider me a prospective customer. I was referred to SmugMug by a poster on another message board when I posted a request for advice on an online photo album service provider. Before I even sign up for a trial membership, I have a bunch of questions that I'd really appreciate someone addressing before I proceed.

    My Need
    I want to share vacation photos with friends and family. My albums consist of between 100 and 500 photos each, shot at 5 or 6 megapixels depending on the camera. I want the access method to be simple and straightforward (they click on a link in an email from me and they get taken directly to the album -- as opposed to the Flickr methodology).

    cool - we're built for that :D A nice approach is what JenNYC has done:
    http://jennyc.smugmug.com/gallery/1003113

    and there are many others, in this thread:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=27713
    My Current Situation
    I had a near perfect situation, but alas, the company has gone out of business.
    That's always a risk - sorry it happened to you! One thing you should know about us: We're self-funded, grown from 0 to 60million photos, 2 employees to 14, and we're in great financial shape. We expect to be around for our grandchildrendeal.gif

    http://www.smugmug.com/aboutus/about.mg
    1. Slide Show Capabilities?
    I see that on some of the galleries people have a slide show capability, but I have not seen anyone have captions for each photo in the slide show. Is that possible? (With my photos, if it is a shot of Ankgor Wat, I want to be able to explain the picture.)

    Here, have a look:
    http://www.moonriverphotography.com/gallery/734406 change the viewing style to slideshow.

    Here is an example of full screen slideshow with captions:
    http://andydemo.smugmug.com/gallery/1372224 click on the >slideshow button upper right
    I've also noticed that in many of the examples I've perused, the photo appears so large that it requires scrolling to see it all. Is this a common problem?

    Everyone's monitors are different - and photo sizes are different. We have a solution for every size you'd like. S, M, L, Orig. And Garganta coming on the way soon: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=32241
    2. Music?
    Is there any capability to add music to slide shows? It seems like there is a lot of flexibility with the number of hacks that I see. Would this even be possible to customize?

    Sure, if you can host the music, it can be streamed from your SmugMug site.
    3. Mass Batch Uploads?
    I don't want to upload pictures a few at a time. I don't really see how SmugMug users do this (although I did see a reference in one thread to StarExplorer). How would I go about uploading a few hundred photos at one time?
    Yep - standard with the Universal Drag and Drop, or with the SendToSmugMug or StarExplorer. Any or all of these can handle hundreds and more at a time.
    http://www.smugmug.com/hack/hacks-apps
    And how do I do this without waiting days before it finishes? (Pardon my skepticism -- I once tried to upload about 50 photos to an online service, and it took forever!

    Well, this is of course dependent on your internet connection. We process them immediately upon receipt.
    4. Mass Photo Size Reductions?
    OK. Let's say I continue to keep my original photos on my home computer. For letting people view a slide show online I certainly don't need to have the highest quality images available. If there is a way to do mass uploading (see # 3), is there a way to do mass downsizing?

    Your best bet is to upload the full size files, that way when you want prints, the big file is there. You can allow, or disallow, Larges and Originals, on a gallery by gallery basis.
    I saw a reference in a post to JPEG 10 vs 12. What the heck is this all about?

    JPG 10 is image compression - generally considered to be Lab Quality. 12 is the least amount of compression. Very few folks can perceive the difference between 10 and 12. We recommend 10, 11 if you must. There's usually no benefit of using 12, but you can if you like:
    http://www.smugmug.com/help/speed

    5. Captions and Tagging?
    I certainly want to have captions to my photos (see # 1). Do I do this before upload, or after? And how would I do it before, or after? I'm sure I won't be able to keep the captions that I have with my current software (sigh).

    Best if add captions on your end - via standard IPTC captionin in Photoshop, Elements, or similar program. And we'll use those captions.
    All my photos will likely be private, so I don't think I'll bother with tagging. Any advice on that topic?

