SmugMug Development Lab

As a creative professional, it can sometimes be a challenge to treat your work as a business. Taking photographs is a form of self-expression and a personal passion, and that can muddy the primary goal of making a living. In this article, we’ve set out a financial management roadmap, to help set you and your photography business up for success.

First: How to price yourself properly.

Pricing yourself as a photographer is challenging, whether you’ve been in the business for one year or twenty. Taking the time to ensure you're pricing your work appropriately and budgeting carefully is absolutely essential to your success. 

But never fear! There are some simple considerations that can make your life a whole lot easier when it comes to pricing your services, or when to adjust your pricing. They are:

1. Costs of running your photography business
2. Costs of goods or services 
3. Costs of your time and labor
4. Your desired profit
5. Taxes

It may sound intimidating, but let's dive into each of these a little deeper.

1. ‍Costs associated with running your photography business: These are the nuts and bolts of your business.
   • Equipment costs - your owned gear, rented gear (remember to include wear and tear and repair/replacement into your estimate!).
   • Office/studio costs - if you work from home, estimate the square footage of your work space and include that, or your office/studio rent (as well as utilities).
   • Marketing costs - the cost of your SmugMug subscription, paid advertisement, business cards, etc.‍
2. ‍Costs of goods and/or services: These are the services you outsource. Think photo storage, printing, order delivery (all included in a SmugMug subscription, of course), as well as bookkeeping and other organizational tools. If you are in the business of selling your prints, creating photo bundles and packages is an important part of your pricing. 
3. Costs of your time and labor: Here’s where the rubber meets the road. When considering how you price your time and labor, do your homework!‍
   • ‍Place yourself in the competitive market. This takes some research but is a good starting place for making this important decision. Research working photographers in your area, ideally within your niche, and find out what they are charging. Try to aim somewhere in the middle – don’t price yourself at the low end of the market, but also don’t price yourself at the top. It can also be smart to choose a range of pricing to allow for some flexibility in terms of client budgets.‍
   • Estimate your personal value, based on experience. This is tough because it’s subjective, but try to be as objective as you can. Take into account how long you’ve been at it and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Take into account the quality of the gear you work with, and how quickly you turn around images. If you are in the commercial sector, take into account the caliber of clients, and brand equity of your clients. And never work for free.‍
   • Remember to never undervalue your own time. If you undervalue your time, clients and customers are likely to do the same. When estimating your time on a project, include the time not spent behind the camera: pre-production, traveling, client meetings, set up and take down, that’s all time you should be incorporating into your fees.
4. Your desired profit: This is where you decide on your own personal profit margin, which should come on top of your time and labor costs.
   • How much money would you like to make off a single project? Are you charging hourly, or a flat rate? It will vary project to project and shoot to shoot, so make sure to think it through on a case by case basis, and don’t hesitate to consult your network for insights.
   • How will your photos be used? Should you charge extra for that? To help you get started, use these helpful calculators created by The Association of Photographers and Getty. 
5. Taxes: everyone’s favorite financial topic!
   • We’re no tax experts, but you know who are? Accountants. If you’re serious about running a photography business, you owe it to yourself to hire an expert. And if you’re not at the stage where you’re ready to take that plunge, at least check out this handy guide from our friends at F-Stoppers. At the bare minimum, remember: set aside money from each paycheck to make sure you have enough money to pay your taxes!

Next: A little thing called P&L.

A good place to go next when managing your business finances is your profit and loss statement, also known as an income statement, or P&L. You’ve done all the hard work above, so a P&L is just a helpful document to make sure you’re on track. Put simply, your P&L is your business’s revenue (often referred to as the top line), followed by your costs, or operating expenses (studio rent, payroll, travel expenses, gear rentals, insurance, etc). The difference between your total revenue and your total expenses (also known as the bottom line) is your net income, or profit.

The more you are able to update your P&L statement, the easier it will be. At the very least, we recommend doing this quarterly, especially if you are filing your taxes as a sole proprietor (because you’ll be filing every quarter). Without tracking your revenue and expenses, you won’t know if you’re making a profit, so it’s a crucial step in running a successful photography business.

Lastly, and ongoing: Stay organized!

In order to sustainably and accurately manage your finances, it is important to stay organized. There are endless ways to do this, but for simplicity’s sake, we picked our top three.

1. Separate your money. In order to properly keep track of your business P&L, you need to separate your business finances from your personal finances. Open a business checking account, where you will deposit all revenue from your photography business, as well as pay any employees from (and manage business expenses, if you choose not to use a credit card). If you want to build credit, a Business Credit Card can be where you track all business expenses – not to mention a great way to accrue points! Pull at least 20% of your earnings into a Business Savings account to make sure you have enough money to pay your taxes when the time comes.
2. Define your payment policies (and methods), have them clearly stated on both your website and invoice template, and most importantly, stick to them. Decide which payment methods you accept, what your terms of payment are, set a security deposit percentage, and if you handle refunds or not. Don’t leave any room for confusion or misinterpretation.
3. Invest in management software. Using accounting software (like Quickbooks) and customer relationship management (CRM) software (like Paypal) to auto-populate your books and invoices will free up your precious and limited time for more important things, like getting more clients!

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Managing the finances of your photography business is no easy task, and like the market itself, your finances are not fixed, they are in constant flux and so your pricing is something that will need to be adjusted and reevaluated periodically to reflect that. We are confident, though, that taking the above steps will get you started on your way to growing a successful photography business!

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What’s New

Our main focus is on supercharging your photos and your photo business, and this month, we’ve made two major strides to do just that. We’re continuing to invest in areas that will help you increase sales, interact with your customers more easily, and manage your business more effectively.

