New: Guest Uploading Lets Your Fans Join the Fun
You’ve always asked us if we had a way for your friends to upload lots of photos to your galleries without using a special Pro-only login. Someplace for your wedding and party guests to share all their crazy candids, funny faces and those micro-moments even Sherlock Holmes would miss.
You didn’t have a way to do that before. Now you do, whether you’ve got a Basic, Power or Pro account.
Here’s how it works.
How to create the most awesome pool of photos, ever
Step 1. Open up your gallery’s settings page and scroll down to Security & Privacy.
Step 2. Type a password into the “Upload Key” field. Note: Whatever you type here will be visible to your guest. (Just sayin’)
Step 3. Click the Save button at the top, then take a look at the “Upload Key” field again. We’ve baked your password into a special link like this:
Alternatively, you can fire up that gallery’s uploader and see the “Guest Upload” link at the bottom:
Step 4. Copy and share the link! Anyone who hits it will be taken straight to a special version of our web uploader where they can drag and drop files into your gallery… and only that gallery.
Stuff you should know
- If your gallery has a viewing password, your guest can still upload photos to it with your special link. However, they will need to enter the viewing password before they can browse the gallery.
- Anyone who has your link can upload files to the gallery, so be aware when you share. If you’re concerned about it getting into the wrong hands, you can give your guests a deadline, then delete or change the Upload Key after that date.
- Want captions? Have your guests fill out the caption field of their photo files before they upload. When it’s in the gallery, their text will automatically show up under the image. They can easily do this in programs like Picasa, iPhoto and Windows Photo Gallery.
There’s never too many cooks in the kitchen when fun photos are involved. So gather your friends, give it a try and let us know how you’re using it.
We’d love to hear your feedback so we can make this feature as awesome as humanly possible.
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This is fantastic. Thank you!
Awesome, awesome, AWESOME! Thank you for this!!!
Yes AWESOME!!!
Many Thanks!!!
This will be very useful – thanks!
Thank you!
I was literally googling how I might be able to do this hours ago, and now you’ve announced a new feature! Great timing!
WOW, HOLY COW, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, FANTASTIC, STUNNING!!!!!!!!!
Add any other superlative here _______________!
SmugMug ROCKS!!!
This is the best thing since sliced bread!
so cool!!! I am going to use this right now for a birthday from yesterday!
Wonderful! This is perfect for my family account!
how does this work with (say) ordering prints? Could people be ordering prints of the uploaded photos and I get commission on them? Is that covered in the ToS?
Any other differences we should know between photos a guest has uploaded and photos we have uploaded? Can we (for instance) do owner save on guest photos?
Interesting feature though. Handy for events where the client might not have their own place to host guests’ pics.
Paul, you control ordering prints – and you control pricing. Our TOS say that you have permission to sell what you’re selling so you’ll want to be sure you do have that permission if you are selling prints.
So I see another feature need – the ability to upload those photos and put $0 price on specfic photos instead of across the board pricing. Had this very issue come up as I tried to figure out how to put another photogs pics in and not charge for them. Can you add this as a feature request?
Hi Paul, to answer your other question: Yes, you as the owner are able to owner save photos that others have uploaded. Guest images are treated just like other photos on your site, and by uploading via this feature they are agreeing to SmugMug’s TOS.
thanks guys
This is awesomeness! I’ve been waiting for this for a while!
Hell YEA!… ADV forever ! now back to the insanity .
Great feature. Curious though – why do keywords not get uploaded along with captions?
Nevermind…they do it just takes longer to index apparently.
Funny thing I’ve been using this since yesterday (didn’t know it was introduced recently) and I went and looked everywhere for a place to praise the feature but nobody was talking about it!!!!!!!
This is a great feature that I have long been looking for. Thanks for the update!
Sweet!
Will there be a way to approve the images like with the comments in a gallery?
There isn’t now but thanks for the suggestion, Samir!
Samir, just make the gallery unlisted – then you can approve or disapprove by using the hide photo or delete feature.