    No - if you are keeping them private, you don't need to tag them. YOu can, of course, and they'll stay wiht the photo...
    6. HTML and Java Hacks; and APIs?
    Sheesh. Do I need to be a web developer to use SmugMug? The posts and information on customizing or using hacks is quite intimidating. On the other hand, if it is truly that flexible, is SmugMug simply a web site hosting site (similar to 1and1?)
    We cater to all kinds of folks! Folks like Bigwebguy, Ivar, Mike, Devbobo and many others, help me, to help you, customize. ANYONE can do it. We have numerous examples on the customization forum here of complete CSS / HTML n00bs who've built beautiful sites with our help:

    http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2006/04/19/whatever-it-takes/
    http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2006/03/25/smugmug-pro-resources/
    http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2006/01/21/customizing-success-story/
    7. Create My Own Web Site?
    Instead of using SmugMug, should I simply pay someone to design and build a web site to display my photo albums? I probably would be able to accomplish my goals just as well. (Is this essentially what SmugMug is, only with a "head start"? -- see # 6)

    Hm you can, but in the long run, you'll pay much much more than $150 per year. Think: up front fees, hosting fees, design fees, upkeep, maintenance, etc. But you certainly can do it :D
    8. Annual Fee Payment?
    I'm not a professional so I'd only need the standard package. Do you accept PayPal?

    No, only major credit cards. And standard account holders can get in on any number of our themes:

    http://themes.smugmug.com
    My Configuration
    I'm running on a Windows XP machine with a cable modem connection.
    [/quote[
    Cool - perfect!
    Thanks in advance for your advice.
    Regards,
    Gary

    Holler back here with more questions - we'll answer them deal.gif
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    dogwooddogwood Registered Users Posts: 2,572 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    do you need to be a web developer?
    Nope. There's a lot of tutorials and help here. The basic smugmug website 'template' is fine too, but many folks like to make their sites a bit more stylish than the basic template provides. But you don't have to.

    I don't know my CSS from my JS-- and somehow (okay, okay, with MAJOR help from everybody here) I've created a site that I like and that works just fine for me. In fact, a big plus for me with smugmug is that there are so many other people working on the design aspect that just about anything you want to do, someone else has done before you, and they'll usually help you out.

    Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
    website blog instagram facebook g+

  • Options
    DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    I believe that 99% of hacks are only available to Power and Pro users. There's a tiny bit you can do as standard, by putting some html in your bio, for instance, but it's minimal. You may not be a pro, but it sounds to me like you want pro features...
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    My Need
    I want to share vacation photos with friends and family. My albums consist of between 100 and 500 photos each, shot at 5 or 6 megapixels depending on the camera. I want the access method to be simple and straightforward (they click on a link in an email from me and they get taken directly to the album -- as opposed to the Flickr methodology).
    Check! Smugmug allows you to create as many albums as you want consisting of as many pictures you would like to. Categories plus the additional subcategory level give you a hierarchy to split your galleries in thematic structures or whatever you would like.
    For example your Travel category could consist of the subcategories Europe, Asia which then could include galleries like Germany etc.

    Each gallery is availiable via a separate unique link that doesn't change when you change the category. Here's a link to my Animals gallery. You can also link to the categories, e.g. I've got a category Leipzig listing all galleries which consist photos of the city of Leipzig.
    1. Slide Show Capabilities?
    I see that on some of the galleries people have a slide show capability, but I have not seen anyone have captions for each photo in the slide show. Is that possible?
    I've also noticed that in many of the examples I've perused, the photo appears so large that it requires scrolling to see it all. Is this a common problem?
    You have two possibilities to get into a slideshow view - use my Animal gallery as an example again - the user could choose the slideshow style from the style bar (in the top right corner of my site). This gives you the basic slideshow where you can set one of the 3 smugmug photo sizes (small, medium and large). Depending on the browser window size portrait pictures introduce a need for scrolling, that's a problem with the monitor aspect ratio, but you can always choose a smaller picture size.
    Second possibility is the 'Slideshow'-button under the style choose-bar. This opens the fullscreen slideshow that adjusts the image to your monitor resolution in a separate window.

    You can activate the captions in both slideshow modes and then they'll show for every image as you can try out for yourself in my galleries. The caption is also generally present in almost all styles of smugmug unless you deactivate it as a power or pro user.

