Flickr or Smugmug..?? And why.

[p360]

I'd like to know what you like and dislike about each. I have pretty much narrowed down my choices to these two.

Thanking you all in advance.

[codearachnid]

I use Flickr for my personal gallery - and per their TOS you aren't supposed to use it for business purposes. So if you're looking for a personal gallery solution with a vibrant community to back it then go with Flickr.

I have several friends who use Smugmug for their photography businesses and with relative success. It gave them a low cost method of being able to have a professional site with great proofing tools to use with a client (plus Smugmug is more setup for this type of use).

Essentially Smugmug => proofing vs Flickr => community - the downside with any 3rd party service is that you are tied to how they run their business. Word of caution: I had my flickr account deleted by a hacker a few months back. While I have backups of my photos (i had around 5k pics on my account at the time) all the years of comments disappeared and oddly they had no backup of my account or any activity other than someone 14 states (traced the IP) away had requested my account to be deleted while my computer was uploading files to flickr... talk about bad timing.

[p360]

Thank you for useful info.

I am relatively new at digital photography. I don't have any plans to sell my photos; I simply want to share my work and learn from others'. In that regard, Flickr may be appropriate, from what you're saying.

However, just looking at both of them, I see that Smugmug offers a lot more control and personalization with how one wants to present his or her work. Correct me if I am wrong, but Smugmug offers community feature, i.e., engaging with other members, receiving comments from others, etc., just like Flickr does. That is big for me. I want to be able to have others' comments and criticism, for that is how I am going to get better.

Thank you for your input. I am leaning towards Smugmug. I wonder if they back up all photos that are uploaded, in case they are accidentally deleted, like what happened with yours.

[timnosenzo]

I use both Flickr and SmugMug, you can see my sights here:

My Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothynosenzo/)

My personal SmugMug site (http://www.timnosenzo.com/)

My SmugMug portfolio site (still working on it) (http://www.timnosenzophoto.com/)

All Flickr sites look the and act the same, but Flickr is great as a photo community. You can submit your photos to many different groups, get comments on them, etc.

SmugMug is an excellent service for hosting photos, and depending on which level you sign up for and how much knowledge of CSS and HTML you have, you can customize your SmugMug site quite a bit. You can also submit your photo galleries to groups on SmugMug and people are able to comment on photos, but its not at the same level as Flickr.

So my advice is, if you want to share your photos with thousands of other people and be part of a photo community, and you're OK with your site looking like everyone else, than Flickr is good. If you would like a nice looking site that you can personalize and really make into your own "web page", than SmugMug might be better. Or you could do both. :)

[p360]

Thank you, Tim.

I really like the home page on your Smugmug site. How did you do it? Are you a pro or a power member?

I opened a trial account with Smugmug, and will have a power account. I'd like to do something similar to yours with my home page. Care to teach me? :)

BTW, your photos are amazing. Very impressed.

[timnosenzo]

Thank you, Tim.

I really like the home page on your Smugmug site. How did you do it? Are you a pro or a power member?

I opened a trial account with Smugmug, and will have a power account. I'd like to do something similar to yours with my home page. Care to teach me? :)

BTW, your photos are amazing. Very impressed.


Thanks a bunch, I really appreciate it!

I have a Pro account, but you can do all the same customization with the Power account.

I learned everything from here:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=52811

and from doing searches and asking questions in their forum here:
http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31

Slideshow info here:
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/3624147

Header, nav bar tutorial:
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2160039_nu3PM

Have fun! I'm hardly an expert coder, but after asking enough questions and playing around with it, I was able to put something together that I'm really happy with. :)

[masayako]

Hi Tim,

Really lovely site!! Just wondering, from experience, do people often buy photos via smugmug sites?

[Wendelius]

I'm a Smugmug user and I really love their services and the amount of helpful and timely advice you can get on the DGrin forums.

On Friday night, I decided that I should redo my default website where there were only a couple of galleries and no presentation whatsoever. Everything was dumped on the front page.