I assume Andy meant the move photo or delete feature…. you would approve by moving the photo to a public folder and reject by deleting them. You’ll probably also want to set a password on the upload gallery in addition to just unlisting it.
Looks very clean, simple and straightforward. I’ll definitely give it a try since this could create a whole new way for me to collaborate with people (even family *shudder*) on photo projects. One suggestion even before using it to maybe allow multiple access keys for the same gallery. That would allow users to give the “longterm” access key to one set of collaborators and another key to people that only get a short window to upload.
Thanks for the feedback, Jim. Great ideas.
This is fantastic, great, supper and all that. Thank you!
OMG — This is so awesome. Thanks for this feature.
This looks great and I’m excited to begin using it.
Any way to customize the url? I was thinking it would be good to have generic cards made up for events to point people to url leaving a blank area to write in the event name. The more control I have over the url, the less work required to customize the cards for each event.
Hi Nathan and thanks for the feedback. You can customize the URL to a certain extent in that your Upload Key becomes part of the link. So you can put the event name in there, if that helps people remember the URL.
The random-looking letters and numbers you see there are, like Events/Favorites, a security feature to prevent random people from guessing the link even when you haven’t given it to them.
But we understand the usefulness of having cards you can hand out and having everything ready ahead of time. You can always create the gallery as far in advance as you wish!
I have a question regarding the URL. I have a custom domain and I would like that to be part of the URL but when smugmug generates the link it reverts to http://www.smugmug.com/….. not http://www.customdomain.com/…... If i try replacing “smugmug’ with my custom domain, it takes me to the SM login page.
Also, it would be nice to have a customizing feature for the uploader page, such as the Shopping cart branding option so that the customer gets a streamlined branded look.
How do the added pictures get placed inside the gallery? First, last, in order they’re uploaded, etc? Is there a way to designate the visitor’s pictures with some sort of tag line or tab to click on…something to tell viewers that these are add-on’s and not the photographer’s shots would be something to look into maybe. Just curious in how this is handled.
Hi Peter, the gallery that your guests upload to is just like any other gallery on your site. So you can change it in the settings how they’re organized, but by default it’s by most recent photos last. Thanks for the feedback!
I have no interest in this “New” set-up. Do I have to do anything to prevent anyone from messing around with my site – when you start charging them and reducing my fee I will consider it.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Hi Ed, if you don’t want to use this feature you sure don’t have to.
In fact, if you do nothing, you and your guests won’t see anything different at all about your site. We just wanted to give you the option, since it was one of our top feature requests.
I tried to use this feature, but my guest wasn’t able to load 4.5Mb files. Is the file size limit different for guest uploads?They got an error message. I ended up temporarily changing my password and letting them log in as me. Then I changed my password back.
Hi Lisa, there should be no differences between what you can upload as the owner and what your guests can. If you can ping our Support Heroes with any info and error messages your guest was getting, we’re happy to help: http://help.smugmug.com/
This is an awesome feature. Will use this feature very soon.
This is a great idea, however… Is it possible to add an option to allow either photos only, video only, or photos and video to be uploaded by guests? A simple drop-down menu could do this. It would also be great if each person/IP address could be restricted to uploading X number of photos to the selected gallery…. or limit the total gallery to X number of photos uploaded.
Hi Benson, since our uploader accepts all kinds of files (photos, videos or SmugVault archives), they will be able to drop in whatever they wish. It’s the type of account that you have that determines whether or not it will display.
Otherwise, remember that you always have the ability to go in and check to see what they’re uploading and delete/edit/move whatever you don’t like. Thanks for the feedback!
OH GOD THANK YOU. We discussed this and I put in a change request just two weeks ago.
nice idea
YESSSSSSSS!!! thank you
can u please email this info to me so I can save it?
lindacullen@yahoo.com
Thank you!!!
Oh my gosh, this is super fantastic! I have been dreading the day when Apple’s Mobile Me Gallery would be taken down (this June) because that was the easy way for me to share original files with family/friends as well as have them upload their own. So great timing, SmugMug! Now I won’t miss the Mobile Me at all!
