Password Protected Photo Directory

I am looking for some ideas.

I was in the mall the other day and seen children getting there pictures taken with Santa and seen what some moms were paying for the photos. We attended breakfast with Santa this morning with our grandchildren who got to sit on Santa's lap and have there pictures taken with our cellphone cameras. While having breakfast I was thinking this would be a great opportunity for our company to contribute to the community without breaking the bank.

If we were to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of the children with Santa we could then take those digital photos and post them to a web site for the parents, grandparents to download for FREE and have them printed at there local photo shop.

Here lies my problem. With everything that is happening these days I don't think it's a good idea to be posting pictures of children on the web available for just anyone to download.

What I was thinking was to give the parents that want to participate a card with a website, a login and password to there children's photos. I have done some website work in the past and can setup directories with login and password to upload the pictures to but this would take forever when I am talking about several hundred families.

I guess what I am looking for is some sort of software or process of securing the picture so the people that have the password can gain access to the photos and not have the open to the public.

I think it a good idea, maybe for next years breakfast with Santa.

Any ideas or opinions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks Doug

In my area, all the Santas have a photographer who takes a photo of each child and gives it without charge with a reorder coupon to the accompaning parent. In some cases, they give you a Web address and an access number for your child’s photo.

You might want to be sure whether you need a contract with the mall or store to take photos for commercial purposes.

A mall or store is a “private space open to the public.” The owner or an occupant can restrict photography at any time.

What you want is a client delivery / proofing gallery. There are many if you search google but something like Pixieset would work and lets you create galleries that can only be viewed through passwords and / or connected email addresses that you assign to that gallery. Photoshelter or SmugMug would also work like that and for selling prints if you want visitors to order prints (or digital downloads) and merchandise of the images directly from the gallery.

Thanks Phil I looked at a few of this packages and they look like they would work fine. The only problem I still have is they are intended for a customer with lot of photos. What I have is hundreds of customers with maybe 5 or 6 photos. It would do the job but it is still going to take a long time to setup that many customers. I guess what I would like would be an automated way of setting up hundreds of account with login and password without a lot of work.

Thanks I will keep looking.

In my area, all the Santas have a photographer who takes a photo of each child and gives it without charge with a reorder coupon to the accompaning parent. In some cases, they give you a Web address and an access number for your child’s photo.

 

You might want to be sure whether you need a contract with the mall or store to take photos for commercial purposes.

 

A mall or store is a “private space open to the public.” The owner or an occupant can restrict photography at any time.

Thanks for the advice but in this case there is no mall we are just in a community center 1 morning a year for breakfast with Santa. The service group that runs the event hires the Santa and it is very low key. We are not looking to sell anything just add a little extra by taking pictures with the parents permission and give the digital files to the parents .

drop box lets you set up for picture pick ups for clients.

they can see the proofs and place orders with you or download the unretoutched photo on display.

check with the mall, you may have to contract or rent space with them.