After a few hours of perusing the forums and asking a couple of questions, I got to this result by Sunday evening: http://www.cameraobscuraphotography.com/

Already much better! It's still a work in progress, but I love the customisation options on Smugmug and the fact that both other users and customer support actually are there to help you. I fired off an e-mail to support on Saturday evening and had a reply within the hour.

Wendelius

[thebishopp]

Has anyone suggested winkflash?

[p360]

I'm a Smugmug user and I really love their services and the amount of helpful and timely advice you can get on the DGrin forums.

On Friday night, I decided that I should redo my default website where there were only a couple of galleries and no presentation whatsoever. Everything was dumped on the front page.

After a few hours of perusing the forums and asking a couple of questions, I got to this result by Sunday evening: http://www.cameraobscuraphotography.com/

Already much better! It's still a work in progress, but I love the customisation options on Smugmug and the fact that both other users and customer support actually are there to help you. I fired off an e-mail to support on Saturday evening and had a reply within the hour.

Wendelius

Thank you. Your site looks very nice.

I have a few questions regarding creating a slideshow on your home page, if you don't mind.

1. Can you select photos that you want in the slideshow - photos that are in various galleries? Or do you have to select an entire gallery?

2. They refer to gallery "codes" everynow and then. What are they? How do I find them for my galleries?

TIA.

[Wendelius]

Thank you. Your site looks very nice.

I have a few questions regarding creating a slideshow on your home page, if you don't mind.

1. Can you select photos that you want in the slideshow - photos that are in various galleries? Or do you have to select an entire gallery?

Thanks pratman!

Right now, Smugmug doesn't support "virtual galleries" that contain pictures from several actual galleries and, thus, your slideshow pictures all have to come from the same gallery. What I did is simple:

- I export all the pictures I want to showcase to the size of my slideshow display so they don't need any "second hand" resizing.
- I upload them into an unlisted gallery and point the slideshow to that gallery.
- Et voila. Slideshow contents that can easily be swapped in and out when I want to refresh the look of my front page by simply adding or removing resized files in that gallery.

2. They refer to gallery "codes" everynow and then. What are they? How do I find them for my galleries?

If you take the URL of my London Gallery ( http://wendyg.smugmug.com/gallery/4740946_cGFDJ ), 4740946 is the Album ID and cGFDJ is the Album Key. And I believe that 4740946_cGFDJ all together is the gallery code.

Unless it was meant in a different context? As stated above, I just started looking at the coding this week-end. So I'm still a bit confused sometimes. ???

Anyway, if I can be of any more help, let me know.

Best,
Wendelius

[p360]

Thanks, Wendelius.

I have more questions - hope you don't mind.

1. How do I center the home-page slideshow in the Gray Box?

2. How did you make your home-page look so 'clean'? In other words, how did you add only the links for Galleries, About Me, Search, etc. on your home-page?

I am still trying to figure out how am I going to create a banner.

I really appreciate all your help. You've been great.

[Wendelius]

Thanks, Wendelius.

I have more questions - hope you don't mind.

I don't mind at all. However, I'll start by mentioning that timnosenzo gave you a few good links and that there are 2 places where you should look first:

Smugmug Customization FAQ (http://www.smugmug.com/help/customize-faq) : It's got a FAQ on some of the things you asked under the "Change stuff you don't like" and "Hide stuff you don't like" sections.

DGrin SmugMug Customization forum (http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31) : If you run a search in this forum, there are tons of helpers who know tons more than I do and have probably already answered your questions or will get to it faster than I can. It's a really helpful place.

1. How do I center the home-page slideshow in the Gray Box?

Since the slideshow is generally shown as the user Bio, add this to your CSS box (the /* blah */ bit is just comments):

/* Make sure the slideshow is centered */

#userBio {text-align: center;} 2. How did you make your home-page look so 'clean'? In other words, how did you add only the links for Galleries, About Me, Search, etc. on your home-page?Item 37 on the FAQ link about should help you. It's a FAQ lay-out tutorial. It points there: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2160039

Basically, the idea is to use CSS (also known as stylesheets, which are the equivalent of the formatting tags hidden in, say, a Word document and which tell it what a header looks like or whether your paragraph should have justified text or not) to tell your browser what should appear and what shouldn't. And if it does appear, what it should look like.