Thank you for giving us this new option! I love it! I appreciate how much you do to enhance our membership! Thank you!
Excellent! Can the customer arrange their photos in the gallery? Why can’t they choose the style they want to see? I just tried using Windows photo gallery to add caption into the photo and upload it to Smugmug gallery from a customer perspective but the caption was not shown, any reason why?
It will be great if the customer can add caption when they view their uploaded files.
Hi, captions are added if they are part of the photo’s metadata. Customers can’t arrange the photos in the gallery, only you as gallery owner have access to things like that.
Awesome…I was literally logging in to see if this was an option and there was the message! Perfect timing – works great! Thank you!
Great new feature! Love Smugmug!
I am very happy to see this new feature. As a wedding photographer, I will definitely encourage guests to upload their images for my clients and I will collect them and put on the final disk along with my professional shots. I can see one issue, though. If these images are treated just like the pro shots in the gallery, then the pricing will be the same which is a problem. I’d definitely like to set the printing prices lower on the non-pro shots as I’m not the copyright holder for the images and would be basically extending the print service to the guests just as if they were hitting a kiosk plus a little bit of markup. Otherwise, they will not pay my print fees when they can take their memory card to the kiosk so that’s basically money left on the table.
Sean, you as the pro and owner of the site can set the pricing to be anything you like. It’s all in your control.
What a generous service you supply, offering to host guest photographs with a sit at home print ordering service; I think you are entitled to the same price. They may just buy your images instead. Money in your pocket.
I think I will use this for weddings as well. But I’m going to make it an unprintable album and leave the original option there so they can download any they like. I’ll put that info in the album description. Yes, will download to put on client’s discs, if they wish it.
This is so helpful! You guys just think of everything! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
I think this is a great feature.
It would be even more useful if you can add a time limit to the same. So lets say after the wedding guest can upload for upto say 2 weeks. That way you don’t have to go and remove the guest feature (and have to remember to do that). Nor will it matter if the link goes out to wrong hands after the time limit.
You can also and an enable/disable next to the box so that if one wants to re-enable it then the link URL does not change.
Great feedback, thank you! Yes, expiring galleries and such have been high on the request list, not just for this feature but others that many event and wedding photographers use.
This is really good! There are many things that CAN be improved (expiration dates, more options when generating the links, enable/disable, filters, limits, guest edits/captions, upload notifications, etc, etc, etc). I’m sure some will come.
But even now it’s perfectly usable for its main purpose; you can just make the “event gallery” in advance and distribute the “upload” and “view” links to the guests. And then people can start uploading immediately.
With minimal resources you can improve this a bit even now, as a user: you can distribute only one link, that goes to a small text file on your own web server (there are plenty available for free if needed, we just need to store some small html files). There you can update the links, you can split the galleries if needed (for example you might want to have one or two galleries of your own), etc.
Very cool. On link guessability, when the guest upload URL is entered it changes to a regular looking upload URL, What’s the difference? I don’t see the point of the guest upload URL. The URL it’s translated into works y itself, logged out. Like some other folks, I’d looove the URL to be super catchy.
Hello Mathias, please try that link in a logged-out browser that you’ve never visited the guest url with. Even if someone guessed the new_add.mg url, they can’t upload without the full secure URL that only you can give them.
great…a few days ago, I thought about such a feature… you guys and smugmug are great. many thanks
Wonderful! It’ll save a lot of time (e.g. no need to gather pictures from different people via email).
Wow this is great. I am using smugmug to link into a family website and now the family can upload their photos and share them with the others. Great work Guys.
This is something I was just talking to someone about. Guest from an event sharing their photos. The only problem I see here is being able to keep the two separated with the gallery itself. Should be a section within just for guest uploads and a way for a visitor knowing the images weren’t done by the main photographer, but by other guest attending the event.