• We've launched a new print lab partner: Fujifilm. This print lab is now available as an excellent choice for our Pro and Portfolio subscribers. All Basic and Power subscribers outside of EMEA (Europe, Middle East, & Africa) region have been transitioned to Fujifilm for processing their prints. Fujifilm is also now the supplier for all Keepsakes in these areas. Within EMEA, Loxley is the default lab. Key benefits to you and your customers include:
  • Fujifilm has labs all over the world, which will result in quicker and cheaper shipping for international customers. 
  • Access to high-quality prints and products at a cheaper price, meaning more profit for you AND more affordable prices for your customers.
• Introducing our new image processing engine! While everything on the surface remains familiar, we've meticulously upgraded our backend to ensure that your images are processed and presented with the highest quality. This improvement allows us to stay ahead of the curve and seamlessly support the latest advancements in camera technology, so you can continue to showcase your work at its best.

What’s Changed

• We updated Photo Sites to improve usability on mobile and tablet devices by optimizing space and standardizing action placements. For Pro and Portfolio users, Gallery Engagement Stats have been moved to the overflow menu for easier access. These changes enhance the user experience and prepare the platform for future mobile-friendly updates.
• We streamlined the Customizer by removing non-functional Buy Button customization options, making it easier for you to focus on the features that work seamlessly and enhance your store's appearance.
• We improved the download size label for Original-sized photos by including the image dimensions. This provides your buyers with more precise information about the actual size and quality of the photo they are purchasing, helping them make more informed decisions and ensuring they know exactly what to expect with their purchase.
• Android release 4.9.0
  • The option to create a folder is now visually disabled when you reach the maximum nesting depth, preventing you from going through the unnecessary steps only to encounter an error. This change saves you time and avoids frustration by making it clear upfront when further nesting isn’t possible.
  • We upgraded our video playback system by migrating to Google’s new Media3 library, providing you with improved video playback. This update not only elevates your current viewing experience but also readies our platform to leverage future improvements and features.
• iOS release 4.11.11
  • We upgraded the Auto-Upload experience by improving how failed uploads are managed, guaranteeing that your files are reliably uploaded without requiring extra effort from you when something goes wrong.
  • The RAW button that toggles the display of RAW/non-RAW assets in the asset picker has been removed, streamlining your asset selection process and reducing potential confusion when managing your files.
• iOS release 4.11.12
  • We fixed an issue where the upload and filter options would disappear when switching tabs and returning to Photos. Now, these essential tools are always visible, making for a smoother and more consistent workflow when managing your images.

Bug Fixes

We have an unrelenting commitment to addressing problems that impact you and your customers. Here’s a list of the issues we resolved this month: 

• Resolved an issue where users trying to checkout with PayPal were redirected back to the payment method page and had to re-enter their details.
• Corrected the shopping flow so that choosing "Select All" now properly selects all available images.
• Addressed a problem that prevented products from being added to the cart in some unlisted galleries.
• Eliminated the incorrect low-resolution warning on some proof delay orders.
• Ensured that original resolution photos are no longer mistakenly included in visitor downloads when photos are collected from galleries with different maximum display size settings. This issue was promptly resolved and affected only a small number of customers.
• Improved accessibility by adding alt tags to spacer images used in our UI.
• Updated the system to properly save changes made to a pricelist title and enhanced error messaging for common scenarios.
• Fixed a bug where zooming in and out on an image on larger iPhones caused other UI elements to shift across the screen.
• Clarified error messages by correcting the “invalid video codec” alert when an uploaded video does not meet minimum size requirements.
• Removed a restriction that prevented users from downloading from some password-protected galleries.

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At SmugMug, we’re always looking to improve your experience and provide you with the best tools and services to preserve, show off, and sell your photography. So without further ado, please help us give a warm welcome to our newest lab partner, world-renowned leader in photo printing and imaging solutions, Fujifilm!

Why Fujifilm?

For over almost a century, Fujifilm has been at the cutting edge of innovation and excellence in the world of photography. Known for their high-quality prints and state-of-the-art technology, Fujifilm shares our commitment to delivering the best possible products to photographers of all kinds.

What this means for you.

SmugMug users will now have access to Fujifilm’s state-of-the-art printing services. Here are some of the exciting features you have to look forward to:

• Premium quality: Enjoy vibrant, true-to-life colors and stunning detail in every print. Fujifilm uses advanced printing technology to ensure your photos are dressed to impress.
• Wide range of products: From classic photo prints to mugs, canvas prints, and even tote bags and pillows, Fujifilm offers a diverse selection of products to suit all your printing needs.
• Easy integration: Ordering is just as easy as its always been. With seamless integration into your SmugMug workflow, you can select your favorite photos, choose your products, and place your order—all from the SmugMug platform.‍
• Fast and reliable service: Fujifilm is known for their fast turnaround times and reliable delivery, ensuring you receive their prints and products quickly and in perfect condition.

Pro Tip: For those who sell photos, check your pricelists and make any adjustments necessary. We are doing our absolute best to make this a smooth addition behind the scenes but we always recommend that you stay in control of your margins and product offerings.

A new chapter in photo printing.

We believe adding Fujifilm will help you improve your photography and your business. Whether you’re printing family photos, creating custom gifts, or setting up a shop for your customers, you can trust that Fujifilm will deliver the highest quality prints and photo products with the care and precision you and your customers deserve.

Thank you for being a part of the SmugMug community. Cheers to a new lab partner, and a new chapter.

Happy printing!

