SmugMug Development Lab

What’s new.

• We've given our iOS app a tune-up with more modernized code, ensuring a smoother experience for you. Also enjoy sleeker navigation with updated overflow menus that make it even easier to find your way around the app.
• Our Android app is now updated to Android 14, keeping you in sync with the latest API changes behind the scenes. We've also updated our multi-factor authentication (MFA) log-in messaging, providing a direct link to our help page for any assistance you might need.
• For Android TV users, we've revamped the "Slideshow Display Time" option to provide a better navigation experience with clear focus indicators.

What’s changed.

• We're continuing to enhance your browsing privacy when it comes to dependency on cookies. As a result, dragging and dropping directly into a gallery to upload is no longer supported, but you can still enjoy a smooth uploading (and drag-and-drop) experience through our upload interface.
• We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes to enhance our backup strategy to continually safeguard your precious photos.
• You’ll also notice a more streamlined experience across our mobile web and native apps.

Bug fixes.

• Enjoy a smoother shopping experience, with fixes for unlisted galleries not showing items in the shopping cart, password-protected galleries being able to access the shopping cart, and themed messages when there are "No Products Available" for purchase.
• Your gallery feature image will now display the correct image when posting to Facebook.
• The Safari browser no longer interferes with creating QR codes on a custom domain.
• Fixed the ability for assistants to download single images from the Organizer and removed their ability to access sales history.
• Bulk-gallery changes will no longer flash a misleading error message when the changes work.
• Our iOS app also received a lot of love, bringing back the "Move" option to the overflow menu for easier navigation and providing bug-free downloads after swiping through the Lightbox or via multi-select.
• We also cleared the auto-upload errors related to too little space or gallery limits being exceeded.
• We fixed video-playback issues in the iOS mobile browser to ensure you no longer get only audio.

Stay tuned for more exciting improvements!

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!

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.

Tim Miller's journey into the world of wedding and dance photography began with a high-school class. Little did he know that class would set him on a path to becoming one of the premier photographers in the eastern Pennsylvania region and one of the highest-selling pros on SmugMug. But like many success stories, his journey was far from linear. 

We had a chance to chat with him about what makes his photography business so successful, and how SmugMug helps contribute to that success.

1. Branding matters. 

In the early 1990s, Tim noticed a lack of creativity and spontaneity in wedding photography. Determined to change the game, he and his wife, Liz, began experimenting with a new approach: focusing on the candid moments that truly reflected the emotions of each wedding day.

This "Your Day, Your Way" concept resonated with couples seeking a personalized and authentic wedding experience. Soon, Tim and Liz were booked solid, photographing weddings all over the region. But Tim didn't stop there. 

After sparking up a conversation with a wedding DJ who also worked in a dance studio, he ventured into dance photography. "I created a separate site and named it ArtOfDance.Photo after a big dance studio in Easton told me they would've hired me three years earlier if I had dance photos on my original site," Tim said. 

Using SmugMug’s variety of customization options made it easy to brand each site separately, making them unique enough to avoid confusion among his clients.

His journey from Tim Miller Photography to ArtofDance.Photo underscores the importance of strategic branding. Learn from his experience and make sure your brand reflects the specific niche or audience you serve.

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2. Know your audience. 

"My advice is do your own thing and solve problems for your clients," Tim said. And his approach has paid dividends, with his business flourishing even amid the pandemic.

His decision to split his photography ventures based on client preferences also highlights the significance of understanding your audience. Whether it's weddings or dance photography, catering to the distinct needs of your clients can set you apart in a competitive market.

"Brides don't want to see dancers, and dancers don't need to see brides," he said. But it wasn't just about differentiation; it was also about scalability and brand longevity. 

3. Plan for growth. 

"You don't want to name your business after yourself," Tim recalled, echoing the advice of a fellow photographer. If the business grows enough that you can sell it, people will always wonder who and where the named photographer is. Tim’s friend later lamented he would’ve been able to sell his own studio for more profit if he had known this tip himself.

Once you’ve chosen your name, think about getting a custom domain and logo to fully brand your business. Also monitor your growth easily with SmugMug stats and sales reports as well as third-party analytics.