Hi, you set a special gallery just for guest uploads. And then move photos as you see fit. Or you can rearrange the main gallery. Or you can use bulk captions to annotate guest uploaded photos. Lots of choices
If you are a Pro user just create separate galleries and use the event feature to create a landing page for the event. There they can see all of the galleries associated with the event and you can title the gallery ” Wedding Photos taken by guests”.
HOORAY!!!! THIS MAKES SMUGMUG JUST WHAT I NEED!
Awesome feature! Can’t wait to start using it.
One possible suggestion. Make a way for the images to be identified per uploader. Yes, the user can go into a photo editing program and add a keyword with their name or something, but that’s extra effort that they will never do.
If there was a simple text box on the upload page saying “who are you”, or something like that, which could either then be added as a keyword or even as a sub-folder/category easy categorization would occur. Then visitors could easily see photos from a given user when they might be of a higher caliber than the rest, or whatever other reasons.
Just a thought. Thanks again for the great improvement!
Hi Aaron, fantastic feedback. You’re full of great ideas!
+1 on this idea!!!!
A great thought too !! It would be great to give credit to the person who uploaded their photos. As well, you may have folks who have stated that photos will be sent. It would be a great way to keep track of those who have/have not sent in the pics yet.
I use Lightroom to upload my photos and manage my galleries. Is it possible to download shared photos into lightroom from the gallery so that I can edit them or create a book?
I love this idea. if it had some sort of google+ circles functionality, I could see this being huge.
Hi Loren, sure thing. The gallery that you create for your guests – and the photos they upload – look and behave just like any other photos that are on your site. So you can re-download them, make a book, make prints, etc. Enjoy!
Just a thought…how about making a “guest upload” button as part of the gallery itself when this feature is enabled? That way we can just share the one link, say “wedding guest photos” and folks can upload directly? Also, is there a way to maintain the custom site branding (headers and such) when a guest uploads? All that being said….awesome feature….can’t wait to unleash it!!!!!
Hi Isaac, we love the idea of a guest upload button in the existing gallery. Thanks for sharing that thought!
As for the customization, it shouldn’t have any effect at all on the uploader. Your customizations will still be visible when they browse the gallery, as long as your privacy settings let them do that.
Edited to add: If you were talking about allowing customization on the uploader page itself, that’s currently not supported but is good feedback. Thank you!
Awesome!!!! Happy to share!
Regarding the customization, what i meant was that uploader window is all “Smug branded” while the rest of our site may have custom headers and such. This is probably outside the scope of this thread…but if we are going to let the “public” use the uploader, i’d think we’d want it to match the rest of our sites custom branding. This was probably a moot point until now. Again, just my 2 cents….maybe 3.
just saw edit, i type slow.
understood.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! My wedding clients have been starting to ask for this and I had begun looking for ways to make this happen via other outlets. Once again SmugMug is there with innovation that supports my business with the options it needs. Love ya!
All of my galleries are unlisted so they are only accessible from my main site, so this wouldn’t work. For now, I’ll just use this as a feature to augment email uploading.
I don’t want to sell any of the images that my guest uploads (as they’re not mine). How do I prevent the sale of any images?
Louis, you control the gallery just like any other gallery on your site – so set printing to “no” in gallery settings and that’ll do it
It would be my plan to just create a separate gallery for the guest images, and turn off the ability to order prints in the gallery settings. Then it would be “view only”.
Awesome…was just trying to set this up a couple weeks ago. This is great timing. Thanks
Looks like a great feature! i tried using it this weekend though and there appears to be a limit on the size that can be uploaded through this feature. Is there? If so, what is it?
Hi Krista, we’ll look into this, can you write our heroes with details (Win/Mac, what browser) thanks! http://help.smugmug.com
Dear SmugMug, thank’s for the new feature. Is there a way to make it work using an smartphone for live coverage…? Currently, you have to come home. download to your computer, upload…
Hi Francoise, not this uploader, but if you have an iPhone try Camera Awesome http://www.awesomize.com/
Is there a size restriction? I’m getting a file too large message.
Jim, I have had the same problem too, and the files were only 2-3mb each.
