Client galleries for commercial and corporate photography: a checklist

Client galleries separated from others, organized by client

Make sure that your galleries are organized in a way that is easy for you to manage in the long run, by separating private client galleries from other galleries (for example archive or portfolio galleries). In practise, this means having a “Client galleries” gallery, under which you create sub-galleries (folders) for each shoot, client, or year.

Creating a gallery for each client allows you to group multiple projects or shoots for a given client under the same access. Under a client’s folder, create a sub-gallery for each shoot or project. Repeat business is a key objective, as well as potential additional sales, so it is a good idea to make it easy for clients to access in the same place all the images and videos you have produced for them.

Regardless of what you set your front page to be, you gallery organization could look like this:

• Clients galleries
  • Client 1
    • Project 1
    • Project 2
    • …
  • Client 2
    • …
  • …
• Portfolio
• Personal work
• …

Well secured galleries

When it comes to working on commercial projects or with corporate clients, ensuring that the images and videos are only accessible to authorized persons and don’t “leak” is paramount. You must therefore ensure that:

• Galleries require a proper individual login to access them. A simple, general password for a gallery is possible with PhotoDeck, and is suitable in some non-sensitive cases, but we strongly recommend you set access so that clients are required to login with their own account and email address.
• Depending on your clients and your preference, you can either hide individual client Galleries, so that third parties cannot see who you work for (and clients can’t see who your other clients are), or keep them visible as in the screenshot above. Keeping them visible can make them work as “implied referrals”, but do make sure that the public cover thumbnail is not a confidential image!

In PhotoDeck, create a gallery by using the preset for professional clients as a starting point. Once you’re happy with its setup, you can use it as a template for future client galleries: creating new ones is then very fast!

High resolution files available

Your clients should be able to immediately download files, either in multiple formats or as high-res images, at least for “final“ images that don’t need retouching.

It is therefore important that your platform hosts your original high-quality, high-resolution photos and footage (and that it is able to automatically resize them for delivery if needed).

Uploading your high-res files also acts as a backup for yourself, and allows you to access them easily from any location.

PhotoDeck is integrated with Lightroom and Photo Mechanic, making it easy to integrate gallery creation and uploading in your workflow.

Beautiful AND functional presentation

Your website must look modern, clean and present the images/videos in an appealing manner. It should:

• look professional and representative of your brand, without drawing attention to itself and overwhelming the images: you want people to focus on the images, not on the website design;
• be very easy and fast to navigate and to use -- that is crucial. Usability trumps beauty and special effects.

For galleries aimed at commercial corporate clients, it means that while you should always strive to display large-size images, the buttons to add to selection, rate, order or download must be prominent and potentially important information like captions and keywords must be immediately visible.

In the fast-paced world of commercial photography where clients might have to review and proof a large number of photos, the site and in particular the navigation must also be fast!

A good watermark

Watermarks applied to the images displayed in your galleries are the most effective means to prevent image theft on your website. If your business would be negatively affected by people grabbing images or video previews on your website and using them for free, you cannot afford not having an effective watermark.

A good watermark is a fine balance between protection against theft and image legibility and appeal. The advent of AI-based watermark removal tools make the equation even more complex. Here are some general recommendations:

• Part of the watermark should be highly readable, helping also with attribution (i.e. your business name or URL should be visible).
• The watermark should cover a wide part of the image. For example, a combination of a relatively faint watermark across most of the image combined with a stronger but more localized text or logo.
• Trying to defeat ever-learning AI tools is a cat and mouse game. It will be harder for AI tools to remove fully opaque watermarks (i.e. with no transparency at all) obfuscating key parts of an image (but you’re right thinking that such a watermark is also more intrusive and disturbing for clients).
• The watermark is a good place to display a clear copyright ownership notice, which can be useful in case of litigation following unauthorized use.

Watermarks can also be used to prevent clients from accidentally using images that are not fully edited/retouched yet.

Lightbox feature enabled

A lightbox is a selection of images and videos made by a user on your website. It is a useful feature for clients when they need multiple images, especially if the selection is a multi-stage process and they need to come back to it later on. So make sure that this feature is available on your website.