On my pages, here are the elements I hide by default:

/* Elements to display or hide on any page */

#bioBox .photo {display: none;}
#bioText {display: none;}
#userHome { display: none; }
#userName {display: none;}
#feeds { display: none; }

.map_this {display: none;}
.cartlink_footer { display: none; }
.share_button {display: none;}
#photoKeywords {display: none;}Some of them get re-enabled for specific galleries or pages. I recommend you follow the tutorial to learn more about what does what.

I am still trying to figure out how am I going to create a banner.Check out the Headers section in the FAQ (http://www.smugmug.com/help/customize-faq). It should answer your questions as they come up. Also, the tutorial linked above explains banners, I believe.

I really appreciate all your help. You've been great.You're welcome. Do register on the DGrin forum. The customization forum has got some real site design wizards. I'm a baby compared to them. :)

Also, check out this website: Moon River Photography (http://www.moonriverphotography.com/). It's the website of the Smugmug owner. You can get some good ideas on how to do things there. And he also has a "teaching" version of the same site where he explains the tricks he uses. But I don't have the URL handy.

Wendelius

[p360]

Thank you, Wendelius. I think this is going to be my weekend project.

Much appreciate your help.

[Roy Webber]

Mabe try Zenfilio...its neat

[p360]

I already have a zenfolio account, expiring next month. It's ok; don't like it very much.

[Ham1]

I don't mind at all. However, I'll start by mentioning that timnosenzo gave you a few good links and that there are 2 places where you should look first:

Smugmug Customization FAQ (http://www.smugmug.com/help/customize-faq) : It's got a FAQ on some of the things you asked under the "Change stuff you don't like" and "Hide stuff you don't like" sections.

DGrin SmugMug Customization forum (http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31) : If you run a search in this forum, there are tons of helpers who know tons more than I do and have probably already answered your questions or will get to it faster than I can. It's a really helpful place.


Wendelius

Wow, we should look at hiring you and timnosenzo!

Good work.
Markham

[photographergirl]

I wanted to try Zenfolio since they use mpix as their printer. But if you do a free acount they wont let you do anything. This I did not like since I like to try the program out before actually buying and using it. You guys are getting me kinda excited about trying smugmug again. With all the useful links that were mentioned on the first page I may sit down one day and work on a new site. I was going to use Flash Palette www.flashpalette.com for my site may change my mind.

[woodsters]

Just my 2 cents here. I haven't really used smug mug...might of done the trial thing a year or so ago, but never really messed with it. I will warn you about Flickr though. This is from my experience, although I have heard others have had the same thing happen. I've had several (free) Flickr accounts before with no problem. This summer I signed up for their Pro Account at a cost of $25 a year. Great price for the unlimited space. I mainly used it to hos photos of my wife. Nothing x rated, more pg-13 with some r rated as well. I had my account set to a safe level per their requirements. Well one day, I received an email from them saying that my avatar was against their TOS and that they removed it and that if I didn't abide by it agai that my account would be terminated. My avatar was a picture of me with my wife in front of me with my hands over her boobs. She even had a top on, so nothing was naked or anything. Anyway, I was going to put a different safer one up. When I went to log in, my account was gone. I emailed them and the only response I got was that it was removed due to violations of TOS. I emailed them back as to what specific TOS and no response. I emailed them 5 more times and still n response in the last few weeks. My pictures were set as restricted when I had it and there was nothing graphic in there. I've seen way worst stuff on some Flickr pages. I'm not the only one this has happened to. Upon further investigation into their help forums, there are a bunch of people that this has happened to. You know, if it was a free account I would be bitching about it. But as a paying customer, I think they should at least give some warning/guidance before doing that crap. I won't go back there. It's a shame too. I really liked it there. I'm in the process of looking elsewhere right now. I use Fotki at the moment, but to me it's not the same.

If anyone know a good place where you can host photos with nudity, please let me know!