# Client response Gallery equivalent



## quantum (Jan 30, 2015)

I'm looking for a way to share galleries with my clients. I have tried The Turning Gate, but it's not for me. I don't find it intuitive, so I'm sure my clients won't.
I need:

Option to have a login password.
Clear way of displaying gallery thumbnails and larger views - preferably comparing a couple of images side by side.
Placing a checkmark against a chosen photo.
being able to add comments or feedback to a photo.
client emailing the results to myself.
a simple way of importing their choices

What do you recommend?
Thanks

John


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## Packhorse-4 (Jan 30, 2015)

I'm using SmugMug, but other photo sharing services have these options as well.  When using the SmugMug Publish Services plug-in for Lightroom, I can manage all of my online galleries from within Lightroom.  You can setup separate passwords for each Gallery and limit the size of the image your clients view - even if you upload a larger size that is stable for printing.  Clients can pick favorites and make comments on the Gallery and for each image.  The comments are synchronized back into Lightroom and can be viewed on the SmugMug page.  The nice thing about the Lightroom Publish Service is that you can make an edit, say remove a blemish, and Lightroom knows to re-publish that image with the edits you just made - Just press the Publish button again and it will push any changes and pull any comments.

The more difficult part is making the process intuitive for your clients.  What you and one client might find simple to use, another client may find difficult or frustrating.  

If you are hosting your own website, I believe you can create very similar tools for your customers with SquareSpace.  I'm not using them, but I know many who like the easy templates and customization tools for small businesses and individuals who don't know much about web design or CSS.


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## quantum (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks Packhorse-4. I'll look into this. I currently use Zenfoilio, but have had feedback that their system needs a degree level to understand! I thought a plugin style web module better option. TTG is nearly there but not quite for me.


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## johnbeardy (Jan 30, 2015)

Have you looked at Lightroom Web? It's part of the Lightroom Mobile iPad/phone product which requires a monthly subscription.

To explain, Mobile provides a way to send collections to your iPad/Phone, which means LR uploads the photos (proxies) to Adobe's servers. But as well as delivering them to mobile devices, there's LrWeb https://lightroom.adobe.com/  which uses exactly  the same images but in a browser, and this is designed with a basic selection mechanism.

In Lr, or via your iPad/phone or LrWeb, you "share" a  collection with someone - Adobe call this making it "public". You get a share URL which you send to your client, they view the images in their browser, can  mark favourites and add comments. These appear automatically in LR, and you can send comments back to them if you need. One awkward detail is that the client needs an Adobe account, but this is free, or you could set up a dummy one and give them access to it.


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## quantum (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks John, but I have an aversion to subscription software and prefer to buy physical disks of products that I don't have to upgrade if I don't want to... Old fart attitude I suppose. So that option is not open to me.


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## gregDT (Jan 31, 2015)

quantum said:


> Thanks Packhorse-4. I'll look into this. I currently use Zenfolio, but have had feedback that their system needs a degree level to understand! I thought a plugin style web module better option. TTG is nearly there but not quite for me.



I find Zenfolio very simple to use, certainly no harder to navigate than Smugmug. As it happens the site has had a massive redesign in the last few days that makes it even simpler. I've not spent a lot of time in the Control panel since the upgrade but it might even be a little too simple now.

What it does have is a very simple system for setting up a client access code for specific galleries. You can further lock down a gallery by password protecting it too. My be worth a revisit.


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