Client gallery
A client gallery is an online gallery where photographers share, proof and sell photos to clients, often branded, with downloads, favourites and ordering.
Platforms like SmugMug and ShootProof host client galleries: a private, often branded space where a couple or customer reviews images, picks favourites, downloads files and buys prints. They replace emailing files around.
Delivering camera-to-cloud means selects can populate a client gallery in real time, so proofing can begin — and sales can start — before the photographer has even left the venue.
How it works
The photographer creates a gallery for a job, uploads the images and sends the client a link, often protected by a password or an email sign-in. Clients browse, favourite and download; many platforms add print and product sales, download limits, watermarks and expiry dates. Because the gallery is the photographer's shop window, most platforms let you brand it with your own logo, colours and domain.
An example: a charity gala
At a charity gala the photographer delivers to a SmugMug gallery as the night goes on. Guests open the link from the table cards and find their red-carpet photos before dessert, and the organiser has pictures for social media before the evening ends.
The same pattern works at a wedding: the couple share the gallery link with family who couldn't travel, and a handful of highlights from the ceremony are there to look at before the speeches. Because the selects arrive as finished JPEGs, nothing needs editing before it goes up.
Client galleries and CloudTether
CloudTether delivers live into gallery services including SmugMug, ShootProof, Photohawk and Google Photos. Galleries receive the JPEGs — RAW files go to a storage destination if you add one — and you can deliver smaller copies so pages load fast. CloudTether isn't a gallery itself: it fills the gallery you already use. On Canon and Nikon, rating shots in camera means only your selects reach the client. More in a live client gallery while you shoot.
Galleries vs cloud storage
A shared Dropbox or Google Drive folder can hand over files, but it isn't built for clients: there are no favourites, no print store, no branding and no download controls. A gallery is designed for the person receiving the photos. Many photographers use both — storage for the complete set of originals, RAW included, and a gallery for the client-facing selects — and deliver to both at once.
Tips and common mistakes
- Create and connect the gallery before the shoot, and test it with a single frame.
- Send selects, not everything: rate in camera, or keep the gallery private until you've culled.
- Shoot RAW+JPEG so the gallery gets finished JPEGs while the RAWs stay on the card for the edit.
- Check the gallery's privacy setting before you share the link — a live gallery fills fast.
See also
Put it into practice
CloudTether tethers your camera to your phone and delivers every shot to the cloud, live as you shoot — no laptop.