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Looking for some new ways to raise funds to support your camp facility and campers?  Below you’ll find a few unique ways to keep campers engaged year-round, bring in additional revenue through the activities they already enjoy, and reach new potential campers and parents without breaking the bank on marketing. 

Here are three ways to make money 365 days a year for your summer camp through photography:

• Cabin and group-based photo galleries.
• Editing workshops.
• Photo challenges between cabins, groups, or ages.

Camping is about comradery, learning, and self-discovery. Help your campers remember the fun they had last summer while getting them excited about coming back next year.

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Keep memories alive through private galleries.

When you use a photography platform like SmugMug, you’re able to create unlimited private and public photo galleries. This means your camp can create themed folders by cabin, club, theme, age groupings, and the season or year the camper attended.

From here your campers can upload their favorite memories to share with their friends and family back home. Parents can also buy digital downloads, prints, and countless keepsakes to cherish their campers’ summer memories.

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Offer photography workshops.

Another great way to earn off-season revenue is to offer photo editing courses and workshops to campers throughout the year. With SmugMug’s unlimited photo storage, campers can easily upload their edited photos to galleries to show off their skills.

Contests and challenges are also a fun and easy way to get your campers excited. Put on a holiday-themed photo contest or create photo challenges for your campers, asking them to utilize an editing or shooting technique you taught in a course. Then you can offer the submitted photos in your camp’s SmugMug print shop for proud parents to buy.

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Everyone loves a sale.

For off-season camp revenue, sales are a no-brainer. Boost print and fun photo gift purchases by running a sale or two throughout the year. Make sure to have one around the holidays – it’s when most parents are looking for easy and thoughtful gift ideas.

By offering special discounts and promotions during key times of the year, you can turn heartwarming moments into lasting keepsakes. Remember to create a sense of urgency with limited-time sales: you can drive more revenue while keeping the camp spirit alive all year long. SmugMug makes it easy to manage these sales and offers a seamless purchasing experience, ensuring that your campers' memories are treasured forever.

The options are endless for ways you can use photography to make more money for your camp, especially during the offseason. You only need a bit of creativity—and a photo hosting, storage, and photo selling solution like SmugMug. Click here to try us free today.

What’s new.

• We've turbocharged the shopping experience for your customers, making it lightning-fast to add items to their carts. Since making these changes, we’ve seen the time it takes your visitors to add their first item to the cart drop by 34 seconds. We’ve also seen conversion rates for adding items to cart increase. Quicker shopping = more sales for you.
• We’ve added a fantastic new SmugMug Perk: 20% off a lifetime membership to the International Freelance Photographers Organization (IFPO). IFPO has provided credentials, support, access, and community to photographers since 1984.

What’s changed.

• We've made significant improvements to your uploading experience, paving the way for better content sharing and management. Check out this announcement for all the details.

Bug fixes.

• To simplify your customers’ buying process, coupons will no longer apply to packages, which already offer your visitors discounted pricing.
• We've fixed the issue causing video-playback interruptions before processing completes, which resulted in "Processing Failed" messages.
• Out with incorrect crops. We've resolved the issue that affected some print-product cropping to deliver perfect results every time.
• Pro branding updates now stick when changed, allowing Pro-plan subscribers to showcase their updated brand with thank-you notes in each print order and custom stickers on the outside of shipping packages. Not yet using this feature? Learn more!
• Downloaded orders are now correctly labeled as "Shipped," providing clarity for Pros and customers alike.
• We've tackled a cookie issue that blocked visitors from passworded galleries and downloads after they entered the correct password, ensuring uninterrupted access for your visitors.
• Sales history is now off-limits to assistants, and downloading images is a breeze from both the organizer and lightbox.
• We've squashed iOS bugs left and right—from manual-sort glitches to app crashes—to make your mobile SmugMug experience even better and ensure you have uninterrupted access to your photos and videos no matter where you are.
• Our latest Android app release comes with performance enhancements for smoother browsing and quicker transitions.
• Prints and cards now play nice together in the same cart, ensuring they're both visible and ready for purchase.

These updates are designed to supercharge your selling experience and keep your business running smoothly. Happy selling!

Whitney Chamberlin left a $250,000/year corporate gig to help people create their own images in the Smilebooth. His unique formula has his Atlanta, GA, booth rentals topping $200,000 in revenue, making $30,000–40,000/year on his own local events. Partnering with SmugMug for its simple gallery hierarchy, social-media marketing, and large, beautiful image display allows Smilebooth event-goers to quickly browse by location and quickly share photos, all while seamlessly integrating with their main site.

‍A booth is born.

In his former life as a brand manager and marketer, Whitney Chamberlin spent his time bringing back iconic Nikes and wallowing in indie music. He was creative and successful, but something was missing. “I was making amazing money, but what I did didn’t have an end—what was I really doing?” he said. “Here I’m making people genuinely happy, just by putting something there for them to do.” 

The Smilebooth idea bloomed when he started joining his wedding photographer wife, Jesse, on weekend jobs. “I was in the giant corporate world during the week, and my wife was shooting weddings on weekends. It was a bummer,” Chamberlin said. “I used to lose sleep worrying about [all the guests] being photographed. I said, I’m not going to walk around begging—it wasn’t my style. So I built the first photo booth out of plywood and a makeshift computer. It worked great.” He continued to refine the booth and grow the business.

‍Putting the “mug” in SmugMug.

Smilebooth milks every drop of revenue from SmugMug’s tool set by exploiting the social aspect of photo sharing. Citing SmugMug’s excellence at showcasing multiple images and large, beautiful displays, Chamberlin said he links directly to SmugMug from his own site so customers can view and discuss their images on SmugMug without any extra clicks. 