On PhotoDeck, lightboxes can be easily shared among a client team, that can also leave comments and collaborate. Once a selection is ready, the client can easily order it at once.

Suitable client tools ready for photos review and proofing

Not all commercial photography projects are created equal. In some cases a simple way to download everything is enough to distribute a shoot’s images, and at the other end of the spectrum, there might be multiple persons in the client team that collaborate to comment and select images. Know how your client works and try to match it as closely as possible by offering the right set of tools in your galleries.

In PhotoDeck, proofing tools to help clients work through shoots include:

• Selections via the lightbox
• Image rating and filtering
• Comments

Suitable download or ordering options in place

Similarly, the client might want to simply download available high-res files, download resized files, or order images for editing and retouching.

Make sure your client galleries are set up to help both your and your clients’ workflows. That might mean that different galleries are set up differently, so exploring what your platform has to offer is a wise investment of your time!

PhotoDeck offers different download options for different scenarios, from allowing to simply download all files in a couple of clicks, to letting clients select and order unedited files with retouching instructions and automatically receiving them when they’re ready.

Optional: an online private library for your clients

Repeat and long-term business is highly desirable in the realm of commercial corporate photography, and clients might value being able to easily access, from a single location, images and videos shot in the past.

Instead of removing galleries from old shoots, you should therefore instead make sure that the client has a dedicated space when they can view all the work they have commissioned, even old work.

This can also be a source of additional revenue. For example, if you agree to retouch and deliver a certain number of files as part of an assignment, you might still be able to allow the client to order (and pay online) additional images or videos for retouching or licensing.

Optional: an easy way to send custom quotes to clients

Commercial photography is a lot about pricing assignments and/or licenses on a case-by-case basis. When possible, integrating that part of your business into your online workflow can help you save time and provide a better experience for your clients.

In addition to providing an easy way to clients to contact you and request a price, it helps if you can provide quotes via the same platform to make the payment collection and/or the delivery easier.

PhotoDeck integrates a feature that lets you easily create custom quotations, with items that can be automatically delivered as downloads or sent for print fulfillment to an integrated partner lab. This also helps ensure that all orders are managed in a single location.

Useful info pages and portfolio…

Your client galleries and commercial website should not be anonymous nor obscure. Make sure to include detailed info pages about who you are, the kind of work you do, what clients can expect from you, and with detailed contact information.

Similarly, a dedicated portfolio section (and perhaps referrals) will help people understand your work, and that is of course especially important if you make yourself available for new assignments and projects.

PhotoDeck provides all the tools needed to create great-looking free-format content pages and display portfolio galleries, so you can build a full online presence on the same platform!

… or seamless integration with another website

Alternatively, if your main website is on a separate platform, make sure that both websites are well integrated for a seamless user experience:

• Clear links in in both websites’ navigation menus (perhaps the same navigation in both sites);
• Consistent branding: logo, colors, typography.

PhotoDeck specifically allows the integration with another website, so that for example all Home links redirect to your “main“ website.

Legal matters in good standing

Needless to say, you want to make sure to not expose yourself to legal troubles or bad surprises. This will mean slightly different things based on where your business is based, but the following must be in order:

• Taxes: if you use your website to sell online and are subject to sales taxes (e.g. VAT), your website should be set up to collect them, and you should know how to report them to your tax authorities. Double-check with your accountant or local tax office for peace of mind!
• Data protection: make sure that your clients’ personal data is processed according to your privacy laws, for example the GDPR in Europe. This requires both a platform that does not do anything incompatible with the law (like PhotoDeck), but also that you yourself comply to it when processing personal data.
• Terms and conditions: when licensing images, make sure that your clients agree with terms that for example prohibit uses not covered by the license. PhotoDeck lets you ensure the client accepts your terms when ordering, and automatically include T&Cs in PDF form with digital file deliveries.
• Mandatory mentions: make sure that your website and other formal documents (for example, receipt invoices) include the necessary mentions.

See related checklists

• Portrait and wedding client galleries
• Online sales of usage licenses and prints

‹ View all checklists