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Build a photo gallery app for clients
Keep your best work in public albums and deliver each shoot in a private album the client signs in to. Clients mark favorites and download only what you allow.
Built around a purpose
From a finished shoot to an album the couple can use.
For photographers who hand over weddings, portraits or events and also want a public set of their best frames. It fits anyone who shows some albums openly and others to named people only.
For illustration: Emma Clarke photographs weddings and family sessions around San Diego. She wants three portfolio albums open to anyone. She also has to deliver the Patel wedding: 640 edited photos, from which the couple will choose 60 for a printed book.
Three public albums and a private Patel album. The couple signs in, sees only their wedding, marks 60 photos for the book and downloads full-size files once Emma allows it. Emma gets the 60 file names to design from.
A gallery of public albums with no sign-in can be a frontend-only static app on Free. Client sign-in, private albums, saved favorites, uploads through the app and alt text drafted by a Vision model are backend capabilities, so they need Pro. Model and service usage is metered separately.
Give every album an audience
List the albums and who may open each one before you build anything. The portfolio albums are public. The Patel album is for the two accounts the couple will sign in with and nobody else, other clients included. Describe that access to Studio album by album.
Upload viewing copies and full-size files
From your editing software, export a smaller copy of each photo for browsing and a full-size file for downloading, and upload both. Your camera originals stay in your own archive, outside the gallery.
Draft alt text with a Vision model
For the public albums, ask for a step where a Vision model suggests a short caption and alt text for each photo. Emma reads every suggestion beside its photo, rewrites what is off, and leaves guests' names out.
Let the couple pick 60 for the book
Add a favorite mark to each photo and a counter against a limit of 60. Save each pick with the account that made it, so Emma can see where the two partners agree before she lays out the book.
Decide downloads album by album
Keep the portfolio albums view-only. Open full-size downloads on the Patel album once the book is ordered, and state on the album page what clients may download and until when.
Scope the first version
What a first version includes.
Albums with an audience
A cover photo, title, shoot date and short description, plus who may open the album: anyone, or the clients you add.
Client accounts
A sign-in for each client, so a family with two sessions finds both albums in one place and no other client's photos.
Two files per photo
A viewing copy for the grid and a full-size file for downloads, both uploaded by you and kept on one photo record.
Captions and alt text
A caption shown under the photo and alt text for screen readers, each with an approved mark you set after reading it.
Favorites with a limit
A mark clients put on photos, saved per account, with an optional cap such as 60 for a book or a print order.
A download choice per album
Full-size files, viewing copies or view only, stated on the album page so clients know what to expect before they ask.
Your selections list
Shown to you, not to clients: each client's picks by album and file name, so you edit and print from exactly what they chose.
Test it in the preview
Before you share it.
- Open the Patel album's link in a private browser window while signed out. You should reach a sign-in screen, not a single photo. Then sign in as a different test client and open the same link. No Patel photo should appear.
- Load the largest album on a phone over mobile data. If the grid is slow, upload smaller viewing copies rather than shrinking the full-size files.
- As a test client, try to mark one more favorite than the limit allows. The app should stop or warn you at the limit, and your selections list should show the same file names the client marked.
- Open a view-only album as a client and confirm there is no download button. On a full-size album, download one photo and compare its dimensions with the file you uploaded.
- Read every caption and alt text before an album goes public. Remove guesses about people's names, ages or moods and describe what is in the frame instead.
Together in your app cloud
The pieces behind the possibility.
Choose the models and services that support the experience you want to create.
File storage
A home for your documents and media
Database
Keep data and context for apps and agents
Authentication
Give the right people access
Vision models
Make sense of images and documents
Shape the details
Make it work for your world.
- View-only is not copy protection. Anyone who can see a photo can screenshot it, so keep unreleased or sensitive frames out of any album other people can open.
- Ask guests, or a child's parent, before their photo goes into a public album. Event photos of people who did not agree to be on your site belong in the client's private album.
- Clients are app users who sign in to the published gallery. A second shooter or editor who helps you build and change the gallery in Studio is different. On Pro, invite them to your workspace as a team member rather than giving them a client sign-in.
- Full-size files take far more file storage than viewing copies. Compare a whole wedding's size with your plan's storage on the pricing page before you upload it.
A little more context
Good questions.
Can clients pick favorites?
Yes, when you build it in. Beyond the mark itself, decide what finishing looks like. That might be a button that locks the client's picks and moves the album to your editing list, plus a deadline shown on the album. Test it as a client, including trying to change a pick after the list is locked.
Can I sell prints from the gallery?
On Pro, an app can take payments through a payment provider you connect. Verify the provider setup and test a payment before you offer prints. Design the order to record the photo, print size and quantity; printing and shipping stay with you or your lab.
Is a gallery the same as an image studio?
No. A gallery organizes and shows photos you already have. An image studio uses Media models to generate or edit images from a brief, as the creative apps page linked below describes. You can connect the two by saving a chosen studio image into an album.
Should this be a gallery or a portfolio?
A portfolio presents a few chosen projects to people who might hire you, with notes on each brief and a way to get in touch. It usually stays public. A gallery hands whole shoots to the clients who booked them, mostly behind sign-in. You can link one public album from your portfolio; that guide is below.
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