Smugmug & Photo Mechanic

[stoner27]

Hi,

I have Photo Mechanic 5 (not sure what build as i am in work) and keep getting the error message "bad server response - categories root element missing" when trying to set up Smugmug. Can anybody help please ?

Col

[Hayo Baan]

Is it a new smugmug account? Have you already added some files to it using the web interface? If after doing that, the problems still occur, let us know. Also, make sure you are using the latest version of PM; there have been some changes to the smugmug uploader.

[stoner27]

Hi,

It's not new i have been with Smugmug for about 3 years, i usually upload direct from Lightroom but was going to try Photo Mechanic to see if it's any faster.

Col

[Hayo Baan]

Hmm, I just tried the uploader myself and it should be working. Perhaps it was a temporary glitch, can you try again and tell us what happens then (using the latest PM).

[stoner27]

All up & running, it was user error ! I didn't have Smugmug settings right. Not much difference uploading tbh & i would have to export from Lightroom to put them into PM just to upload !

Col

[Kirk Baker]

Col,

All up & running, it was user error ! I didn't have Smugmug settings right. Not much difference uploading tbh & i would have to export from Lightroom to put them into PM just to upload !

No need to export.  Just point PM to the folder where your images are stored.  If you're planning to use PM in conjunction with Lightroom, you would generally use PM for far more than uploading.  Ingesting, culling, applying metadata, cropping, etc. before you go into Lightroom to make adjustments on the remaining photos, and then return to PM to upload.

HTH,

-Kirk

[stoner27]

Yea PM is mainly to cull & crop then send to LR, i usually set the edit preset to go onto the photos as they import to LR, what would i do then to get them from LR to PM again ?

Col

[Kirk Baker]

Col,

Yea PM is mainly to cull & crop then send to LR, i usually set the edit preset to go onto the photos as they import to LR, what would i do then to get them from LR to PM again ?

Just browse the same folder that had the images when you used PM the first time.  Or are you moving your images to another location?  If so, then browse that location with PM.

-Kirk

[stoner27]

What i mean is, i would have to get the edited photos from LR back into PM for me to use the PM Smugmug uploader, wouldn't I ? The ones already in there are unedited !

[Kirk Baker]

What i mean is, i would have to get the edited photos from LR back into PM for me to use the PM Smugmug uploader, wouldn't I ? The ones already in there are unedited !

If you're using DNGs, then the edits you made should be reflected in the files themselves.  If you're using some other RAW format, then you'd have to get Lr to produce a JPEG/TIFF/PSD/etc. for PM to use to upload as a JPEG to SmugMug.

-Kirk

[stoner27]

I only shoot JPEG because if the amount of photos I take over a weekend. So I would have to export the photos back out if LR when they are edited I think.

[Kirk Baker]

I only shoot JPEG because if the amount of photos I take over a weekend. So I would have to export the photos back out if LR when they are edited I think.

If Lr does not update the JPEGs after they are edited automatically, then you would have to force it to do so.  PM cannot access the adjustments you make in Lr because of their proprietary nature.

-Kirk

[stoner27]

Sounds good, but how do i 'force it' ?

[Hayo Baan]

Right click on the file in your library and there should be an option to update the file so your changes become visible outside Lightroom. But, to be honest, I wouldn't do that as then you can not go back to the original file; edits in jpgs can not be saved in a non destructive way like they can with raw (and even there, Lightroom only updates the preview of dng files if you ask it to). Instead I'd export to another file and use that file from within PM.

[stoner27]

Thanks for your reply.

 I don't think it can be done to be honest. Lightroom is brilliant at what it does but when all my photos are edited in there (there could be 3000) i would have to export them back to windows and then drag them back into PM to upload to my website. I already have an uploader set up in LR to Smugmug but as you can imagine with 3,000 photos it takes an age !

 I am toying with the idea of editing in maybe Picassa which would save them to a folder i choose then drag them back into PM to upload, but i don't think there would be any advantage uploading from PM to be honest.

Col