    2. Music?
    Is there any capability to add music to slide shows? It seems like there is a lot of flexibility with the number of hacks that I see. Would this even be possible to customize?
    This is possible if you're a power or pro user via customizations even though it could be a bit difficult to do it for slideshows only. You also would have to put the music on a external site as smugmug doesn't accept music files. There're already a couple of thread about this theme in the customization forum. I wouldn't recommend to put music on a site though.
    3. Mass Batch Uploads?
    I don't want to upload pictures a few at a time. I don't really see how SmugMug users do this (although I did see a reference in one thread to StarExplorer). How would I go about uploading a few hundred photos at one time?
    And how do I do this without waiting days before it finishes? (Pardon my skepticism -- I once tried to upload about 50 photos to an online service, and it took forever!
    Honestly I haven't used the standard uploads methods of smugmug anymore since I've got StarExplorer which is worth it's money if you're planing on uploading gigabytes worth of photos. With it you can plan a whole batch, because it allows you to create a queue of files where you choose which files go into which gallery and then just hit the upload button and go to sleep.
    If you just want to upload 50 at a time you'll be fine by using the Universal Drag&Drop uploader which lets you choose a gallery and then you just drag the files in you want to upload. There's also another tool for Windows around - SendtoSmugmug (listed here) which is free and gives you a separate user interface to upload pictures directly from the windows context menu - also worked quite good for me.
    The speed while uploading depends heavily on what connection you use. I'm on DSL here which gives me at max 60kb/s which is really nice for 5mpixel pictures - takes a bit over a minute for one picture. If it takes too long then probably your connection is the reason as people are said to upload at for example 2MB/s to smugmug. So they should be able to handle it.
    4. Mass Photo Size Reductions?
    OK. Let's say I continue to keep my original photos on my home computer. For letting people view a slide show online I certainly don't need to have the highest quality images available. If there is a way to do mass uploading (see # 3), is there a way to do mass downsizing?

    I saw a reference in a post to JPEG 10 vs 12. What the heck is this all about?
    Just save your original images at quality level 10 in Photoshop and upload the image as it is. Smugmug then stores the unchanged original and makes smaller copies for the people to view (thumbnails, small, medium, large). When you disable the originals anyone will be able to download it. The only exception is the full screen slideshow which creates a larger picture on the fly adapted to the monitor size of the visitor. If you're a pro user you can even disable the large size.

    The JPEG quality of 10 in Photoshop is considered lab quality - so everything over 10 is basicly a waste of space (I don't see a difference even not at 100% magnification).
    If the photo upload takes too long you can always reduce the size of the photos in advance, but with too small pictures I wouldn't turn on the print ordering for the photos as they printed best from original sized pictures.
    5. Captions and Tagging?
    I certainly want to have captions to my photos (see # 1). Do I do this before upload, or after? And how would I do it before, or after? I'm sure I won't be able to keep the captions that I have with my current software (sigh).
    All my photos will likely be private, so I don't think I'll bother with tagging. Any advice on that topic?
    Which software are you using for captioning and keywording? Smugmug imports IPTC captions and keywords. So if your software does support this format you're all set. For example Photoshop and also the free Irfanview are capable of writing IPTC information into pictures.
    Apart from that you can do the captioning and keywording directly in the galleries either individual for a single image or the whole gallery using the bulk tools.
    Note if you want to keep your galleries private: There's currently no way of using keyword-tags in private galleries - so keywords will only show up for public galleries. To see how keywords work - have a look at my keyword listing. This gives you the way to assign a picture not only to a gallery, but to a keyword or tag like you're used to from Flickr.

    6. HTML and Java Hacks; and APIs?
    Sheesh. Do I need to be a web developer to use SmugMug? The posts and information on customizing or using hacks is quite intimidating. On the other hand, if it is truly that flexible, is SmugMug simply a web site hosting site (similar to 1and1?)
    Nope, smugmug doesn't let you upload html files. The customization totally works with CSS and a bit of html for the header (everything over the galleries, like a logo) and footer (information below the photo galleries) areas. If you want to have an impression on what's possible in terms of cobranding have a look at this list. You can do any of this on your own by learning a bit of CSS and HTML and with a little help from the guys over at the customization forum.
    Javascript hacks are mostly ready for copy and paste so there's usually not much work from your side involved.
    You can use whatever the guys put together using the API's - just head over to the API forum for reference what exists already.