Chamberlin likes having an online place to do event postmortems. “Then you can say, ‘I was at this event, come view my photos!’” he pointed out. 

Furthermore, Chamberlin has been known to build clients their own SmugMug site so they can collect revenue from events themselves. “Some of our brides were a bit iffy on using the Smilebooth,” he said. “I said I could discount their Smilebooth and make them their own SmugMug account with Smilebooth images. She can set [the price]. It's enticing for the budget bride.” 

There’s a silver lining for the vendor as well. “As a rental business, I don’t really need [the revenue]; print sales are an amazing added bonus,” Chamberlain said.

‍The booth as boon.

Chamberlin’s original venture exploded into a diverse international enterprise. In addition to Smilebooth rentals and his own company’s shoots, he manages an affiliate network and continues to produce booths for purchase. Seamless integration between his site and SmugMug, along with advanced customization, lets him manage his diverse business arms and maintain a unified look and feel. To his delight, the Smilebooth concept has proved nearly recession-proof. 

“We created the first one in 2005 and growth has been spontaneously amazing. I used to get emails from photographers every week saying how do you get these shots in a photo booth?” he said. “We haven’t had any hiccups. The only challenge is getting photographers to stop interacting with everyone and let the Smilebooth do its job.”

‍Shooting inside the box.

The main lesson Chamberlin brought with him from the agency world was the ability to channel anticipation without meddling. Although letting drama and creativity unfold naturally is second nature to him, getting professional photographers to do the same is more difficult. 

“For a while, I was frustrated with copycats,” he said. “Then I thought, why not build booths for them? I created a whole other business because I didn’t think people would get it.” 

Smilebooth has spawned many imitators, but Chamberlin thinks his team’s ability to let action happen without intervening sets them apart. “I’m not one to hide the feather boa and silly hats, but that’s not our aesthetic,” he pointed out. “You are the creative. [In the booth], you can be creative with nothing in your hands or something physical in the room, instead of bringing the same props everyone has. Custom-made props? Awesome. Relevant props? Great.”

Jesse’s classical training came in handy, he noted, citing her general knowledge of cameras and lighting as key. Typically, his team demos the freestanding booth and clicker for one person. Jesse avoids posing subjects, often just advising them to be themselves. 

“She has a photographic gift beyond the eye,” he said of her charisma and ability to help subjects let loose. “That’s what makes her an amazing photographer. How everything feels with the photo booth is basically that same feeling.”

Letting loose.

The Smilebooth is addictive—and the results speak for themselves, all over Smilebooth’s SmugMug galleries. 

“People don’t get out,” Chamberlin said. “It’s like that Risky Business moment where you’re sliding across the floor in your socks. People regain their childhood when they’re in front of this thing.” 

Chamberlin’s captured grandmothers flipping off the camera, dads hugging sons, and lots of devious teenagers smiling about something they shouldn’t be. “People get excited about doing their own thing in front of the camera instead of being told what to do,” he said. “The game of anticipation is really simple. When you’re in a group and one person has the wireless clicker remote, it’s exciting—it’s unbounded and limitless. You can push the button thousands of times or just once, and there’s a roar of laughter, because it’s a real moment, not a pause—not a tight, confined scenario.”

Photographers, are you ready to elevate your branding strategy? Let's dive into watermarks and discover how to leverage them effectively on SmugMug.

‍Understanding watermarks.

First things first, what exactly are watermarks? Watermarks are customized graphics or text that you can overlay onto your photos. They serve as a visual stamp, asserting your ownership and brand identity. You can apply them to all your photos on SmugMug, but we never place them on your original files. This means your watermark will never appear on downloads, prints, or keepsake items clients purchase from your galleries. But they travel with your photos online as part of our secure photo sharing. 

‍Who can use watermarks?

Watermarks are available only to Portfolio and Pro account holders on SmugMug. Power users can use external programs like Lightroom for watermarking, but this means your original file will contain the watermark so it will also appear on anything purchased from your site.

Elevating your brand identity.

Why bother with watermarks? Beyond adding a professional touch, watermarks reinforce your brand presence. Whether you're selling your photos or showcasing your portfolio, they ensure your name remains prominently associated with your images. And once you set up watermarks in your gallery settings, SmugMug automatically applies them to new photos as you upload.

Creating your custom watermark on SmugMug.

Ready to craft your signature stamp? You can create text-based watermarks directly in SmugMug. 

1. Navigate to your Selling Tools tab.
2. Select Watermarks > Manage. 
3. Tweak fonts, placement, and other settings, and watch as a live preview updates with your selections.

If you want to step it up a notch—say, using your logo as a watermark—fire up your preferred image-editing software (such as Photoshop) and unleash your creativity. We recommend starting with a transparent PNG file of around 1000 x 2000 pixels for optimal versatility. Apply it the same way you would a text-based watermark, but select Image as the watermark type instead. You’ll be prompted to upload your new watermark and then can adjust its opacity and location until you’re happy.

Stuck? We have a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial about how to make a sample watermark file on our help pages. 

Locating your watermarks.

Navigate to your Selling Tools tab to access all your branding tools, including watermarks. This centralized hub allows for easy management, editing, and removal of your watermark collection.

To apply your watermarks to your photos, look in your gallery settings under the Photo Protection tab. Or drop in to the Organizer to watermark several galleries at once! 

Refining your brand aesthetic.

Need to refresh your branding or make adjustments? No sweat. Simply upload your updated watermark, configure its settings, and apply the changes within your gallery settings.

Adapting to every image orientation.

