Provide Client Image Proofing With Your WordPress Website In 5 Steps

Client Image Proofing via WordPress in 5 Steps

Published

April 10, 2013

15 Comments

If you’re looking to use your WordPress website for client proofing, then this article is a great starting point.

I had to come up with a solution pretty quick because the service I was using to host my proofing galleries for clients, decided to double their prices. For my purposes, the price didn’t warrant the service, so I canceled my plan.

The steps I took to create a self-hosted client proofing solution are similar to what I will be listing below. However, being that I am fairly handy with coding, I used fewer plugins and implemented manual PHP code.

Step 1: Custom Post Type

There are many custom post type plugins available for WordPress, but a popular one is called Types. What this does is give you the option to generate another “Post” option in your WordPress backend, but instead of a post you can call it “Proofing”. (which is what I did)

Step 2: Hide From Search Engines

Now that you have a Proofing custom post type created, you can hide it from search engines. If you are only using the galleries for proofing then there is no reason that search engines, like Google or Bing, should index them. An easy way to do this is to install WordPress SEO by Yoast. When installed go to SEO >> Titles & Meta >> Post Types >> Proofing, then check to hide the WordPress SEO box for Proofing and check the box for noindex,follow which will hide Proofing from search engines.

Step 3: Gallery Management

The easiest way to manage multiple galleries is by using a WordPress gallery plugin. Of course, I recommend NextGEN Gallery for many reasons.

It is the most popular WordPress gallery plugin available with millions of downloads
It is the most powerful for managing multiple galleries
It is supported by hundreds of third-party plugins (which you will see below)
The company I work for (Photocrati) develops it 🙂

When NextGEN Gallery is installed, you would create a gallery for each session that needs proofing. When using NextGEN Gallery you can easily insert your gallery anywhere in the “post content”.

Step 4: Download and/or Selection Support

In Step 3 I mentioned that there are a lot of add-ons for NextGEN Gallery. There are currently two that I recommend trying for your new proofing galleries.

NextGEN Download Gallery is a plugin that I am personally using for my client proofing. What it lets me do is have check boxes below each thumbnail where clients can check off and download their photographs as a ZIP file. They can either email me the ZIP of their selected photos or email me a list of the file names that they’re choosing.
NextGEN Gallery Voting is a plugin that provides a way for clients to vote on their favorite photos using a star system or thumbs up. You can then take the list that were voted on as the selected photos. Using NextGEN Gallery Voting Premium adds more features that can be extremely useful.

Both of these plugins take advantage of NextGEN Gallery’s ability to use custom templates. For example, the download gallery plugin would require you to add template=download into the shortcode inserted by NextGEN Gallery.

Step 5: Password Protection

WordPress includes password protection for posts already, so no additional plugins are needed for that part. To implement a password, go to the Proofing gallery as if you were editing it as a post At the top right under the Publish section, you will see a section called Visibility, with the default as Public. By clicking the edit link for that section, you have the ability to implement a password. Update the Proofing page and you’re all set.

In Closing

In this article you have seen how I created a client proofing gallery with my self-hosted WordPress website. You are able to do this without knowing any PHP or HTML code by utilizing a specific set of WordPress plugins.

You can see my client proofing gallery example on my website or by viewing the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybGTm6mVveg?rel=0

This method has served extremely well for me, and while I am not a wedding photographer, I believe it can work for large events like that. I also want to mention that a built-in proofing option is coming to a future version of NextGEN Gallery that will make this process quick and painless.

It’s also worth noting that I’m using FooBox instead of the built-in lightbox, but will be using the upcoming NextGEN Pro Lightbox (teaser) once it is completed. One final note, is that there are some WordPress photography themes that have proofing capabilities, like the Photocrati theme. While it’s not an actual feature, the theme’s gallery system can be used in a similar way as I’ve shared here.

Now it’s your turn to give it a try. So go ahead and then come back here and tell me how it went.