    7. Create My Own Web Site?
    Instead of using SmugMug, should I simply pay someone to design and build a web site to display my photo albums? I probably would be able to accomplish my goals just as well. (Is this essentially what SmugMug is, only with a "head start"? -- see # 6)
    Some guys have done this - look for posts from Shay Stephens here on dgrin, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really know what you're doing and have the time to keep everything running. For my part I'm very happy with what smugmug gives me for so little money.
    8. Annual Fee Payment?
    I'm not a professional so I'd only need the standard package. Do you accept PayPal?
    If you want to customize your page a bit I would suggest to look at the power account, because with the standard account you can only use the predefined themes.
    Nope, they don't offer paypal - you've got to have a credit card.

    If you're interested be sure to use a coupon of a fellow smugmug user which is going to save you 5$ and the user 10$ - here's mine :D


    Hope this helps,
    Sebastian
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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    dmcdmc Registered Users Posts: 427 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    Welcome to Smugmug.... Nothing else compares!

    Click here to Save $5 on your new Smugmug account

    mwink.gif
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    GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    thumb.gif

    Wow. I'm quite impressed.

    Thank you for...
    a) the quality of responses
    b) the speed at which I got answers to my questions
    c) the quantity of responders
    d) the fact that you all used full sentences with initial caps
    e) your collective sense of humor
    f) your patience with what I'm sure were tired old questions that you've addressed numerous times with newbies like me

    I have a lot of follow-up research to do, and I know I'll have some further questions as I get a little deeper. I'm particularly grateful for the links to examples.

    I'm still not too thrilled with the upload times (about a minute per photo perhaps). I'm spoiled I guess with not having to upload at all.

    I will be back to post specific questions regarding your responses, but I have to say that I'm more confident now that this might be my new home.

    Thanks again.
    Gary
    SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
    "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006

    I will be back to post specific questions regarding your responses, but I have to say that I'm more confident now that this might be my new home.

    Thanks again.
    Gary

    wave.gif Cheers, Gary - we'll leave the light on for you!
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    StevenVStevenV Registered Users Posts: 1,174 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    I'm still not too thrilled with the upload times (about a minute per photo perhaps). I'm spoiled I guess with not having to upload at all.

    for wHat It's worTh, tHat (1min/photo) was an estimatE on my paRt, from mEmory, so it may be a smidGe off. i use dsl And wiReless and Yes i upload full sized (1 - 1.5mb) jpg files.

    icon_pirate.gif
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    JimMJimM Registered Users Posts: 1,389 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    =

    I'm still not too thrilled with the upload times (about a minute per photo perhaps). I'm spoiled I guess with not having to upload at all.

    I would look at the upload times as a good evil... look at it this way... your valuable vacation photos are now stored at redundant off-site locations! This is well worth the 1 minute upload per image. I just use the drag and drop method (open multiple windows for multiple galleries) and just go to bed.

    Off-site storage is the a great concept, even if you are doing backups of your files. I mean, what if your house burnt down? Or much more probable, your hard drive crashed, or a virus infected everything.

    $40/year for unlimited storage in unbelievable!

    Good luck to you!
    Cameras: >(2) Canon 20D .Canon 20D/grip >Canon S200 (p&s)
    Glass: >Sigma 17-35mm,f2.8-4 DG >Tamron 28-75mm,f2.8 >Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro >Canon 70-200mm,f2.8L IS >Canon 200mm,f2.8L
    Flash: >550EX >Sigma EF-500 DG Super >studio strobes

    Sites: Jim Mitte Photography - Livingston Sports Photos - Brighton Football Photos
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    StevenVStevenV Registered Users Posts: 1,174 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    StevenV wrote:
    for wHat It's worTh, tHat (1min/photo) was an estimatE on my paRt, from mEmory, so it may be a smidGe off. i use dsl And wiReless and Yes i upload full sized (1 - 1.5mb) jpg files.

    Point of clarification...

    I just uploaded this gallery: 14 files, 7.3Gb, in 10 minutes using the Macintosh based Smugmug Uploader.
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited May 3, 2006
    StevenV wrote:
    Point of clarification...

    I just uploaded this gallery: 14 files, 7.3Gb, in 10 minutes using the Macintosh based Smugmug Uploader.

    Just to be clear - uploading is 100% dependant upon internet connection speed and file size. Remember too, folks, that typical broadband upload speeds are much less than your download speeds. But as soon as we catch your files, there's really no delay to speak of, on our end - the files are generally available for your use right away...
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    bwgbwg Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,119 SmugMug Employee
    edited May 4, 2006
    StevenV wrote:
    Point of clarification...