4. Timing is key. 

Tim's knack for identifying and addressing industry frustrations didn't stop with weddings. He saw an opportunity to revolutionize the timing of dance-company photoshoots, shifting them from the bustling spring season to quieter winter months. This not only alleviated financial strain on parents but also ensured a steady stream of income for Tim during the offseason. 

Tim’s strategic shift in photoshoot scheduling demonstrates the importance of timing in maximizing sales while easing the financial burden on clients.

5. Problem-solving = success. 

He also changed how studios could approach their photo days to make them less disruptive and more customer-friendly. During his pivotal conversation with the wedding DJ/dance studio assistant, she explained why picture day was difficult: time had to be set aside to pose all the kids and to collect prepayments for packages—which might include photos the parents didn’t even want. 

After listening to her woes, Tim had an idea: “What if we took photos during class instead of on a separate day? And instead of making parents prepay for photos, what if I posted the photos online for them to choose from?" And so began a new chapter.

Tim's entrepreneurial ethos centers around solving problems for his clients. Embrace this mind-set and offer innovative solutions to problems in your industry that satisfy your customers and give your business a boost at the same time.

6. Leverage technology. 

Also central to Tim's success was his partnership with SmugMug—the “answer to everything," he said, emphasizing its indispensable role in streamlining his workflow and facilitating seamless transactions. The platform's robust features, coupled with exemplary customer service, have been instrumental in his ability to deliver exceptional experiences to his clients. “The superfast delivery of digital images is a strong selling point for me,” Tim said.

Partnering with platforms like SmugMug can simplify your workflow and enhance your customers’ experience. 

7. Customer relationships are key. 

Tim's dedication to excellence extends beyond business transactions; it's ingrained in every interaction he has with his clients. "I love what I do, and I don’t take myself seriously," he remarked. His success is rooted in the bonds he's built with his clients over the years. “People remember how you make them feel.”

Cultivate genuine connections with your clients by prioritizing their needs and delivering exceptional experiences. 

8. Stay approachable. 

A lighthearted approach can go a long way in building rapport. "I just love to have fun with my clients," Tim said. His down-to-earth demeanor and humorous anecdotes create a welcoming environment that fosters trust and loyalty.

9. Continue learning. 

A couple years into his dance-photography journey, a studio owner challenged Tim by asking, "Why do we take the same boring pictures? Why don't we capture leaps or something?" Instead of shying away from this knowledge gap, he approached the question with one of his own: “How would I do that?" The studio owner responded by borrowing his camera, giving the dancer a countdown, and snapping the photo with one shot. 

From there he discovered his studio strobes couldn't stop action, so he invested in better lighting. And he continued to learn the timing of leaps. “That's what changed me as a photographer, and when sales started going through the roof,” Tim said.

Embrace a growth mind-set and remain open to learning from both successes and failures. Tim's willingness to adapt and evolve has been instrumental in his journey as a photography entrepreneur.

10. Efficiency is essential. 

On the day of a photo shoot, Tim hands out letters to parents that explain how SmugMug works and hangs QR codes around the studio. These codes, generated on SmugMug, take parents directly to the photos’ online gallery when scanned. “I’ve already seen an increase in early sales with the QR codes,” he said.

“Also key to what I do is fast turnaround,” Tim said. “I use only three things for post-production: ACDsee for viewing and numbering the photos, Lightroom to edit the photos, and SmugMug to display and sell the images.” This allows him to edit and upload 12,000 studio images in three hours or less. 

Tim's efficient approach to post-production and client communication allows him to handle high volume with ease while maintaining quality. Streamline your workflow and optimize your processes to maximize productivity. 

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By incorporating these insights into your photography business, you can carve out your own niche in the industry. Remember, it's not just about taking photos—it's about building relationships, solving problems, and delivering outstanding experiences that keep clients coming back for more.

Pictures tell stories, but sometimes the story is bigger than the frame: crazy moments, behind-the-scenes secrets, you-had-to-be-there experiences. A photo blog offers the perfect opportunity to share those stories with the world. But managing another site or customizing it to match your main site is a tedious task. So why not keep it simple and keep your blog where your photos are—on SmugMug?

This step-by-step guide will walk you through everything you need to set up a photo blog on your SmugMug site.

Step 1: Create a folder for blog entries.

