Galleries are groups of images shown on your website. (Services and applications other than PhotoDeck might also call them “albums”, “folders” or “categories”).

Images must be published in galleries to be visible on the website. You can publish an image to multiple galleries.

Like folders on a hard disk, Galleries are hierarchical: you can create up to 10 levels of sub-galleries.

With PhotoDeck, it is possible to create up to 1000 sub-galleries under any gallery, including the root gallery. Each gallery can contain up to 50000 media.

For maximum flexibility and ease of management, you should organize your galleries like you would organize folders on your computer, creating a “category” of galleries for each type of galleries you will create.

Even if you can change the structure later on, it is advisable to do it right initially, especially if search engines (Google) are important to you: changing the structure might affect individual galleries’ URLs.

If you plan to use PhotoDeck for a single purpose (for example, portfolio display or stock), you can skip this step. But if you feel you even might use PhotoDeck for multiple purposes in the future (e.g. public galleries AND protected client galleries), we recommend to create the proper structure upfront.

Gallery structure illustration

Create the first-level galleries on your site

Here are a few important examples - you don’t need to create them all at once:

• Portfolio (use the Portfolio preset)
• Client galleries (use the Private gallery preset. This section will be hidden on your website.)
• Archive / Stock / Fine-art prints… (use the Public archive/ecommerce gallery preset)
• Blog (use the Blog preset)

Note that when a gallery is empty, it is not visible on your website.

A key promise of PhotoDeck is that your website can be multipurpose. You can combine a portfolio, a client proofing area, ecommerce archives, and even a blog on the same website. Naturally, the presentation of the images and features vary depending on the purpose.

So when you create a new gallery, we present you with a few presets to speed up your workflow. Pick the preset closest to what you need, and if required, you can subsequently adjust the settings once the gallery is created. (You can change all settings at any time).

Gallery display styles make it easy to change the way galleries are displayed on your website, from full-screen auto-scaling slideshows to mosaic tile walls.

A gallery style applies to all galleries using that style.

Gallery styles allow you to display images and galleries in a different way, according to each gallery’s purpose.

For example, gallery styles let you:

• Display the image / video information under the preview, or behind an Info button, as well as select what information (metadata) to display ;
• Change the quality / resolution of images and videos displayed on your website ;
• Change the size and positioning of thumbnails ;
• Let galleries open on thumbnails or on their first image ;
• Let galleries be viewed as slideshows ;
• Activate the fullscreen mode ;
• Hide / remove certain components, like the Search ;
• Set how many thumbnails are displayed per page ;
• …

To change the Display Style used by a gallery, open that gallery under My Images & Videos, then click on the link displaying the current display style in use, located right below the gallery title.

Default gallery styles

Each theme includes the following default display styles:

Customizing gallery styles

The preview window lets you navigate and see changes as you make them

Enlarged images/videos

This section gives you complete control over how opened images and videos appear in your galleries. This is also the place to adjust slideshow behavior for full-screen auto-scaling slideshows using, for example, the Portfolio style.

It is in this section that you can adjust the size / quality /resolution of the images and videos displayed on your website.

Note that image quality on a website is always a compromise between:

• displayed size on screen
• quality
• loading time (its importance is too often overlooked)

You can adjust various settings in the gallery display styles to maximize quality:

• use a higher size - this will result in longer loading times
• turn upsizing off in the auto-scale settings
• reduce the allowed crop
• also make sure that you upload files that are at least 3000px wide.

Image/video thumbnails

This section controls the thumbnails that open the actual images and videos of a gallery.

Choose from great presets such as the magic mosaic wall tile, or edit small details like whether or not to display download icons on the thumbnails.

Gallery covers

This section controls the cover thumbnails that open sub-galleries, like the main “Galleries” gallery.

For example, you can try here different ways to display the gallery titles on or under their thumbnails.

A notable option here is the Click on gallery cover opens parameter. This will dictate if visitors see a large image / slideshow or thumbnails when they first enter a gallery.

Thumbnails pages

You will find here options that apply to pages of both gallery covers and image/video thumbnails.

Hide components in this display style

This section allows you to hide parts of your design in the galleries that use this gallery style.

To re-order galleries, drag-and-drop their cover thumbnails to their new position (My Images & Videos panel).

Galleries can be nested within each-other without limitation. To move a gallery under a new “parent gallery”, drag-drop its cover thumbnail to their new parent in the left-hand side column.

Alternatively, open the Name and main settings dialog for that gallery, and type the name of the new “parent gallery” under the Goes under… section.

To re-order images within a gallery, simply drag-and-drop the thumbnails to their new position. You might need to change the number of thumbnails displayed per page, via the Settings icon displayed in the thumbnails panel top-right corner.

Alternatively, you will find a series a automatic order options under the Basic Settings dialog for that gallery.

PhotoDeck offers a very flexible way to control who can access your galleries, and who can download “for free”.

To open the authorization panel for a gallery, click on the Authorizations link above the thumbnails.

The Access and Free Downloads table

The first row (Anybody) applies to anyone who is not specifically listed on another row. When you add authorizations for a specific client, the Anybody row applies to everybody except that client (and others previously listed). You can optionally set and require a general password: anyone knowing the password, logged in or not, will then gain access to the gallery.

You can also add authorizations for specific clients. They will need to login to be identified. You can also give access to all members of a clients group (defined under My Business / Clients) at once.

We recommend you don’t use on the same gallery both a general password and client-specific login access. While it is possible, it can be confusing.

Can enter gallery indicates whether access to the gallery (seeing its content) it allowed.

Low-res download indicates whether a button is displayed to easily download preview images. The preview images are watermarked if you used a watermark upon initial upload.
Note that savvy users will always be able to extract the preview images displayed on your site, whether you enable this or not, via a screen capture or other means. So this feature is really for your clients convenience, and you must make sure that you have a proper watermark in place if preview theft is a concern.

Originals download indicates whether FREE download of the originals is allowed. The originals are the very same files you have initially uploaded, without any modification, and are available for download in a single click.
Optionally, this can be limited to files in FINAL state. A “Download all” button is displayed if the gallery contains less than 1000 images.

Custom downloads let you specify your own FREE download formats, rename downloaded files and automatically adjust their metadata. Since the files must be reprocessed before delivery, they are ordered through the cart - direct 1-click download isn’t possible.
Using the Deliver immediately only files in FINAL state option makes it easy to deliver jobs where the client must select files for retouching before delivery (to learn more, please refer to the help topic on “Galleries for professional clients”).

Customizing custom downloads formats

Giving personal authorizations to a new client

To give access to the gallery and/or to download capabilities to a specific client, click Add authorizations and enter the client’s email address. Tick the boxes corresponding to the access rights you wish to provide him.

You can add a client’s email address even if they are not registered on your website yet : they will gain access once they register with the same email address you have specified.

Alternatively, you can also open the Send by email panel to send the gallery to a client by email and give him the proper access rights in a single step!

Sub-galleries automatically inherit from their parent…

… except if they define authorizations of their own.

For clarity and to avoid errors, if you set new authorizations for a sub-gallery, it will NOT inherit authorizations from its parents anymore, so you need to define all authorizations for that sub-gallery.

If you want a gallery to inherit from the same authorizations as its parent gallery, simply make sure you remove all its authorizations.

When you Hide gallery, it removes the gallery from the thumbnail navigation. A hidden gallery is therefore not be visible anymore in the gallery index (or as a sub-gallery of its parent).

Note that if you include a hidden gallery to the navigation menu, it will in effect become visible to casual visitors, regardless of this setting.

The Include images in public search option lets you control whether to include a gallery’s content in the public search on your website and on search engines (e.g. Google). (Search within the hidden gallery will always be possible).

Comments and star ratings are a great way to interact with clients on a private gallery.

Comments

To prevent Spam comments if you allow commenting on a public gallery, it is highly recommended you do not allow anonymous commenting, and preferably you require commentators to have an account.

To delete comments on your website, log onto your website with the same credentials you use to access your PhotoDeck admin space. Open the page with the comment to remove: you will notice a Delete button next to the comments.

Star ratings

For a full proofing experience on your website: client ratings are useful to help a client make a selection in multiple passes.

They also allow the client to filter a gallery on your website, and then to add filtered files to a selection, to download them, and even to add them at once to the purchase cart (if that feature is also activated for the gallery).

Client ratings are independent from your own file ratings, defined in your PhotoDeck administration space or as part of your workflow prior to upload, for example in Lightroom.

In your PhotoDeck admin space, you can also view the client ratings and filter the galleries’ view based on client ratings.

The last rating on an image or video overrides the previous one, so it is usually not a good idea to allow ratings on public galleries.

To can share files (images, videos,…) or full galleries on your social networks (LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook…) directly from your PhotoDeck administration space under My images & videos:

• For single images/videos, select the file and click on the Share button in the right-hand side column ;
• For galleries, click on MORE / Social share.

This will open a popup where you can select a network to share to, and you will be redirected to the network to finalize sharing.

If you have connected your personal PhotoDeck account to your social networks accounts (Avatar icon / Social networks), the sharing’s popup Quick share option will let you share to those networks without leaving PhotoDeck. Note that this integration is only available for LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

Files are never uploaded to your social networks: instead, this feature shares a link to the page on your website, from which the social network usually fetches an image preview. In the case of galleries, the cover image is what is normally shown by social networks.

Social networks often cache the preview images for several days, during which the same (potentially old) preview is used when re-sharing the same page.

PhotoDeck’s blog facility is meant for photographers who want a simple way to promote new work, under the same roof as their website.

How does it work?

A PhotoDeck blog is simply a gallery, with sub-galleries as individual posts, all styled like on a standard blog.

A blog is a gallery, a post is a sub-gallery

This way, a PhotoDeck blog integrates perfectly with your normal workflow and with the rest of the website. All gallery features can also be used: images can be priced, downloadable, comment-able, etc…

The gallery text/additional content for a post/gallery is the main piece of text for the post. The title and description of included images or videos are also displayed and integrate with the post.

A blog post: the introduction text at the top is the gallery’s text, the text under each image is the image’s title and description.

And naturally, videos can be included in the very same way as images.

Limitations

The blog facility is not meant to be as full-featured as a dedicated blogging platform (see our WordPress integration if you really need a full blogging platform).

It is designed for busy members who favor simplicity, and prefer not to maintain multiple platforms.

With this in mind, it is for example not possible to:

• Display a full blog post on the blog index page (only the cover image is displayed with an excerpt of the text) ;
• Add calendars, track-back pings and other blog-specific features ;

Creating the blog

1. Create a new private gallery called “Blog”. Creating it as a private gallery means it won’t show as a thumbnail in your gallery navigation ;
2. Click on the link indicating that the gallery is Hidden, and under Include images in public search, set the search indexing to Always (as the gallery is hidden, its images are otherwise not included in the search results).
3. Enable the comments if you wish that your visitors can comment on individual images (More / Comments and star rating) ;
4. Set the display style to Blog ;
5. Edit your website’s navigation menu to add a link to the Blog gallery. If you wish, you can perform this step only once you have content in your blog ;
6. Ready for your first post!

Creating your first post

1. Under My Images & Videos, select the Blog gallery, then click on New post ;
2. Enter a title for your post, select the Public gallery preset, then click on Create ;
3. Change the display style to Blog ;
4. Optionally, edit the date of the post, and add a text via the Edit page link ;
5. Publish images to your post in the same way as for any other gallery. Add titles and descriptions to the images and videos as appropriate ;
6. Optional: share your new post on X (Twitter), Facebook or other services via the Share link in the gallery options ;
7. Done! To create new posts, simply use the preset that copies your first post settings.

RSS Feed

Like any gallery on your website, your blog has its own RSS feed, e.g. www.mysite.com/-/galleries/blog.rss

Tips

• You can edit the Blog style like any other Gallery Style, to customize the way posts are displayed.
  
  Example: Reduced gallery thumbnail size = blog index displayed as a grid
• All gallery features are applicable to blog posts: password/login protection, download, etc…
• You can create multiple blogs on your website.
• The blog style can be applied to any gallery. In fact, it is trendy for portfolio galleries too.

Here is a recommended way of setting up galleries when working with private individuals (events, portraits, weddings…), where privacy and simplicity are key.

Once you have set up a first gallery, it will be easy to reuse the same settings for other clients.

1. Create a new gallery, ideally nested under a common “Client Area” gallery. Use the Private Gallery preset. The gallery will use the standard Gallery Style, which is a good balance between aesthetics and proofing functionality. The gallery will be hidden, i.e. not visible in the thumbnail navigation for maximum privacy.
2. Click on the Authorizations link to open the access settings. Set a password to access the gallery. Setting a general password will not provide you with as much detail as to who exactly accesses the gallery, but it will be very simple for your clients. Save.
   
3. Optionally, you can allow commenting on images and/or star-rating (More / Comments and star rating).
4. Upload the images into the gallery.
5. If the images are for sale, attach the proper pricing profile(s) to all images in the gallery.
6. Done! All you now have to do is send the link to your clients, with the password. You can do that under the Send by email panel. Don’t forget to indicate the gallery password in the message!

Allowing free high-res downloads to consumers

In some cases, you might want to allow your clients to download high-res files. This can be done by adding new authorizations to the access options.

Note that you can allow only specific clients, based on their email, to download the images. This has two benefits: you get a better control and view over who downloads what, and you can allow a wide group of people to purchase from the gallery (say wedding guests) while allowing a subset (e.g. groom and bride) to download high-res files for free. The drawback is that it requires your clients to create a login on your website in order to access the free downloads.

Alternatively, you can allow anybody with access to the gallery to download for free. This of course, will override any download pricing profile set for the individual images and won’t provide you information on who downloads images.

Please refer to the help on authorizations for further help!

PhotoDeck is designed to let you work with professional clients in multiple ways. Here are some examples of what you can do:

• Send in a few clicks a link to download multiple files;
• Quickly create a secure gallery for proofing and 1-click download;
• Let the client choose and order images to edit/retouch, and then deliver them easily;
• Host client photos archives;
• …

Once you have set up a first gallery, it is easy to reuse the same settings for other clients.

Proofing gallery with immediate download

In this example, we create a hidden gallery that lets the client view the images/videos and download them in a click, one by one or all at once.

1. Create a new gallery, ideally nested under a common “Client Area” gallery. Use the Protected gallery for professional clients preset. The gallery will use the Proofing Gallery Style, which focuses on proofing functionality. The gallery will be hidden, i.e. not visible in the thumbnail navigation for privacy.
2. Upload images into the gallery.
3. Open the Send by email panel and add your client(s) email addresses as well as the download authorizations. Hit Send.
4. Done! You can always check/edit the client permissions under the authorization panel accessible via the Protected access link above the thumbnails.

To go further:

• For improved security, or if you wish to track who downloads, you can add authorizations based on individual emails, either to access the gallery or to download. It is then compulsory for the client to authenticate on your website. If you choose this option, don’t forget to deactivate the accesses for the line Anybody in the authorization table - please refer to the help on private galleries and authorizations for more details!
• You can create custom download products to automatically reprocess files before delivery to the client: resizing, renaming, metadata update, etc…
• You can show the download options for files in FINAL state only (e.g. retouched files).

To get familiar with the process from a client’s perspective, try it yourself with a “test client” email address! For clarity, make sure it is different from your PhotoDeck login, and test with a different browser (or in a private/anonymous window in your browser).

Proofing and delivery of files to edit/retouch

This section will show you how to let a client order (without payment) for retouching a selection of images or videos out of an unprocessed shoot, so you can process/retouch ordered images and deliver them, in a professional and integrated way.

Gallery of out-of-camera, unedited images with download and selection features activated. Clicking on the download icon will add an image to the cart for ordering.