There are 15 comments

April 11, 2013 #

Jason Bradley

This is a great idea! I may try this out for my client work.
- April 11, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  Let me know how it goes!
April 29, 2013 #

Chris Borgman

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the tips! I’ve been playing around with these plugins but was a little disappointed, either in myself for not figuring it out or the plugins. I would really like to have the download options and voting option together under each thumbnail. Have you tried this? Any suggestions?

Chris
- April 30, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  I made a custom NGG template using both of the plugin’s necessary php scripts. Basically took the one that Download plugin said to make, and added another line or two from the Voting plugin.
June 5, 2013 #

Jim Barber

This sounds very promising. If the client is able to download the files directly out of the proofing gallery, how do you collect the payment. Is there a way to rig this so they can select which images they want THEN I send them an invoice THEN I transfer the files to them after I receive payment? I am using the photocrati template already so maybe that’s already built in. TIA, Jim
- June 6, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  A solution is planned for that exact scenario. My current workaround doesn’t have that option. However, you can not allow downloads until a client pays you.
June 7, 2013 #

Ron

How do you get the voting implemented instead of a download? Yes, Ive already installed the plugin for the voting both the free and premium versions. All my images for the galleries inside the proofing type are all setup for voting (like/dislike). But when I click on the photo (in the proofing gallery), there is no option to see the like or dislike button, or even rating button or anything remotely showing that its for votings gallery. Please advise.
- June 7, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  I am using 2 NGG add-ons as explained in the article. I created a custom template using both scripts that are detailed in the plugins.
  - June 7, 2013 #
    
    Ron
    
    Yes I know the 2 NGG add-ons as mentioned on my post. Nevertheless, your answer still did not answer the question on how you implemented the voting portion to show up on the images. I did not even see it on your video post as all your focused on was the checkbox download portion of the proofing option. You say you have a custom template for the voting, may I see the snipplet of how you implemented the voting, both actual screen on the voting and the actual coding on the custom page. Thank you.
    - June 7, 2013 #
      
      Scott Wyden Kivowitz
      
      The video was made before I added the voting option. Here is my custom template: https://gist.github.com/scottwyden/5731247
July 1, 2013 #

Jonathan

Hi Scott,

I downloaded NextGen Gallery and activated it. Created a Gallery and uploaded images. After I uploaded the images in the “Overview” section, it still says there’s no photos uploaded. Not sure if it’s because there’s no folder there and that I have to make it manually? Or is it because my custom wordpress doesn’t support this plugin?

Is there also a way to have the client click on a tick box and then a email button on the bottom so it actually emails all the file names to me(rather then the client type out each individual one)? This helps me with my Adobe Lightroom workflow so when they’ve proofed and sent me the filenames, I just work on those images and rate/filter/colour them.

Or do you think there’s some way to implement this kind of email/XML/CSV implementation that works with Lightroom when the client proofs which ones and it automatically rates/colours the images in the Lightroom Catalogue. That would be truly awesome.

Regards,

Jonathan
July 1, 2013 #

Scott Wyden Kivowitz

Hi Jonathan,

re: the no photos uploaded msg… are you using a template? If so, then the template might be broken. Double check that first.

re: the tick box. The plugin is as you see. It’s simple. In the future when we integrate our own proofing solution into NextGEN Pro, we hope to have 2-way sync with Lightroom.
September 1, 2014 #

bossadelik

Hi Scott

I find your topic really intersting for what i’m looking for.

Only a question do you know if is possible to set the NextGEN Download Gallery for downloading only the list of the selected photos and not the zip file with the original photos inside, or if exist another NextGen addon to make this simply extraction.

Best regards
- September 1, 2014 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  The way the plugin worked (back when I wrote this article) was that it would download only what you select. Not sure if that’s changed since then.
  
  However, NextGEN Pro (the premium version of NextGEN Gallery) now offers digital downloads which are downloaded based on what size is picked and which image.
October 21, 2015 #

ainsworthstudio

This post was written a while ago, but it comes close to solving a problem I’m working on. Is there a way to use the NGG Download Gallery as well as select specific images from multiple galleries and add them to a favorites list or wish list?