    I just uploaded this gallery: 14 files, 7.3Gb, in 10 minutes using the Macintosh based Smugmug Uploader.
    Point of clarification:
    Gb = gigabits which is generally used to specify data transmission speed ie. 2Gb/sec.
    GB = gigabytes which is used to specify data storage size.

    If you had 14 files at 7.3 gigabits, they would be approximately 62MB/file. I think you goofed your numbers somewhere...or you're shooting with the Hubble.
    Pedal faster
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    marieboyermarieboyer Registered Users Posts: 117 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    I just signed up for smugmug after much searching and after using Flickr for a short while. I wanted many of the same features you are looking for, as I place family and friends events for folks the morning after the event as a way of connecting even far away relatives to the events.

    After having some troubles initially with the Smugmug uploaders, I found (with Andy's help) "send to smugmug" and it is FANTASTIC. You right-click and hit "send to smugmug" and it lifts only your jpegs out of your file for uploading, and allows you the opportunity to remove photos individually before it begins uploading. I uploaded over 200 the other day without a hitch. I have broadband and I find the more I send in one batch, the longer it takes. The longest is usually 1 minute per photo. I do not mind, though, as you can minimize "send to smugmug" upoader and still use your computer (works beautifully in the background -- although I have 1 gig of RAM and 3.2 ghz, so maybe that helps). Also, I upload full size so I have a backup automatically.

    I am still learning but I LOVE smugmug. Flickr had the sign-in requirement, the email most often went into people's junk mail filters, and there was very little customization. Here, you control everything really.

    Check out the use of subcategories for your particular interests. It will be easier for folks to find your events if you set them up from the start with topical subcategories.

    I am a total smugmug fan in a short time. And, this forum is incredibly helpful. I have never once had to use their superb customer service because someone always helps me here.

    Best of luck.
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    StevenVStevenV Registered Users Posts: 1,174 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    You're correct, bigwebguy, since I was talking about file sizes I should have used GB. But I hang my head in shame; this is the one abbreviation I almost always get wrong. Sorry.
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    bwgbwg Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,119 SmugMug Employee
    edited May 4, 2006
    StevenV wrote:
    You're correct, bigwebguy, since I was talking about file sizes I should have used GB. But I hang my head in shame; this is the one abbreviation I almost always get wrong. Sorry.
    you are shooting with the Hubble!!! 14 files @ 7.3GB = 521.4MB/file!

    and in 10mins!
    Pedal faster
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    StevenVStevenV Registered Users Posts: 1,174 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    bigwebguy wrote:
    you are shooting with the Hubble!!! 14 files @ 7.3GB = 521.4MB/file!

    and in 10mins!

    hey, I've got good Internet service :D

    :hide oh good frackin' grief.
    I'm going to hide in a cave now.
    A 14.6MB cave, with 7.3GB of free space left in it.
    Somebody keep me from posting after 11pm.
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    mbradymbrady Registered Users Posts: 321 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    I'm still not too thrilled with the upload times (about a minute per photo perhaps). I'm spoiled I guess with not having to upload at all.
    As has been pointed out by others, the upload speed is mainly controlled by your internet connection. However, remember that with your previous setup, you were serving your images from your home server, which was subject to the same, somewhat restricted upload speeds. I'm assuming you resized the images on your home server rather than serving up the full sized images, but even then, your upload speed would control how fast the photos appeared in the viewer's browser.