1. Create a new gallery, ideally nested under a common “Client Area” gallery. Use the Protected proof-retouch-deliver gallery preset. The gallery will use the Proofing Gallery Style, which focuses on proofing functionality over aesthetics. The gallery will be hidden, i.e. not visible in the thumbnail navigation for maximum privacy. In addition, this preset allows immediate delivery only for files in FINAL state.
2. Upload the “proof” images/videos into the gallery.
3. Open the Send by email panel and add your client(s) email addresses, without changing the download authorizations. Hit Send.
4. Done! Your clients are now able to order a selection of images as downloads.

Typical settings for a full assignment proofing gallery.

When your client has made a selection and placed an order, you will be notified by email. When you receive the order:

1. If needed, reprocess/retouch the images/videos on your computer. Upload them into the gallery making sure you use the same filenames as for the proof images, and using the Replace image option. This will replace the proof images with the final ones. In the upload form, also set the status of the new uploads as FINAL, which indicates to the system that the files are ready for delivery.
   You can also replace individual files via their Replace button, and change their state in their Metadata panel.
   
   Replaced images in FINAL state in the administration space
2. When all (or part of) the images have been replaced with their final version, open the order, and click on Recalc items shipping method, then Deliver PENDING downloadable items now. This will trigger the delivery of the FINAL images to the client.
   
   Image delivery on the order page.

Replaced, FINAL images in the gallery. They can be re-downloaded from the gallery at a later stage, for example if the client loses the files that were automatically delivered to them.

To go further:

• You can explicitly indicate on the gallery what files are not retouched/edited: put the files in question in PROOF state, and make sure that the gallery style used by the gallery is set to display the file states on their thumbnails. The retouched (final) files will also be clearly indicated.
• This method makes edited files orderable again and directly downloadable. It is also possible (in the download options) to only offer ordering for files in state PROOF or UNDEFINED.
• To sell files to edit/retouch, use a pricing profile attached to the files instead of free downloads - the same options for processing and delivery are available. Similarly, it is also possible to sell whole galleries to retouch/edit, via the Price option for the gallery in question.

Hosting an image/video archive for a client

You can use subgalleries for a client and host a small archive, for example mixing both already retouched/paid downloadable images as well as files to order.

In this example gallery, PROOF images can be purchased while FINAL images can be directly downloaded.

To allow a client to download immediately certain images (or video clips) and purchase editing for others, you can mix the use of free downloads and pricing profiles:

• Assign files the state PROOF or FINAL based on whether they are edited/retouched or not;
• Activate free downloads, offering them (via the download options) only for files in state FINAL;
• Attach to all images a download pricing profile, offering it (via the profile’s options) only for images in state PROOF.

We recommend you upload full-resolution images/videos to benefit most from what PhotoDeck has to offer, as the system automatically generates the preview images on your website. If you are not planning to deliver the images digitally (e.g. if only for portfolio display), and if you don’t wish to upload high-res files, uploading 3000px-wide images will you the best long-term flexibility.

Supported formats

• Images: JPG, TIFF, PNG, HEIC/HEIF and GIF (including animated GIFs) ;
• Raw Images: most common RAW formats including DNG, CR2, CR3, CRW, NEF, NRW, ARW, RAF, 3FR, IIQ…
• Videos: all common video encodings ;
• Documents: PDF, PSD (PhotoShop), AI (Adobe Illustrator), EPS (Encapsulated PostScript).

Note: Your plan might restrict what formats are permitted, especially for documents. The max image file size allowed with your plan is indicated in the upload window.

Images

Images are best left not sharpened (or only very slightly sharpened as part of e.g. the RAW conversion process), so that your clients keep full flexibility in the printing process.

To save on disk space and upload times, we find that high-quality JPGs (rather than TIFF images) are suitable for most applications.

What image size do you provide to my clients?

In most cases, images are resized automatically. For license purchases that specify a size in pixels or a file size (e.g. Royalty-Free, Rights Managed Web uses), the buyer gets an image exactly the size purchased. For free low-res downloads, we deliver an 800x600 pixel image that has your watermark applied, if it was applied upon upload.

In all other cases where a digital file has to be delivered, we deliver the high-resolution image you have uploaded, without modification.

Image color profiles

All preview images are converted to the sRGB color space, so you can safely upload high-resolution images in the space of your choice (e.g. AdobeRGB), as long as you embed the profile.

Note that for performance reasons (page display speed), the sRGB profile is not embedded in the thumbnails, so the color will be accurate only on the larger previews (assuming the viewer’s browser is properly color-managed).

You can upload video clips in the same way as still images. We support all common video formats.

For display on your website, your clip will be converted into various formats that browsers can display.

E-commerce: You are able to define what format(s) the clips are to be delivered in, both in the pricing profiles settings or when answering a quotation request.

Proofing galleries: as for stills, for “high-res delivery” via proofing galleries, we deliver the original file.

Setting the cover image

By default, the cover image is a frame automatically taken out of the video. You can also use your own cover image (in the same ratio) for MPEG-4 formats (.mov, .mp4…) by embedding it into the video file. Tools that allow it include for example mp3tag (Windows), MetaZ (Mac), VLC (multi-platform).

IMPORTANT: MPEG-LA license requirements for H264-encoded formats

H.264 is currently the leading video encoding format. It is unfortunately a proprietary format for which multiple companies hold patents, jointly licensed by MPEG LA.

It is our understanding that when delivering video clips encoded with H.264 technology, MPEG LA requires content providers (you) to hold a license for both:

• the “Internet broadcast” of images for free (i.e. showing video clips on your website)
• the sale and/or delivery of content

PhotoDeck uses H.264 technology to display videos on your website.

H.264 technology is also used in the delivery of downloaded clips, depending on the format chosen.

Since PhotoDeck provides only the technology and is not a party in your content distribution, it is your responsibility to clear possible licensing issues.

The license should be free of royalty payments in most cases.

Our attempt to obtain from MPEG-LA clearer and more concrete guidance for video producers have unfortunately not been successful.

Please contact directly MPEG-LA if in doubt!

This article on Betanews.com is also informative.

• uploading a full folder structure, with sub-folder, all at once,
• upload only the new or updated files in a single gallery while skipping what has already been uploaded,
• or to recover from a botched upload.

Accessible from the upload window in your admin space, it lets you synchronize a folder on your computer (or your network) with a gallery on your account, so that:

• a sub-gallery is created for each new subfolder,
• files not yet on PhotoDeck are uploaded,
• files updated on your computer are replaced on PhotoDeck,
• and the rest is left alone.

Note that new sub-galleries will use the same display style as their parent. Please make sure PRIOR to launching the synchronization that the gallery you’re synchronizing into uses the desired display style!

We recommend you don’t synchronize folders containing more than a few thousands of files. For larger collections, it is best to proceed in several steps.

The PhotoDeck-Lightroom Publish plugin allows you to:

• Publish your images directly from Lightroom into galleries on your PhotoDeck site
• Create/delete/rename/move PhotoDeck galleries directly from Lightroom
• Update images metadata in Lightroom and re-publish to update them in PhotoDeck
• Redevelop photos in Lightroom and re-upload to PhotoDeck
• Synchronize your PhotoDeck site’s gallery structure in Lightroom (without existing images)
• Update your galleries’ additional texts and display styles directly from Lightroom

Installing the plugin into Lightroom

1. Download the plugin
2. If the downloaded files wasn’t automatically unzipped, do it now. You should end up with a file named PhotoDeck.lrplugin.
3. In Lightroom, open the Publishing manager (see the + button next to the Publish Services dialog in the left-hand-side column):
   
   
4. From there, open the Plugin Manager, and click on Add:
   
   
5. Select the plugin file you’ve downloaded and hit Done.
6. Congratulations! The plugin is now installed: you can configure it with your PhotoDeck login credentials, and you can import the gallery structure from your PhotoDeck site:
   
   

Updating the plugin with a new version

1. Download the plugin
2. If the downloaded files wasn’t automatically unzipped, do it now. You should end up with a file named PhotoDeck.lrplugin.
3. In Lightroom, open the Publishing manager (see the + button next to the Publish Services dialog in the left-hand-side column):
   
   
4. From there, open the Plugin Manager, and select the PhotoDeck plugin.
   
   
5. Click on Show in Finder (OSX), and replace the PhotoDeck.lrplugin file with the one you’ve just downloaded.
6. Hit Reload plugin.
7. Done! You should see the latest plugin version indicated.

Do not remove the plugin from the Plug-in Manager if you wish to continue using a version of it. When removing the plugin, all information about previously published images is lost and cannot be recovered.

Folders and Galleries

Lightroom allows to create two different kind of collections:

• A “Folder” or
• a “Gallery”

In PhotoDeck, both are galleries. In Lightroom, a folder can only contain sub-galleries, not images. A Lightroom gallery can contain images, but not sub-galleries.

Therefore, to create from Lightroom a gallery that will contain sub-galleries, create a new “Folder”.

About Gallery synchronization

Gallery synchronization doesn’t match existing images in PhotoDeck with your Lightroom catalog, as there is no reliable way to achieve this: only images uploaded through this plugin will be visible in Lightroom.

Gallery synchronization is optional: when you create a gallery in Lightroom, a new PhotoDeck gallery is created only if no gallery with the same name and parent is found on your site. You can therefore simply add in Lightroom the PhotoDeck galleries you need to manage, without synchronizing the whole structure.

Gallery synchronization can be performed at any time from the PhotoDeck publish service settings.

Re-publishing images

When an image in Lightroom image is changed (metadata updated or image redeveloped), Lightroom will mark the image as needing a re-publish. Going through the corresponding gallery and hitting the “Re-publish” button will, by default, only update the metadata and not re-upload the image, as LR can’t tell whether the actual pixels have changed.

If you need to re-upload the image, go to Lightroom’s PhotoDeck publish service settings and check the corresponding setting. Don’t forget to uncheck afterwards it if this is a one-time need!

Watermark

Images uploaded via Lightroom will get the watermark that is defined as default watermark in your watermark settings in PhotoDeck (it can be “no watermark”).

Connecting several PhotoDeck websites

To connect multiple PhotoDeck websites to Lightroom, simply create a new connection for each website in Lightroom’s Plugin manager via the “Add” button. This applies to websites belonging either to different PhotoDeck accounts, or to the same PhotoDeck account.

Export only

This plugin also allows simple one-time exports, without having to publish in a gallery.

Exported images will show up in PhotoDeck under All files (they will not be visible on your website until you publish them from My Images & Videos in PhotoDeck).

Note to developers

This plugin is open source so any developer can keep improving it. The code is hosted on Github.

You can upload images directly from within Photo Mechanic. The PhotoDeck uploader is included with Photo Mechanic, but if your Photo Mechanic software isn’t up to date, you can manually install the latest plugin version:

1. Download the PhotoDeck uploader template
2. Open Photo Mechanic and go to “Photo Mechanic / Preferences / Files / Location of user Uploader templates” to choose the folder where you store uploader templates on your computer. You can create a new folder if you wish, for example under your Library folder if you are on a Mac.
3. Unzip the PhotoDeck_latest.zip archive into that folder (or move the unzipped PhotoDeck folder if your browser automatically unzipped the downloaded file) and restart Photo Mechanic
4. Done! When you choose “Upload” in Photo Mechanic, the PhotoDeck option should now appear along with the latest version number.

To upload images to your FTP account, connect using the settings indicated on the Upload page.

Images and videos uploaded via FTP are not published to any gallery. You will find them under All files, and you can publish them to a gallery from there. It is not possible to create galleries via FTP.

FTP folders are scanned once per hour for new images, which are then moved to your PhotoDeck account (if you don’t want to wait, you can force an immediate import from the Upload page).

You will receive a confirmation email after each successful import from your FTP folder.

Please note:

• Make sure to use the TLS/SSL protocol if your FTP software supports it (or use software that supports it): connection to port 21, using AUTH SSL (“Explicit SSL”). This will encrypt and secure the file transfer.
• Keep your folder name secret, provide it only to people you want to allow uploading for: anybody who knows your folder name will be able to upload images to your account. If in doubt, you may change it at any time.
• For security reasons, folders are hidden: you should point your FTP client directly to your own folder.
• Files in unrecognized formats will be deleted.
• Files are automatically removed once they are imported to your PhotoDeck account
• You may only list and upload files to your inbox. Creating directories, renaming, deleting or downloading files is not possible.
• Only 3 concurrent uploads are possible. You may add as many files as you wish in a batch, but max 3 batches are possible at the same time.

Example settings: Cyberduck

Metadata is what allows to search for files on your website and in your admin space. It is also very important for Search Engines to properly index your website. XMP/IPTC metadata embedded into the files is automatically ingested by default.

Image metadata also includes your own star ratings.

Title

The image title (sometimes also called “Headline”) is used in several places:

• on the image page, below the image as a “h1” page title
• in the image page browser bar title
• in the image page URL
• within the HTML code that displays the image both on the image page and on the thumbnail pages.

If your images have embedded IPTC Description fields but no Title fields, no worry: for each image that has a Description but no Title, on your website we display the Description in place of the Title - until you define the image Title.

Description

The Description allows you to provide to your visitors more information about the image. It is used only below the image (except when you have a Description but no Title: in that case, the Description replaces the Title).

Upon upload, we import the IPTC Description / Caption field as the description.

Keywords

The keywords help Search Engines know what your image is about - and it allows them to index keyword searches. There is no penalty for having many keywords, but they should be relevant. 20-25 keywords per image is a good target, answering the usual “Who, What, Where, Why, When” questions.

Location, City, State, Country, World region

These work like additional keywords, but are displayed separately for your clients’ convenience.

Author and Copyright Notice

The Author (called in some applications “Creator” or “Photographer” or “By-line author”) and Copyright Notice fields are also imported upon upload and displayed on the image page if present.

Ingesting XMP/IPTC metadata at upload

When you import new files, the following options let you determine how the embedded XMP/IPTC metadata is processed:

• Ignore, don’t ingest: The file’s XMP/IPTC metadata fields are not taken into account.
• Ingest, don’t overwrite: Each XMP/IPTC field is ingested, except when previously defined, for example when the file replaces an existing file for which that field is already defined, or when the field is defined in the same upload’s options.
• Ingest, overwrite: All metadata fields are imported, overwriting any previously defined field.
• Clear and ingest:Previously defined XMP/IPTC-related fields are emptied, and the metadata embedded in the file is ingested.

The PhotoDeck fields are mapped to XMP/IPTC fields as follows:

Star ratings and recommendation badges

You can star-rate your own images with the file ratings:

• for editing and sorting your media library
• to indicate to your clients what are your own “selects”, via an “Artists pick” recommendation badge (displayed when an image as a 5-star file rating) - useful when you upload a shoot to a private gallery for a client to proof.

File ratings are automatically imported from the image metadata upon upload, so if you’re already rating your images with Lightroom or other similar software that follows the same standard, the rating will carry over. In any case, a single click allows you to add/change/remove a rating (enable the rating display on the thumbnails via the search box options under My Images & Videos). You can also batch-edit ratings and search for images by rating.

You can sort your media by file rating, and similarly you can re-order images in galleries by rating, to put your best images first.

A 5-star rating automatically adds a recommendation badge on the images on your website.

Your own file ratings are independent from the client ratings, if you have enabled them for a given gallery.

PhotoDeck makes it possible for you to submit your images to AI providers like Amazon Rekognition and Microsoft Computer Vision, allowing you to automatically generate new keywords and metadata for your images.

Amazon Rekognition and Microsoft Computer Vision are powerful AI tools that use machine learning algorithms to analyze the content of images and automatically generate tags and metadata based on what they “see.” By submitting your images to these services, you can quickly and easily add new metadata to your images’, making them more discoverable.