First, you’ll want to create a folder to contain all your future blog entries and name it something simple, like “Blog.” This will not only help you keep things organized, it will also give your blog a shorter, readable URL. This makes it easier for your visitors to remember, and it can also boost your search-engine optimization (SEO).

Step 2: Create a gallery outside the blog folder.

You’ll need a place to upload the photos you’ll be sharing in each blog post, but you don’t want this gallery to live within your blog folder or else the gallery itself will show up on your blog landing page. We recommend naming the gallery something that relates to your blog, such as “Blog Photos,” and using the Organizer tree to drag the gallery close to your blog folder. This will help keep things organized as you add more content to your blog in the future.

If you don’t want this gallery to be discoverable in your site’s navigation, change its accessibility setting to Unlisted. This will keep the gallery itself hidden from view but allow the photos within it to be seen when you add them to a new blog post. Have a Portfolio or higher plan? Encourage more sales of your blog-worthy photos by making the gallery Public instead and creating a pricelist for it.

Step 3: Upload photos to your new gallery.

Now that you’ve got your new gallery, it’s time to fill it with photos! Upload photos for each blog post as you go, or upload several photos at once for blogs to come in the future. For an extra SEO boost, title and keyword your photos after you upload them.

‍Step 4: Create a page for a new blog post.

Now you’re ready to blog! Create a page within your blog folder for a new post and select from one of the available layouts to kick things off with ease. Want complete control? Choose the Custom page option for full reign. 

We recommend making the page Public and filling in all the page-settings information for the best SEO, but at a minimum you’ll want to enter an eye-catching title. Your title will automatically create a custom URL for the page, but you can change the URL to anything you want. Keeping it readable and informative will help search engines and potential visitors get a great idea of what they’re in for before they even click the link. And if you add a feature image, a thumbnail will appear alongside your blog’s search results.

Step 5: Customize the post.

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to design your blog. Navigate to your new page and open the Customizer to reveal all the goodies available for your blog post. Drag and drop different content blocks onto the page to craft your perfect post. These are just a few ideas on how to use the blocks to bring out the best of your blog:

Photos, slideshow, or carousel.

Show off what the people came for: your photos! You’ve got several options in the Photos category to display your images in style. Drop in Single Photo blocks to maximize the size of your work and fill your page with large, beautiful images, or drag in a Slideshow or Carousel block for a more compact display. Want your visitors to be able to fill their screens with your work? Buy a photo? You can choose how you want your photos to react when clicked: open large in a lightbox, take the viewer to a gallery or different URL, or keep it as is.

Text, HTML, and CSS.

Use Text content blocks to fill in the story between your photos. For additional styling, use the HTML and CSS blocks for more control over how text and other content appears on the page, like we did for the sample blog at the top of this article.

Title.

Title content blocks are a great way to break up text on the page and give your visitors strong entry points into the story behind your photos. Use them as subheads to chop up larger blocks of text or highlight photo captions. We recommend using at least one at the very top of the page for the title of your blog post.

Separator.

We love this underrated feature for creating clear boundaries and visual breathing room. You’ll find it under the Design category of your customization options, perfect for giving your page a polished look.

Step 6: Get social.

For a finishing touch, don’t forget to invite your readers to join the conversation!

Comments.

Even if a conversation is happening on social media, it can be nice to give your visitors the option to leave direct comments on your blog post. Add the Comments block to give fans one more way to communicate with you. We offer a moderation option so you can review all comments before they’re posted to your site. To enable this feature, visit your Account Settings > Stats > Comments section and click on the Details button. You’ll see a checkbox in the upper right of the following page to require comment approval.

Step 7: Publish.

Photos are in. Story is written. Design is polished to perfection. Your post is ready for its debut! Once you’re ready, click the green Done button in the upper right-hand corner and select Publish Now. Still unsure? Try the Preview button instead to get a glimpse of what your visitors will see before the post goes live. Or if you’ve written posts for future release, choose the Save for Later option after you click Done. You can come back to the post later and publish whenever it’s time.

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Ready to start your own photo blog? Share it with us on Facebook, X, or Instagram! Or if you’ve gotten stuck somewhere, our Support Heroes are standing by.