Jim and Krista, thanks for flagging this. We’ve been poking around and see that it’s an issue for some people using IE, and we’re looking info a fix.
How about adding an upload password to reduce the opportunity for someone you didn’t want putting pictures in your album?
Hi David and thanks for the suggestion. I don’t think you’re the first to mention the password idea, but keep in mind that passwords can be shared just as easily as secure links, like the Guest Upload feature already does. If you’re worried about people you don’t know uploading into your gallery then it may work best for you to change or remove the Upload Key periodically.
So you mean remove and then recreate the upload key? OK, so I get it, this is as easy as changing a password to keep people out. Cool.
I must have missed something that the 89 other people didn’t. When I try and do this with out logging in it asks me (and others) for a user name and password. So what have I done wrong, or is this influenced by site wide passwords that have tripped me up before? Any ideas?
Hi Kevin, are you using the owner-generated link that you get from the Gallery Settings page, the one that includes your Upload Key? Let us know what steps you were doing in detail so we can figure out why you’re getting prompted for a password: http://help.smugmug.com/
Hello, I seem to have fixed it now. I don’t know how. I went back in and deleted everything and re-entered things for a second time. Must have missed something.
No doesn’t look like it still works. My daughter (external tester) still gets redirected to secure login page.
This is what I did.
Created gallery
Uploaded single test picture
Went to tools/gallery settings for directory:
Changed settings
Security and privacy – password blank hint blank
Public
Protected off
Hide owner off
Upload key name … assigned
saved reloaded and url copied
logged out – copied Url and logged in OK
Pasted to friends on Facebook yet again
Daughter not a smugmug user – tested and redirects to secure login page.
Looked like an idiot once more
My site wide setting are not disabled and I lock down my directories.
Kevin, please email our Support Heroes http://help.smugmug.com thanks we’ll help!
Having the same problem as Kevin my guests are being directed to secure log in screen
You can also add a caption by locating the file in windows explorer, right clicking and selecting properties, going to the details tab and editing the Title. A little cumbersome if you have more than a few files, but no software required.
Great feature – right at the moment a client asked if they could do this. Went on to check if there was any way and *boom* little message saying guest upload available. Spooky timing!
However i can confirm a couple of bugs with IE – file size limit on upload and occasionally guest link takes you to a login window instead of uploading window. Works fine on all mac browsers and pc using chrome, firefox etc – looks like just an IE bug (as usual)
Hi John and thanks for giving us a little more info about what you’re seeing. Our engineering team appreciates it!
No it isn’t just an IE bug from what you describe – see my post above regarding my experience on Macs. I have emailed ‘heroes’.
Interestingly I was after this feature only about ten days ago. It would have saved me lots of time if the support team had even hinted that this was likely. I now have logins to loads of other photo sites that I have investigated so the chance that I might leave at the end of my contract is now more likely.
Hi Kevin, we’re sorry that you feel misled but we none of us (heroes included) can talk about launch dates on our features, or give information about what’s in development. We hope that you’ll still play around with the different features, talk to us, evaluate the options that you have for your photo site. We want you to choose the one that fits your needs best… even if it isn’t us. But we’re listening to your feedback every day, which helps us plan out what to do next.
Totally amazeballs lol now i can have a place where all my friends and family can upload their images and view them on what i consider the best viewing platform i have ever used. Great idea, im off to have a play.
This is a great idea, I wanted this for so long…Thanks
Double excellent. Can I also give my friends an email address so they email pictures to my gallery from their phones? This is something posterous is particularly good at.
Hey Craig, you sure can if you prefer that method. We’ve had the email uploading feature for a while and it’s great for one or two images at a time from a wide variety of people. Here’s how it works: http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93286
Totally digging this tool, BUT having problems for folks using Internet Explorer uploading.
Umm, duh, just saw above posts about IE. sorry
But this only works for a particular ‘email’ gallery. It would be nice to extend this feature to any gallery.
it’s magic! I love the new function so much! you guys are genius absolutely!!!!! it’s indeed very useful!Thanks very much!
