Smugmug

[PrincessGrandma]

I signed up for smugmug last year and have been storing pics there that I want to share, but I use Walgreens to make Photobooks & gifts because it is SOOOO easy to use. I'm having to upload the pics to smugmug AND to Walgreens. Is that a site like that I can use to store, share, but also be able to send to Walgreens from that site? Editing isn't very important because I do have PS Elements 7 so I use that before moving to smugmug.

I love smugmug because my friends don't need to have an account in order to be able to look at my pics, but I don't want to have to learn how to use Blurb and I think that is what they use.

I have a Canon Rebel XSI so it's a nice camera, but I don't nearly use it to it's potential. I'm treating it more as a point & shoot. I bought it from a camera store that went out of business before I could take all the lessons they offered, besides the fact that their "lessons" were more pitches to sell more of their products. Can anyone offer a suggestion on where I can take some lessons? (I live near Baton Rouge). We have an 8-day WDW trip planned in November and I'd like to be able to take pics w/out the subject having to be totally still or good light in order to get some good pics.

I'd appreciate any ideas about these 2 issues and any other suggestions that makes a very inexperienced photographer's life easier?

THANKS!!

 

[photo_chick]

I use smugmug but I don't order prints from them. I upload to multiple places for multiple needs. Flickr has a tie in with snapfish I think. I'm not wild about flickr for photo storage, but they have good social networks.

as far as learning... if you do better in a class type situation check at your local community college. If you are good with books there are many available, but there is also a wealth of information free online.

 

[PrincessGrandma]

Thanks Photo Chick. I'm definitely a "class" person. Maybe after a class and I understand the terminology, I'll be able to just read a book, but right now I need the basics! Your pictures on smugmug and amazing! You must be a professional. If not, you should be. I just don't understand how to set the camera to take night pictures like you do. AMAZING!!!

We do have a community college so I'll check there.

 

[Castillo Mom]

If your local community college doesn't offer classes you can also try an adult school. Where I live most of the adult schools offer some sort of photography class.

If you can, stay with Smugmug. They have unlimited storage, lots of privacy options and the image quality is very good. Visitors to your gallery can also view pictures in large formats.

 

[photo_chick]

Thanks Photo Chick. I'm definitely a "class" person. Maybe after a class and I understand the terminology, I'll be able to just read a book, but right now I need the basics! Your pictures on smugmug and amazing! You must be a professional. If not, you should be. I just don't understand how to set the camera to take night pictures like you do. AMAZING!!!

We do have a community college so I'll check there.

Thank you.

Good luck finding a class.

 

[Docarino]

I've printed using smugmug many times and been very happy with them. The prints come very quickly. You don't need to use blurb for prints, just photobooks (is that what you meant?). I have used blurb to print photobooks and their quality is great but I agree, I would never use their software for making a book, it is very cumbersome.

 

[littlekidagain]

I started using Zenfolio about 6 months ago. They use MPIX for there service. I have been very happy with them.

 

[PrincessGrandma]

Yes, I mainly make Photobooks of every occasion. I like them so much better than prints. I love using Walgreens because I get weekly coupons so can make a nice book for very little. I guess I'll just keep doing the editing in PS Elements and then sending to both smugmug and Walgreens. I just thought there might be something I didn't know about.

I don't think our Community College has photo classes but I checked LSU's Leisure classes and they have one on Digital Photography so I'll probably sign up for that. I'd love to hire someone to spend a few hours with me so they could show me what I'm interested in. I bet I'm not the only one. There is a market for one-on-one instruction for any of you entrepreneurs out there!

 

[disneyboy2003]

Thanks Photo Chick. I'm definitely a "class" person. Maybe after a class and I understand the terminology, I'll be able to just read a book, but right now I need the basics! Your pictures on smugmug and amazing! You must be a professional. If not, you should be. I just don't understand how to set the camera to take night pictures like you do. AMAZING!!!

We do have a community college so I'll check there.

The other thing you can do is just browse through some of the photography books at your local bookstore. There are literally *dozens* of different Intro to Digital Photography books at your bookstore. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson (link to Amazon). This book explains the basics of photography very well, with lots of pictures & examples. I spent some time and flipped through Digital SLR Cameras and Photography For Dummies, and even this book appeared quite good.

