Smugmug Source is like Google Photos for professional photographers

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• Smugmug Source is like Google Photos for professional photographers

Of the best cloud photo storage services, Smugmug, has announced a new add-on service called Source, which claims to be the go-to place for photographers to store and source their raw photos. Unlike compressed photo formats, such as JPEG, raw photos are raw files that are taken directly from the camera's sensor. Most free online photo storage services work fine with JPEG files, but support for all raw formats is less common, as is the ability to preview, organize, and collate them. in an easy way. That's the purpose of Smugmug Source, which complements your existing photo storage source for snapper enthusiasts who want unlimited online backups for their raw snaps. While competing services, including Google Photos, let you save and preview most kinds of raw files, Source is intended as an alternative option for photographers looking for an all-in-one site to showcase and sell your photos. Smugmug Source promises to let you save and organize your raw files using structured folders and galleries that show you the photo, rather than just a file icon. Accepts most kinds of raw files, including Canon CR3, Sony ARW, Nikon NEF, Fujifilm RAF, and Panasonic RW2. You can also save secondary files, which contain edits you've made to a photo, from editing software such as Adobe, Capture One, and DxO. While other cloud photography services accept wild photos, Smugmug's Source plugin is sure to appeal to any photographer who uses or is interested in their existing photography tools. For example, Source will let you view your raw photos from anywhere on its service via an internet browser or its smartphone apps for Android and iOS. It will also create "display JPEG images" of any and all raw files so that visitors or clients of the service can easily preview them and connect to multiple editing applications. , including Adobe Lightroom. Like Google Photos, Source also claims to have AI-based search tools that let you search for images based on what they contain (eg, "mountain"). However, whether its image recognition is as strong as Google's is one thing we'll have to see in practice.

Wait, how much?

Perhaps the only potential downside to Smugmug Source is the monthly cost, especially if you need a lot of storage. There's no data cap, so you can save as many raw files as you like, but the subscription could clearly start to add up. For 17 GB of storage, you're going to pay $1 a month (about $61 / AU$77 a month). This amount of storage will be enough for about 5 raw files, but if you need more than that, a 52.12TB account is free for $4.34 a month (about $3.13 / AU$5.83 ). From there, each ancillary terabyte of storage costs $475 ancillary a month. Since Source is an ancillary service, it ties into any Smugmug plan you choose, which ranges from Basic ($309 / £2 / AU$3 per month) to Pro (£2 / £1 and eleven / AU €2 a month), with the latter including features such as photo sales, watermarks, tailored domains, and marketing promotions. How does this compare to competing services? Sure enough, you can find more affordable deals, as iDrive offers XNUMXTB storage for $XNUMX in the first year (about $XNUMX / £XNUMX / AU$XNUMX per month), though it doesn't offer features like raw previews. Some services like pCloud also let you skip another monthly subscription with one-time payments for life (in the case of pCloud, €XNUMX / €XNUMX for XNUMXTB of storage). But Smugmug Source certainly looks like a compelling new entrant if you need an easy-to-use cloud photography service with no data caps and some easy-to-use tools, including the ability to build a portfolio website or sell your snaps. However, even though the service promises to put an end to "aging hard drives" and "complicated backup processes", it still makes sense to back up your raw snapshots elsewhere using the theory of the XNUMX-XNUMX-XNUMX backup., Three backups, in XNUMX types of storage, one of which is external). Smugmug Source would certainly fill the latter case, but you'll still want to store additional copies using some of the best external hard drives or NAS hard drives.