    Sure, the upload of your full sized images to the smugmug servers will take a little time, but once they are there, they have the bandwidth to serve them up to your viewers at far faster speeds than your home server could push out - at any image size. (although your viewer's download rate will have an impact regardless of the method used).
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    GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    This is a pretty long post, so please bear with me. I was going to tag my questions with this guy ==> <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/ne_nau.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" > <== so they'd be easy to find in this tome, but it looked so cluttered I took him back out.
    StevenV wrote:
    wow. I don't know of any other service that [enables access to my photos on my home compute]; everyone I've looked (SM included) has you put your pictures on their servers.
    I know. It was pretty slick.
    StevenV wrote:
    Yes, photos can have captions, and the user can choose to display them during the slideshow.
    More on this later, but this is still a bit confusing to me as a viewer of slide shows.
    StevenV wrote:
    Don't give up yet [regarding saving the captions already attached to the photos], tell us what software you're using.
    Which software are you using for captioning and keywording? Smugmug imports IPTC captions and keywords. So if your software does support this format you're all set.
    I have a sneaking suspicion that the existing captions are imbedded in the software (ShareGear). How could I tell if it were stored in the industry standard format (IPTC)?
    Andy wrote:
    [Going out of business is] always a risk - sorry it happened to you! One thing you should know about us: We're self-funded, grown from 0 to 60million photos, 2 employees to 14, and we're in great financial shape. We expect to be around for our grandchildren.
    That is reassuring. Thank you.
    Andy wrote:
    Here is an example of full screen slideshow with captions:
    Hmmm. I was having lots of difficulties with this. You, and others, kept telling me the captions are visible in slide show mode, and I could not see them no matter what I tried. I even tried different browers to see if Firefox was inhibiting something. It turns out that if you click on the Slideshow button, you don't see the captions because the photo takes up the full screen. But if you select the Slideshow option in the drop down Style menu the captions will appear. This is confusing. Is there a way to hide the slideshow button so it doesn't confuse the viewer? And can I do this as a Standard user?
    Andy wrote:
    Sure, if you can host the music, it can be streamed from your SmugMug site.
    Can you say more about this? What exactly would have to be done for me to "host the music" and have it play on the viewers computer when they view my SmugMug photo slide shows? I assume that this sort of hack wouldn't be available to a Standard user?
    Andy wrote:
    JPG 10 is image compression - generally considered to be Lab Quality. 12 is the least amount of compression. Very few folks can perceive the difference between 10 and 12. We recommend 10, 11 if you must. There's usually no benefit of using 12, but you can if you like:
    Just save your original images at quality level 10 in Photoshop and upload the image as it is.
    OK. Let's say I want to save my existing photos as 10 instead of 12. Do I have to do this one-by-one in Photoshop Elements? That'll take me forever. Is there another way?
    DavidTO wrote:
    I believe that 99% of hacks are only available to Power and Pro users. There's a tiny bit you can do as standard, by putting some html in your bio, for instance, but it's minimal. You may not be a pro, but it sounds to me like you want pro features...
    I also don't want to pay pro prices. Except for music, I think my needs are pretty basic.
    You have two possibilities to get into a slideshow view - use my Animal gallery as an example again - the user could choose the slideshow style from the style bar (in the top right corner of my site). This gives you the basic slideshow where you can set one of the 3 smugmug photo sizes (small, medium and large). Depending on the browser window size portrait pictures introduce a need for scrolling, that's a problem with the monitor aspect ratio, but you can always choose a smaller picture size.
    Second possibility is the 'Slideshow'-button under the style choose-bar. This opens the fullscreen slideshow that adjusts the image to your monitor resolution in a separate window.
    As I mentioned above, I was having a lot of difficulty here. With the Slideshow button the captions do not appear (unless there is something I'm missing -- anyone have a link to a standard interface where the captions appear after clicking the Slideshow button?).
    JimM wrote:
    I would look at the upload times as a good evil... look at it this way... your valuable vacation photos are now stored at redundant off-site locations! This is well worth the 1 minute upload per image. I just use the drag and drop method (open multiple windows for multiple galleries) and just go to bed.
    Is there a consensus of whether Star*Explorer is better than SendToSmugMug, or vice versa?
    JimM wrote:
    Off-site storage is the a great concept, even if you are doing backups of your files. I mean, what if your house burnt down? Or much more probable, your hard drive crashed, or a virus infected everything.
    I already make backup copies of my photos onto an external drive. Though admittedly this wouldn't help me if my house burnt down. I confess it is one of the unintended positive consequences of using SmugMug.
    marieboyer wrote:
    After having some troubles initially with the Smugmug uploaders, I found (with Andy's help) "send to smugmug" and it is FANTASTIC. You right-click and hit "send to smugmug" and it lifts only your jpegs out of your file for uploading, and allows you the opportunity to remove photos individually before it begins uploading. I uploaded over 200 the other day without a hitch. I have broadband and I find the more I send in one batch, the longer it takes. The longest is usually 1 minute per photo. I do not mind, though, as you can minimize "send to smugmug" upoader and still use your computer (works beautifully in the background -- although I have 1 gig of RAM and 3.2 ghz, so maybe that helps). Also, I upload full size so I have a backup automatically.
    I appreciate you sharing your experience with me. I have broadband too, but my home computer is little older than yours. (Is there a smiley for envy?) :cry My home computer has only about 370 mb of RAM and is less than a ghz in processor speed.
    marieboyer wrote:
    I am still learning but I LOVE smugmug. Flickr had the sign-in requirement, the email most often went into people's junk mail filters, and there was very little customization. Here, you control everything really.
    I really like this aspect of SmugMug.
    mbrady wrote:
    As has been pointed out by others, the upload speed is mainly controlled by your internet connection. However, remember that with your previous setup, you were serving your images from your home server, which was subject to the same, somewhat restricted upload speeds. I'm assuming you resized the images on your home server rather than serving up the full sized images, but even then, your upload speed would control how fast the photos appeared in the viewer's browser.
    (Matthew Brady, is that really you?) I have a pretty good broadband cable connection, but as noted above my processor isn't all that great. I don't think the raw processing power matters all that much though. I agree that the connection speed and the image size are the two primary hurdles to a fast upload. Regarding my current (but defunct) peer-to-peer software solution where I was serving up the images from my home computer, the software itself took care of reducing the size of the images. In other words I'd create the slide show in full size, but when someone accessed my albums, the software would automatically take care of re-sizing and "serving them up" so that the response time was good.
    SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
    "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006