To take advantage of this feature, select one of more images you want to submit to the AI providers, and if you haven’t done so yet, create a profile to connect to the provider of your choice with the analysis and metadata options you select, then submit the image(s).

Once the analysis is complete (and it might take a few minutes), new metadata will be added to your images automatically.

Control analysis via profiles

PhotoDeck is about providing you control and offering transparency: AI is a powerful tool but is not a one-size fits all magical wand, which is why we offer connections to more than just one AI provider, and we expose their settings.

Each provider offers different options to control how they analyse the images and what metadata they generate. These settings are defined in profiles, which allow you to choose what kind of analysis you want the AI to perform on your images.

For example, one common option is to detect generic keywords and tags based on the content of the image. This would involve analyzing the visual elements of the image and identifying objects, people, and other elements that could be used as descriptive keywords. This kind of analysis can be helpful for generating broad, general metadata that can be used to categorize your images.

Another option might be to detect text present in the images. This could be useful for identifying specific elements within the image, such as bib numbers on athletes or text on signs or advertisements. By detecting this text, the AI can generate more specific and targeted keywords that can help your images to be found by people searching for those specific terms.

In addition, Microsoft Azure Computer Vision also allows to automatically create titles / captions which are used prominently on your website and can support your SEO efforts.

Note that you can define multiple profiles for the same provider, allowing you to customize the analysis for different types of images or projects.

For example, you might define one profile for sports photography that is set up to detect bib numbers, while another profile for landscape photography is optimized to detect features like mountains, lakes, and forests.

Different AI providers have different approaches in generating metadata and the results might vary. We recommend you try all providers to identify which works best for you.

The search on both your website and on the admin space look into all of your media files’ metadata (keywords, caption, location…), but they work in different ways.

Search in the admin space (“internal search”)

When you search for images within your admin space (My Images & Videos), the system looks for exact matches. For example, a search for cats will not return and image with the keyword “cat”. Partial matching and wildcards are not supported.

Tip: to look for an image, enter its ID. The ID of an image is its filename, without the .jpg/.tif extension.

You can limit the search to look only at keywords instead of the whole metadata by using the keywords search field.

You can also save a search as a Smart Collection. The internal admin search is also used by the automation features.

The search is NOT case-sensitive. It looks at the following metadata: image ID (filename minus its .jpg/.tif extension), title, description, location, city, country, state, world region, keywords, author.

Special keywords

In your admin space Keywords advanced search field, use * to match files that have keywords, or ! to match files that don’t have any keyword.

Search on your website

On your website, the search looks at the same metadata fields, but is much more sophisticated. For example, it knows plurals, so a search for cats will return images with the keyword “cat”. It relies on a separate image search index, that is updated separately.

On your website, results for any given search query are cached for 10 minutes: if someone does a search right before you upload or update relevant files, it might take a few minutes before the change appears in the results for this specific search.
Updates will appear immediately for new, uncached search queries.

Hidden galleries

Hidden galleries are normally excluded from any search results, which two exceptions:

• They can be included in public searches by forcing their public indexing (see below), but in this case their content is accessible to everyone even when they are protected or under a protected gallery.
• When the search is made from within that very hidden gallery (and not from from a sub-gallery under it).

Galleries protected by password or login

Media in protected galleries are not included in your website’s public search index.

When a visitor logs in, the private galleries they have access to (up to 20) and their sub-galleries are then included in subsequent searches. Similarly, when they access a password-protected gallery, the password-protected gallery (and its sub-galleries) are included in subsequent search results.

Similarly to the access rights themselves, when a client has access to a private gallery containing sub-galleries, any sub-gallery that defines its own access rights might be excluded from the search results, unless it too specifically provides access to the client.

When testing access rights and private searches, first close your browser to ensure that no previous authentication is still active.

Including / excluding a gallery from the public search

In a gallery’s Authorizations panel, you can force a specific gallery to be either included in the results of public searches (made by unauthenticated users on your website), or excluded from them, via the Include images in public search option.

• When a gallery is included in public searches, anybody will be able to find and access its media. Forcing inclusion can be useful for hidden galleries, but we recommend not using this for sensitive content in private galleries, as it makes it publicly available.
• When a gallery is not included in public searches, its content will not be shown in public search results, except when the search is initiated from within that very gallery. It will still be normally included in “private” searches, i.e. if it is a private gallery that the visitor has opened access to.

This setting applies only to the gallery and does not impact the indexation of its sub-galleries.

Multi-word searches

This applies to both the search in the admin space and the search on your website.

Boolean operators help you or your visitor refine their search. For instance:

• Apple Orange or Apple AND Orange will return all images that have both words in their metadata ;
• Apple OR Orange will return images that have either the “Apple” word or the “Orange” word in their metadata. Note that the OR operator must be in capital letters ;
• "black cat" will return images that match the exact phrase “black cat” ;
• Kid OR Child AND Male will return images of boys (the “AND” is optional) ;
• A AND B OR C AND D AND E OR F means “A AND D AND (B OR C OR E OR F)”.

Note: searches are limited to 32 words and operators.

Grouping search results by gallery on your website

When your galleries contain very similar images, you can group results by galleries via My Website / Setup / Advanced settings.

This way, when performing a search, your client gets the list of galleries having images that match, along with the number of results of matches per gallery.

Displaying search box on another website

You can display a search box on any website by adjusting and pasting the following piece of HTML code (replace YOUR-PHOTODECK-URL-HERE by your own website URL):

A watermark is the only real protection against image theft and screen captures.

Watermarks and their settings are accessible via the Upload window. You can use multiple watermarks, and choose for each upload what watermark should be applied.

Watermarks are embedded directly into the previews

To offer a robust protection, watermarks are embedded directly into the preview images (or videos) displayed on your website. The watermark is therefore applied upon initial upload.

Watermarks don’t know about galleries: if an image or video is present in multiple galleries, the same watermark will be visible in all the galleries.

Changing the default watermark

The default watermark is used when importing images through FTP, Lightroom and Photo Mechanics. It is preselected when opening the upload window.

Behind the scenes, it is also used when generating missing preview formats for use on your website (for example in some cases when you change the size of the displayed images in the Gallery Display Style settings).

To change the default watermark, open the watermark in the image upload window, and click on the “Use as default watermark” checkbox.

Customizing your watermark

You can either use the tools provided by PhotoDeck to create and customize a text watermark, or for best branding and flexibility (depending on your subscription level), use your own watermark image.

If you use your own watermark image, for best results use a PNG format with transparent background, and upload it in a large size (500 to 2000 pixels wide depending on how wide the watermark will be displayed).

My watermark appears cropped (or doesn’t appear) on my images!

The gallery display styles include an option to automatically crop preview images so that they appear bigger on the screen, especially for the Portfolio styles (for example for a full-bleed effect).

Depending on the purpose of the gallery in question, you can either reduce the amount of cropping allowed (via the corresponding gallery style settings) and keep the watermark (recommended for client and ecommerce galleries), or not use a watermark (recommended for Portfolio galleries). Alternatively, you can also center your watermark on the image.

Applying a new/updated watermark to previously uploaded images

To apply a new watermark, the preview images must be regenerated. If needed, a watermark can be applied to all your images at once:

1. Prepare your new watermark, and test it by uploading multiple images, on light and dark textured backgrounds.
2. Make sure the watermark is set as default.
3. Contact support to ask to have all your images reprocessed, and confirming that you have performed the first 2 steps. This is a computer-intensive operation that might take time depending on the number of images in your media library.
4. When the preview images are regenerated, clear your browser cache to refresh the images it displays!

Collections are groups of images, just like galleries, but they are never published on your website.

They are therefore suitable for your own library management purposes, like selections for your admin space.

They can also be used to automate actions, for example automatically pricing images based on their metadata.

Unlike galleries, collections cannot be nested.

Galleries and collections can be associated with a series of actions to automate your workflow.

Automatically assigning images to a Collection or a Gallery

In the collection’s or gallery’s More / Automation settings, you can choose to automatically import images to the collection based on their metadata.

For example, you can create a collection named “Landscapes”, and use the Automatically import feature so that all images that match the keyword search “landscape” will be assigned to the collection.

Matching for images and videos occurs in the very same way as for the internal search in your library. Refer to the help on the internal search for more details!

Note: Images are checked for automatic import upon upload, keywords or author changes and when moved to another library. Check the box Rescan whole library and import matching images to check at once all images in your media library against the keyword search criteria.

Automatically applying pricing profiles or metadata to images

The following example automatically completes keywords and location metadata for images matching the search criteria “Manhattan”, and publishes them to dedicated gallery:

1. Create a new collection ;
2. Set the collection to automatically import images matching the search criteria “Manhattan” ;
3. Set the collection to set the images’ Location to “Manhattan”, City to “New York”, and Country to “USA” ;
4. Set the collection to add the keywords “city, megalopolis, metropolitan area” ;
5. Set the collection to publish the images to a gallery named “Manhattan” ;
6. Done! New images, or images with updated keywords, will be automatically considered for processing.

Metadata processing order

When files are uploaded, metadata are processed in the following order:

1. First, metadata added in the upload form, via the Lightroom plugin or via the API are applied;
2. Then, when the files are published to a gallery at the time of import, the automated actions of that gallery are performed. If a file is published at this stage to new galleries/collections that define their own automations, these are also performed;
3. When a file is being processed (thumbnails generation), its embedded IPTC/XMP metadata are applied according to the chosen setting at upload (Ignore, Embed, etc…);
4. Automated publishing into other galleries or collections based on metadata search, as well as the metadata processing actions that can be defined in those automations, are applied last. Metadata added here does not trigger a re-run of that stage.

Smart collections are saved, dynamic searches. They allow you to quickly reuse searches and filters across your media library.

For example, you can create smart collections to quickly see what images are not published, what images have a certain keyword attached, what images have been uploaded in the past day, etc…

You can set up your PhotoDeck website under the address / URL (domain name) of your choice. For example, www.alexsmithphotography.com or archive.alexsmithphotography.com. When properly set up, your whole website will be under your custom domain, and the photodeck.com domain will not appear at all.

No domain transfer is usually required. You will merely point your existing DNS configuration to PhotoDeck servers for your website.

Since PhotoDeck does normally not have access to the configuration for your domain, you need to configure it with the company that manages your domain (e.g. GoDaddy, Moniker, Network Solutions, etc…). It is usually the same company you have purchased the domain from.

STEP 0: Purchase or get control over your domain

If you don’t own a domain name yet, purchase one from an independent provider. We recommend ovh.com. GoDaddy is also a popular alternative.

If you already own a domain purchased from the same company that provided your previous website, you must transfer your domain to a neutral domain name provider. We recommend ovh.com. (PhotoDeck does not offer domain hosting, and we consider it a better practice to host your domain separately from your website).

When your domain is under your account with a neutral domain name provider, you’re good to go!

PhotoDeck does not provide email services. If you wish to use email with your domain, the company that hosts your domain name is likely to offer such service.

STEP 1: configuring your domain

This first step allows a visitor’s browser to find out where on the Internet your website is: on PhotoDeck servers.

1. Log onto the administration panel provided by the company that manages your DNS
2. Look for the “DNS records” page, sometimes also called “Advanced DNS”, “DNS zone”, “zone records” or “zone file”
3. Edit the “host” (also called “subdomain” or “record”) of your choice, or create a new one if needed: for example host “www” for “www.alexsmithphotography.com”. The record must be of type “CNAME” (if the record already exists but is of type “A”, you might need to delete it first).
   As a value for the CNAME record (sometimes labeled “points to hostname” or “other host”), enter: “sites.photodeck.com”. (Some DNS hosts require you to add a dot, i.e. sites.photodeck.com.).
   Do NOT set the CNAME directly on the @ record (the @ record is the root of your domain, e.g. “alexsmithphotography.com”), as this would break email!
   (Optional: if there is a TTL setting, enter “3600”)

   NOTE: Do not redirect directly to your own personal PhotoDeck URL - it won’t work properly !!!

4. If your DNS host allows it, add a web redirect from your domain root (e.g. “alexsmithphotography.com”) to the hostname you have just configured (“www.alexmithphotography.com”), using a “visible” redirection. This way, visitors not typing in the “www” part will still be properly directed to your website. Different DNS hosts offer this feature in different ways, please contact your DNS host support if you need help!
5. We strongly recommend you use a contact email address for your website that is also on your domain (e.g. alex@alexsmithphotography.com), to help reduce the probability that messages send to your clients (like file deliveries) are accidentally categorized as Spam. To allow it:
   1- Look for a TXT or SPF record that starts with “v=spf1” and add include:spf.sites.photodeck.com to it.
   Example of a full record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:spf.sites.photodeck.com ~all".
   2- If you don’t have such a record: create a new TXT record with the following content:
   "v=spf1 include:spf.sites.photodeck.com ?all".
   This configuration change will be taken into account within approximately 24 hours.

First step is complete. It might take a few hours to be effective. Once your URL points to PhotoDeck servers, you will see the front page of your website, or alternatively a PhotoDeck “website not found” error page. In both cases, proceed to step 2 to properly link the URL to your own website.

Example: OVH

1. Find the DNS settings for your domain in the OVH admin space
2. Under DNS Zone, delete the www.mydomain.com row and recreate it with a CNAME type (notice the dot at the end of sites.photodeck.com):

   

3. OVH special: remove any TXT row for www.mydomain.com as they otherwise will interfere with your configuration
4. Under Redirection, have mydomain.com redirect to http://www.mydomain.com

   

5. Adjust the SPF record as described above.

For further help with this step, please contact the support of the company that manages your DNS.

STEP 2: configuring your PhotoDeck website

When Step 1 is complete, your URL will redirect to PhotoDeck, but it will not yet work properly with your website.

This second step is to tell PhotoDeck what your website custom URL is, so that when a visitor’s browser comes to our servers asking for your website, the system knows that it is your website that is being requested.

1. Log in to your PhotoDeck account, and go to: My Website / Setup / Name & URL
2. Activate the option to use your own domain
3. Enter your website URL, for example: www.alexsmithphotography.com
4. Check that your DNS settings are correct, via the Check DNS settings button
5. Click on “Save”
6. Your own URL is now connected to your PhotoDeck website, and it replaces your default .photodeck.com URL. The SSL certificate for HTTPS secure connections will be automatically installed within a few hours.
7. If possible, adjust the contact email address to use one under the same domain.

STEP 3: updating manual links

This applies only if you have links in custom pages, for example, if you have build a custom splash page with an ENTER link.

Links on custom pages are created manually, and therefore not automatically updated. If you have created custom pages, make sure the links work, and update them if necessary.

Your PhotoDeck website is a language freak! Not only can you change your website’s language, you can also have it support multiple languages via the Multi-language add-on.

Languages other than English

All messages that PhotoDeck displays on your website have been translated into multiple languages. We have also translated the default navigation links for the major languages.

Once you have changed your website language, you might still need to translate your own navigation links, and naturally, your own content (pages, metadata, pricing profiles names…).

Multiple languages

Choosing supported languages in the Website Settings

With the Multi-language add-on, your website can work in several languages:

• The primary language is the default language, it is the one used when going directly to your website (e.g. mywebsite.photodeck.com)
• Secondary language(s) are accessible via their own URL. For example: mywebsite.photodeck.com/es for Spanish, or mywebsite.photodeck.com/de for German.

When your website supports multiple languages, we recommend you add the “Language switcher” Component in your website design, to make it easy for your visitors to switch language.

Then, all your content can be edited in the various languages your website support.

A menu item in English and French.

