Backprinting and other Pro Questions from a newbie

pam3la · March 6, 2008

Newbie professional photog has questions and please forgive me if these are repeated. I did a search and did not find the answer to my questions, but perhaps I missed it:

1) My partner ordered a print (I haven't seen it yet) and said the print quality was dubious - the color was off. I'll hold my opinion until I have seen it, but am wondering do the SmugMug pro photogs choose auto or true for prints? I chose auto for the gallery and my partner chose auto when buying, which is somewhat confusing. Why have a choice in the gallery if the customer has a choice when ordering?
2) Searching in the forum on backprinting and the consensus is that it isn't great. The last post was in 2007 so I'm wondering has backprinting improved or is it still poor? The reason I'm asking is I chose to have our web address listed on backprinting as a default, but my partner said there was nothing on the back of the photo referencing our site address. Do any of the pro photogs have an alternate solution to backprinting issues?
3) Does every print ordered through SmugMug come in rolls? Can you give me the pros and cons of this as a pro photog?
4) We are one company with two photographers. Does SmugMug have a way for both of us to have access to our account with different user names and passwords?

Thanks for your help, comments, suggestions, complaints, etc. Much appreciated. Best, Pam

SteveM · March 6, 2008

Hi Pam,

I'll do my best to answer your questions below:

1) My partner ordered a print (I haven't seen it yet) and said the print quality was dubious - the color was off. I'll hold my opinion until I have seen it, but am wondering do the SmugMug pro photogs choose auto or true for prints? I chose auto for the gallery and my partner chose auto when buying, which is somewhat confusing. Why have a choice in the gallery if the customer has a choice when ordering?

Can you find out the order # for us so we can have a look at the order and the images? Auto Color is great for 98% of all images, but there are some exceptions. Pros order both, and it depends on a) how confident you are in your color correction/calibration and b) how much time you have to spend to adjust things. Many Pros save time by getting images in the ballpark, then let Auto Color produce great prints. As a Pro, you can set the default suggested color per gallery (auto or true). Again, there are exceptions, and an educated customer might know that an overbright image will be brightened even more by Auto Color, and choose to order a particular image True Color instead, however through Proof Delay, the Pro photographer ALWAYS has the final say, and can change it right back.

2) Searching in the forum on backprinting and the consensus is that it isn't great.

Backprinting does have room for improvement for sure, and we hope to see this in the future as equipment, software, and technology evolve.

3) Does every print ordered through SmugMug come in rolls? Can you give me the pros and cons of this as a pro photog?

I'm not sure I understand, so let me know if I answer the wrong thing here. Prints larger than 8x10 are shipped in tubes. This saves on shipping costs as well as minimizing the potential for damage. Large, flat boxes are much more easily damaged in transit. Check out http://www.smugmug.com/prints/shipping.mg for more info.

4) We are one company with two photographers. Does SmugMug have a way for both of us to have access to our account with different user names and passwords?

With a Pro account, you can make use of a Guest Password. This gives a second "guest" nearly the same access as the account holder. Check out http://www.smugmug.com/help/guest-passwords for more info. There is of course, nothing preventing both of you from logging in as the account owner simultaneously, either.

Let us know if you have more questions or if I haven't answered these well enough.

Backprinting and other Pro Questions from a newbie

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