    Hmmm. I was having lots of difficulties with this. You, and others, kept telling me the captions are visible in slide show mode,
    try clicking on shortcuts, then the "c" key. Captions work, I promise!
    Can you say more about this? What exactly would have to be done for me to "host the music" and have it play on the viewers computer when they view my SmugMug photo slide shows? I assume that this sort of hack wouldn't be available to a Standard user?
    nobody here really likes music on the websites. I you do it, be SURE to give a way for ppl to turn it off. You can put ANY HTML you like, even as standard user, into BIO, Descriptions, or captions. Your music must be hosted elsewhere.
    OK. Let's say I want to save my existing photos as 10 instead of 12. Do I have to do this one-by-one in Photoshop Elements? That'll take me forever. Is there another way?
    Batch them in ps elements.
    I also don't want to pay pro prices. Except for music, I think my needs are pretty basic.
    Choice is good. You can choose any of the three levels.
    Is there a consensus of whether Star*Explorer is better than SendToSmugMug, or vice versa?
    I think you're overthinking lol3.gif give STS a try and if it works for you, great. If not, go for SE. BTW, you should just try the universal drag and drop, first.

    I hope this helps!
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    GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    Andy wrote:
    I think you're overthinking. lol3.gif
    So, you do know me from elsewhere? :):

    (By the way, I just now saw your avatar blink. Freaked me out for a second!!!)
    Andy wrote:
    nobody here really likes music on the websites
    I don't like it generally either, but I received rave reviews from viewers who like the appropriately related background music I provided. (Shrug.) I've come to accept the fact that viewers of my travel photos will just have to do without it from now on.
    SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
    "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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    StevenVStevenV Registered Users Posts: 1,174 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    Hmmm. I was having lots of difficulties with this. You, and others, kept telling me the captions are visible in slide show mode, and I could not see them no matter what I tried. I even tried different browers to see if Firefox was inhibiting something. It turns out that if you click on the Slideshow button, you don't see the captions because the photo takes up the full screen. But if you select the Slideshow option in the drop down Style menu the captions will appear.
    What size screen are you using, and if you use the [slideshow] button do your browser windows get created larger than the screen really is? I don't view slideshows very much, but just tried one. Looking at this gallery (most of mine don't have captions, I added them for this test), I hit the slideshow button and got a new Firefox window. I made sure the captions checkbox was ticked, and this was my whole (PowerBook) screen:

    67800399-L.jpg
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    Awais YaqubAwais Yaqub Registered Users Posts: 10,572 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    mwink.gif Honestly speaking

    I tried a lot of online albums but i was never able to upload pictures of 500Kb with my 38Kb modem
    But with smugmug i uploaded 1Mb file in few moments eek7.gif

    And all those features plus Expert advice and help is way to cool ne_nau.gif

    Google earth + vacation photos :wow it will be great eek7.gif

    I think you should give it a try
    Thine is the beauty of light; mine is the song of fire. Thy beauty exalts the heart; my song inspires the soul. Allama Iqbal