Damn! I was desperately looking on 5/5 for a good place to photo-pool for an event that happened on 5/6, and you announce this on 5/7?! Ugh! We already pooled photos for that event elsewhere, but would’ve preferred Smugmug so much!! Next year….
simply awesome!
I like it, maybe next we could control what pictures get put up. I’d like to approve some of the uploads first in one of my galleries.
Hi, you can approve – simply set the gallery to unlisted or passworded before giving out the upload link
Then you can delete or hide photos as you like.
Awesomeness! My best friend was just wondering how we can get pictures of our Yosemite getaway to the same spot. You guys rock : )
Ok, I’ve been looking at the help and support links and I’m missing something. So I have a Pro Account of course, but my wife & friends do not… but I got them on Camera Awesome & they love it. I’ve setup a folder and got the link for them to upload photos to, but everyone is struggling to figure out how to upload to the folder. So the question, is there a way they can upload to the folder via Camera Awesome (or via the phone) and “NOT” do it by emailing photos to get to the link?? Thanx
Hi, the guest uploading feature is meant for your guests to use via a normal computer browser, not Camera Awesome, I’m sorry.
Thanx Andy as always for responding to all the questions we post. That’s what makes Smugmug great, customer service from everyone!!
Just what I was Looking for….
May I suggest that after guest upload that the owner receive notification by email about the recent upload. This will be a good check for possible scam. Otherwise, thanks for giving us this option.
Hi, there shouldn’t be any scam, as you control who you give the upload url to. I’d suggest using RSS feeds to see what’s changing in your gallery, that’s one way of handling this right now.
Still, there’s the danger of friends forwarding to non-friends.
Regarding RSS feeds, nothing happens when I click on “Available Feeds” while logged on using either IE, Chrome or Firefox. I’d like to have a feed of the gallery to Google Reader. How do I do this?
Thanks.
Copy the feed link into your google reader app :thumb
Thank you for this! My friends are always asking how to upload a few pics here and there to my albums, and I never had a way to do it before without sharing my core password. Very helpful!
Thanks for this new feature!
For the folks talking about adding catchier / shorter urls, for now maybe you can use a url shortener for the link with a customized short url and put that on cards?
Or do something on your server with A records.
How do you always know exactly what I was going to think about tomorrow?
You guys and gals rock!
Thank you so much!
Achi
a great feature, thank you!!!
Great feature. Can I caption the images after they have been uploaded. I Can’t seem to do it now.
Hi Dave, if you’re the owner of the gallery then yes you can always edit the captions in bulk from the Tools menu. Of course, you’ll have to be logged in to your SM account first.
THANK YOUUUUUU!
This is the best thing that you guys have done in ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This new feature is great, just what I needed … thank you.
Is there a way for the guest to delete a photo that they uploaded, if they change their mind?
Hello – no there is no way for them to delete photos – only you have that power on your site.
“Want captions? Have your guests fill out the caption field of their photo files before they upload.” How do they do that?
Hi, they would use a program like Picasa, or Lightroom or iPhoto.
Thanks Andy!
This is really great !! I was wondering if the “guest folder” would hold a .zip file it it were sent and if so, could I unzip it within the guest gallery once I am signed in to my account. Just curious.
Hi Stephen, guest galleries are just like any other gallery on your site, so they can contain photos (JPG, PNG and GIF) and video files only. http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93278
Is there a way to be notified when someone adds photos? That would be helpful especially if you are expecting photos to be uploaded and you wont have to keep checking to see.
Hi Nate, like any other gallery on your site you can set up an RSS feed just for that gallery) so that you can see when new stuff gets added: http://smu.gs/KvHlAA
Has anyone thought about having an email address for a gallery? I’ve got a lot of users that still send me stuff that way.
Thank you – this is just what I needed
This is great. Keeps you guys way above any other photo site.
You never know when someone may play a nasty prank. I already have an up-loader built into my site but it uploads the photos to my server then I have to review and upload the photos to Smugmug. This would definitely make everything easier but I would like to have the ability to receive an email notifying me I have uploads to approve before everyone sees whatever is uploaded!
