Smugmug: Overall Good Experience for Anyone
Written: May 19 '05 (Updated Jul 13 '05)
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I've recently been pulled in to Smugmug. I've been researching online photography storage sites for a while and couldn't resist the temptation to go through some sites like Yahoo! Photos or Shutterfly, where the picture storage is free; however, Smugmug really goes out of your way to provide good customer service, picture quality and peace of mind for your photo storage.
Signing Up for Smugmug
The sign-up process was extremely easy and the 7-day trial really helped me to see what Smugmug was really about. Had my doubts the first time I signed up, thinking I would cancel in a few days, but I continued to use the site. Speaking of which, signing up, I got a $5 discount/year by using the coupon code fsyFmjijLOPSI (still useable), which helped knock the yearly cost down from $29.95 to $24.95. After processing, I was given my 7-day trial to play around with the website.
Uploading Pictures
Smugmug gives you five different methods to upload your photos--four of which work with Windows, three of which work with Macs. There's a quick and painless method using Internet Explorer (the first one of five) that allows you select a folder to upload--something very convenient. For me, on average, to upload 100 pictures using a 4 megapixel camera, it's taken me roughly an hour. Not too great, but your miles may vary based on your internet connection. If you have dial-up, I'd suggest burning all your pictures to a CD rather than uploading them to any online photography site. Either way, once the photos are online, you can manage them in a variety of ways. The ability to upload pictures up to 8 megabites large is also a plus, though something I'll probably never take advantage of. For what it's worth, you're allowed unlimited storage, and are not required to sign-in (such as with sites like Shutterfly) to keep your photos active. They remain on your site for as long as you pay.
Editing Pictures
Editing pictures was a snap. I could move pictures from gallery to gallery, crop, rotate. One thing that was disappointing about Smugmug was the inability to brighten up photos--something you can only do when purchasing photographs through their online vendor. Though the ease of editing pictures stands out with Smugmug, the features are still limited in that you can do much more with Adobe Photoshop or another picture editor.
Organizing Picture
By far, this was the best part. The ability to organize photographs into specific categories is priceless. Secondly, one can also use folders that are hidden or password protected from the public. This way, you can share pictures of your family amongst just those in your family without the entire world seeing them. Secondly, when one purchases a Smugmug account, one is entitled to a homepage that displays all of one's categories (that the user has allowed the public to view). It's simple navigations to your pictures from there.
Payment/Renewing: Is it worth it?
Payment renews every year with an e-mail sent to you prior to the charge being posted to your credit card account. I think this is a good feature, in that there's always a reminder for you to cancel. So, is the site worth the money? I'd think so. It's nice to have the peace of mind that your pictures are safely stored and won't be deleted by a malicious computer/hard drive. Secondly, the fact that you have a website that gets created makes the yearly fee all more valuable. I can now refer my friends to the picture site and it becomes a topic of discussion. You own website is also free from advertisements; something that the other photo storage sites don’t provide.
Overall
Overall, with a 7-day trial, I'd recommend it because you can always cancel it if you want. If I didn't have so many pictures to keep track of, I'd probably have stuck with Shutterfly or Yahoo! Photos, but seeing how I've stored over 1,000 pictures on my Smugmug, those other sites won't work for me. Cancel in the 7-days if it doesn’t work out. Either way, it’s a feature that everyone should try out. I just wish someone would create a free site like Smugmug.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
slippahs
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Location: Honolulu, Hawai'i
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Here in sunny Honolulu, Hawai'i, I type for the good of all :-)
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