Addressing the perennial dilemma of landscape versus portrait orientation, consider experimenting with square or corner watermarks for a cohesive aesthetic across all image types.

Distinguishing watermarks from printmarks.

Think of them as siblings—watermarks for your digital portfolio, printmarks for your physical prints. Both serve as customizable branding elements, tailored to enhance your visual identity, but only printmarks show up on the images your clients order. And printmarks, unlike watermarks, are limited in size and where they can appear on the photo. 

Great ideas for printmarks include event dates, your handwritten signature, team names, and graduation years.

Striking the perfect balance.

Strike a balance between visibility and subtlety to ensure your watermarks complement rather than distract from your captivating images. 

Ready to get started?

Dive in to SmugMug’s built-in watermarking tool and embark on your branding journey with confidence! And remember, our dedicated Support Heroes are on standby to assist you every step of the way: click here to reach out.

Now go forth and leave your mark on the world of photography!

What’s new.

• We’ve enriched your shopping experience by introducing package and gallery-download options directly within the gallery. Now it’s easier than ever to explore and purchase the perfect package or download high-quality images to cherish forever. Since release, we’ve seen visitors using these new options 10 times more than when they were buried a few clicks away—and more engagement means more sales!

• Enjoy smoother multi-selection sharing with our latest Android app version. Preserve your image selections even after download errors and enjoy hassle-free editing with multiline captions.
• Say goodbye to cropping concerns! Our new crop-warning message in the shopping cart alerts your customers to potential issues, allowing for easy adjustments before ordering. This also helps ensure they’re more aware that cropping occurs before printing, increasing satisfaction when their order arrives.

What’s changed.

• Visitors to your smugmug.com domain are now automatically redirected to your custom domain, enhancing your brand presence and user experience.
• We’ve improved the experience when canceling your SmugMug subscription through our iOS app with  a reminder to also cancel your subscription directly in the App Store. While we wish we could do this for you automatically, Apple’s terms require this step to fully stop future charges.
• Say goodbye to reliance on browser cookies for your stats—we're keeping up to date with modern browser requirements while respecting your privacy! As a result, stats may now include owner views. 
• We've also revamped our image URLs to ensure robust security without relying on browser cookies. Your photos are now even safer, giving you peace of mind every time you share or view them.

Bug fixes.

• We squashed a pesky bug in our latest iOS app version that caused auto-upload notifications to be sent erroneously, even when auto upload wasn't enabled. 
• We fixed bugs preventing video publishing and RAW photo uploads in our Lightroom plug-in, ensuring your photos and videos continue to reliably upload to SmugMug for secure storage and sharing.
• We resolved an issue where RAW uploads (with a Source subscription) weren't generating JPG previews. Although the fix wasn't retroactive, affected files are now ready for primetime.
• Fixed a bug where sort orders weren't always honored when viewing your site while logged out. Now your content displays just the way you want it.
• Tackled an issue where feature/thumbnail images would sometimes stop displaying in our Windows app. Update to the newest version for improved browsing and viewing experiences.
• Our Android app now lets you make purchases from private galleries even when your account has a custom domain, providing you a quick and easy way to order personal prints on the go.
• Our iOS app now displays all folders and galleries when adding or uploading.
• Enjoy glitch-free navigation on our mobile apps. We resolved issues with image processing, checkout, and gallery visibility on both Android and iOS platforms.
• Fixed GST calculation issues on digital-download purchases in Australia.
• Quashed an issue with photo-size shrinking when rotating a device in the Lightbox, ensuring optimal display quality.
• Resolved a concern where coupon restrictions weren’t applying to gallery downloads, ensuring consistent pricing and discounts.

Last year, we told you we were investing in uploading and getting images to your customers faster, a critical component for realizing sales. We kept this promise by focusing heavily on improving our upload experience this year, allowing you to better use the bandwidth offered from high-speed internet connections many of you have in your offices and homes. Some customers were able to enjoy a 50% improvement in upload speeds and reduce errors by 20%.

We also told you we’d be focusing on helping you sell your work wherever your customers are. We invested in improved order experiences for mobile devices, making it easier for people to get the products they want and helping them understand how a print might be cropped for the product they order. We also made it easier to add items to carts, and it’s all paid off—literally. In 2023 you all made more money selling on SmugMug than in any of our previous 21 years!

But it’s not just mobile-friendly access for your customers—you’re on the go, too. These improvements save you precious time before and after shoots as well as give you flexibility to work when and how you want. We added the most important features, including releasing proof delays, checking orders, and engagement stats, directly in the iOS and Android apps.

We were also focused on the impact that we and the photography industry have on the world. As of 2023, SmugMug is Climate Neutral Certified. We’re proud of the work we’ve done for the planet this year, and this is only the beginning of our journey to create a company and business that truly makes the world a better place.

You, our customers, are our priority. SmugMug already offers world-class support, where a real human is just a quick email request away. But this year we resolved your email and live-chat requests faster than ever before; even through your busiest sales times, requests were responded to in less than an hour. 

You’ve been telling us where the product let you down, and we listened. We fixed hundreds of issues that prevented you from getting the most from our platform. We touched everything from how you log in, gallery displays, product selection, order delivery, and search-engine optimization, and we sped up parts of the site that “felt slow.” We want your experience to be delightful, consistent, and intuitive.

What’s next for SmugMug?

We’re focused on meeting the needs of your business. We’ve heard from many of you that better insights about how to run your photography business are critical. We’ll help you navigate the things that are unfamiliar. We’ll provide more actionable data and advice so you can make better decisions for your business and help you thrill your clients. You’ve seen past investments in gallery stats, and we’ll do more here to help you understand what’s working for your business to ensure your marketing efforts are driving the outcomes you want.