Multilingual support includes image/video metadata

Note: your website automatically notifies Search Engines of the various languages available for each page. This way, Google will automatically direct visitors to the most appropriate language version of your website, depending on their location and language choice.

Your own Terms and Conditions, if defined, must be accepted by your clients upon ordering and registering. You can define them under My Business / Legal / Terms and conditions.

The date when a client accepts your terms, if it has been recorded, is visible on the client’s record page.

These terms can also be delivered to your clients as a PDF file along with ordered image downloads.

Using your own PDF file as website terms

Entering your terms and conditions text in the interface guarantees that the text will be nicely integrated on your website and will display well on mobile too. But if you wish to have more control over the format of the file delivered to your clients, you can also import a custom PDF file instead, and it is what will be both shown on your website and optionally included in file deliveries.

How do I link images on my other website to PhotoDeck pricing and checkout?

On your other website image pages, place “Buy” links that point to:

• http://[your PhotoDeckURL]/media/302348fe-41ac-11df-8124-002219dda2c0/price: link to the pricing page for image whose PhotoDeck ID is 302348fe-41ac-11df-8124-002219dda2c0. Use our CSV export feature on the Images/Manage page (at the very bottom) to get the list of your images and corresponding PhotoDeck IDs. This is the safest and best-performing method
• http://[your PhotoDeckURL]/media/IMG_1234/price: link to the pricing page for the image whose original file name starts with IMG_1234
• http://[your PhotoDeckURL]/media/IMG_1234.JPG/price: same, using the full original image file name
• http://[your PhotoDeckURL]/media/IMG_1234/price/rm: link to the Rights Managed pricing page for that image

The front page (“home”) is what visitors first see when they go to your website URL. It can be changed under My Website / Front Page.

The front page can be:

• The index of all top-level galleries, displayed as thumbnails. This is the default. Hidden galleries are excluded.
• A specific gallery. For example, you can display a portfolio gallery with a selection of your most unique shots and videos (see below to create an impressive frontpage slideshow).
  Alternatively, if you have organized your galleries by categories (e.g. “Portfolio”, “Archive”, …), you can also put the most important top-level gallery/category as the frontpage. The index (thumbnails) of sub-galleries under it will then be displayed.
• A custom page, if you prefer to have a free-form page on your frontpage, for example with a full-page background slideshow (see tutorial below). You can select a different frontpage for your smartphone website.

If you set a specific gallery as the frontpage, you will need to make sure that the other galleries are accessible via links in your navigation menu. Refer to the section on menus for further help!

TUTORIAL 1: displaying a full-bleed background image, video or slideshow on your frontpage

Frontpage slideshow with multiple images and taking the text from the image titles

1. Create a new custom page under My Website / Pages not in menu ;
2. Leave the page content blank, and click the Banner / background button ;
3. Select the Background template, optionally add the text that will be displayed over the slideshow, and hit the Create button  ;
4. Select the gallery you want to take the slideshow images / videos from. You can also hand-pick the images you want to include (the slideshow can be limited to a single image or video) 
5. Adjust the settings under the Text section to taste. If you display several images, instead of (or in addition to) a fixed text, you can also use the images titles to have the text change with each image. You can also adjust the slideshow luminosity and text color for legibility ;
6. Under the page’s Settings tab, set the page as the website frontpage.

TUTORIAL 2: Displaying an auto-scaling slideshow on your frontpage

1. Set your frontpage to be a specific gallery, one that contains the images you want to display (see above). It can one of your existing galleries, or a new gallery created for that purpose.
2. Make sure that gallery uses the default “Portfolio” display style. (You can also use a different gallery style, but it must be set to open galleries to their first image, with both auto-scaling and slideshow enabled.)
3. If needed, adjust the slideshow timer, loop type, transition style and maximum image crop by editing the display style. You will also be able to hide the Selection and e-commerce buttons if appropriate.
4. Optional: if you wish, you can also hide the gallery so that it doesn’t appear in the galleries thumbnails index.

The size and layout of the slideshow within the page will be directly based on your design.

A custom page is a page of free-form content, mostly useful for information pages.

Custom pages are independent from the galleries but, like galleries, are displayed within the global website design.

Note that custom pages do not appear in the navigation menu displayed on your website unless you add them!

When creating a new page, you can either start from a blank page, choose from a list of templates, or copy / duplicate a previous custom page.

The free content editor lets you add elements (text, images, buttons, quotes, preset forms and more) in a layout you fully control.

The content is organized in rows. Each row can be a single element, or be split into columns. The columns’ widths adjust to the screen’s width while retaining their respective proportions. On smartphones, the columns are displayed one above the other.

Columns can be easily resized by drag-dropping the resizing bar, visible when placing the mouse between the columns.

Embedding external videos and widgets

It is easy to embed a video from an external website like Youtube or Vimeo into a custom page or a gallery introduction: simply add an HTML code element via the free content editor, and in that element, paste the provided HTML code.

The HTML code element can also be used to embed widgets like a Google Maps, but note that the embed must be based on an iFrame (i.e. the code starts with <iframe>. Most external widgets are based on javascript, and this is not allowed on PhotoDeck due to security and legal (GDPR) reasons.

There are three different ways you can add PDF files to your website, and optionally let visitors download them.

Distributing and/or selling e-books and other publications

You can upload PDF files just like images and videos, in a gallery. This is best when your intent is to distribute or sell the files, for example ebooks. Only the cover page will be shown, as an image, but you can use the free download or ecommerce features to let clients download or purchase the full files.

Letting visitors quickly view and download a file

For files that are related to your website or your business, for example price lists or contract templates, you can include a link in a custom page that lets the visitor open the file:

1. In a custom page (or gallery text), type the link text, select it, and click on the link icon 
2. In the link settings, under Document, select a previously imported file, or import a new one.

Using a custom PDF file as your website terms and conditions

Instead of entering your terms and conditions text, you can also use a custom PDF file. Please refer to the help on terms and conditions.

A navigation menu is a set of links (also called menu items), displayed on your website.

These links can point to any part of your website, or to any external website (for example, another website of yours).

A navigation menu is displayed within a Menu component in your website design and its style can be customized in the design editor. Navigation menus also often inherit styling from a larger navigation block that might also include for example the logo or the language selection.

PhotoDeck base themes include a single menu. Website designers can add an additional navigation menu, by adding a Menu component in the theme’s HTML code and associating it to a new menu (set of links).

To add a new link, use the + link link and choose the kind of link you wish to add. A number of options allow you to easily link to specific parts of your website, for example to specific galleries, to the cart, etc… Use External website / full URL to link to an external page, or a page you want to provide the full URL of.

To re-order the links within the menu, simply drag and drop them into their new position.

You can also add separators to split your menu into groups. The separators have their content and style defined via the design panel, as part of the Menu Component options.

A drop-down menu (also called sub-menu) allows you to nest up to 15 links under a single menu item.

A drop-down menu is itself an item in the navigation menu, under which you can add more links.

Existing menu items can’t be used as drop-down menus, new drop-down menus with their own title must be created. A click or tap on a drop-down menu title opens it, revealing its nested links, or closes it.

To create a drop-down menu, use the Add drop-down menu button in the menu editor and give it a title. You can then add links by clicking on the Add button.

You can reorder items within a drop-down menu by drag-dropping the items into the desired order. Using separators is also possible.

PhotoDeck websites are linked to social media in different ways:

Links to your own social media networks

You can define links to your own social media networks (like Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, etc…) under My Website / Setup / Social Networks. These links will then be displayed as icons on your website.

In the website design customization, you can change the size and look of the social network icons.

Each theme / design has a designated spot to display these icons, but note that you can also display them as part of the website navigation menu. To do so, add a new link to the menu and select the “Social network icons” option as the destination of the link.

Make sure to link back from your social network pages to your website, as links are important for search engines like Google!

Letting visitors share your website on their social networks

A Share button / icon can be displayed on enlarged images and galleries. It opens a popup that lets visitors select their social network (including Pinterest, Whatsapp…) and share the page in question (its link).

The button is displayed on enlarged images if allowed by the gallery display style in use (under its Enlarged images/videos / Displayed buttons / Share button setting). It is shown on galleries’ thumbnails pages if Thumbnails pages / Share button and Display gallery-wide action buttons are active.

This button is never shown in private galleries.

Note that there is no Instagram share button, because Instagram is not designed to let users share others’ websites or images. But if you use Instagram, do make sure to add a link to your own Instagram page (see above).

Sharing images from your PhotoDeck admin space

You can also share images/videos (links to pages on your website) directly from your admin space. Please refer to the dedicated help section on this topic (see links below).

These custom slideshows are designed to enhance a page or a gallery overview. They can contain images and videos that will automatically play (or naturally, just a single fixed image). They can be located:

• As the background for your website on that page. In this case, the website design will automatically adjust to display as much of the image / video as possible, and to unify the text color ;
  
  
  Background with splash text
• Above the page content, showing either images / videos in their normal proportions or a banner ;
  
  
  Banner with fixed text and image captions

To showcase a full gallery by itself in slideshow mode, use for example the Portfolio gallery style on the gallery instead of a banner slideshow.

Creating a new slideshow

To create a new custom slideshow for a gallery, open that gallery’s Banner dialog, and and choose a template.

To create a new custom slideshow for a custom page, open that custom page in your admin space, and choose a template under the Banner / Background tab.

Banner above gallery index

Adding images and videos to a slideshow

The simplest is to add content taken automatically from a gallery.

You can also hand-pick images and videos, in order to display a single one, to remove some of them from the slideshow (e.g. images in portrait orientation), or to add images/ videos from different galleries.

The quality of the images / videos is the same as when they are displayed by themselves (i.e. determined by the gallery display style).

Slideshow layout

These options allow you to position the slideshow either above the content, or as a background for the page.

The Max height setting is important when you display the slideshow above the content: regardless of the size of the viewer’s display, it allows to always display some of the content below the slideshow. This can be useful to constrain the slideshow to a banner format (e.g. max 40% of the window height), or to make it more obvious without scrolling that there is more content on the page than the slideshow (e.g. max 90%).

It is normally not a good idea to constrain the slideshow height if you display it as the page background!

To be able to nicely fill the whole space allocated to the slideshow, the images / videos are cropped. The Max cropping options allow you to limit the cropping to avoid having important parts of images cut out.

Adding text to the slideshow

When adding overlaid text, it is even more important than usually to test the result also on a smartphone.

Optional slideshow text include:

• Free text common to all the slideshow images / videos. It can be displayed as an overlay for maximum effect, or below the slideshow.
• Image-specific text, that will therefore change with each image / video. The slideshow pulls the title and/or the description of each image / video, which you can modify under My Images and Videos.

Slideshow using images’ captions, and highly lightened

Text color and legibility

When displaying text over a slideshow (or a slideshow as a page background), it is important that the overlaid text stays highly legible. To that avail, you can change the Color of overlaid text setting. In addition, the Images luminosity option can come in handy to dim/lighten the slideshow and ensure that the text stands out.

Your PhotoDeck website is optimized for search engines, which means that we make sure it is easy for search engines to understand how the site is structured and to discover images. We also automatically submit to search engines a sitemap of your site, including links to images, when they index your site.

To get your website in Google, you must have links from other websites pointing to your own site, preferably with your website name in the link text. You can start with links from your public social network profiles.

How well your site ranks on Google for specific searches depends on many factors, and the most important ones relate to how popular Google thinks your site is, based for example on the number of links coming from other websites, and how fresh the content is.

To go deeper, check out our full guide on SEO for photographers!

If you wish to fine-tune the way search engines index your website, you can adjust a number of settings.

Main Keyword

Someone looking for photos of New York might type in a search engine “New York photos”, “New York pictures” or “New York images”.
Your website cannot rank high on all search terms, so pick your main keyword meaning “photograph”. That word is displayed in many places throughout your website, for example below the images.

Title text in Browser bar

It is a key element in how your website is indexed by search engines (also called HTML Title Tag). It usually appears as the website title on Search Engines result pages.

On galleries thumbnails pages, the browser bar text is automatically generated based on the gallery name and your global SEO settings. You can add text before and/or after the gallery name.

In addition, you can specify a custom title for individual gallery indexes and custom pages via their settings.

On pages that feature a single image (or video), the browser bar text is always automatically generated based on the image title and your global SEO settings.

HTML Meta tags

The Meta tags are embedded in the HTML code of each page, but not displayed.

The Meta Description sets the content of the Description Meta tag of a page on your website. It is sometimes used by search engines (when displaying results, not for ranking), and by social networks.

Like Titles, the Meta Description is automatically generated based on your global SEO settings, and you can specify a custom description for individual galleries and custom pages via their Settings.

The Meta Keywords fill the Keywords Meta tag on every page of your website. Search engines don’t use it and its use is therefore very limited.

Google Search Console can provide useful insights on the indexing on your website and on the keywords that bring you organic traffic.

Nonetheless, the reports can be slightly misleading, and you might in particular get the following messages:

Page Indexing issue: Blocked by robots.txt

This message means that the Google crawler has found some pages on your website for which the instructions we provide in the robots.txt file indicate that they should not be indexed.

This is by design: the pages in questions include for example image price pages and search results. Google allocates an “indexing quota” to websites, depending on their popularity, so it is important to help the crawler focus on the important content and avoid indexing pages that are not likely to be useful SEO-wise, especially for photography websites with lots of image pages.

This is therefore not an error and you can safely ignore that warning.

Mobile Usability issue: Content wider than screen

Google Console sometimes reports that a specific page does not display well on mobile because its content is too wide.

This is usually a Google Console bug, and the message may come up even if you haven’t changed the page in question in a long time. We recommend you proceed as follows:

• Check the page in question on your mobile phone to make sure it works properly and without horizontal scrolling. PhotoDeck pages are designed to be mobile-friendly, but it is for example always possible to add custom HTML code that doesn’t scale well on small displays.
• Once you have checked that the page is indeed fine on your mobile phone, use Google Console’s Validate fix feature to force them to check it again. In most cases, the error will disappear by itself within a few days.

The European Union law requires that a website shall get user consent before setting cookies. These cookies include tracking cookies used by analytics services (like Google Analytics) and by embedded content providers (Vimeo, Youtube, Facebook widgets, etc…). Purely technical, short-lived cookies such as those set by PhotoDeck are exempted.

DISCLAIMER: PhotoDeck does not offer legal advise nor qualified recommendations. If in doubt, please consult with your attorney or local government body.

PhotoDeck provides you with several options to best adapt to your specific situation.

Consent mode options

• Don’t request consent
  This option does not display any information bar about cookies, and does not prevent any cookies to be set. This is probably the best option if the EU law does not apply to you.
• Info bar only
  This option displays an information bar to let your visitors know that your website uses cookies. Your visitors can close the information bar but cannot decline cookies.
• Opt-Out
  This option initially assumes that your visitors accept cookies, but displays an information bar with ACCEPT / DECLINE options. Cookies are set (tracking services and embedded third-party content are enabled), until the visitors indicates that he/she declines cookies. When cookies are declined, existing cookies are deleted when technically possible (PhotoDeck cannot delete all cookies set by embedded third-party content providers). When cookies are declined, analytics services are disabled and embedded content is also replaced by a message indicating that cookies must be accepted. This option is not strictly compatible with the EU law.
• Opt-In
  This option disables Google Analytics and similar services, and replaces all embedded third-party content with a message indicating that cookies must be accepted. The information bar offers ACCEPT and DECLINE options. When cookies are accepted, tracking services and embedded third-party content are activated. This option offers the best legal compliance of all options, but is also the worse in terms of website usability.

Automatically generated “Cookies policy” page

PhotoDeck automatically generates for you a cookies policy page based on your chosen option for cookies consent.

