Sharing photos with clients: Hi All, I’ve been shooting free headshots in order to build my portfolio as well as gain experience, and I’m about ready to begin charging for my work. Up...

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

Hi All, I’ve been shooting free headshots in order to build my portfolio as well as gain experience, and I’m about ready to begin charging for my work. Up until now I’ve been sharing photos with clients via a flash drive or Dropbox, and I’m wondering if there’s a more professional, inexpensive (since I’m just starting out) way to share images. Thanks in advance for your help!

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

The cheapest way would be a DVD, but USB drives are so inexpensive these days - just build that in to your pricing or offer it as an option versus a DVD.

kd7eir Loc: Tucson, AZ

The cheapest way is to keep using Dropbox. There is NOTHING unprofessional about, the 5 BILLION dollar company that I work for uses it with their clients. As for using a DVD, most computers today do NOT come with DVD drives, so then you face the possibility of alienating your client by giving them their pictures on something that they cannot use without buying a DVD drive.

As for a USB drive, why introduce the possibility that a lost USB drive results in your client losing all their photos?

Dropbox - free, used by the largest companies on a daily basis, accessible anywhere, nothing to lose, no need to possibly purchase a DVD drive.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Pat, there are some promotional companies that will mark your flash drives with marketing stuff. See if you can find one of these and put the photos on one of those, You will usually have to purchase them in bulk, but it's somewhat like a business card. If you intend to make some money on this venture, put some money into it to appear professional. Get some with your logo, contact information, etc.
--Bob

Pat F 4119 wrote:

Hi All, I’ve been shooting free headshots in order to build my portfolio as well as gain experience, and I’m about ready to begin charging for my work. Up until now I’ve been sharing photos with clients via a flash drive or Dropbox, and I’m wondering if there’s a more professional, inexpensive (since I’m just starting out) way to share images. Thanks in advance for your help!

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

I use this often. There is no cost or commitment and it works excellent. The only difference from other tools like Drop Box is the amount of time the data is stored for sharing. the capacity is large and a great way to send JPegs to your client.

https://wetransfer.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvXeBRDDARIsAC38TP6QLUcD_QrbH29pGspfU44e7-bjwNf0dVr_M8MC7gNRFVs495BXo2QaArucEALw_wcB

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, this is very helpful. I think for now I will continue to use Dropbox, since it’s what I’m familiar with, and I’ll look into possibly getting some flash drives with my logo as well.

spraguead Loc: Boston, MA

Pat F 4119 wrote:

Hi All, I’ve been shooting free headshots in order to build my portfolio as well as gain experience, and I’m about ready to begin charging for my work. Up until now I’ve been sharing photos with clients via a flash drive or Dropbox, and I’m wondering if there’s a more professional, inexpensive (since I’m just starting out) way to share images. Thanks in advance for your help!

If you're going pro, you'll need a web site. There are some great simple template sites out there that cost about $10 a month for hosting. You can make project pages that are password protected. You can post your round of edits that are batch processed (with watermark) and have clients choose final choices which can then be properly processed. That way your workflow will speed up. If you have an Adobe CC subscription there is a free one which I'm planning on using, here is a list of sites: https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/best-photography-portfolio-websites/

For final image files I send via hightail. Just remember to register trademark and put your information in the meta data.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

sb wrote:

The cheapest way would be a DVD, , USB drives are so inexpensive these days - just build that in to your pricing or offer it as an option versus a DVD.

I would give careful thought not only to cost but, even more, to customer experience.
Any difficulty in viewing their photos will reflect negatively on you. I would not ask
customers to deal with downloading. If it's a solution like thumb drive, CD, or DVD, it
should open the viewing tool automatically, and navigating around their "album" should
be simple and intuitive. Before you release these products do some user testing with a
few people who represent the lowest-common-denominator of computer skills likely to
be in your customer base. You will find out very shortly where they get stuck and what
you need to change. If possible, retest after changes. Keep in mind the well-worn acronym, K.I.S.S. >>>Alan

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

Excellent input!

aellman wrote:

I would give careful thought not only to cost but,... (show quote)

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Hi Pat,
I'm not a pro, but I have been sharing images for 15 years on both Smugmug and Shutterfly. Currently, I have 5 Shutterfly sites. To share my images, I simply copy the url (address) into an email and send to recipients. It's simple, fast and free. The images can be protected with Privacy settings. Here's an example: https://imagesbymarkweiss.shutterfly.com/pictures/973
Mark

Pat F 4119 wrote:

Hi All, I’ve been shooting free headshots in order to build my portfolio as well as gain experience, and I’m about ready to begin charging for my work. Up until now I’ve been sharing photos with clients via a flash drive or Dropbox, and I’m wondering if there’s a more professional, inexpensive (since I’m just starting out) way to share images. Thanks in advance for your help!

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

I'm very pleased with SmugMug. They have several plans with different features.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

Nice images Mark!
However the first thing I did was click on the advertising arrow and was popped off the Shutterfly site. I thought the arrow that I touched was an advance of your images. Then I went to galleries and an ad popped up there as well. But this time I was more careful. My personal preference would be to have my photo viewing site ad free.

markngolf wrote:

Hi Pat,
I'm not a pro, but I have been sharing images for 15 years on both Smugmug and Shutterfly. Currently, I have 5 Shutterfly sites. To share my images, I simply copy the url (address) into an email and send to recipients. It's simple, fast and free. The images can be protected with Privacy settings. Here's an example: https://imagesbymarkweiss.shutterfly.com/pictures/973
Mark

art pear Loc: North Dakota

google drive works well too.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I understand that preference. The few ads do not interfere with my needs.
Thanks,
Mark

suntouched wrote:

Nice images Mark!
However the first thing I did was click on the advertising arrow and was popped off the Shutterfly site. I thought the arrow that I touched was an advance of your images. Then I went to galleries and an ad popped up there as well. But this time I was more careful. My personal preference would be to have my photo viewing site ad free.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

Mark
You didn't ask for a critique of your photo sharing sites- sorry- my comments should have been under general comments.
Your photos are excellent and I enjoyed looking.

markngolf wrote:

I understand that preference. The few ads do not interfere with my needs.
Thanks,
Mark