We offer lots of ways to share your photos: from the tried-and-true URL copy-paste move to more advanced ways to share to social media. You can even link your fans directly to your shopping cart to encourage them to buy your gorgeous images.
Note: The share button won't display if your gallery's Visibility is set to Private.
- Share a photo link
- Update direct image URLs
- Share a gallery or slideshow
- Share an app
- Share a QR code
- Share to social media
- Share a “buy this photo” link
- Share feeds
Share a photo link.
Link to a photo within the gallery.
Want to post a photo link anywhere and everywhere? Here’s an easy way to grab the link to paste into an email, another website, a blog, a forum, or anywhere else you might want.
First, navigate to the photo you want to share and click the Share icon. For some gallery styles (like Collage and Thumbnail), you might need to click a photo to enter Lightbox mode in order to see the share icon in the left-hand sidebar.
You'll see two tabs, each with different types of links you can get.
Choose the Link tab. Select Copy Photo Link. Share that link anywhere you'd like.
Note: Wordpress.org offers a SmugMug block where you can enter a photo link from a SmugMug site to embed in your Wordpress post. This feature only works with SmugMug URLs. A link with a custom domain won't work with the Wordpress block. If you're using a custom domain, you can change the URL to be your SmugMug nickname URL instead.
Example: https://www.yourcustomdomain.com/photolink will need to be amended to https://yoursmugmugnickname.smugmug.com/photolink.
Embed or share a direct image URL.
Looking to share a JPEG link, with no navigation back to your site? Or embed a photo in a website or forum?
Navigate to Share > Embed, choose JPEG, select a size, and then click Copy JPEG URL. The link will replace your site nickname with photos.smugmug. This is known as a direct image URL that links a guest to only the photo and not back to your SmugMug site.
To share an embeddable photo, select how big you want your shared photo to be from the Photo Size drop-down menu. Next, choose from JPEG, HTML, or BBCode, then click the Copy button and paste your link where you want to share it (in a blog post, social media, in an email, a forum, etc.).
Note: Some accented and foreign characters may cause the BBCode embed link to break. If your BBCode link doesn't work, we recommend reviewing your photo description for any foreign characters and temporarily removing them before generating the link again.
Update direct image URLs.
As we transition to removing reliance on third party cookies from the platform, direct image URLs now include a signature within the link. A signed URL includes a long random collection of letters and numbers that determines the access to that image when it's shared.
Gallery privacy settings do not control the visibility of an image shared with a direct image URL. Instead, these links are controlled by the image signature.
Example of an image URL when cookies were relied upon: https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/Seascapes/i-dtPnkfB/0/dcbdbeeb/L/DSC_5734-nocast-L.jpg
Example of an image URL when signatures are used:
Updating these direct image URLs will invalidate the previous URL by updating the signature within the URL. When this action is taken, previously shared direct image URLs will no longer work. To share again, revisit the Share panel to obtain an updated direct image URL.
There are three ways to update a direct image URL:
-
Navigate to Gallery Settings > Security & Sharing > Visibility. Change visibility to Private. As you select the private option, you'll then have a chance to update the direct image URLs for all images in that gallery. Use this feature with caution as it's irreversible.
- Contact our support heroes. We can update an image URL signature if needed.
- The photo tool actions of crop, color effects, rotate and replace all update the image signature in a direct image URL when these actions are taken.
Share a gallery or slideshow.
You can share a direct link to your gallery easily, too. While viewing a gallery on your site, you can find the share panel in the upper-right corner of the gallery.
Here you can choose to share a link, an app, or a slideshow.
To share a link to the gallery, select the Link tab. Next, select the Copy Gallery Link button and paste the link where you want to share it.
Want to really make a splash? Share a slideshow of your gallery! Navigate to the gallery you want to showcase, select the gallery share button, and select the Slideshow tab.
To customize the settings for your slideshow, select the pencil icon and tick the checkbox next to any options you want included with your slideshow: auto-start, randomize photos, captions, navigation, a play button, and more. You can also tweak how long each photo displays during the slideshow, the transition type between photos, and the transition speed.
Once you've got your settings dialed in, you can choose from two link types to share: Fullscreen or Embed.
Select Fullscreen and the Copy Slideshow Link button, then paste the link anywhere you want to wow your visitors with a full-screen slideshow of your gallery.
To embed a beautiful slideshow on your blog, another website, or anywhere else, select the Embed tab. We’ll automatically update the HTML code for your slideshow as you select your options.
Once you’ve got everything tweaked to your liking, select the Copy Embed Code button and paste the code into your blog post, website, or wherever else you like.
Share an app.
You can share your gallery as a custom, downloadable app for your clients and friends to save on their phone. Make it super easy for anyone to find and access exactly what you’ve shared with them.
To use this feature, navigate to the gallery you want to share and select the gallery share button in the upper right, to the left of the buy button. Click the App tab, then select the Copy Install Link button to grab your custom app link and paste it (CTRL+V or CMD+V) in an email, social media post, tweet, text message—however you best like to share links.