This policy is linked from the default cookies consent bar on your website, and you can also add it to your website’s navigation menu via its dedicated link type.

The full URL for this page is http://YOUR-SITE-URL/cookies-policy.

Customizing the cookies consent bar and the cookies policy

You can easily change the message displayed on the cookies consent bar. In this case, the link to the default generated policy is also removed, so you can either:

• Manually add the link to the default policy into your custom message, using HTML code. For example:
  <a href="/cookies-policy">Learn more</a>
• Create your own Cookies policy page (as a normal custom page), and add a link in your message using HTML code. For example:
  <a href="/PAGE-URL-FRAGMENT">Learn more</a> (The page URL fragment is defined as part of the custom page settings. See screenshot for full example)

PhotoDeck lets you integrate your website with some providers like Google Analytics to analyze traffic, as well as add certain site ownership verification codes.

To see the supported providers and add new integration code, head over to My website / Setup / Analytics and site verification.

For security, performance, and consistency with your website’s cookies policy, it is not possible to freely add custom scripts like booking systems, live chat or ads. The content of the HTML HEAD tag cannot be customized. Please contact support if you wish to suggest the addition of a provider!

A design in PhotoDeck is only concerned with the overall layout and the style of your website. Designs are like “skins”, the same features are always available regardless of your design. Your website has 2 designs, one for desktop computers, laptops and tablets, and the other, optimized for smartphones.

Within any design, it is also possible to greatly customize the way the images and galleries are displayed (via the Gallery Styles), what is shown on the front page when a visitor comes to your site, etc…

The Design panel

This is where you choose and customize the overall “skin” for your website, both for the desktop/tablet and for the smartphone versions. What is done on this panel applies to all pages of your website.

This is where you customize the items that form the layout of your website: logo, navigation menu, colors, fonts, …

• The main panel allows you to easily access each component’s settings and content.
• The Customize theme tab opens the customization tool

Preview - Commit - Revert

You can preview a work-in-progress design via the Preview button (top-right corner of the screen), without it affecting your live website. If you are unhappy with the changes you have made, hit the Revert button to reset the work-in-progress design to what you have on the live website.

Click on Apply once you are happy with the changes. After that point, there is no going back to a previous design.

The customization tool

Changing the global colors allow to easily create a professional-looking and unique color palette, when the individual components’ colors are automatically computed:

The options follow a hierarchy: what is customized at the global level applies to any individual component, except if that component defines its own customization. Hovering with the mouse over an option group shows what components are affected by these options:

Similarly, clicking on the “filter” icon on a component (for example your social networks icons) will bring up all relevant customization options:

Every setting has a “switch” which allows to activate or deactivate its customization:

Customized individual colors (left) vs colors automatically computed from main colors (right)

Gallery Display Styles

The gallery Display Styles allow you to customize how images are displayed, based on the purpose of the gallery they are in. Please refer to the section on Gallery Display Styles for further help.

PhotoDeck websites are designed to adapt automatically to small displays like tablets. When you change your design, it is therefore important that you make sure your website still looks great on tablets. If you don’t have a tablet, simply progressively make your browser window smaller until it is approximately half the width of a standard laptop display, and you will get a good feel on how it will behave on small tablets.

To add your own logo:

1. Prepare your logo in the size and format it will be displayed on your website. If it is meant to be displayed in a side column, it is best not to go over 250px of width, depending on the theme. We recommend saving the logo as a PNG file, with transparency if appropriate, or to use a SVG graphics file after running it through a SVG optimizer (e.g. via a specialized online service).
2. Go to My Website / Design and open the logo options by clicking on the filter icon above the logo and opening the logo options in the left-hand side column.
3. Click on the Image option. In the popup window, upload your logo file, or select a file previously uploaded into your Visuals & assets.
4. Your logo is now visible in the preview window. Once you are happy with it, click on Apply to apply the changes to your live website.

Google fonts

Choose your font on the Google font repository. Then simply type its name in the PhotoDeck panel to select and use it!

It is best to restrict yourself to a maximum total of one or two fonts in your design, and/or a couple of font weights. This way your site will stay clean-looking, and will keep loading fast.

Clean fonts we like: Lato, Open Sans, Source Sans Pro, Roboto, Raleway, Montserrat, Vollkorn, Klara.

Adobe Font integration

We don’t recommend using Adobe Fonts if you are located in the E.U., as Adobe fonts are served by servers outside of the E.U. and consent from visitors isn’t collected.

Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit) is a leading commercial webfont provider.

1. Create a web project with the fonts of your choice in the Adobe Fonts interface ;
2. Enter your Adobe Web Project ID under My Website / Design / Main fonts. Your web project ID is shown in the Adobe Fonts interface on top of this page:
   
   
   The embed code will then be automatically added to your website.
3. You must then edit your custom CSS code in your PhotoDeck admin space to apply the font(s) as you wish. For example, to apply by default the Proxima Nova font to the whole site: #ws_page { font-family: "proxima-nova", sans-serif; }. The font-family is shown in your Adobe interface for each font in your project. If you wish to apply a font to a single component of your design, you will need to use a webpage inspector (e.g. Firebug or Chrome/Safari built-in developer tool) to identify the proper CSS selector. CSS selectors examples: #ws_page .block .title for page titles, #ws_page #component_xxxxx for a given component…

Standard HTML fonts

This font map shows how different font families render on standard Windows and Mac browsers.

(For each pair listed, we use additional similar-looking fallback fonts for systems where either font is not installed).

It is easy to backup the design of your website, for example before making changes to the design customization or upgrading the theme to a newer version. This is not designed as a long-term backup: old backups might not be restorable.

You will find the feature to backup (or restore) your theme under My website / Design / Advanced.

This only backups your design, i.e. the “skin” of your website. This does not backup the galleries, pages, website configuration nor any content. As your PhotoDeck website is not just a simple batch of files, it cannot be backed up or exported as a single entity. Please refer to our data protection policy to learn more about how we store and safeguard your data.

Once you have completed the design of your PhotoDeck website, you can export it as a WordPress theme. This way, your blog will appear to be completely integrated into your website.

The resulting WordPress theme is based on WordPress’ default Twenty-Twelve theme, which is part of WordPress 3.0 (and above) distributions. If the Twenty-Twelve theme is already installed (which is normally the case), all you need to do is install onto WordPress the custom PhotoDeck theme (zip file).

The theme has multiple widget areas, so it is easy to customize it with blog archives, linkrolls, tag clouds and any other WordPress widget.

Note that for best results, the block that normally contains the images on your website should be at least 950px wide.

How to install your theme on your WordPress blog

Once you have downloaded your custom WordPress theme, log onto your WordPress blog as an admin and go to: Appearance / Install Theme / Upload.

WordPress limitation: if you want to update a former custom WordPress theme, you will have to delete it first. (If it is active, you have to switch to another theme before being able to delete it).

NOTE: www.wordpress.com does not allow the installation of custom themes. Most website hosting services offer full-fledged WordPress blogs, though.

Note to Safari users when downloading your custom theme

By default, Safari automatically opens downloaded zip files, whereas WordPress requires the theme zip file. To work around this, you have 2 options:

• Re-create a zip archive of the downloaded folder (“PhotoDeck-WP”)
• or change Safari’s behavior so that it does not open the downloaded file: Safari > preferences > General > uncheck “Open safe files after downloading”

A pricing profile is a set of prices that is applied to individual images (to sell a whole gallery, see the gallery’s options instead).

It can be a simple price list, or a much complex structure for which the final price depends on a number of options -- PhotoDeck gives you extreme control over your offering and your prices.

To show prices on your website for an image or video clip, you must attach one or several pricing profiles to the image / video clip.

Defining several pricing profiles allows you to split your media library into different pricing tiers, and/or sell different kinds of products.

There are multiple pricing profile templates available to sell downloads, prints, stock photography, videos and documents, and all can be deeply customized.

Setting up automatic fulfillment through a leading pro lab is as easy as creating a pricing profile.

You retain all the powerful customization options and full control over pricing, taxes, and the scope of products you want to offer. In addition, you also keep a direct relationship with the lab.

Selling prints fulfilled by a partner lab

1. To get started, simply create a partner lab pricing profile under My Business / E-Commerce / Products & Prices.

   

2. Then, customize the product catalog and the prices to your preference (see dedicated help topic). You will be able to easily check estimated costs for each size/option, as well as define your own markup.
3. Connect the profile to your account with the lab:

   The lab will bill you directly for each fulfilled order.

   You keep a direct relationship with the labs you use. PhotoDeck´s role is merely to forward orders for fulfillment purposes on your behalf, it is therefore your responsibility to ensure that no unnecessary order is sent to a lab, and that if any personal data is included in the orders, the lab is able to process them legally (e.g. GDRP)!

   Some partner labs, like WHCC or One Vision Imaging, require a customer account with them, and it must be connected your PhotoDeck account.

   Connect a pricing profile to your account with a partner lab via the pricing profile’s Lab Connection tab.

   

4. Under the Taxes and Shipping tab, select the tax profile to use, and select the shipping methods to offer to your customers (see dedicated help topic). Opening the shipping profile will show estimated costs, and will also allow you to take a margin on shipping.

   

5. Attach the pricing profiles to the images you wish to sell.
6. Done! When a customer purchases a product from this pricing profile, a fulfillment order will be automatically sent to the lab.

Fulfillment options

The Automatically submit orders to this lab, on my behalf option activates the automated fulfillment. When enabled, as soon as an order on your website containing items linked to this pricing profile is paid (or manually marked as such), or when you manually trigger the delivery of such an order, PhotoDeck will order the corresponding fulfillment to the lab, on your behalf.

Alternatively, when the option is unchecked, you will have to manually trigger the lab order. In addition, when the option is unchecked, and for lab orders sent to you (i.e. not directly to your customers), you also have the option to allow lab orders to be grouped. If you frequently fulfill orders within a short timeframe that are all sent to you, this can help you save on shipping costs.

Monitoring and managing lab orders

To view all lab orders, submitted or pending submission, go to My Business / Orders / Orders to Labs. Each order placed on your website also links to the corresponding lab order(s).

Who do I contact if I need help?

PhotoDeck’s role is to automatically submit orders on your behalf to the lab of your choice.

Once an order is submitted to a lab, please contact the lab directly if you have questions or concerns regarding that order. Each lab order carries an order ID, known to the lab.

When you have created a pricing profile connected to a partner lab, you can customize what products to offer to your customers, and their price.

Product list

A partner pricing profile includes all the products that can be offered through this lab. The first step is to determine what products you wish to sell for your images, within this pricing profile. You can add/remove products from your pricing profile at will. Once a product has been removed, it can be re-added later on.

Don’t overwhelm your customers with too wide a choice: make it easy for them, only offer a few options.

You can also change the names of the products shown to your customers, as well as their description: once you add a product to your pricing profile, the description field is pre-filled with information about the product. You can also supplement this information with your own description, and even add your own images.

The price table

For each product, its price list defines what options are available to your customers, and at what price.

The column on green background defines the “base price”. Each option in the table carries its own additional price.

You can elect to simplify a product by removing options: simply keep the corresponding cells empty, and the option will not be offered to your customers.

Estimated costs

Estimated fulfillment costs for each option, provided by the lab, can be displayed via the Display estimated costs checkbox.

The system allows you to sell below estimated cost. A red background will appear for all prices that are below estimated costs.

To see the price table in action, use the Check prices facility at the bottom of the screen.

Resetting all prices based on your own markup

Prices can be reset all at once at any time via the Reset prices checkbox. This allows you to easily define prices based on your margin preferences and cost estimates provided by the partner lab. The exact formula is:

price = image price + print cost x (1 + markup on print / 100) + options cost x (1 + markup on options / 100)

The prices are then rounded according to your rounding preferences, set under the Settings tab.

These pricing profiles types are simple pricing lists, easy to customize, and easy for your clients to use.

You can re-order the list by simply drag-dropping rows in the list table.

When an image is delivered to your client, it is automatically resized in the size you define in the Delivery Specifications column.

Note that PhotoDeck does not display prices for sizes that are bigger than the uploaded image file.

For example, if you upload an 11 Mpixels image and if you have defined a price for 12 Mpixels, that price will not be displayed (PhotoDeck does not upsize at delivery).

Rights-Managed pricing profiles are extremely customizable. To make the most of this ability, please note the following:

• you can add/create/invent as many pricing options and sub-options as you wish
• a pricing option can be based on a custom list of values, or it can depend on further sub-options
• you must define a base price (and optionally a minimum price) for each group of options at the top level
• the base price corresponds to a specific set of sub-options.
• sub-options are ultimately based on choice lists. Lists include price ratios:

Price ratios

Price ratios answer the following question: “how much more expensive is this option compared to the base price option?”

Consider the following example:

• the base price for an image is $100, corresponding to an A4 image size
• in the image size value list, the following ratios are defined:
  • A4: 200
  • A3: 300

The price for an A3 image would then be: $100 * (300/200) = $150

Image delivery for Rights-Managed prices

The image is delivered in its original size and format, unless for web uses where a pixel size is defined. In that case, the image is resized to the corresponding size.

The images/videos in a gallery can be sold independently (as separate items), or a gallery can be sold in full (in this case all files are sold to the customer under a single price, regardless of the gallery size).

To access the pricing options for a gallery, open the gallery under My Images & Videos and open the Prices popup.

Selling individual images

This section attaches pre-defined pricing profiles to all files in the gallery. It simply automates the process of selecting one or more images or videos and attaching/detaching pricing profiles. Please refer to the pricing profiles documentation for more information about pricing profiles.

Selling a whole gallery at a fixed price

This allows you to sell a gallery as a whole and deliver all files under a single price. Just like for individual images, it is possible to sell the original files downloads and/or also to sell lower-resolution downloads.

In addition, it is also possible to sell the gallery as an “offline” product, i.e. a product that you will deliver outside of the system (e.g. physical product).

Multiple options to sell a full gallery

This feature is available for galleries of up to 500 files. The “Buy whole gallery” button will not appear on the gallery (thumbnails pages) if the gallery display style used by the gallery hides the gallery-wide “action buttons”.

Selling all files in a gallery at their unit price

On your website, this adds the option to add to the cart all priced files in the gallery, at once, via a customizable “Buy whole gallery” button.

Adding all images to the cart at once

The files are priced according to their individual pricing profile(s). When the files have different pricing profiles, the customer will be able to add to their cart all files for the pricing profile of their choice.

Only the pricing profiles with the setting Offer to add many media to the cart in one go activated are considered.

This feature is available when adding up to 500 files to the cart. The “Buy whole gallery” button will not appear on the gallery (thumbnails pages) if the gallery display style used by the gallery hides the gallery-wide “action buttons”.

PhotoDeck sends the client an email with links to download the images. The images are potentially resized to the specified size.

The images are sent in the same format they have been uploaded in (JPG or TIF), and all the metadata present at upload is preserved.

Videos are re-encoded if needed, according to the order specifications.

RAW images and PDF files are delivered as they were uploaded, without any change.

A PDF copy of your own Terms and Conditions is also included if you have specified them (under My Business / Legal).

The client can also download their order via your website, from their secure area.

For digital sales (stock or downloads), when defining a price value, you can indicate that the purchased image or video must be delivered in a certain format (the Description does not matter).

Images

You can define a size in KB/MB, in which case the image will be resized to exactly your specifications (1 Mpixel = 3 MB).

Alternatively, you can define a pixel size, as well as whether the delivered image should fit within that size, or should be just big enough so that the defined size can be cropped without resizing.

For example, if your original image width/height ratio is 3:2:

• 100x100 px (min) will deliver an image of dimensions 150x100px
• 100x100 px (max) will deliver an image of dimensions 100x67px

Note that PhotoDeck does not display prices for sizes that are bigger than the uploaded image file.