Here is a crazy thought: Dont give the link to people that might play a “nasty prank”.
Problem solved!
Yes that is a crazy thought!!! I use my online upload so any guests from an event may upload pics. To make this effective the link may be shared with anywhere from 30-300 guests and forwarded to who knows who. From what I read many event photographers would like to have the ability for guests to be able to upload photos to an event as well which means sharing the link with more than just a few. So as Miles stated earlier “Still, there’s the danger of friends forwarding to non-friends.”
Can this be a two-way street for guests? Daughter’s wedding was two days ago. I’d like guests to upload their pics — but also be able to browse the gallery and download whatever they liked.
Hi Dick and congrats on your daughter’s wedding! The gallery your guests upload to are just like any other gallery on your site, so you can change the Gallery Settings to allow them to browse (make it public) and download (enable Originals) if you wish. Let us know if you need specific details on how to get that done.
Another great addition to SmugMug.
Hi Team,
That is ABSOLUTELY awesome, are there any plans to add a new option to Camera Awesome to allow (as another member mentioned) Live Coverage? Basically the issue I have is an upcoming wedding (November so plenty of time) where the bride has specifically stated no facebook or social media uploads. She is however very happy for them to be uploaded to a private smugmug gallery which would be ideal.
Perhaps another separate option in Camera Awesome called Smugmug Guest where you could just put a special key or something (quick and easy setup you could just give them say a 10 char “code” to connect)?
BTW awesome awesome awesome
.
Stu
Hi Stu and thanks for the super cool idea! Right now guest uploads don’t quite work through Camera Awesome like you’re describing but it sounds like a good one. Would you mind adding this to our feedback forums if you haven’t already? This way we’ll be sure that our product team sees it: http://feedback.smugmug.com
This is so awesome. Truly what’s missing out there: an easy photo-pooling site. With that said, “Easy” is the biggest point when pooling photos, and requiring people to fill in captions in meta data beforehand is definitely not “easy”. And captions are what makes the pooled photos fun, so… could we please look into improving that area a bit?? please?
Hi nobuko, we hear you loud and clear. So far that’s been the top request for improvement on Guest Uploading. Thank you for weighing in!
My test subjects agree with nobuko about the captioning and keywords. They’ve also said they’d like control over sorting and deleting images (ones uploaded by mistake, mostly). I realize this is a whole ‘nuther level of complication and may require some up-front organization from the photographer as well, but it makes the album more active and “sticky.”
My privacy gallery before people look at my pictures
So I allowed this on one of my galleries and my users gave up after having problems with SM’s uploaders. Uploading to SM has never been the smoothest process. That needs to be refined to the point of ease that youtube and facebook have or people will just upload there instead as I experienced recently.
Hi Samir, could you be more specific if you haven’t already contacted us directly? Our drag and drop uploader is similar to many other online photo sites so we do hope it’s as easy as pie.
Instead of a special URL they have to know, I’d prefer to have (or at least the option) an Upload button visible to the client when they’re browsing the gallery. Clicking the button would require entering the key. This would be more like the behavior of password-protected galleries, and would be more intuitive. This is better than nothing, though!
What do you want me to contact you about? They just had a problem, and then uploaded everything to youtube instead. They’re not going to sit down and diagnose something from a week ago, and I don’t have any more information.
Hey Samir, we’re always happy to help. You know that either you or they can contact us at any time via email or chat (browser info, error messages, behaviors, etc) day or night if something’s not working right.
Strange to hear this about the uploading problems. The other day I was in a hurry and used the standard upload avenue to transfer 32 files, each of which was at least 3 meg in size. The transfer was flawless. One thing I do know however is that many folk do not have a clue how to do simple drag and drop routine.
I know this, but the customer doesn’t and won’t take the time to diagnose SM when they can upload to youtube or facebook. This is going to be the problem with trying to get people to upload–the uploading process itself.
