share photos with users

Using SmartFile to Share Photos with Clients

I don’t know about you, but to me, it feels pretty outdated for a wedding photographer to send photographs on a compact disc or DVD. With the variety of platforms and other methods (like FTP) to send sizeable images, a CD seems like the least efficient and protected method.

Not only are CDs prone to loss and scratches, but a photographer would have to choose between using many CDs to save all of the photos or reducing the image quality to save everything on one disc.

There are obviously better ways to share files, one of them being through an online storage account or portal. Now, I may be biased, but I think SmartFile provides an intelligent platform for sharing and distributing wedding or event photos. Read on to see how you can share photos with clients.

Getting Around the Problem of Sharing Photos

As Facebook and sites like Shutterfly can attest to, we love to share photos of our lives. This is especially true when it comes to wedding photos — not only do the bride and groom want to see and pick out their favorite photos, but so do friends, cousins and nosy aunts and uncles.

This is where SmartFile can help. Because of the way the administrator privileges are set up, the photographer can create a different file structure for each client and choose who can see what.

For instance, a wedding photographer could set up an album for Bride/Groom A, Bride/Groom B and Bride/Groom C. Parties A, B and C will only be able to see inside the folder that the photographer assigns them and will not be able to access any other file folder or image within the account.

If the photographer wants to increase the reach of the photo album, but only for certain people, they can send a password-protected link to just the bride and groom or to select family members and friends. Each link could have a different password so that the photographer can track who logs in and what they view.

For each of those options, you can choose what level of permissions a bride/groom would have, which we will talk about next.

How Many Actions Can the Bride or Groom Take?

You, as the photographer, decide what actions and level of permissions the client gets. They can be allowed to access all the options, including sharing, upload, download, move and delete.

share photos with clients

To increase viewing efficiency, you can create subfolders for different events in the wedding, like preparation, ceremony, reception, so the photos can be sorted through in manageable chunks. The albums or photos can be tagged with each category for easy searching. This way, a bride can also choose to keep more private photos, such a preparation photos, private.

The bride or groom won’t have to suffer through the burden of email pic after pic of people or of adding all of your carefully shot pictures in a free-for-all on a Facebook album.

If you would like to put an extra safeguard on your photographs, we’d recommend adding a watermark to the photos and/or create lower resolution preview images. You can even save a PDF of your photo usage terms within each folder. As well, you can set folder access to expire by a certain date or disable a user from accessing the account if you see any weird activity going on.

The Cost-Effective Wedding Photo Sharing Portal

For photographers who may be independent or running a small business, you can’t spend an arm and a leg on photo gallery apps, so you want something that’s worth it cost-wise but also secure enough to protect your work.

With SmartFile, you choose the level you want. We scale as you scale, from a small business to larger operations. As you scale up, you get more ways to let clients connect with their photos and more capabilities to brand their experience. Check out pricing for more information!

Sharing wedding photos with clients and guests shouldn’t be difficult or expensive. With an easy photo sharing portal like SmartFile, you can simply upload your photos and share it with the wedding party as soon as you’d like.

A Smarter Way to Share Photos with Clients

SmartFile is a business file mangement platform that gives you more control, compliance and security.

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