PPI (or DPI): a confusing figure

PPI (pixel per inch) is a figure that indicates to a printer what physical size the image should be printed to based on its pixel size. It is just a metadata figure, that has no one-to-one relation with the size or quality of an image. For example, a “300 ppi file” (commonly called “300 dpi file”), says nothing about the quality unless a size is associated with it -- a tiny 30x30 pixel image can be printed at 300 ppi, it will just come out as a 0.1 x 0.1 inch print.

What really matters is the pixel size!

Note that we indicate, for your clients convenience, how big a specific image size would print if it where to be printed at a “standard” 300 ppi resolution, but it doesn’t mean anything more than that.

Videos

Similarly, video pricing profiles allow to define options for delivered sizes, as well as encoding format.

You can change the name of files when they are delivered, for example based on their delivery format, using the following variables (with the {{ and }} braces) :

Examples

The variables can be mixed as you wish. Here are a few simple examples:

• To denote that a file is low-res: {{basename}}-lowres
• To add the delivered size to filenames: {{basename}}-{{width}}x{{height}}
• To replace the original filename by a client or project’s name with a sequence number: PROJECT_X-{{seq}}. We don’t recommend you remove the basename if there is a chance the client might ask for a different edit or format, as it will make it much more difficult for you to identify the file on your end, especially if you don’t include the shooting date/time.

Do not include a file extension (.jpg, .tif, .mp4, etc…), it is automatically added based on the format delivered.

When selling prints and products, the Image cropping setting lets you chose what to do about products print sizes that don’t match the image being purchased:

• None: products sizes that don’t approximately match an image’s ratio will not be shown to your customers for that image. Only print sizes which ratio is within 10% of the image’s are offered.
• Show: all products sizes are offered, even for print ratios that are significantly different than the image. The cropped area is displayed on the website, so the customer sees exactly what to expect.
• Yes: like the Show option, but lets the customer adjust the cropping on your website by moving the printed area. For prints fulfilled by an integrated lab, this option is only offered for those labs that permit it (the integration with Picto does not).

For pricing profiles where you create yourself the list of options (self-fulfilled or fulfilled by a non-integrated lab), this feature requires that you specify the exact ratio or size of each option offered. Indicating the exact size in cm/inches also allows to display a warning for print sizes that are too large in relation to the selected image’s definition.

For the options Show and Yes, if you fulfill the prints yourself, orders will include the printed area details. Make sure to place a test order to check that you are able to fulfill the cropping! Non-integrated labs (that get automated orders by email) will receive pre-cropped files.

This type of automated fulfillment is meant for local and flexible pro labs, and in case our off-the-shelf partner lab integration does not suit you.

You can work with any lab for automated print fulfillment, as long as they are able to receive orders via email.

If automated fulfillment is enabled for one or more items ordered on your website, the system will automatically email an order to the lab(s) in question, on your behalf, to print and ship these items.

An order email to a lab includes:

• The information you will have specified when connecting your account to the lab: your contact and billing information, printing and shipping preferences, special instructions, etc…
• A delivery address, either yours or your client´s, depending on your preferences and the lab´s drop-ship capabilities ;
• The detail of the ordered items to print (as shown in the order placed by your client, i.e. as you have specified them in their pricing profile). Your sales prices are excluded, as well as items not fulfilled by the lab ;
• A link for the lab to download the original high-res files required for printing. The files will be pre-cropped as needed, if print sizes are known and cropping is enabled on the corresponding pricing profiles.

You will receive a copy of all orders emailed to your lab(s).

Is my lab supported?

Any lab that is able to accept orders by email is supported. A lab simply needs to open a free Lab account on PhotoDeck to be supported. The lab will bill you directly.

Feel free to send your lab more information about receiving orders via PhotoDeck.

You keep a direct relationship with the labs you use. PhotoDeck´s role is merely to forward orders for fulfillment purposes on your behalf, it is therefore your responsibility to ensure that no unnecessary order is sent to a lab, and that if any personal data is included in the orders, the lab is able to process them legally (e.g. GDRP)! You also need to make sure that the lab can work with the descriptions you use in your pricing profiles and your additional instructions.

How do I enable fulfillment by a lab?

The connection happens in your pricing profiles. For every Print pricing profile, you can associate a lab for fulfillment. This way, you can chose to have some products fulfilled by a lab, and others (using a different pricing profile) by another lab, automatically.

You can also associate a pricing profile with a lab for fulfillment without having orders automatically emailed to the lab. In this case, you will have to send the order manually via a dedicated button on the client´s order page in your admin space.

Step-by-step setup

1. Open the pricing profile for your prints under My Business / E-Commerce / Products & Prices, and click on Lab Connection ;
2. Activate the checkbox Products in this pricing profile are fulfilled by a third-party lab ;
3. Configure a new lab:
   • Enter the email address of the lab where orders will be sent (communicated by the lab), and a name for the lab (for your own use). The lab must have a Lab account associated with that email address ;
   • Enter your Account number with the lab (optional) ;
   • If you wish to send the orders to the lab manually via the dedicated button on each relevant order´s page, uncheck the Automatically submit orders to this lab, on my behalf box ;
   • Fill in the instructions that will be sent with every order. For example, invoicing/billing instructions -- but don´t include confidential information! (You will be able to reuse this lab connection of other pricing profiles). You can also provide additional instructions specific to the products in the pricing profile, if needed. For example, paper and margin choice.
   • Click on the Create button.

   

4. Hit Save. Done!

Make sure that the lab is able to fulfill your orders as specified !!!

Shipping

To charge for shipping, select a shipping profile under the Shipping & Taxes tab. You might need to create a shipping profile first. Once the shipping profile is associated, you can define in the shipping profile settings whether you would like the lab to ship directly to your clients, or to you.

If no shipping profile is associated to the pricing profile, shipping will be free to your customers, and the lab will be instructed to ship directly to them.

Fulfillment for Packages

A lab can also be used in connection with a Package pricing profile. In that case:

• Only the Print items will be ordered from the lab (packages can contain both prints and digital downloads) ;
• You can also exclude items in the package from being fulfilled by the lab, via the Prices table where the package items are defined.

Grouping orders to save on shipping

To automatically group multiple client orders into a single order to the lab:

1. Open the settings for the lab connection ;
2. Uncheck the Automatically submit orders to this lab, on my behalf box ;
3. Check the Group multiple customer orders into single lab orders box.

When new customer orders are ready to be delivered (e.g. when they are paid), they will be combined into a single order to the lab, until you manually send that grouped order to the lab (via the dedicated button from any relevant customer order page).

Coupon codes are a great way to promote your products and reach new customers. It’s a familiar concept with online shoppers, and setting one up for your own clients is fast and easy.

1. Navigate to My Business / E-Commerce / Coupons and click on Create a new coupon. The first thing you’ll want to do is give your coupon an informative name to help you keep track of it. For example, you could name it “30% Discount” or name it after a client group you want to use the coupon, such as “Repeat customers”. Note that your customers won’t see this name.
   
   
2. Next, enter a code that you will give to your clients. This can be anything you like, so be creative! If you’re setting the coupon up for a single customer, this would be a great opportunity to make them feel unique by including their name in the code, for example.
3. Now you’re ready to set up the actual discount. This can be a set amount or a percentage. You can also set up a minimum order requirement - a good idea especially to incentivize customers to purchase more. If you only want the discount to apply to a specific product, you can assign it to a pricing profile directly.
   
   

If you’re giving a global discount, be careful to not apply additional discount rules for individual pricing profiles. The discounts will be added together, and you may end up giving a much bigger discount than intended.

Please note that a coupon code is never technically personal, i.e. it is not possible to assign, attach or limit a coupon to a given client. It would be enough for the client to use a new email address to bypass that limit. You can nevertheless manually create a code that is not easily guessed and give it to a given client, and if needed configure the coupon so that it can only be used once.

Your clients may have only one coupon in their carts. A coupon can only be applied to items attached to the same taxes.

A shipping profile defines a method of shipping and its associated prices.

Shipping profiles must be attached to the pricing profiles they correspond to (you can reuse the same shipping profile for different pricing profiles).

You can also create and attach multiple shipping profiles to the same pricing profile, to offer various shipping options to your clients: “standard shipping”, “overnight delivery”…

When you sell prints fulfilled by an integrated partner lab, shipping profiles are automatically created and all you need to to do is attach a tax profile to them, if you use a tax profile.

When using a partner lab to fulfill print orders, shipping profiles specific to the lab are available and must be used.

Partner labs can either ship products directly to your customer (“drop-ship”), or to you.

To enable/disable a shipping method, simply check/uncheck the corresponding box under the pricing profile’s Tax & Shipping.

Lab shipping directly to the customer

When the lab ships directly to your customers, the shipping options and prices are directly linked to what the lab will actually charge you. You can optionally also define a markup on the estimated costs.

Shipping directly to your customers is by far the simplest option.

Lab shipping to yourself

When the lab ships to you, you can create a fully customized shipping profile to define your own prices. Note that you must then aim to recover both the shipping costs charged by the lab when sending products to you, and the costs of forwarding to your customers.

This option is useful when you must review the products before forwarding to your customers, or when your customers can physically pick-up the products from you.

This option can also be handy to ship to destinations not covered by the lab, or when the lab’s drop-ship prices are prohibitive.

When a client purchases an item on your website, the system looks for Shipping Profiles attached to this item (based on its Pricing Profile).

If there are several shipping profiles available for that item, they are displayed as options, and the client can choose upon checkout. To offer multiple shipping options, you must create a shipping profile for each option.

If the items are in different Shipping Tiers, the price for the Shipping Tier with highest Priority (usually the most expensive) is used. Shipping tiers are used to offer different prices based on size and weight (see below for details).

Example

You have defined 2 shipping methods (ie. you’ve created two shipping profiles), “Standard Mail” and “Expedited delivery”, and associated them to your Pricing Profile for Prints.

For both Shipping Profiles, you have defined 2 shipping tiers, “small items” and “large items”.

A client purchases the following:

• 1 large print
• 6 small-size prints

The client chooses the “Standard delivery” option. Shipping costs to your clients will therefore be the price you have set for the “large items” tier in the “Standard Delivery” Shipping Profile.

Shipping prices do not take quantities into consideration. For large/heavy items, it is therefore important to factor some of the shipping costs into the actual products’ prices (i.e. in the pricing profile).

Shipping Tiers

Shipping tiers are used to define what price to apply, within a shipping profile, based on the size/weight of items. (Shipping tiers are invisible to your clients. To offer multiple shipping options, you must instead create a shipping profile for each option.)

This allows you, to some extent, to align Shipping Tiers with the Shipping Tiers used by your Shipping carrier. For example “Small items under 1 pound” would be a good shipping tier if the shipping carrier for that Shipping Profile has defined such a tier.

Shipping Tier Priority

When multiple items of different sizes are purchased, the underlying idea is that the biggest item(s) define the shipping cost.

To that avail, the Priority defines what tier should be used when multiple items are purchased, with different Shipping Tiers.

For example, when a client purchases items in a “large items” Shipping Tier, and items in a “small items” Shipping Tier, the Shipping price will be the one corresponding to the Shipping Tier with highest priority (normally the most expensive).

Keep it simple!

Considering that the number of items purchased does not affect the shipping price, and that customers are used to simple, flat-fee shipping costs, we recommend you keep your shipping profiles simple and that you consider shipping as a product of its own, rather than attempting to match exactly actual shipping costs.

Attaching Shipping Profiles to Pricing Profiles

For each Pricing Profile, you can offer several shipping options, by linking the Pricing Profile to several Shipping Profiles.

When attaching a Shipping Profile to a Pricing Profile, you will define the default Shipping Tier to be used. For example, if you sell mostly small prints, the default Shipping Tier for a Shipping Profile would be the one corresponding to small items.

Then, for each option in the Pricing Profile, you can define a new Shipping Tier that will override the default. For example, if the default Shipping Tier is for small items, you can specify that for large prints, the Shipping Tier be changed to one for bigger items.

If you sell physical products other than through the integrated labs, creating one or more custom shipping profiles allows you to define shipping costs:

1. Create a new Shipping Profile based on the template of your choice (one Shipping Profile corresponds to one shipping carrier/option) ;
2. Customize the Shipping Profile with a proper description, and chose what Tax Profile, if any, should be applied to the shipping costs ;
3. If you wish your shipping prices to stay close to actual shipping costs, check the shipping tiers your shipping carrier uses, based on package weight and/or size ;
4. Define your own Shipping Tiers based on your carrier’s shipping tiers. Keep in mind that the quantity of items purchased will not affect the price, and that for any order, only 1 tier per Shipping Profile will be used. Create the shipping tiers in the Shipping Profile, and assign them priorities (the more expensive the Shipping Tier, the higher the priority) ;
5. Adjust your prices for each shipping tier / destination combination, adding/removing destination territories at will (“Default” territory applies for destinations not otherwise specified)
6. For each Pricing Profile that should have Shipping and Handling costs attached:
   • Attach the new Shipping Profile to the Pricing Profile, under the Pricing Profile settings, and specify the default Shipping Tier to use (the most common based on the Pricing Profile offer) ;
   • For items in the Pricing Profile requiring a different Shipping Tier, indicate the Shipping Tier to use ;
7. Repeat from Step 1 if you wish to offer different shipping options to your clients ;

The Quotations system allows you to handle price requests and negotiations with the same level of automation and professionalism as with standard sales.

Your clients can request a quotation for single images, or for the images in a selection (and it works with video clips, too). You can also create new quotations for media or services (e.g. shooting session, workshop, etc…) from your admin space.

When you receive a quotation request, you can access it via your PhotoDeck account (under My Business / Orders / Quotations) to handle it: set the description (it will be used in the final receipt to the client) and price for each item. Then, send the quotation to the client.

The client can then get back to you if needed, and ultimately, add the quotation to her cart and complete the checkout in the same way as for standard stock sales. If you have allowed it, the images will be automatically delivered upon payment. For video clips, you can also specify the delivery format.

I already have a merchant account with XXX, can I use it?

It is only possible to use the providers we have integrated with: the payment integrations are complex, as the system must be notified when payments have been made (for example, to automatically deliver digital purchases). It is not possible to easily add new payment providers.

PayPal integration

Head over to My business / E-commerce / Payments, add a PayPal payment processor, and follow the instructions in the interface to retrieve and indicate the Client ID and Secret Key corresponding to your PayPal account.

Don’t forget to disable PayPal’s shipping and tax calculations if you have used them in the past and now prefer to use PhotoDeck’s!

To allow clients to pay without owning or creating a PayPal account, make sure that the PayPal account optional option is enabled in your PayPal account’ Website payment preferences.

Stripe integration

1. Open an account with Stripe if you don’t already have one, and sign-in;
2. Activate your Stripe account according to their instructions;
3. Open the Developers panel;

   

4. In a new window, open your PhotoDeck admin space, and under My Business / E-Commerce / Payments, configure your Stripe integration by copy-pasting the 2 API keys provided by Stripe (secret and publishable);
5. In your Stripe account configuration under Developers / Webhooks, create a new Webhook endpoint (a Webhook is what allows Stripe to notify your website when a payment has been made): copy-paste the Webhook URL shown in the PhotoDeck admin space and specify the event types to send (all charge, checkout et source types). Click on the Add endpoint button to create the Webhook Signing secret;

   

6. Copy-paste the Signing key from the previous step into your PhotoDeck configuration;
7. Make a test order on your website and verify that you are properly directed to the Stripe payment page;
8. When the first real order is placed on your website, if the payment doesn’t appear in your PhotoDeck admin space, check if it appears in Stripe. If it does, double-check your Webhook settings (steps 5 and 6 above).