As Camp Tecumseh celebrates a century of sun-soaked adventures, we sat down with Marketing Director Sam Hirt to discuss the visual history of this camp. Beyond the rustic cabins and laughter, Hirt shares insights behind immortalizing Camp Tecumseh's spirit—unveiling the transformative power of photography and videography, and SmugMug’s role in creating a digital haven where each canoe ride and campfire flicker can be preserved. 

Tell me a little about Camp Tecumseh.

Camp Tecumseh is celebrating its 100th year now in 2024. The camp started in 1924, and we’re about 25 minutes from West Lafayette, where Purdue University is, on the Tippecanoe River. When people think of summer camp, that’s Camp Tecumseh: canoeing, swimming, singing songs, making friends, hanging out in cabins together, looking up to camp counselors. We serve between 5,000 and 6,000 kids every summer, and we serve more than 30,000 annually. That includes school field trips, outdoor immersive experiences, and a number of curriculum-based or leadership-based programming for outdoor education. We also have a department for groups and conferences, so anyone who needs a meeting space or a place to have a retreat can also come here.

We have nine week-long sessions of overnight camp and seven weeks of day camp within that same time period during summer. Each Sunday we have a new group of 500 overnight campers, and Monday morning we have a new group of 200 day campers. At the end of the week, they all go home. 

The rest of the year, there could be days where all 600 to 700 beds are full with a variety of schools and retreat groups, or there could be a random day in between those groups where it's empty. It's pretty busy throughout the year with lots of groups coming in and out.

How did you get involved with the camp?

My wife actually grew up at this camp. Her dad worked in the camp industry for 40 years, including at Camp Tecumseh, and she lived on site. So she has it in her blood. I didn't grow up that way, but I did go to camps growing up. When I met her, I learned about Tecumseh, and we worked a summer there together when we were in our early twenties. I was on the media team as a videographer, and I used SmugMug for the first time back then. 

I later got into the camp industry separately, working for the American Camp Association. When a full-time opportunity came about to be the director of marketing at Camp Tecumseh, I took it. I've been here full time since 2019, so this spring will be five years. 

How’d you get into videography?

I was really into camera stuff, but I didn't have any technical training, so I taught myself. Then I started filming friends' weddings, then other people's weddings. That was my introduction to videography, which led me to photography. From a professional standpoint, I do more photography than I do video, but I do both in my job and both on the side. And this job has made me a much better photographer.

How does that translate into telling Camp Tecumseh’s story?

Our priority is to show the magic of camp—what's wonderful about the experience and what it looks and feels like to be a camper or counselor at Camp Tecumseh. I think the photos and videos really help convey those feelings. The goal is to capture as much as possible to show all the activities you can do at Camp Tecumseh in a given week. I really like that parents have to do some gallery searching after their kids attend camp because the parents get to see the whole experience and not only a single photo of their kid. 

Could you tell me a bit about your process?

I have a team of three that work for me; one does video, one does photography for overnight camp, and one does photography for day camp. At any given moment, we've got one person taking photos for 500 campers and one person taking photos for 200 campers.

The media team that works for me in summer focuses only on summer camp. The rest of the year it's just me whenever I have time. So in summer, my team will look at the schedule for the day and make a list of the activities they want to capture, whether it be horseback riding, canoeing, pickleball, swimming, or whatever. Then they'll go out with a golf cart and some Fuji camera gear to capture as much as they can. 

Once they've shot a decent amount, or filled a memory card—we shoot RAW so they fill up fast—they'll come back, offload the card onto a Mac, and sort to find good photos. We don't look for the perfect photo; we look for clear, appropriate photos that help tell the story of the day. Then they edit in Lightroom, export, and upload to a new gallery on SmugMug.

Any event that's happening at camp on a given day ends up being a gallery for us. On a good day, for example, we'll create a folder for Monday. Within Monday we've got galleries for chapel, Newdls (where kids learn a new skill and use their brain—their noodle), afternoon activities, and lake time. It helps us create a folder full of galleries, which really is a day full of events.

Part of what I do is oversee the process and make sure things are looking okay. As the week goes on, I challenge my team to seek out shots they might not have gotten yet. Have you made it to archery? Have you made it to the River Village? 

How does this work help the camp?