We’re also making it easier for your clients to find photos of their cherished memories. Not just from search, but finding the right photos in each gallery. Not everyone wants to buy prints of those cherished memories anymore, and we’re making it even easier for them to purchase digital copies and other keepsakes, too. You’ve captured the memories they’ll hand down for generations. 

Our money-back print guarantee ensures you can rest easy knowing clients are satisfied with the prints they order and, in 2024, we’ll expand the work we help you do even more. We’ll do more for you through amazing partnerships and exclusive offers, and by ensuring the solutions we build support your business needs. In 2023 this included offers for business banking through Found and discounts on the equipment, education, and software you need—and we’re just getting started.

As we’ve added new capabilities and fixed issues you’ve told us about, we haven’t always done the best job of telling you we did it. We want to go beyond sending you email updates. We’ll help you understand how to most effectively use SmugMug to thrill your customers and grow your business. We’ll do a better job of telling you about new capabilities through multiple channels.

We’re excited about what 2024 holds for photographers everywhere. And we’re thankful for your continued trust in us. Photography holds the power to change the world, and we’re excited to be on this journey together.

What are packages?

Packages are the perfect tool for professional photographers like you to offer curated bundles of photo prints and digital copies. Imagine being able to provide your clients with an all-in-one solution that simplifies their purchase experience while boosting your sales. It's a win-win.

The benefits of packages.

Boost sales: Packages allow you to create enticing offers that encourage customers to buy more. Offering bundled deals can increase the average order value and, ultimately, your revenue.

Simplify the purchase process: Your clients no longer need to agonize over choosing individual prints and files. They can easily select a package that suits their needs, making the decision-making process hassle-free.

Value for your clients: Customers love discounts and bundled deals. Packages provide them with great value, making them more likely to make a purchase and recommend your services to others.

Consider this example - you could offer a package that includes two 8x10 prints, two 4x6 prints, and the original digital files—all at a discounted rate. Your clients can then choose which photos they want to include in this package, creating a personalized experience.

Getting started with packages.

Ready to make the most of this feature? Here's how to get started:

1. Log in to your account.

2. Navigate to the packages section via the Selling Tools menu at the top of your account.

3. Create your customized packages based on popular combinations.

4. Promote these packages to your clients through your website, social media, or email campaigns.

Remember, packages can not only simplify your workflow but also enhance the buying experience for your clients, leading to more orders and happier customers.

Ready to get started? Learn more about creating packages.

Available only for SmugMug Pro subscribers. Not on the Pro plan? Learn more about how the Pro plan can help you elevate your photography business.

Ready to print big? The topic of file prep may not be exciting for everyone, but there are a few important things you should watch out for before you send your files to the lab.

Here's a checklist from our in-house print experts to help you turn your favorite images into  perfect prints, and to avoid seeing imperfections blown up super-sized on the wall. 

1. (File) size matters.

A key factor in getting stunning, large prints is having enough high-quality information in your starting file. Image file size is measured two different ways: 

• MP (megapixels) are a representation of the dimensions of the file (length and width) and are determined by the size of the sensor in your camera. If you don't crop your original file, then your photo will have the same number of megapixels as your camera sensor. 
• Mb (megabytes) is a representation of the quantity of data in the file. A colorful image will be larger than a black-and-white image, for example, and a busy street photo will be a larger file than a photo of a plain, blue sky. 

The bigger you want to print, the larger the file size needs to be. As a rule of thumb, you need a minimum of 1 Mb and 1 MP in your file to print small, standard print sizes up to 8x10 inches. 

To check the file size on your computer, open Image Properties and check Image Details on your photo. To check in your SmugMug gallery, click the image information icon that appears in Lightbox view.

For a more advanced trick to check your image quality, try these steps in Photoshop: 

• Click Image > Image Size.
• Set Image Resolution to 90 pixels/inch.
• Check the box for Resample Image.
• Set Image Size to your desired print size.
• Click OK.
• Zoom viewing magnification to 100%. This should give you an accurate representation of what the printed image will look like. If it looks pixelated, then you’ll need to choose a smaller print size.
• Make sure you don’t save these settings to your file.

‍Tip: Image size does not trump image quality. If your original image is out of focus, no number of pixels will fix it. Always start with your best-quality photo.

2. Shape is everything.

Your digital file will have a shape that's been determined by either the camera sensor or by any  cropping you do to the file. All print products also have set dimensions and specific shapes. They range from squares to rectangles, and every variation in between.

If your digital file doesn’t have the same shape as the print product you want to order, you’ll need to crop that image so they match. You can do this in your editing software of choice or on SmugMug after you upload.

3. Be wary with borders and text.

Does your image have a border or overlaying text?

• Make sure your borders are at least ¼-inch wide or they will be at risk of getting cut off and/or appearing uneven on the finished print.
• Make sure text is at least ¼ inch away from any edge of the print (or within the crop box for mounted prints) to prevent it being cut off during the printing process.
• Double-check all text for typos.

4. With flying colors.

Get those whites white. Our eyes judge all colors by using black and white as the reference points. Make sure you have a true white point (255, 255, 255) and/or a true black point (0, 0, 0) in your images.

Watch those skin tones. In portraits, pay close attention to your skin tones. You'll want pleasing skin tones, generally warm rather than cool. 

Don't be fooled by screen brightness. Our computer monitor, tablet, phone, and camera LCDs are all backlit devices. They will always display our images brighter than any physical print. Be sure to adjust for this, otherwise your prints may end up much darker than you expect.