SOFORT and iDEAL via Stripe

To add SOFORT or iDEAL as a payment method on your website, activate it first on your Stripe account (Payments / Settings), then create the new payment processor in PhotoDeck.

The new payment processor can then be configured in your PhotoDeck panel just like for the standard Stripe payments (see previous paragraph).

Authorize.Net

You need an account with Authorize.Net to access their Server Integration Method (SIM) service. Note that Authorize.Net serves only US clients and only supports US dollars.

1. Login to your Merchant Account with Authorize.Net
2. Under Account / Transaction Format Settings / Response/Receipt URLs, add to the Default Relay Response URLs the following URLs: http://[your website URL]/payment/notify and http://[your website URL]/m/payment/notify, for example: http://alexsmith.photodeck.com/payment/notify and http://alexsmith.photodeck.com/m/payment/notify
3. Under Account / Settings / Security Settings / General Security Settings / API Credential & Keys, note your API Login ID. You should have also received from Authorize.Net a Transaction Key.
4. Still in the same Authorize.Net panel, generate a new Signature Key.
5. Open your PhotoDeck admin panel in a new window, and configure your Authorize.Net payment integration by copying your API Login ID, your Transaction Key and your Signature Key.
6. Activate the payment processor in your PhotoDeck admin panel
7. Do a test purchase and verify that the purchase is automatically marked as Paid in your PhotoDeck panel
8. Done!

Moneybookers (Skrill)

1. Connect to your Moneybookers account. Under My Account / Merchant Tools, set your Secret Word to a random string of characters of your choice. This is necessary to make sure that payments are automatically marked as paid on your PhotoDeck website. (If you didn’t use the link above to register and don’t find the Secret Word option, e-mail merchantservices@moneybookers.com to request Merchant Tools to be enabled)
2. Under My Account on the Moneybookers website, note your Customer ID.
3. In your PhotoDeck admin panel, under My Business / E-Commerce / Payments, configure your Moneybookers payment integration by copying your Moneybookers login (email address), Customer ID and Secret Word.
4. Activate the payment processor in your PhotoDeck admin panel
5. Do a test purchase and verify that the purchase is automatically marked as Paid in your PhotoDeck panel
6. Done!

You can accept any form of payment outside of the system, by using an “offline payment” payment processor as an alternative for checkout. See this example:

Example payment page with 2 alternatives. The descriptive text and the buttons are customizable.

Your offline payment instructions. The photographer is notified when the client clicks on “Accept”.

Once an offline payment is received, a single click on Mark order as paid in your admin space will initiate the automated delivery of any licensed image file present in the order.

1. After the client enters his address in the checkout flow, a new order is recorded in the database, and you are notified by email.
2. If you have enabled manual validation for all orders, the client is notified that the order will be processed offline and that you will get back to him.
3. Otherwise, the client is directed to the payment page: if you have enabled card payment, there will be a “secure payment” button on the page that will take the client to the payment processor. If you have not configured a card payment processor, no payment button will be displayed, only your payment instructions (or a default “contact us” text if you have not specified instructions either).
4. When the order for a license is paid (by the client via card, or if you click on Mark order as paid on the order page in case of off-line payment), the image is automatically delivered to the client. You can also force the delivery of the digital files even if no payment has been made.

Regular clients can log on your website to access advanced their own client space. There, they can easily access their order history, shared galleries, selections, etc…

Client accounts are usually created seamlessly, for example when they receive an invitation to access a private gallery or when they place an order for the first time.

Your visitors also have the possibility to create a Client Account by themselves from the registration page on your website. In this case, the client receives an email and must then click on a link to activate the account, to make sure his is not being impersonated.

Does my client need an account?

There are few things more annoying on a website that having first to create an account to be able to use it or to place an order. At PhotoDeck we believe in making your client’s life as easy as possible. A visitor can manage a selection and place orders without first creating an account.

An account is required to access login-protected galleries, but its creation happens seamlessly when accessing the first protected gallery. (Galleries protected by a simple general password don’t require login/client accounts.)

Having an account also offers more possibilities: a logged-in client can easily save and manage multiple selections, does not need to re-enter address information upon purchase, can view past orders, etc…

How do I create an account for my client?

You shouldn’t need to: for example when sharing a protected gallery to a new client via PhotoDeck sharing features, the process seamlessly has the client create the account in a secure way if needed, while accessing the gallery, i.e. without adding significant friction. In other words, you can authorize a specific client to access a gallery by login before they have created their account.

We do not recommend you create user accounts on behalf of your clients, for both security and liability reasons.

If for some unforeseen reason you really need to create a client account on his behalf, follow the same steps your client would follow:

1. Go to your website’s Client Login page, then enter your client’s e-mail address and register the new account in his name ;
2. Your client will then receive an email with a link to activate his account ;
3. Provide your client with the password in a secure way (remembering that plain email is not more secure than a postcard) and ask him to immediately change it.

NOTE: by creating yourself the account, you don’t get the client to accept your terms and conditions or validate his subscription to your newsletter, if you’ve enabled either of them, so your legal exposure might increase.

Here is a recommended way of setting up galleries when working with private individuals (events, portraits, weddings…), where privacy and simplicity are key.

Once you have set up a first gallery, it will be easy to reuse the same settings for other clients.

1. Create a new gallery, ideally nested under a common “Client Area” gallery. Use the Private Gallery preset. The gallery will use the standard Gallery Style, which is a good balance between aesthetics and proofing functionality. The gallery will be hidden, i.e. not visible in the thumbnail navigation for maximum privacy.
2. Click on the Authorizations link to open the access settings. Set a password to access the gallery. Setting a general password will not provide you with as much detail as to who exactly accesses the gallery, but it will be very simple for your clients. Save.
   
3. Optionally, you can allow commenting on images and/or star-rating (More / Comments and star rating).
4. Upload the images into the gallery.
5. If the images are for sale, attach the proper pricing profile(s) to all images in the gallery.
6. Done! All you now have to do is send the link to your clients, with the password. You can do that under the Send by email panel. Don’t forget to indicate the gallery password in the message!

Allowing free high-res downloads to consumers

In some cases, you might want to allow your clients to download high-res files. This can be done by adding new authorizations to the access options.

Note that you can allow only specific clients, based on their email, to download the images. This has two benefits: you get a better control and view over who downloads what, and you can allow a wide group of people to purchase from the gallery (say wedding guests) while allowing a subset (e.g. groom and bride) to download high-res files for free. The drawback is that it requires your clients to create a login on your website in order to access the free downloads.

Alternatively, you can allow anybody with access to the gallery to download for free. This of course, will override any download pricing profile set for the individual images and won’t provide you information on who downloads images.

Please refer to the help on authorizations for further help!

PhotoDeck is designed to let you work with professional clients in multiple ways. Here are some examples of what you can do:

• Send in a few clicks a link to download multiple files;
• Quickly create a secure gallery for proofing and 1-click download;
• Let the client choose and order images to edit/retouch, and then deliver them easily;
• Host client photos archives;
• …

Once you have set up a first gallery, it is easy to reuse the same settings for other clients.

Proofing gallery with immediate download

In this example, we create a hidden gallery that lets the client view the images/videos and download them in a click, one by one or all at once.

1. Create a new gallery, ideally nested under a common “Client Area” gallery. Use the Protected gallery for professional clients preset. The gallery will use the Proofing Gallery Style, which focuses on proofing functionality. The gallery will be hidden, i.e. not visible in the thumbnail navigation for privacy.
2. Upload images into the gallery.
3. Open the Send by email panel and add your client(s) email addresses as well as the download authorizations. Hit Send.
4. Done! You can always check/edit the client permissions under the authorization panel accessible via the Protected access link above the thumbnails.

To go further:

• For improved security, or if you wish to track who downloads, you can add authorizations based on individual emails, either to access the gallery or to download. It is then compulsory for the client to authenticate on your website. If you choose this option, don’t forget to deactivate the accesses for the line Anybody in the authorization table - please refer to the help on private galleries and authorizations for more details!
• You can create custom download products to automatically reprocess files before delivery to the client: resizing, renaming, metadata update, etc…
• You can show the download options for files in FINAL state only (e.g. retouched files).

To get familiar with the process from a client’s perspective, try it yourself with a “test client” email address! For clarity, make sure it is different from your PhotoDeck login, and test with a different browser (or in a private/anonymous window in your browser).

Proofing and delivery of files to edit/retouch

This section will show you how to let a client order (without payment) for retouching a selection of images or videos out of an unprocessed shoot, so you can process/retouch ordered images and deliver them, in a professional and integrated way.

Gallery of out-of-camera, unedited images with download and selection features activated. Clicking on the download icon will add an image to the cart for ordering.

1. Create a new gallery, ideally nested under a common “Client Area” gallery. Use the Protected proof-retouch-deliver gallery preset. The gallery will use the Proofing Gallery Style, which focuses on proofing functionality over aesthetics. The gallery will be hidden, i.e. not visible in the thumbnail navigation for maximum privacy. In addition, this preset allows immediate delivery only for files in FINAL state.
2. Upload the “proof” images/videos into the gallery.
3. Open the Send by email panel and add your client(s) email addresses, without changing the download authorizations. Hit Send.
4. Done! Your clients are now able to order a selection of images as downloads.

Typical settings for a full assignment proofing gallery.

When your client has made a selection and placed an order, you will be notified by email. When you receive the order:

1. If needed, reprocess/retouch the images/videos on your computer. Upload them into the gallery making sure you use the same filenames as for the proof images, and using the Replace image option. This will replace the proof images with the final ones. In the upload form, also set the status of the new uploads as FINAL, which indicates to the system that the files are ready for delivery.
   You can also replace individual files via their Replace button, and change their state in their Metadata panel.
   
   Replaced images in FINAL state in the administration space
2. When all (or part of) the images have been replaced with their final version, open the order, and click on Recalc items shipping method, then Deliver PENDING downloadable items now. This will trigger the delivery of the FINAL images to the client.
   
   Image delivery on the order page.

Replaced, FINAL images in the gallery. They can be re-downloaded from the gallery at a later stage, for example if the client loses the files that were automatically delivered to them.

To go further:

• You can explicitly indicate on the gallery what files are not retouched/edited: put the files in question in PROOF state, and make sure that the gallery style used by the gallery is set to display the file states on their thumbnails. The retouched (final) files will also be clearly indicated.
• This method makes edited files orderable again and directly downloadable. It is also possible (in the download options) to only offer ordering for files in state PROOF or UNDEFINED.
• To sell files to edit/retouch, use a pricing profile attached to the files instead of free downloads - the same options for processing and delivery are available. Similarly, it is also possible to sell whole galleries to retouch/edit, via the Price option for the gallery in question.

Hosting an image/video archive for a client

You can use subgalleries for a client and host a small archive, for example mixing both already retouched/paid downloadable images as well as files to order.

In this example gallery, PROOF images can be purchased while FINAL images can be directly downloaded.

To allow a client to download immediately certain images (or video clips) and purchase editing for others, you can mix the use of free downloads and pricing profiles:

• Assign files the state PROOF or FINAL based on whether they are edited/retouched or not;
• Activate free downloads, offering them (via the download options) only for files in state FINAL;
• Attach to all images a download pricing profile, offering it (via the profile’s options) only for images in state PROOF.

Metadata for each image or video file include its state: UNDEFINED by default, it can be changed into PROOF or FINAL.

This lets you offer downloads only for certain files, or automatically deliver only files in state FINAL.

The same options are available for free downloads, for purchased downloads of individual files (via pricing profiles) as well as for the sale of whole galleries.

In this example gallery, PROOF images can be purchased while FINAL images can be directly downloaded.

The file states can also be used for example for internal approval purposes.

Assign / change a file’s state

Files’ state can be assigned upon upload, in the upload window options. The automation feature for galleries and collections can also assign or change the state.

The state can also be changed via the files’ File state panel, either for individual files or a number of selected files.

You can search for files by state in your admin space, and create corresponding smart collections.

Offer download only for files in a given state

For free downloads, download pricing profiles as well as whole gallery sales, download/ordering can be offered only for images/videos in a specific state. Files that are in another state will not be offered to the client.

This setting is available for any download option.

Automatically deliver only files in state “FINAL”

In the same way, for free downloads, download pricing profiles as well as whole gallery sales, even when offered for all files, the immediate delivery of files can be limited to files in FINAL state. Files in other states might be orderable, but they will be delivered only when their state becomes FINAL.

This allows for example to offer a client to choose and order images to edit/retouch, and to deliver them after retouching. Please refer to the help on galleries for professional clients for more details!

Displaying the files’ state in a gallery on the website

To show the state of each file in a gallery on your site, customize its gallery display style to adjust the Image/video thumbnails / Info to display / Display files state.

Perhaps one of the best ways to reach your clients is to use PhotoDeck’s built-in mailing facility. From rich text emails to client groups, it’s fully featured to make it easy to spread the word about your business.

To start, you’ll need to access the mailing facility via the My Business / Mailings tab. Use the Create a new mailing button: the rich text editor allows you to beautifully format your mailing, including images, tables, and more. When you’re ready, use the Save Draft button and double check everything before you send. It’s a good idea to try sending the email just to yourself at first to see it in action.

Email software vary tremendously in their ability to display complex pages. We recommend you keep your mailing layout as simple as possible!

When your message is ready, proceed to add email addresses. This is also a great place to easily add new contacts to your mailing list. Additionally, you can use client groups to effectively target different groups that you have set up.

This is a selection of files (images, videos, documents…) from your website.

They allow your clients to select files, save that selection, and share it with others, along with comments.

Selections also make it easy for the client to download or buy the selected files at once (depending on what you allow for the files).

Selections help your clients collaborate and download/purchase multiple files.

PhotoDeck enables you to choose the most appropriate term for your clients: you might use Selection, Lightbox or even Favorites. Technically, this is the same feature, but some would prefer a different wording.

When this feature is enabled, you will find the selections created on your site under My Images & Videos / (your website) / Selections.

Purchasing a selection

A Buy all button is displayed in the selection when it contains files for sale (associated to a pricing profile), and the pricing profile has the setting Offer to add many media to the cart in one go activated.

Selections for new / anonymous visitors

A new selection is created as soon as a visitor clicks for the first time on an Add to selection (or, depending on selected term, Add to lightbox or Add to favorites) button. To be able to access the selection later on, a client must save it to his account (i.e. create an account on your site if needed).

Once a selection is saved, it receives a unique URL and can be shared.

Selections for logged-in clients

Clients with a PhotoDeck Client account can save and manage multiple selections. From the selection page on your website, they can switch easily between selections they have created, and selections that you (or other visitors) have shared with them by email.

When a logged-in client shares a selection, the recipient must log in to edit it (everyone with the link can view the selection).

Read-only selections

When sharing a selection, a logged-in client can choose to keep the selection “read-only”. This way, the person with whom the selection is shared can view but not modify the selection.

Controling the selection access

Click on Authorizations to open the access control panel. You can add new clients to the access list, and indicate whether they are allowed to modify the selection.

Note that providing access to a selection does not circumvent the access rights given in galleries. For private galleries, the recipient of a selection must also have access to the gallery/galleries the selection’s images are taken from.

1. Create the selection in your administration space under My Images & Videos ;
2. Choose files from your galleries, and drag-drop them into the selection, or use the Add to selection button in the right-hand side column. For private galleries, make sure the clients have access to the gallery ;
3. Open the Authorizations panel, add your client(s) email address(es) ;
4. Check the Notify box for each client to send a email to, add a message, and save.

An email will be sent to all selected clients, guiding them through the account creation process when needed.

