# SmugMug - Paid



## Victoria Bampton (Jan 9, 2013)

Website address: http://www.smugmug.com/

Cost: Free Trial then Paid Services Available

Lightroom plug-in available: Available free from SmugMug and also Jeffrey's plug-in

Please feel free to share your reviews and comments below


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## Replytoken (Jan 9, 2013)

I have had a basic SmugMug (SM) account for approximately six years.  The account is for personal use, so consider this when reading my comments below, and perhaps later on in this thread.  While SM has a great community and related forum, my biggest issue with them is the same issue I had when I joined.  I find the service very cumbersome, especially when it comes to organizing images.  I prefer a hierarchical system that is akin to files and folders, and thier site is verry limited in that respect.  Also, SM's themes are a bit tied and a bit too cute for my taste.  If you are comfortable with CSS and some HTML, then the sky is the limit for redesigning your pages.

On the plus side, I have no complaints with their printer, EZ Prints, and the miscellaneous merchandise that I have purchased from them has been of reasonably good quality.  However, I wanted to upgrade my site this past summer and after sampling an upgraded account, I chose to Zenfolio instead.  The trial account did not seem to offer much in the way of customization, and there was a radical change in pricing as well.  I still have my basic account, and may keep it for a while longer, but it was not clear to me that with the pricing changes, and a minor management shakeup, that I wanted to expand my relationship with SM.

All in all, it's a site worth considering for personal use if you are comfortable with their interface, and it meets your needs.

--Ken


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jan 10, 2013)

I've been a subscriber for many years, with a "power" account which is non-commercial.  I'll echo a lot of what Ken said.  

They have a good, solid infrastructure; you never hear of lost images and their availability while not perfect is awfully good.  They have a good reputation for being responsive to problems (e.g. with prints), and honoring their guarantees gracefully.  Their print prices are decent but not great, but I don't really use them for prints so much as a web presence.  A lot of what they offer is on the business side - features to help you sell -- that I am not competent to comment on.  They have always been completely accurate in billing and handling any kind of related request.

If you are comfortable in HTML and CSS, you have GREAT control over your site.  If not, they are a bit limited, though they have improved.  They have deep and extensive (and often user developed) how-to information in various forums; it is somewhat chaotic and some is outdated.  There is an active community of people who will do professional customization for a fee (I have never used any).

Their treatment of the actual photographs is quite good - they offer lots of resolutions for output in various ways, providing a great deal of flexibility to balance speed vs. resolution.  They give you control over that display (including on the fly display sharpening), as well as decent handling of metadata.

Jeffrey's plugins are great for managing it, I upload a ton of shots at once, or update a ton at one time, with his lightroom plugin (it is much better than Smugmug's own).

I personally consider it a place to display content to to store content.  It meets that need quite nicely.   I'm happy there.  Feel free to look through my site -- it's done as a part time effort, there's probably 3-4 days overall in the design (not including actual images).   But I am comfortable in CSS and HTML.  If you are, or if the "Easy customizer" meets your needs, I recommend them highly.  If you are a computer-phobe and want highly customized sites, look elsewhere or hire someone.


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## Manuductor (Jan 16, 2013)

Thank you, Linwood.  Your comments are very helpful.  I want to load my photos on a site to which I can direct friends and family instead of emailing them photos and bothering them if they don't want to look but are too polite to say so.  I don't know what CSS and HTML mean so I must not be very comfortable with them.  I may just have someone in the SM community help me if I don't like SM's presets. I also will need advice/direction/instructions on how to export from LR4 into SM.  SM's inclusion in LR4 has obviously come after the publication of Victoria's book as well as two others I have bought. Matt


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## Replytoken (Jan 16, 2013)

Manuductor said:


> I don't know what CSS and HTML mean so I must not be very comfortable with them.  I may just have someone in the SM community help me if I don't like SM's presets



Welcome to the forum, Matt!  If you are not comfortable with CSS & HTML, then you may also want to check out Zenfolio.  I have had my SM account for years, and am in the process of switching to ZF, and I am finding it much more to my taste.  Also, SM is in a bit of a "transition" at the moment (although ZF was just bought by art.com), and there seem to be a number of unhappy folks expressing their feelings in their forum - dgrin.com.  They both have the ability to meet your needs, but have different interfaces.  It's worth a look.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 16, 2013)

Welcome to the forum Manuductor!



Manuductor said:


> SM's inclusion in LR4 has obviously come after the publication of Victoria's book as well as two others I have bought. Matt



The SmugMug plug-in doesn't ship with LR4 - it did with LR3 for a while - which is why it's not in the book.  You can download and install LR plug-ins from either of the links in the first post though.  They'll work just like the Facebook/Flickr plug-ins which are detailed in my book, and we're always here if you get stuck.


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