New To SmugMug: How To Use & What Do You Have?

[forestkeeper]

Hey everyone. I just got the 14 day trial version of SmugMug and don't know if I should make the big leap from Flickr. With Flickr, I feel like I'm just another photographer among billions. A tennis ball among an olympic swimming pool of tennis balls. The occasional oohs and ahhhs or wows may have boosted my photogenic pride a few years ago but recently I've been wondering if I can make a difference, be different and shoot objects at a different angle than how everyone else shoots. I would like to go one or two steps further. Plus, I recently purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 instead of using freeware such as Gimp 2.8 (which is still an excellent photo editor), which will further help in my photo editing.

So is SmugMug the right choice for the amateur to semi pro photographer? Out of the four plans; Basic, Power, Portfolio, Business- Which should I get? Which do you use? And what has SmugMug done for you, your photographs and your hobby or business? My photographic goals are to gain more and more experience, to eventually reach the potential that many of you carry from many years "under your belt," and maybe sell one or two photos. It is way more an addictive hobby for me and a continual challenge (each time I pick up my camera) to shoot an angle completely different than the mainstream photographer pool. If I'm hiking Silver Falls, for instance, rather than get a best shot from each of the main waterfalls, I'll capture a child or children gazing with wide eyes at one of the waterfalls. Or capture a chipmunk or two, each waiting for waterfall watchers to stop and give them a snack.

Or when I do capture, say Middle North Falls, I'll be there for an hour or so, attempting to capture that really awesome shot at every angle, including wading out in the middle of the creek.

Thanks!

Will

[TJ_T]

I use Smugmug. I like it but haven't really explored many other options. I use the power account because it let me use my own domain name and do custom HTML and CSS. I don't think I'll go higher because those seem to cater more towards selling prints through your website which I will not be doing as I'm only going to be working with a local lab that has the type of paper I'll be printing on.

I like the ease of organization that I can have with Smugmug. I have hidden galleries that I can post uncompressed images to.. so that I can then shoot the link to peers for critique. I also have family albums hidden that I can share only with them. I doubt this is unlike other hosting sites like zenfolio or photoshelter.

It hasn't done anything for my photography other than representing my photos in the way I intended without file compression/resizing and giving me a platform to get them out there. The price works for me.

They have a compare tool so that you can see the differences between each subscription. That helped me decide to stick with the Power account.

[Guy]

Will,

I've had a Smugmug account since 2003. SM just went through a big upgrade that has many of the old timers a bit disgruntled they (including me) would say they have made it more like Flickr to appeal to the masses! Before it was 100% configurable & users could use all kind of html, css & java script to customize their sites. Now while a lot of customization is still possible it's much more of a template based system, java script is no longer allowed & there are limits on custom html.

This was probably a business decision as I'm sure most of their users would prefer just to pick a template & go with it rather than spending hours & hours tweaking all the possible options, colors & layout etc. The new SM is easier to use but less versatile. That being said I do still believe it's good value for the price & don't plan to switch. Another positive over free sites is it's 100% free of adds & you control the whole page, you can even delete the SM logo if you want to.

If you are not currently selling photos then you only need to choose between basic & power accounts. Even if you plan to start selling photos soon I would still start out with basic or power until you are comfortable with the site then upgrade when you are ready.

Under the new SM the biggest difference between basic & power is your ability to customize the look of your site. Basic will allow you to customize your homepage but all galleries below that will have to be chosen from a stock template I believe. Power gives you the option to customize all your site so you can make it look unique! For the extra $10.00 a year I think the Power account is the way to go.

You should also check out the SM user base discussion forums. If you do decide to keep the account & want to customize it's look you will get a lot of help there from folks on how best to do it. You can find them here: http://www.dgrin.com/

[Eric Peterson]

Did Obama mess up SmugMug too?

[retired jerry]

"SM just went through a big upgrade that has many of the old timers a bit disgruntled they (including me)..."

I hate it when they keep adding features to SW

Like yahoo mail and yahoo groups

I'de switch to different email, but it's too much hassle, and the new email would do the same thing

They're into new features but play short shrift to making it work reliabily

Sort of like all the Obamacare websites

[Eric Peterson]

Jerry, Gmail is pretty nice, not all goofy and extra spammy like Yahoo and others.

[retired jerry]

"Did Obama mess up SmugMug too?"

No, it's that the Obamacare software people are subject to the same screwed up thinking as happens on other websites.

Maybe in 10 years they'll figure it out and improve SW quality, sort of like what has happened to automobiles.

[retired jerry]

"Jerry, Gmail is pretty nice, not all goofy and extra spammy like Yahoo and others."

I have a gmail account.

I only use it when yahoo doesn't work and I really want to send an email.

Maybe I'll bite the bullet and switch...

[Eric Peterson]

Yeah, I can't believe anyone really uses Yahoo and the like anymore except maybe to smurf on message
forums?

[retired jerry]

heyyyy....