As far as marketing, word of mouth has been the best thing for us. Like when parents share our photos with new neighbors who moved into the neighborhood: "Here's where our kids go, and here's a link to their photos. See how great it looks." Also every Saturday, when a given session is over, all our summer staff will find photos of themselves and go to Instagram to make a post. We have hundreds of notifications each weekend. It's free, organic marketing that’s a gift that keeps on giving because we have high-quality images at the volume we do.

Also, everything we upload can be purchased by the parents. But we explicitly tell them on the site they can download images for free. We don't make a ton of money off that, but we do get 50 million hits in the summer, which is a really high amount for a nonprofit like us. 

The benefit we get from people saving the photos is they share them on their own social media or with their neighbors, which outweighs any kind of money we could make from them in my eyes. And everything is password protected for the high-resolution downloads.

How does SmugMug factor into your work? What got you started?

My predecessor, who's a friend of mine and a great photographer, chose SmugMug for the camp ten years ago. Then I've ushered it forward. 

SmugMug does a great job of handling our volume because we take lots and lots of photos, and I like how quickly it uploads everything. We upload anywhere from a couple hundred to a thousand images in a single day, so parents have to look through a lot to find their child, which is their number-one priority when they're looking at the photos. And I want them to do that. I think that's great. 

I also like that our SmugMug site can seamlessly tie in to our own site and branding, which has been crucial. I would hate for parents to be taken somewhere else and think, "What is this? It looks so different." Right now they can go to our SmugMug site and think it’s just part of our main site, which is great. I want it to look less like SmugMug and more like our own thing, and so far that's working the way we want it to.

Gallery presets are really handy for what we do, too. At the start of each summer, I can show all three of my staff at once how we set up a gallery, save it as a preset, then give them instructions on how to use that preset when creating a new gallery. Then the rest of the summer they can do it without me overseeing it.

Any tips for new SmugMug users?

If you're a camp, or some other organization that posts galleries based events, take advantage of SmugMug’s folders for organization. You could look at how we do it to get an idea of how useful they are. For example, we might create a folder for week one of 2024 overnight camp,  then within week one, there's folders for each day of the week. Within each day, there are galleries for events. That's a really clear way parents, staff, or visitors can see the whole experience. 

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We really value photography and videography here at Camp Tecumseh. It's not just me as the marketing director or even just the media team. It's all my coworkers. They talk it up to other people and say, "Check out our photos." We take pride in our hard work and the output we have, and I’ve always liked that SmugMug has been a good place to host our photos.

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.

The SmugMug Pro plan offers an "Assistant" feature which can be a game-changer for busy photographers. Let’s learn more about this feature and the value it provides.

Maximize efficiency and productivity.

By using the "Assistant" feature, you can delegate time-consuming tasks like uploading and organizing photos to your trusted associates. This means less time spent on administrative duties and more time focused on what you do best—capturing stunning images.

Collaborate your workflow.

Utilizing an “Assistant” password enables you to work seamlessly with your assistants, ensuring a smooth workflow and organized photo management. This can lead to enhanced productivity and better outcomes for their photography projects.

Delegate without compromising control.

Delegating tasks to your assistant does not mean relinquishing control or sharing sensitive account information. You define a separate password for your assistant to use. When logged in, assistants will only have access to important workflow features (like uploading, organizing, keywording, etc). They will not be able to take any destructive actions like deleting content or changing prices on your photos.

Foster business growth.

The "Assistant" feature can directly contribute to the growth of your photography business. By delegating tasks, you can take on more clients and projects, expand your portfolio, and increase your overall business capacity.

Establish work–life balance.

Utilizing an assistant gives you the potential for a better work–life balance. With the help of an assistant, you can free up more of your personal time, reducing burnout and stress.

‍Utilize specialized skills.

Assistants often have specific strengths. For example, if an assistant has expertise in photo editing or culling, they can handle those aspects while you focus on shooting.

Discover hidden opportunities.

By streamlining your workflow with an assistant, you might discover hidden opportunities for innovation and growth within your business. Freed from routine tasks, you can explore new creative avenues or expand into areas you previously didn't have time for.

With an easy learning curve.

The "Assistant" feature is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. Your assistants have access to the key parts of your same SmugMug account and can quickly learn how to navigate the system and contribute effectively to your workflow.