Just browse through some of intro books in the Photography section to see which one fits your reading & learning style.

 

[My2Girls66]

man, do I feel stupid! I can't seem to figure out how to organize galleries into sub-folders within galleries. I keep reading the instructions- I must be missing something very easy. I created the sub catagories I just can't seem to get the folders to show up in the gallery so I can either upload to it or move photos to it. What am I missing here?
I am scanning older photos of my kids from 1989 and up. I have 1900+ photos and they are all jumbled up and out of order.

 

[RBennett]

man, do I feel stupid! I can't seem to figure out how to organize galleries into sub-folders within galleries. I keep reading the instructions- I must be missing something very easy. I created the sub catagories I just can't seem to get the folders to show up in the gallery so I can either upload to it or move photos to it. What am I missing here?
I am scanning older photos of my kids from 1989 and up. I have 1900+ photos and they are all jumbled up and out of order.

I THINK (I'm not an expert so this is remembering from my site a while back) that if you have already created a sub-category with a gallery in it, that is as far as you can break it down. I think there are only 3 levels: category, sub-category, and gallery.

 

[Ju Ju Bean]

I've tried to do the same but can't figure it out either. I do believe that you can only do the category, subcategory and gallery as RBennet posted.

 

[JimbobJimbo]

It is a little confusing. It took me a few tries to figure it out myself. As the others have mentioned, It breaks down as Category-Subcategory-Gallery.

When you upload to a new Gallery you can add it to an existing Category and Subcategory or create new ones.

This is an example of how one of mine is broken down. I have a main category for Walt Disney World, then inside that category I have subcategory's for each trip. Then inside that trip subcategory I break them down into galleries for each park (magic kindom, epcot, hollywood studios etc.)

 

[My2Girls66]

Thanks guys!
It looks like you are correct. I started with just galleries when I should have started with categories, then separating from there into sub categories then galleries. I uploaded 1900+ photos that I have been scanning from photo albums into my computer, back up hard drive, cd's and now smugmug for safe keeping. All photos of my kids from 1989-1995(still got a ways to go!) that I want extra backups- just in case. Now all my 1900+ are all one big jumbled out of order mess that I need to organize Looks like its gonna be a big job if I try and drag and drop to arrange them. Might be easiest to start it over separating each year into a gallery after naming them- the scanner didn't save them in the order I scanned them
Thanks again for the replies. I thought I was just not getting it.

 

[Ellen aka Snow White]

I have always used photobucket for my postings here - is there anyway to use smugmug? I can't find a way to link them?
Thanks

 

[Bstanley]

I use Smugmug for my online photo storage. and share photos with the DIS boards - while viewing the photos in a gallery on Smugmug there is a toolbar (see image below) with 'Share' as the next to last choice. When you select Share a dropdown list will appear with 'Get a Link' as a choice. When the links menu pops up I typically manually copy and paste the URL into the DIS boards popup. (The screen capture of the Smugmug page is actually stored on Smugmug)

 

[Ellen aka Snow White]

Geez I was trying to make it harder then it needed to be! LOL! Thanks for your time and explanation.

 

[Pugrpooh]

One of the reasons I went with Smugmug over a year ago was the ability to download hi res photos from the site. I've never had a need to do that until now. My DD said the pics she downloaded were not hi res enough to get a good print with. I've tried downloading photos from there onto my laptop and for some reason, I'm not getting the hi res photos.

For example, one photo on Smugmug is 3024 X 4032, but when I download it to my computer, it's only 225 x 300. I've checked every setting I could think of, but I can't figure out why I'm not downloading the hi res photos? I figure it has to do with a setting on Smugmug but I can't figure it out and it looks like to me that I have everything enabled to be able to do that.

I know there are quite a few Smugmug users on this forum and hopefully someone can help me with this. I feel like the answer should be a simple one but I'm not seeing it.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Docarino]

If you go to a particular picture and click on it so that you get a full page view, there is an option on the tool bar above the picture called "Owner Save". I tried it and it downloaded a high resolution picture. I'm not sure if there is an option to do multiple pictures at a time or if you have to do one at a time but that's a start.

 

[C&B Young]

Check your Gallery settings also, and see what you have set for "Largest Size" under Security & Privacy. If you want her to able to download the full-res original you should have "Original" selected.