Tools to help:

• Color calibrate your monitor, either with a calibration print (our preferred method), your computer's system preferences, or by using an actual color-calibration device.
• Use the print lab's supplied ICC color profile.
• Use editing-software histograms, levels, and curves tools for editing color and exposure.

‍Tip: Does this all make your head spin? Try using SmugMug's color correction whenever you order a print through our print labs.

Do you know Lee Morris, pro photographer, video producer, and educator? He's a seasoned commercial, advertising, fashion, and wedding photographer, plus he's co-founder of the website Fstoppers.com. He took a moment to reflect on the wedding business, why it's so hard, how it's changing, and how pros like you can make the most of it by staying true to your heart.

‍The role of sentimentality in business.

When it comes to managing a business as intimate as wedding photography, it’s easy to let your emotions take over. I try my best to approach my photography business as I would any other business. I need to manage my time, keep my current clients happy, consistently book new clients, and make money. Many photographers fail to meet at least one of these goals. Maybe you’re really good at making your current clients happy, but you work too much and you don’t enjoy your job or have time to enjoy your life. Maybe you book a ton of work, but you don’t charge enough and you’re constantly struggling financially. 

During the digital revolution, many photographers who didn’t change their pricing structure were incapable of making their current clients happy. Maybe their pictures were great, but as digital started to take over, couples felt like they were getting nickeled and dimed after the event. If you can’t make your current clients happy, you’re going to struggle to find new clients.

When I started my business years ago, I learned early on that I hated making prints and albums. I could shoot a wedding in a few hours and make a few thousand dollars, but it would take me a full day to retouch a few pictures, print them myself, or take the files to a lab, package them up, take them to the post office, and I would only make a few dollars’ profit. In many cases my clients would have to wait weeks to actually get their prints because I was out of the state shooting another job. I decided I was going to start giving away the digital files with each of my weddings. Maybe I would lose a few dollars on the back end, but I was also gaining a ton of free time; and my clients were happier because they could print their pictures how they wanted, when they wanted.

As a single guy in my twenties, money was important to me, but free time was far more valuable. Once I had booked my 20 or 30 weddings for the year, I knew I had plenty of income to support myself and had the security to start working on other things. With the extra time I had gained, I created the photography website Fstoppers.com. If I had focused on custom prints and albums like other photographers do, I have no doubt I would have made a bit more money, but Fstoppers has been far more rewarding. Creating videos for our website like Bon Jovi’s photographer behind the scenes, Peter Hurley’s: The Art Behind The Headshot, or How To Become A Wedding Photographer has been the most exciting experiences of my life.

My point is that you may love your photography career (I sure do), but if you can give yourself some extra time, who knows what you’ll be able to create.

SmugMug = time = money.

When I found SmugMug, I realized it filled three major needs in my business:

1. High-resolution backups are included with the subscription.
2. It allowed me to promote my photography by giving guests and family members a place to go to see my work.
3. Bay Photo integration meant I gave my clients high-quality prints without actually having to do any work.

By simplifying my business, I was meeting all four goals above; I had more free time, my clients were happier, I was marketing to new potential clients, and I was making money from print sales each month.

It’s easy to think we know what’s best for our clients. We may know that if they don’t book an album now, they will probably never get one made. But the sad truth is that many of our clients would rather put their pictures on Facebook than deal with an album. It’s important to remember that we are hired by these couples to do a service for them; if they don’t want prints, we should figure out what they do want and charge them accordingly for that. 

If you’ve ever bought a car before, you know how obnoxious it can be when the salesman tries to sell you on something you don’t want. There are so many other ways to make money with wedding photography that may not involve expensive prints. I make far more money than I ever did selling prints by selling engagement and bridal sessions, setting up a photobooth at receptions, selling video slideshows of the event, and offering a video service. Many photographers also don’t know that SmugMug makes it incredibly easy to sell digital copies of files. If you don’t want to give away your files like I do, you’re able to set the size and price for each individual picture.

I want to make clear that I love high-quality prints and that many wedding photographers make a lot of money selling prints, even today. I love seeing my work printed huge, professionally framed, and hanging on a wall. My point is simply that times are changing and the current generation of brides probably do not want the same things that their mothers wanted. To stay ahead of the pack, you need to deliver exactly what your clients are looking for, not what you think they will appreciate one day.

If I could sum up this article into a single point it would be this: Listen to your clients, and give them what they want. A happy bride will tell her friends how wonderful you are, and you will never have to worry about a shortage of work. In some cases, especially this one, it can make your life a lot simpler, and you might even make more money.

All photos by RL Morris Weddings.

Have you ever wondered what else you could be doing to get more sales for your landscape photography? Our friend Varina Patel has offered us great info about how to mix business and photography when you’re out and about. Here's what she says about keeping the customer at the forefront of your mind the next time you're out shooting.

You never know what a buyer will want—and each buyer is different. But, over the past several years, we’ve learned a few things about maximizing the potential of our portfolios. Here are a few tips for making sales.

Horizontal and vertical shots.

When we’re in the field, we usually find that a composition works best in either horizontal or vertical orientation. But in most cases, after capturing the most visually appealing image, we’ll work to find another shot that works with the camera turned 90 degrees. Why? Because sometimes the buyer needs an image that works in a particular orientation. Are they looking for a collection of calendar images? They’ll probably need horizontal images. Photos for a magazine? They’ll need a vertical shot to grace the cover

Since you never know who might want to purchase your images in the future, you can’t know which orientation will work best for their needs. Shoot in both orientations, and you’ll be ready no matter what they ask for.