Samir, you state a “problem”, the smugmug team tries to help and then you are rude to them in response? That’s not nice.
Smugmug offers more and better upload options than any sites I know of, incl. YouTube. Your friends uploading their videos not on your site but rather elsewhere might have different reasons than the ease of uploading options…
Yeah, it was a bit strange too considering these guys have top computing gear as well as technical knowledge. Uploading to SM isn’t rocket science, but can be if something isn’t working right. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this type of problem with SM’s uploading process, and guests aren’t really going to care if it works or not since they’re not paying or caring where they upload something. We as the account holders that want them uploading to these galleries are going to have to deal with this more.
I was a bit short, but I didn’t intend to be rude. Life has been really rough on me lately and I don’t have time to be all cutesy in my replies right now.
No, I verified what the deal was exactly, and the SM uploader crapped out on them, so they just opted for youtube instead. I have to be honest and say I would’ve done the exact same thing if I was in their shoes. Why in the world would they want to sit and diagnose something when something else will just work and give them what they want?
The SM uploader isn’t foolproof. And even as good as it has become, it is still lacking when fb and yt are getting uploads that my SM account should have.
Yeah, this is how I expected SM to implement this feature. Like you said, it’s better than nothing, and I definitely don’t want to sound ungrateful for the option, but if I’m honest, I also wish there were a password-protected upload button.
If it wasn’t possible to do.., I wouldn’t be here.
where do the files show up, i had a user saying access denied and havent seen any files show up yet, do they just show up in the gallery or do i get some type of notification to approve new files?
They show up in the account like usual. Check your upload log to see if there’s anything funny. Also, if the user has any cookie issues, that could cause the ‘access denied’ situation.
Love this but how does this new option work easily with a mobile upload of a photo taken on a smart phone? Am I missing something?
Unless you can normally upload to a smugmug gallery using the phone, then this won’t be of much help. All it allows is uploading without requiring the owner to login.
This very cool.
The next step which will be even cooler is when you develop and Iphone / Android app that guests can download and then upload their photos instantaneously from their personal devices.
It would rock even more if guest uploaders could add/edit captions directly on the site instead of indirectly via Picasa, iPhoto etc. The lattter is a bit hard to explain to my mother…
Absolutely! Sign me up for that option, too, heroes!
SMUGMUG has done it again….this is just another feather in the hero’s cap.Thanks
Totally agree this is an awsome feature and a big reason why I signed up with Smugmug recently. Unfortunately, I not being able to add or change captions after uploading is a show stopper, so I’m looking for another provider because of this. I need those who upload images to be able to update the captions and keywords. Can we pretty pleeeeze do that?
Oops – meant to say “those who upload images not being able to change captions after uploading” is a problem.
Have there been any developments on this…me too would like to have teh ability for guests to add / change captions.
Finally have a good use for it…son has no printer, I need his pics sooo terrific!
T___T I love you smugmug. more and more! This is genius!! Thanks soo much!
Just got married and had a lot of photographer friends at the wedding. BEST FEATURE EVER
Love you guys
I post it here again so it is in date sequence:
Have there been any developments on this…me too would like to have teh ability for guests to add / change captions.
Garry, right now guests can’t add or change captions to galleries on your site, and captions can right now only be entered when guests use the email uploading feature.
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93286
If they have SmugMug accounts, too, they can add or edit captions if they are listed as a Friend or Family member of yours. But I know this isn’t exactly what you are asking for, so thanks for the feedback! If you haven’t already, we ask folks to vote for new features on our feedback forum, so we can have it all in one place:
http://feedback.smugmug.com
Having read this I believed it was extremely enlightening.
I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this
information together. I once again find myself personally spending a lot of time both reading and leaving comments.
But so what, it was still worth it!
It’s been over seven months since my initial post on allowing guests to edit captions and keywords after uploading the pictures. Some nice comments on that since then, but I think it’s safe to say no real changes. I hate to say it but I am glad I switched to SkyDrive rather that sit around for someone to actually do something about this.