G&N and Photosharing Sites

[WillMass]

As a working event photographer, I’ve only posted photos online via an e-commerce solution to sell, and not used any services such as flickr or P Base, etc. As I begin to do some G&N work I am considering using a photo sharing site to post photos from the shoots. This will allow the models to view and critique themselves, without my having to burn them a disc of all the images. It will also allow me to get input from other photographers whose opinions I respect.

However, I am concerned about protecting the model’s privacy, and having my work someplace where it can be copied and or saved, without permission. So, I’d like something that can be password protected. I’ve also read a few stories about photos either being lifted and reposted elsewhere, or linked to without permission on these sites.

I suppose I could build my own site, for this purpose, and post the photos there, but I was hoping for a simpler solution.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Bill

[inthedeck]

Smugmug and Zenfolio come to mind.

[WillMass]

Smugmug and Zenfolio come to mind.

Thanks Manish,

Both of those are e-commerce sites that offer print sales, and offer less control than the e-commerce site I use now for my event work. I'm looking for something that is strictly for viewing, not for selling.

[inthedeck]

EDIT: The 'power' account, is probably your best bet, with smugmug --- http://www.smugmug.com/photos/photo-sharing-features/
And I think if you use 'flickr' as a coupon code, it'll give you 50% off the first year...but, I don't know if that's for all account types.

Flickr 'will' allow you to prevent downloads of images...through a setting, but, I don't know if you can password protect galleries, as the 'free' account didn't let the user do that. Though, I dislike flickr, and won't post to my account there anymore, since they degrade images through their interpolation software once an image is uploaded.

I'm not sure about pbase, or other sites, as I've never used them.

[WillMass]

EDIT: The 'power' account, is probably your best bet, with smugmug --- http://www.smugmug.com/photos/photo-sharing-features/
And I think if you use 'flickr' as a coupon code, it'll give you 50% off the first year...but, I don't know if that's for all account types.

Flickr 'will' allow you to prevent downloads of images...through a setting, but, I don't know if you can password protect galleries, as the 'free' account didn't let the user do that. Though, I dislike flickr, and won't post to my account there anymore, since they degrade images through their interpolation software once an image is uploaded.

I'm not sure about pbase, or other sites, as I've never used them.

Thanks for the link, Manish.

I'll check into Smug Mug's "power" account. That looks more like what I had in mind. I'm not too crazy about the look of flickr in general.

Thanks again.

[charger912]

I currently have the Power account with SmugMug and it works pretty well for general photo sharing. You've also got the ability to password protect certain albums which can be helpful at times.

I never down loaded any pics to Flickr, but I've heard all kinds of stories from other photogs who say they've had there accounts randomly deleted for no apparent reason. I think it may be more of a technical problem than anything else. Probably not the greatest place for storing pics in my opinion.

[hawk911]

I use Smuggy for mine, and password protect and hide galleries I want only limited people to see. You can right click disable also, which is a real PITA when I want to right click myself to get the photo properties or location link, but there's a button for getting a link too. I pay $60 a year for my power acct. And I'll share my discount code with you :)

[WillMass]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm strongly considering Smug Mug based on your comments. ;)

[chrisvl]

I use Exposure manager for exactly that purpose. The galleries are hidden and password protected. I send them a link. I also use Exposure Manager to sell my event photos.
I can share a discount code if you like.

[WillMass]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the suggestion.

As I mentioned before, I already have an e-commerce solution I use for my event work and could just continue down that path for the G/N work, if I wanted.

While I know a number of people on this board use and like EM, I had an unpleasant experience with one of their representatives some time ago, and swore I would never deal with them after that.

Too bad. Looked like they had a decent platform.

[flipstyle72]

+1 for smugmug. You can customize it a lot to how you wish it to look and who get's to view what.