# Photo Sharing Site Advice



## unfocused (Jul 1, 2016)

Help.

I need advice on a photo sharing site.

I need an easy to use site for clients. 

Background: As a "value-added" service to our clients, I am offering "stock" photos that they can use free of charge. These will be general photos, as well as photos that are focused on their particular needs. For example, a selection of transportation related images that can be used by clients that advocate for increased road funding. 

I have been using dropbox, which works fine for image storage and access, but it doesn't offer the visual appeal of photosharing sites like Flickr. On the other hand, the only way I can find to protect images on Flickr is to limit access to "friends and family," which means a client has to be signed up with Flickr to access the images.

Here is what I want:

An appealing, easy to navigate front-end so clients can look at a selection of images without having to dig;

A simple password protection, so I can share the password with clients, but they do not have to be a "member" or sign up for anything to access my images;

Sufficient storage space (preferably 1tb) without it costing me an arm and a leg. 

Protection of the images from theft by the hosting company. In other words, I don't want Getty Images or anyone else claiming that they can sell my images simply because I've put them up on their server. 

Any recommendations?


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## zim (Jul 2, 2016)

Why not extend the functionality of your existing site, even if you have to bring someone else in to do it it should be cheap to add simple forms authentication into client sub sections, which from your description should be secure enough.

Does WordPress not have a module to do this already?
https://wordpress.org/plugins/customer-area/


Try ShareFile as a Dropbox alternative, not graphical though but very easy for clients to use and can give you feedback and stats.

Regards


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jul 2, 2016)

I've found that Smugmug will do all of those things. You can have different passwords for different galleries, the possibilities are way beyond my needs. They have multiple levels, I have the power level for a modest annual fee of about $60, I am able to use my domain and customize to my hearts content.

I upload to it directly from lightroom using Jeffrey Fridel's plug-in, so after the initial setup a lot of my work can be done from lightroom.


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## Halfrack (Jul 4, 2016)

I would also recommend some sort of tracking / interaction shopping cart for their use. You don't charge for images currently, but that may change at some point and you should know who is using what images. I would actually recommend you charge $0.01 per image, and here's why - you can attach a terms of use, grant rights and restrict use by non-clients. In your terms lay out it's a benefit for customers, reinforcing your local market as much as possible with stock photography. IANAL but if you had to go after someone for image theft, you'd be hard pressed to show you were valuing your work.

So you really are in the private gallery with shopping cart space.


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## Harv (Jul 4, 2016)

Smugmug


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## Perio (Jul 4, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I've found that Smugmug will do all of those things. You can have different passwords for different galleries, the possibilities are way beyond my needs. They have multiple levels, I have the power level for a modest annual fee of about $60, I am able to use my domain and customize to my hearts content.
> 
> I upload to it directly from lightroom using Jeffrey Fridel's plug-in, so after the initial setup a lot of my work can be done from lightroom.



I also vote for Smugmug. I just purchased their $60 annual subscription, and it works great for me. I was also considering Zenfolio but their annual price is over $200, and it was too expensive for me as I don't plan to sell prints.

You can also look at squaretrade and portfoliobox. They are more oriented towards selling the prints.


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## mtam (Jul 9, 2016)

I personally use my own website. Have a client access page set up. It works perfectly. In terms of storage, it is important that you optimize the size for it. Do not use full sized images. Since you already have a website running. It should have no additional cost to you


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