The "Assistant" feature on SmugMug isn't just a time-saver; it's a strategic tool that empowers you to leverage your strengths, grow your businesses, and achieve a healthier work-life balance. By utilizing this feature, you can shift your focus from administrative tasks to your true passion – capturing breathtaking moments through your lens. Learn more about this feature today!

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.

Attention, Lightroom lovers! Today we have a post by our friend, Matt Kloskowski, founder and CEO at Matt Kloskowski Photography and Education, former education director for Kelby Media Group, and a Tampa-based photographer. Kloskowski is the author of several best-selling Photoshop books and teaches Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography seminars around the world. He hand-picked a few favorite ways for Lightroom users like you to get your photos finished faster. He's currently promoting a new "Goodbye, Lightroom" course to help users transition from Lightroom Classic (the desktop-only version) to Lightroom (the cloud version).

We've all heard the phrase "time is money." Well, if you're shooting weddings or events, you need to get through your photos and get them organized quickly and efficiently. Then you can get on to the good stuff: editing and getting out there to shoot more photos. So to help out, I've compiled my favorite tips to kickstart your workflow and keep you moving through Lightroom as quickly as possible.

Tip #1. Use flags instead of stars.

A big part of speeding up your workflow is identifying your favorite photos. If you look under the Photo menu, you'll see Lightroom has two ways of picking your favorites: Set Flag and Set Rating.

Ratings are difficult to work with. Most people are familiar with the 1- to 5-star rating system, but the main drawback is it has too many choices. Five stars is a keeper, right? Four stars probably means the photo is pretty good. Three means it's decent. Two would be bad. And one star would be a reject that you throw away. But what happens if you go through your photos and come across something that isn't a throwaway or isn't an absolute keeper? You sit there and debate whether it's a two-, three-, or four-star photo. Either way, it's not your favorite, so you'll probably never do anything with it. Yet you're giving it too much time in the rating process. And, inevitably, when something takes too long, we stop doing it.

Instead of using ratings, try using the flagging system. This way, you get two choices:

• Flagged means you like it.
• Reject means you don't, and you want to delete it.

Go through your photos quickly and hit "Z" to flag or "X" to reject. If you don't flag it or reject it, then it stays unflagged, which is that grey area you're just not sure about. But you don't have to press a key to be indecisive—Lightroom just assumes you're indecisive about the photo by leaving it unflagged. So your job becomes really easy! Flag it if you like it and think there's a remote chance you'll do something with it again one day. Reject it if you don't. Then hit the right-arrow key and move on.

Tip #2. Delete the bad stuff (and an easy way to do it).

Another way to speed things up is to keep your library as clean as possible and get rid of the stuff you’ll never use. If you followed the previous step and are using the flag system, you should have some rejects that were marked with an X. A simple way to delete them is to select the filter icon near the search bar at the top of the window and then select the rejected-photos flag. Select all the photos in the filmstrip at the bottom and right-click > delete. Lightroom will delete all the rejects at once so you don't have to go back and get rid of them later.

‍Tip #3. Use albums.

Using Albums in Lightroom is more important than ever and probably one of the fastest and best ways for you to speed up your workflow. Photos that go into an album are photos that should be one click away and the photos you'll want to see most often.

Let's say you have 2,000 images from a wedding. You want to quickly show them to the bride/groom or family. Do you go through and show them all 2,000 photos? No way! Instead, you create an album. It's a way for you to get to your favorite photos in just one click.

Typically, I'll look at my photos and go through them one by one. I'll hit the letter Z to flag photos as a favorite when I come across them. Then I can quickly sort to see only my picks by clicking the flagged icon in the Filter strip.

Once I've figured out what my favorites are, I select them all (Edit > Select All), go to the Album panel, and create a new album with a descriptive name (usually the last name of the bride/groom). 

Tip #4. Use folders.

Albums have an extra level of organization called Folders that are key for events like weddings. Think of a folder set as a group of nested albums. If you put your picks from a wedding/event into an album, you'd have all the best photos from all parts of the wedding in one place (the album you created). The problem is that this album could be huge. This is where folders come in.