Local images.

Not too long ago, Jay sold a shot of Cedar Falls (titled, The Looking Glass) as part of a collection of fine-art images. He has many shots of waterfalls, and it wasn’t one of his favorites. The image lacks the vibrant colors or grand vistas you typically find in Jay’s more popular landscape photographs. When the client asked about waterfalls, his first instinct was to send them samples of the most popular waterfall images in his portfolio. One of the first shots he sent was Arizona Dreaming, this brilliantly colorful “icon shot” from Havasu Falls in Arizona.

But the client passed on all those brilliant-color and famous locations. Instead, she chose the quieter image…one he’d never sold before. He was curious about her choice, and he asked her about it. The answer was simple: she wanted images of local places, no matter how ordinary they looked in comparison with those famous, iconic locations.

When you approach a potential buyer, make sure you have plenty of local images. Colorful photographs capture the eye of the viewer, but familiar places capture their hearts.

‍Collections.

When you present your images for sale, consider using gallery features that allow you to group your images into categories based upon similarities. For example, I have a gallery that’s dedicated only to black-and-white images and another that’s just for mountains. You can set up a gallery for images with a dominant blue-color theme or for photographs from a specific location. Your options are wide open.

SmugMug’s smart galleries feature lets you use keywords to create collections so potential buyers view images with shared characteristics. When a buyer wants more than one image, they often have a theme in mind. One buyer asked me for 30 detail shots she could sell as a wallpaper collection. Another wanted several waterfall photographs for decorating a newly opened hospital. In Cleveland, a buyer wanted images of local parks and iconic locations for the walls in an office building.

As you build your portfolio, keep an eye out for images that work well together, and be sure to present them as potential groupings.

Big prints.

Would you be surprised if I told you that giclée canvas prints are some of our biggest sellers? There’s just nothing like a really BIG print that makes a statement or ties a room together. In most cases, I don’t get to see a print after it’s hung, so it was a real treat to be able to see this one in its place of honor over the fireplace. This canvas print is hanging in a beautifully decorated home near Atlanta, Ga.. The colors in the room were actually chosen to match the print—the entire room is coordinated to match the colors in the photograph. I wish I could give you a tour of the whole house, which is a work of art itself.

Canvas prints are more expensive—especially really big ones—but most people hang them without a frame since they stand alone so well. They avoid the expense of matting and framing, making the price much easier to swallow.

Offer your prints for sale on canvas at the largest size available. A photo printed at that size packs a whole lot of punch!

This tip is brought to you by cabbey, landscape and fine-art photographer, and one of SmugMug's backend engineers. He's usually up to his elbows in the code that sends your orders to the labs and your profits to the bank, but now he's sharing some tips for photographers who want to be sure they’re getting the best possible prints.

‍But it looked good on my screen!

Let's say you take a picture of your son and the camera does everything perfectly in terms of white balance and exposure. You made sure the image was properly exposed, something akin to the image on the left below.

Next, you downloaded that image and loaded it onto your computer. But your computer's monitor isn’t calibrated, so your photo suddenly looks too red and too bright, like the middle image below.

To correct this, you fixed it in Photoshop until it looked like the original image. When you were done, you uploaded it to SmugMug and ordered a print, then received something that looks dark and weirdly tinted green:

Why did the lab ruin my image?

They didn't! The problem is that monitors are generally made for office tasks, not photography. Manufacturers give you the brightest display possible with the punchiest red they can produce.

As a result, any time you process your photos on an uncalibrated display, you're making your image considerably darker and turning down the red cast, skewing everything toward cyan. The third image above is what your finished photo actually looks like, and the lab faithfully printed what you sent them.

‍Calibration to the rescue.

By calibrating your monitor, you'll get better prints and happier customers without having to fall back on SmugMug's 100% print guarantee. The top three correctable problems that land on our help desk are

1. The prints are too dark.
2. The prints have a weird color cast.
3. Skin looks too red.

We have a great help page about return rates that shows what gets returned and why. The top six reasons are all solvable by using a properly color-managed workflow.

‍How do I do it?

Exactly how you do it depends on what gear you buy. There are a number of different choices, but the leaders of the pack are Datacolor's Spyder and X-Rite's lines.

In general, you'll need a colorimeter or spectrophotometer (fancy words, but they basically mean a special device you can put on your screen and plug in to a USB port) and a piece of software that usually comes bundled with it. The software will put your monitor through its paces while you have the meter on it, then it uses that information to build an output profile for your screen.

With that resulting profile, any software that cares about a properly color-managed workflow can properly display accurate colors on your screen. Since monitors' color accuracy varies over the lifetime of the display, it's important to update the profile periodically, at least every month or two. Most of the above programs will remind you when it's time to re-profile your display.

You can also get a calibration print with SmugMug. With that in hand, you can bring the calibration image up in your editor of choice and see how much closer a calibrated workflow makes it look on your monitor. The closer it is, the closer your images will be when you're editing them.

Lab color correction: One click to save them all.

Portfolio and Pro account holders can always print through Bay Photo, WHCC, or Loxley Colour, whose color-correction services are always done by hand. It costs a little more, but it can save you time at your desk, or headaches if you don't feel like fiddling with your computer. 

You can find this option when editing your pricelists. 

‍Go the bargain route.

Most operating systems have an "eyeball" calibration you can do that will at least get you started. They aren't as accurate, and they depend on your eyes making decisions, so be aware that this may not work for everyone.

On a Mac, use Spotlight to launch Display Calibrator Assistant. Once it opens, just follow the steps.

On Windows, search in the control panel for "display calibration" and, again, follow the steps.