If you don’t want clients to have to log in, you can also leave the selection in public access, and email separately the direct link to the selection on your website. You can edit the selection access rights at any time via the selection authorization panel.

For files taken from private galleries, access to the galleries must also be given to the clients.

If the images are not in any gallery, or if you want the client to be able to make his own sub-selections, it is preferable to create a client gallery instead of a selection.

Your own visits to your website are included in the stats.

Latest Visitors and Latest Searches

The Date is displayed in your local timezone (adjustable via ME / My Profile).

Origin is the estimated location of the visitor. It is based on the IP address. Note that advanced Internet users can easily spoof their location.

Pages is the number of pages viewed during that visit.

Latest Price Views

Views is the number of time the pricing page was accessed or refreshed. If the pricing profile is a multi-option profile (with drop-downs), every change in selection in a drop-down triggers a new calculation and adds to this number.

Why do I get different results with external trackers like Google Analytics?

It is normal to see significantly less visits reported via Google Analytics or StatCounter, for example.

If your website is set up to require user consent before setting tracking cookies (as required for example by the European GDPR), only users that accept cookies will be tracked.

In addition, it is easy for users to disable tracking via plugins in their browser.

Finally, external tracking tools use Javascript for tracking, so visitors need to have Javascript enabled for their visits to be recorded.

On the other hand, PhotoDeck stats are based on server-side access logs, in which all visits are recorded, and that may include visits by automated robots (although we don’t include in the stats the robots we know about).

I noticed a large number of pageviews from China / Russia / another location. Should I be worried?

PhotoDeck logs include these automated robots we don’t know about. Having one’s site crawled by automated robots is normal and is not necessarily an indicator of suspicious activity -- after all, the Internet is public. If image theft is a concern, make sure you have an adequate watermark on your images. Your private galleries and high-res files are always protected.

Can I block visits from country X?

No. It is not possible to reliably know where a visitor is located, and IP-address based filters only give a false sense of security. It is easy to spoof one’s IP address / location, for example using a virtual private network (VPN), which is nowadays commonplace.

Team members are additional users who operate your account in your name and under your responsibility. They are managed from  / My team.

Team members’ access can be restricted to specific parts of your account. Note that these rights are permissive, with the objective of allowing team members to work effectively with as little friction as possible, and it is essential that access is provided only to trusted persons.

The account holder can do everything allowed by the subscription. Only he/she is able to add and manage team members, manage the account subscriptions, accept the Terms and Conditions, create/delete media libraries and websites.

You can add team members simply to perform specific tasks on your images and website -- or you can set up multiple media libraries and websites and give different accesss to different team members.

Media libraries access rights

This set of access rights allows the team member to access your media library (or libraries) to the extent you determine.

Like a virtual hard disk, a media library is the repository where files are uploaded (and from there, optionally published to your website).

The rights apply equally to all files in the media library. If further segregation is required, for example if some team members should not see all files, you can create different media libraries.

For example, photo agencies might create a media library per photographer, while brands might create a media library per department and creative agencies one per project. Please refer to the documentation on media libraries for further details!

A team member can be given access to several media libraries, with different access rights for each of them.

Every team member has their own access rights for each library

The following rights are available:

Base
Allows read-only view on all media in the library, downloading of originals, read-only view on all collections and smart collections.
Allows access to the files of an order which ID or link is known (for example if the order notification email is shared).

Write
Allows uploading media (including replacing existing media if the team member also has the Delete right), updating metadata of existing media and (un)assigning to/from collections.

Delete
Allows deletion of media.

Collections administration
Allows managing collections and smart collections (create, delete, change settings…).

General administration
Allows management of FTP inbox, watermarks, integrations with third-parties.

Website access rights

The following rights are available for every website on your account.

Website media
Allows access to all files on the website, including (un)publishing in existing galleries, assigning pricing, sending originals.

• View all media published on the website. If multiple media libraries are present on the account and the team member is given right to a media library, only media from that library are visible.
• For all accessible media: set pricing profile(s), publish/unpublish in galleries, download original, send by email.
• List all galleries on the website
• View and pick website’s visuals & assets

Galleries
Allows for example to create / delete galleries and to set their authorizations and prices.

• List all galleries on the website
• View all media from all media libraries in all galleries
• Galleries: create, delete, change settings, additional content, slideshow, reorder, set cover, set authorizations, set prices, set expiry, send by email, share on social networks, etc…
• Manage gallery/media comments
• View and pick website’s visuals & assets

Users and orders
Allows for example access to orders and their related media files, as well as to clients/stakeholder accounts and data.

• Manage orders, lab orders, quotations, selections, carts
• Manage clients, website users, client groups
• View all media in all orders, quotations and selections
• For all accessible media: download original, send by email, add to/remove from selections
• List all galleries on the website
• View and pick website’s visuals & assets

Business administration
Allows access for example to the stats, e-commerce setup, legal setup (terms, cookies policy, mailings acceptance) and mailings.

• View stats and timeline
• Manage e-commerce setup (pricing profiles, coupons, shipping profiles, tax profiles, labs, currency, payment processors, cart and checkout settings, etc…)
• Manage website terms, mailing acceptance policy, cookies policy
• List all galleries on the website
• View and pick website’s visuals & assets

Custom pages
Allows to create / delete custom pages, edit the website navigation menu and access the website visuals & assets

• Manage custom pages and their slideshows
• Upload and manage website’s visuals & assets
• Manage the website navigation menus
• Manage page comments
• List all galleries on the website

Website customization
Allows access for example to all design customization, website visuals & assets, analytics and SEO setup, redirections. Does NOT allow to create or delete websites.

• Manage website general setup
• Customize theme
• List all galleries on the website
• Upload and manage website’s visuals & assets
• Manage and customize display styles
• Manage code-based integrations (analytics)
• Manage social network links
• Manage front page
• Manage SEO settings
• Manage redirections

When media files within an account must internally be split into different “buckets”, new media libraries should be created.

Media libraries are primarily silos with their own access rights. A team member’s rights on a media library apply to all files in that library.

This allows for example:

• to provide different team members access to different sets of media, i.e. when team members should be able to access some but not all of the media in the account.
  Photo agencies might create a media library per photographer, while brands might create a media library per department and creative agencies one per client.
• to organize the media in a clearer and more advance way than what Collections can offer. For example, an organization with two sets of media that are fully independent might want to create two media libraries, each with its own collections and watermark settings.

All media libraries share your account’s storage quota. Team members can be given access to multiple media libraries.

An account with two websites and three media libraries

What is proper to a media library?

Each media library has its own:

• Media files and metadata
• Collections and smart collections
• Watermark settings
• FTP ingest folder
• File export settings

Creating media libraries in a way that properly matches your workflow and business model will help you benefit most from PhotoDeck. Feel free to contact support for any question, or to inquire about our consulting services.

Publishing to a website gallery from multiple media libraries

Websites and media libraries are fully independent. It is possible to publish to the same website gallery from multiple media libraries.

On the gallery’s admin page:

• the colored tag on each media indicates what libraries it is stored in ;
• if his rights on the website allow it, a team member can see the media from media libraries he/she doesn’t have access to.

The advanced proofing, delivery and e-commerce features are available to photo agencies and collectives in the same way as for individual photographers.

In this section, we focus on how to use PhotoDeck’s multi-user features in the context of multiple photographers uploading images and video clips to a single agency account and working as a team with the agency’s collaborators. Access to these features requires a subscription plan that includes them.

Team members’ access rights

Access to a PhotoDeck account can be given to team members. Each contributing photographer should therefore be added as a team member to be able to access the agency account with his/her own PhotoDeck credentials.

In the same way, team member account can be created for producers, assistants and other agency collaborator.

Each team member has a set of personal user rights, as defined by the account holder, that can allow him/her for example to publish images to the agency website(s), manage orders and clients, access the website(s) administrative features, etc…

By default, an account has a single media library. A media library is like a virtual hard disk, it is the repository where files are uploaded (and from there, optionally published to a website). The team member access rights settings include rights on the media library, and it is for example possible to restrict actions to seeing the files in the media library and to uploading new files, but without allowing deletion.

The team member’s rights on a media library apply to all the media library’s files. In the case of agencies and collectives with independent photographers, it can be beneficial to have a stronger segregation between the files from different photographers. This segregation is achieved by creating multiple media libraries.

Files from multiple media libraries can be published onto the same website and into the same gallery.

Media from different libraries can be published on the same galleries. The colored tag indicates what library each media belongs to.

Please refer to the documentation on team members and to the documentation on multiple media libraries for further details!

Orders reporting

If you distribute, sell or license files via your PhotoDeck website, the order history’s CSV export includes for each ordered file the name of its media library, as well as its Author and Copyright metadata, in addition to its price. This can be used for example to easily allocate sales to photographers or contributors.

How to setup an agency or collective account

1. As the account holder, upload initial images / videos to the default media library, and build the agency website. The website’s gallery structure should be set up to best serve navigation for your customers and not reflect your internal organization. If you have been using PhotoDeck as a single photographer until now, this step is most likely complete.
2. Determine if you need full segregation between the different photographers’ or different client’s content, or if simply giving them access to the same media library is enough.
3. Create a test photographer’s credentials by adding a new team member ( / My team): use a different email address than the one you use as main PhotoDeck login. If photographers will have their own media library, create a new test library for your test photographer at the same time.
4. Log in to PhotoDeck with a different browser using the test photographer credentials and verify the photographer’s access rights in practice. For example, upload a new image from that account and try publishing it to the website.
5. You can now add actual team members and create new media libraries for them if required!

Creative production agency example

Let’s imagine an agency that starts working with a new client. One or several photographer(s) create images and videos, but their distribution and everything that relates to the client relationship is handled by an agency producer. Files are retouched before delivery. The process could be as follows:

1. The producer:
   • Creates a new media library dedicated to the new client ;
   • Creates a new website for the client, or a gallery within the existing agency’s website ;
   • Creates with the PhotoDeck administrator the photographer’s team-member account if they don’t have one already, and provides them with the BASE, WRITE and DELETE rights to the media library (no rights on the website).
2. After a shoot, the photographer uploads preview images and videos directly to the media library via their PhotoDeck account, makes sure that their Author metadata field is correctly set, and puts them in PROOF state ;
3. The producer checks the new files and publishes them to the corresponding client gallery, organizing them if needed into sub-galleries. He/she then authorizes and invites the client to the gallery ;
4. The client orders images or videos to be retouched ;
5. The producer receives the order notification, and gives to the photographer the link indicated in the notification email along with additional instructions ;
6. The photographer opens the link to see in the library the ordered files, then replaces the initial versions in the library by new, retouched versions, putting them in state FINAL. Once all files are processed, he/she informs the producer ;
7. From the client order page, the producer checks that all files are correctly processed, and when appropriate, hits the button to deliver all files to the client.

This is an example and many variations are possible!

Stock agency / Event agency example

Let’s consider an agency that sells images or videos from multiple contributors, and which website is managed by an administrator. The process for each new contributor could be:

1. The administrator creates the contributor’s team member account as well as a dedicated media library, providing them at least the BASE, WRITE and DELETE rights (no rights on the agency’s website) ;
2. The contributor imports their images and videos, making sure the Author medadata field is correctly set with their name ;
3. The administrator checks the new files, and publishes them for sale on the agency’s website  ;
4. When a customer places an order that includes the contributor’s images, the order report will include the information that will for example allow allocating a share of the sale to the contributor.

Access your account and billing preferences via the menu. From these pages you can renew, upgrade or close your account, purchase additional options such as expanded storage, as well as set up auto-renewal.

Please see this page for a description of the different plans.

Renewing your account

From the Subscription & add-ons page, you can easily renew your subscription in 1, 3, and 12 month intervals (3 and 12 months for some plans and add-ons). If you have purchased optional add-ons, the system will also renew them if possible.

Setting up auto-renewal

You can make your life a little easier by setting up auto-renewal. Auto-renewal kicks in 1 week before the expiry of a subscription, and also includes other subscriptions (e.g. add-ons) set to expire before the end of the new subscription. Of course, you can cancel auto-renewal at any time from this section as well.

Invoices

You will receive a simple payment receipt by email for every purchase. For proper book-keeping purposes, invoices in PDF format can be found under My Orders.

Purchasing Add-ons

Use the Buy / terminate add-ons button to add additional features to your cart. These include for example expanded storage and the multi-language option.

Note that the same add-on cannot be purchased multiple times. For example, if you already have subscribed to a 40GB extension add-on, you cannot purchase a second one, you must pick the 100GB add-on instead (and let the 40GB add-on expire).

Upgrading/downgrading your subscription

You can upgrade/downgrade your subscription at any time using the All plans button. Note that changes are immediate when you switch to a different plan. If you downgrade, please do make sure you understand what features and customization you will be losing!

Closing / terminating a PhotoDeck account

You can close your account at any time via the subscription management page in your admin space. Once the account is effectively terminated, your data will be deleted from our servers in accordance with our data protection policy and privacy laws.

Microjobs are a feature of our platform that allows you to perform a certain number of small billable task units each month. These task units are used for example to submit images to external AI engines for analysis and metadata generation.

Each subscription plan includes a certain monthly quota of microjobs. Each “month” starts and ends on an fixed day of the month (the day your account was initially opened), and the quota is reset on that day each month (“unused” microjob quota is not carried over to the following period).

On some plans, you can also purchase a larger microjob quota to perform more tasks than your basic monthly quota allows.

Each monthly period started is always considered fully used up. When changing plan or terminating a microjob quota add-on, no credit is given for the current monthly period.

When purchasing a larger microjob quota, it will follow the same monthly schedule as the quota included in your base plan. The quota for the first monthly period might therefore be available only for a short time, so please plan your subscription timing and usage accordingly!

Microjobs are designed to be flexible and allow you to perform small billable tasks as needed. With a monthly quota, you can have a predictable and manageable budget for these tasks and can adjust their usage as needed.

With the “Tell-your-Friends” program, you get rewarded for helping the PhotoDeck community grow, all while helping your friends save some money.

Here is what your coupon code is about:

(Your coupon code is displayed on your subscription page. You must have previously purchased a subscription to be eligible.)

How to promote your coupon

Here are a few ideas:

1. email your photographer friends to tell them why you like PhotoDeck, and that with your coupon they get 50% off their first month
2. put it on your blog or website
3. share your coupon code on your social networks
4. blog about it
5. share with your local photographer community or camera club

PhotoDeck allows you to host multiple websites from within the same account. With this feature, it is easy to add a new website for a different specialty or for a specific event. A dedicated website for a specific client, under their own branding, is something that can help you differentiate and significantly raise the value the client sees in working with you.

All the websites in an account are fully independent and do not share any setting. They can therefore have different designs, URLs, prices, etc… Images and videos are published from the account’s Media Library(ies), and the same files can be published on different websites.

Adding another website

To add a website to the account, make sure your quota for new websites has not been reached, and if needed, purchase an “Additional website” add-on to your subscription.

When your subscription allows it, you can add a new website under My Website / + Additional website. The admin space interface will then show both websites wherever relevant, so you can easily work on either.

Copying elements from a website to another

The design and pricing profiles for a website can be exported via their Backup options, and re-imported to a different website.

Pages and other content cannot be copied, but images and videos from a Media Library can be published on multiple websites at a time.

Deleting a website

All websites in the account are equal and can all be deleted, even the first website created with the account. To delete a website, first go to My Website, make sure to select the correct website to remove, and open its Setup / Visibility menu. There, you will find an option to delete the website.

In a second step, you can terminate any unneeded subscription add-on you might have previously subscribed to.

Lastly, unless you want to keep them in your account, delete images and videos that are not published anymore, using the Search feature in the Media Library(ies).