You'd create a folder (for example, a top-level folder with the bride/groom name) and then create albums within the folder for each part of the wedding (formals, church, reception, etc.). Here's what a folder could look like in Lightroom:

Bonus tip: Get them uploaded safely.

Once your photos are all cleaned up and ready to go, you're just a few clicks away from uploading them safely into your SmugMug website. The publish plug-in is free, gets your photos seamlessly into SmugMug, and also lets you sync, make galleries, and keep your online presence as clean and organized as your Lightroom library. You can also see and adjust your customer's event favorites, republish, and even proof your orders all right within the SmugMug Publish module. Get it now.

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What Lightroom tricks have cut time off your photo-editing workflow? We'd love to know!

Looking back at 2022.

In 2022, we celebrated 20 years of helping photographers all over the world showcase their art, cherish their memories, share their experiences, and run their businesses. And a lot has happened in those 20 years! We’ve heard amazing stories from photographers about their work and how they run their businesses. We’ve told some of their stories with SmugMug Films, where we highlight the inspirational work of amazing photographers around the world. And we’ve heard from our customers about how much of an impact our platform has made in their lives.

You are our priority, and the work we did in 2022 reflects that.

As your business grows, we’re enabling you to do more of it while on the go. We added notifications to our mobile apps to let you know when you make a sale. We also added mobile support for proof delay and made it possible for you to check on the status of orders no matter where you are. These small changes free you to manage your business when and where you want.

When you’re at your desk, we’ve added support for proof delay directly into the SmugMug plug-in for Lightroom Classic, allowing you to stay in this powerful tool while fulfilling customer orders.

It can be difficult to know if your photos are getting in front of your potential buyers, so we added improved SmugMug gallery engagement stats to get the data on how your potential buyers are responding and if the promotional channels you’re using are effective.

Our world-class customer support Heroes answered more than 120,000 inquiries. Many issues were resolved in just a few minutes. We’re proud to continue offering this level of courteous, effective, and fast customer support.

We made improvements to search to make finding photos easier for you and for your customers. Search is now faster and more accurate across all our subscription plans, and for customers opted into SmugMug Source™, it also includes auto-tagging of objects and geolocation.

We improved the purchase experience for customers ordering digital downloads from mobile phones and tablets, solving a fulfillment pain point many of you shared with us. We also added the ability for you to sell digital packages, giving you the best-in-class tools to deliver photographs to your clients.

But none of that matters if all of your photos aren’t safe and readily accessible. In the past two years we made it easier for you to store your RAW files along with your finished JPGs with SmugMug Source, an add-on feature to any SmugMug subscription plan. And in this past year alone, we invested in the stability and reliability of the SmugMug platform and storage. While you can’t always see these changes, everyone benefits from faster page loads, improved browser experiences across devices, and the peace of mind that every pixel of your work is safely stored and ready to be served at a moment’s notice.

Forward looking to 2023.

You’ve told us you want to sell your work. We’re here to support you in achieving that goal. In the coming year you’ll see improvements that help people find and purchase their photos more easily. We know many of your customers increasingly are giving up their desktop computers (if they ever had them) and are using their devices on the go. We’re committed to making that experience easier for them and for you when managing the sale.

You’ve said you want photos available for purchase faster. We’re investing to enable more options for uploading. We’re excited about the opportunities in this space and can’t wait to see how it accelerates your business.

We want to be the best employee you’ve ever had, supporting you with the mundane parts of running your business so you can do the work that’s unique to you. Letting you do the work that your customers depend on. We’re also working on improvements to help you get photos onto our platform more easily, whether that’s on your desktop, tablet, phone, or camera — uploading to SmugMug should always be fast and reliable.

Like many of you, we’re concerned about the world we’re leaving behind for future generations, so we’re working to reduce the environmental impact of our business. This means continued investment in how we run our platform and business in a sustainable manner. We’ll continue to optimize our software, storage, bandwidth, and energy usage to ultimately become climate neutral.

Our purpose as a company is to build a better world through the power of photography. At SmugMug, we’re creating the best platform for all photographers and we’re incredibly humble that you’ve chosen us to be a partner throughout your journey. The next 20 years will be transformative for the photography industry, just as the introduction of digital cameras was. So stay in touch and look for more from us throughout the year!

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