gallery organization

[gphotomom]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to organize my photos in a way that will make sense for our wedding clients who will be viewing 1000 +/- images in a gallery. I want to upload subcategories, but I'm struggling to figure out how to organize and upload in a streamlined way.

What is the most viewer-friendly way to break a wedding into subcategories? Is it in fact to use the smugmug "subcategory" tool, and name these subcategories "bride getting ready" "groom getting ready" "ceremony"... etc.?

Or is tagging a better way? If tagging is the way, should I be tagging these categories in lightroom prior to upload to Smugmug?

Sorry if this is a redundant question, I'm overwhelmed with the scope of all the info on this forum and all the other various smugmug support sites, and can't spend more time searching for the right answers at this point.

Thank you,

Enna

[Allen]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to organize my photos in a way that will make sense for our wedding clients who will be viewing 1000 +/- images in a gallery. I want to upload subcategories, but I'm struggling to figure out how to organize and upload in a streamlined way.

What is the most viewer-friendly way to break a wedding into subcategories? Is it in fact to use the smugmug "subcategory" tool, and name these subcategories "bride getting ready" "groom getting ready" "ceremony"... etc.?

Or is tagging a better way? If tagging is the way, should I be tagging these categories in lightroom prior to upload to Smugmug?

Sorry if this is a redundant question, I'm overwhelmed with the scope of all the info on this forum and all the other various smugmug support sites, and can't spend more time searching for the right answers at this point.

Thank you,

Enna
If it was me I would create a category named Weddings and a subcat for
each couple. In the subcat put all their galleries like "bride getting ready"
"groom getting ready" "ceremony"... etc.

[gphotomom]

Thank you for the suggestion, Al. If I do this, will I have to upload each sub-gallery (i.e. "preparation") separately? I'm trying to avoid having to go through a bazillion steps to get a single event onto Smugmug.

Thanks!

Enna

[Allen]

Thank you for the suggestion, Al. If I do this, will I have to upload each sub-gallery (i.e. "preparation") separately? I'm trying to avoid having to go through a bazillion steps to get a single event onto Smugmug.

Thanks!

Enna
Photos only go in galleries not cats or subcats. You will have to upload to
each gallery what you want in that gallery.

[jfriend]

Thank you for the suggestion, Al. If I do this, will I have to upload each sub-gallery (i.e. "preparation") separately? I'm trying to avoid having to go through a bazillion steps to get a single event onto Smugmug.

Thanks!

Enna If a single event uses multiple galleries (which I think is what is being recommended for you here), then you may want to get an uploader that can upload to multiple galleries in one session. I use StarExplorer (http://www.starexplorer.com/) for that. It also lets you create all the galleries for the event in one step.

[papajay]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for...but I suspect it may "close" to what I think is a workaround solution.

First, I'm NOT a wedding photographer...second, I'm NOT a professional photographer at all...third, I'm also NOT a computer programmer.

But I've wrestled with the situation you describe for what seems like ages.

For BIG projects like weddings, vacation trips, etc., I like to break the project up into several bite-sized chunks (galleries) under one master heading (a Category/Sub-category combination, e.g. "Weddings/Tracy-and-Brian/galleries").

The problem this immediately creates for visitors is how to quickly and easily navigate between the individual gallerieis in the sub-set. After numberous experiments, and with Dgrinners helping with HTML and CSS suggestions along the way, I'm generally satisfied with the result (link to an example provided below).
By inserting links in the gallery descriptions and in the caption of the very last photo in each gallery, the navigation is pretty simple for the visitor. Unfortunately, it's bit cumbersome for the site owner because of having to create and populate the links. It's worth the time and effort, in my opinion, especially now that I've created an Excel spreadsheet template to generate and populate the links for a dozen or so galleries in 10-15 minutes.

Check out the example, and if it does what you're trying to do, send me an email address and I'll send a copy of the spreadsheet template.

http://papajay.smugmug.com/Weddings-Bridal-Showers-etc/Tracy-and-Brian-2007

JFriend's StarExlplorer solution for uploading multiple galleries is probably the best approach. I don't happen to have StarExplorer, so I upload ALL the images (in the proper order, of course) into a single SmugMug gallery under the Sub-Category, then perform a MOVE/Multiple and create the other galleries as I move each group. Works OK, but could be streamlined I'm sure.

I'd like to see something like the above as a standard feature/option someday...the process I've described would need to be "automated" to make it work for the masses.

[mcu28815]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for...but I suspect it may "close" to what I think is a workaround solution.

First, I'm NOT a wedding photographer...second, I'm NOT a professional photographer at all...third, I'm also NOT a computer programmer.

But I've wrestled with the situation you describe for what seems like ages.

For BIG projects like weddings, vacation trips, etc., I like to break the project up into several bite-sized chunks (galleries) under one master heading (a Category/Sub-category combination, e.g. "Weddings/Tracy-and-Brian/galleries").

The problem this immediately creates for visitors is how to quickly and easily navigate between the individual gallerieis in the sub-set. After numberous experiments, and with Dgrinners helping with HTML and CSS suggestions along the way, I'm generally satisfied with the result (link to an example provided below).
By inserting links in the gallery descriptions and in the caption of the very last photo in each gallery, the navigation is pretty simple for the visitor. Unfortunately, it's bit cumbersome for the site owner because of having to create and populate the links. It's worth the time and effort, in my opinion, especially now that I've created an Excel spreadsheet template to generate and populate the links for a dozen or so galleries in 10-15 minutes.

Check out the example, and if it does what you're trying to do, send me an email address and I'll send a copy of the spreadsheet template.

http://papajay.smugmug.com/Weddings-Bridal-Showers-etc/Tracy-and-Brian-2007

JFriend's StarExlplorer solution for uploading multiple galleries is probably the best approach. I don't happen to have StarExplorer, so I upload ALL the images (in the proper order, of course) into a single SmugMug gallery under the Sub-Category, then perform a MOVE/Multiple and create the other galleries as I move each group. Works OK, but could be streamlined I'm sure.

I'd like to see something like the above as a standard feature/option someday...the process I've described would need to be "automated" to make it work for the masses.


This is exactly the feature I want also. I am on free trial for both Smugbug and Zenfolio. Zenfolio offers the option of GROUP different galleries. Access and protection can be assigned at the GROUP level. That's no different than computer folders and subfolders. I am very suprised that Smugbug does not have the feature.