    My Gallery
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    GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    Andy wrote:
    try clicking on shortcuts, then the "c" key. Captions work, I promise!
    Not surprisingly, you're right. I tried looking at rainforest1155's Animal Gallery site again; clicked the Slideshow button; and when the slideshow started I pressed "c" and the captions appeared. Is this an option that could be set to have captions always appear (without needing to press "c")? Based on StevenV's post it seems like this is the case.
    StevenV wrote:
    What size screen are you using, and if you use the [slideshow] button do your browser windows get created larger than the screen really is? I don't view slideshows very much, but just tried one.
    My screen size is 1024x768. I see (after hitting "c") an image similar to what you posted.

    Thanks guys.
    SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
    "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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    GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    I think you should give it a try
    I think you are right.


    To be fair, I should try to contact the person who first pointed me in SmugMug's direction for a referral. If that fails, I use the one by rainforest1155 who made me the first offer.


    Do I get a virtual party when I sign up? 1drink.gif:D
    SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
    "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    I have a sneaking suspicion that the existing captions are imbedded in the software (ShareGear). How could I tell if it were stored in the industry standard format (IPTC)?
    From looking at their website I'm afraid they're not using IPTC, but more of their own system to store captions. Best is if you look around the software if you can find any button to export the data.
    To be sure if your pictures have IPTC or not simply download Irfanview and the Irfanview plugin package which I linked in my last post. This free image viewer can display and write IPTC.
    Hmmm. I was having lots of difficulties with this. You, and others, kept telling me the captions are visible in slide show mode
    Looks like you have to turn on the captions manually after clicking the slideshow button. Maybe someone knows a hack to make the captions on by default. mwink.gif
    Is there a consensus of whether Star*Explorer is better than SendToSmugMug, or vice versa?
    As Andy and I already said you've to try which uploader suits you better. StarExplorer (S*E) has a whole lot more options, but if you don't need them, you'll be fine with the other uploaders. You can always upgrade later. ;)
    One thing that could be interesting for you is the possibility to enter captions and keywords in S*E, but I haven't used it myself yet.
    I already make backup copies of my photos onto an external drive. Though admittedly this wouldn't help me if my house burnt down. I confess it is one of the unintended positive consequences of using SmugMug.
    Yeah, that is a very reassuring feature especially with the most recent update smugmug now stores 4 copies of every image you upload in 3 states across the US. thumb.gif
    I appreciate you sharing your experience with me. I have broadband too, but my home computer is little older than yours. (Is there a smiley for envy?) :cry My home computer has only about 370 mb of RAM and is less than a ghz in processor speed.
    That's perfectly fine for uploading pictures to Smugmug! With the exception of the Java Uploader all the others like SentToSmugmug and S*E should consume less than 20mb while uploading. The JavaUploader could use a bit more, because of the nature of Java programs, but you should be fine.
    CPU speed is also not necessary (everything above 500Mhz should be fine) unless you check the option to resize the pictures while uploading in the Java Uploader which I wouldn't recommend.

    All the best,
    Sebastian
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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    mbradymbrady Registered Users Posts: 321 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    (Matthew Brady, is that really you?)

    Perhaps you've enjoyed many of my civil war photos I took ages ago. These new fangled digital cameras sure are a lot nicer than what I had to haul around back then! You know how hard it was to get a group of union soldiers to hold still the whole time the shutter was open? But that ol' Abe Lincoln, I tell you what, he was like a statue, he sure could hold still for the longest time - talk about a Lincoln log!
    mwink.gif

    But seriously, my first name actually is Matthew!
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    GaryBakkerGaryBakker Registered Users Posts: 266 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    mbrady wrote:
    Perhaps you've enjoyed many of my civil war photos I took ages ago. <snip> ... talk about a Lincoln log!

    :D Heh, heh. Bravo. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/clap.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
    SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
    "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
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    Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    lol3.gif

    Too bad I'm blocked from work. Otherwise I'd post my referral code.

    Oh well.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2006
    Do I get a virtual party when I sign up? 1drink.gif:D
    Sure, just create a party album where you post some party pictures and we'll join you there by leaving our footprint in your party gallery through comments! clap.gif

    Cheers! 1drink.gif
    Sebastian
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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