Favorite Proofing Workflow

Your Favorite Proofing Workflow

Learn how to create a favorite proofing gallery for your clients that allows them to select their favorite photos from the shoots and you can use to create their final gallery.

1. Create a watermark photo set

After creating a new collection for your shoot, the first step is to create a watermark photo set. Click Add Photo Set and name it for example: Preview Photos. Next, select your watermark (you can add your own watermark under Branding in the menu).

Click Add Photos to upload your images. All photos in this watermark photo set will be automatically protected with a watermark.

2. Set up the proofing gallery

Click on Galleries to setup the gallery. Review all tabs to ensure that all settings are configured correctly. In the Photosets tab, add the Preview Photos photo set. This is what your clients will see in their gallery.

Ensure that downloads are turned off and favorites are turned on, allowing clients to select their favorite photos.

3. Let clients select their favorites

Send the proofing gallery to your clients by clicking the Send button or copying the URL to share via your own application.

Inform your clients that they can click on the heart icons for the photos they wish to select as favorites. Once they’ve made their selections, they can access the heart icon in the menu to view all their chosen photos and add comments if desired.

To receive a notification when clients finish their favorite list, instruct them to click the Share Favorites button in their favorites list.

4. View the favorite list

Go to Activities in the gallery and select Favorite List to view your clients' favorite photos.

From here, you have several options:

Option 1: Copy favorite list to a new photo set
You can copy the photos from the favorite list to a new photo set, automatically removing the watermark. This workflow is ideal if you’ve already edited all your clients' photos.

Option 2: Copy favorite list to Lightroom
If you need to finish editing the favorite photos, click Copy File Names to copy them to Lightroom.

Next, open Lightroom and paste the file names in the library filter by pressing Cmd/Ctrl + F, selecting Text, then Filename, and pasting the file names in the search field.

Important note: This only works if you haven't changed the file names when uploading the photos to Shootstack. Ensure the file names are exactly the same; otherwise, Lightroom won't retrieve the correct photos.

After finishing the editing, create a new photo set and upload the final images.

If you're still having trouble copying your favorites to Lightroom, check out this in-depth guide.

5. Final gallery

The final step is to create the final gallery. You have two options for doing this:

Option 1: Add the final photo set to the existing gallery
Click on the gallery and go through all the settings. In the Photo Set tab, add the photo set without a watermark.

You can choose to either remove the preview photo set or keep both options available.

Option 2: Create a new gallery
To create a new gallery, click Add Gallery and enter the gallery name. Once the gallery is created, add the photo set without the watermark.

This way, you will have two galleries: the first is the preview gallery with the watermarked photo set, and the second is the final gallery. Each gallery has its own URL, allowing your clients to revisit the preview gallery if they wish to select additional photos later.

Make sure to enable downloads so your clients can download the images, and turn on reviews to allow clients to leave feedback. To learn more about gallery settings, click here.

Now, you’re ready to send the gallery!