When your client, friend, or family member taps the link on their phone, they’ll be prompted to download your shared mobile app.
iOS Android
This works best if you use the native browser for your phone (Safari for iOS and Chrome for Android). They'll need to tap the share icon on their phone, then Add to Home Screen. They can choose to rename the app to whatever they like, but it'll default to your SmugMug profile display name. The app icon will be created using your profile photo.
iOS Android
Once they select the app’s name and click Add, a new app icon will save to their phone's screen.
iOS Android
Now they’ll be able to tap that icon and view the photos you shared anytime they want.
iOS Android
Tip: Want to share your entire site, a page, or a folder instead? You can alter any URL on your SmugMug site to be a downloadable app link. Just add “?mobile” to the end of any URL on your SmugMug site to make it an app link.
Example: Change http://favorites.smugmug.com to http://favorites.smugmug.com?mobile. Share the second link to deliver a downloadable app of that SmugMug site to anyone you wish.
Share a QR code.
This feature is available for Pro accounts only.
You can generate a QR code for any gallery on your site to make sharing out in the field quick and easy. Print the code on cards ahead of events for that extra touch.
First, make sure you're logged in, then navigate to the gallery you want to share. In the section bar, click on the overflow menu (three vertical dots) and select Get QR Code.
We'll generate a QR code specifically for that gallery (or folder or page) that you can download and share however you like.
Share to social media.
You can publish your SmugMug photos directly to your social-media channels and easily share your best work with customers, clients, friends and family.
Facebook.
Important: To ensure a preview image is displayed when you share a URL in a Facebook post, your Site Access must be set to Anyone in the Account Settings > Privacy section, and your site's Search settings found in the Site Visibility section of your Account Settings must allow your site to be found in both SmugMug and Google searches.
To publish a photo to Facebook, navigate to your photo, or a gallery, and click the Share icon, just like you’d do for sharing a link (detailed above). Next, select the Facebook icon.
If you’re not already logged in to Facebook, you’ll be prompted to log in to your Facebook account. Once logged in, you’ll see your post ready to share on your wall with your photo attached.
Simply type in whatever message you want to include for your followers, and then select News Feeds, Your Story, or both, and click Post to Facebook.
Note: Not seeing anything after selecting the Facebook icon in the share panel? You may have pop-ups blocked in your browser.
X. (formerly Twitter)
To share a photo on X, navigate to your photo, or gallery, and click the Share icon, just like you’d do for sharing a link (detailed above). Next, select the X icon.
If you’re not already logged in to X, you’ll be prompted to log in to your X account. Once logged in, you’ll see your tweet ready to share in your feed with your photo link.
Type in whatever else you want to appear with your photo link (in 280 characters or fewer), and then hit Tweet to post it to your feed.
Note: Not seeing anything after selecting the X icon in the share panel? You may have pop-ups blocked in your browser.
This feature is available for logged in account owners only.
You can also share images through email, right from within your gallery. Navigate to your photo, or gallery, and click the Share icon, just like you’d do for sharing a link (detailed above). Next, select the Email icon.
The Send an Email window will open. Here you can compose your subject line and your email. Click on any name in your Address Book on the left to add them to your recipients list. Or click on add new to add a new contact to your address book.
Once you’ve written everything to your liking, click Preview Email.
If everything looks good in the preview, click Send Email to ship it off. Otherwise, you can hit Edit Email to fix anything you spot in the preview, or cancel the email entirely by hitting Back to Gallery in the top-right corner.
Note: Only you, as the logged-in account owner, can use the Share Email tool. Your visitors and clients will have to copy the URL and paste it into their own email client of choice.
Visitor social-media sharing
Want your visitors to be able to share your photos to social media, too? The Facebook and Twitter options in the share panel won't show up as options for your guests unless you've enabled them, so make sure they're switched ON in Account Settings > Discovery > Sharing.
Share a “buy this photo” link.
If you have printing enabled in your gallery settings, you'll be able to share a special link to your photos that encourages your admirers to purchase a copy for themselves. To use this option, navigate to the photo you want folks to buy and open it in Lightbox view.
If you have Shop View enabled in your gallery settings, in the Lightbox you’ll see a Buy Panel on the left. Copying the URL directly from your browser address bar and pasting that link into a message to your guest will place them into shop view when they click the link.
Don’t have the Shop View enabled? No worries! In the Lightbox, click the Buy icon and you’ll see the buy panel appear on the left. Now go ahead and copy the URL link from the browser address bar, and paste that into a message to your guest. When they click the link, they'll see the photo and the buying options available for it.
Share feeds.
Want your fans to keep up to date with your photos using feeds? You can set up feeds for your galleries using the full SmugMug footer. Feeds are only available for non-passworded galleries accessible by everyone (Public).
First, make sure you have feeds enabled. You’ll find this option in your Account Settings > Privacy Feeds. Toggle the Feeds switch ON.
Next, make sure you have the full SmugMug footer on by going to Site, then selecting Customize Design. Click the Design Settings button in the section bar to see if you have the SmugMug footer turned On. If not, you’ll want to switch it from Mini to On.
Now, when you scroll to the footer of a gallery on your site, you’ll see a Feeds icon. Click that to select RSS or ATOM as your feed type.
The page will load with a large block of code that you can ignore. All you need to copy is the URL itself and paste it into your feed reader of choice.
Note: If you view your feed on a browser where you're logged in to your SmugMug site, you'll see hidden and unlisted photos. To see what your fans would see, we recommend viewing your feed in an incognito window or by logging out of your SmugMug site.