Gallery Delivery Guide

Gallery delivery is where the client experience really shines. ShootMuse's gallery system handles everything from upload to delivery to analytics — so you can share polished, branded galleries without paying for a separate platform. This guide covers the full workflow.

Creating a Gallery

Navigate to Galleries in the sidebar and click + New Gallery. Fill in:

• Gallery name — Something descriptive that your client will see: "Sarah & James — Wedding Gallery" or "Johnson Family — Fall Portraits 2026."
• Client — Link the gallery to a client. This connects it to their portal and communication timeline.
• Session (optional) — Link to a specific session for organizational purposes.
• Status — Draft (only you can see it) or Published (client can access via their link).

After saving, you'll land on the gallery detail page with tabs for Photos, Albums, Settings, and Analytics.

Uploading Photos

On the Photos tab, click Upload Photos or drag and drop files directly onto the page. ShootMuse supports JPEG, PNG, and WebP formats.

Uploads are processed in the background — you'll see a progress indicator for each file. Once uploaded, photos are stored securely in the cloud and automatically optimized for web delivery. The original full-resolution files are preserved for client downloads.

There's no limit on the number of photos per gallery. Upload your full curated set at once, or add photos in batches as you finish editing.

Organizing with Albums

For larger galleries (especially weddings), albums help clients navigate without scrolling through hundreds of photos:

1. Switch to the Albums tab on the gallery detail page.
2. Click + New Album and give it a name: "Getting Ready," "Ceremony," "Reception," "Portraits," etc.
3. Go back to the Photos tab, select the photos you want to assign, and choose the album from the dropdown.

In the client-facing gallery, albums appear as filterable tabs across the top. Clients can view all photos or click an album name to see just that subset.

Download Sizes

You control what resolution clients can download. On the Settings tab of the gallery, configure download sizes:

• Web Small (1200px long edge) — Good for social media and email. Loads quickly, looks great on screens, but not suitable for printing.
• Web Medium (2400px long edge) — Suitable for blog posts, larger screen displays, and small prints (up to 8x10).
• Full Resolution — The original file as uploaded. Suitable for large prints, albums, and archival purposes.

You can enable any combination of these sizes. Most photographers offer Web Small for social sharing and Full Resolution for keepsakes. Some offer only Web Small during the "sneak peek" phase and add Full Resolution later.

Watermark Options

Watermarks are configured per gallery on the Settings tab:

• Watermark text — Your business name, website, or any text you want overlaid on preview images.
• Watermark position — Choose from center, bottom-right, bottom-left, or bottom-center.

Watermarks appear on the gallery preview images that clients see when browsing. When clients download photos (at any size), the downloaded files are watermark-free. This protects your work while ensuring clients get clean files for their use.

Sharing with Clients

Once your gallery is published (status set to "Published"), you have several ways to share it:

Direct Link

Every gallery has a unique, shareable URL. Copy it from the gallery detail page and send it via email, text, or any messaging app. The link takes clients directly to the gallery — no login required.

Email from ShootMuse

Click the Send Gallery Email button on the gallery detail page. This sends a branded email to the client with a preview thumbnail and a "View Your Gallery" button. The email template is part of the gallery email system and uses your connected SMTP for delivery.

Client Portal

If the client has a portal token (generated automatically when you share a gallery or send a contract), they can access the gallery through their personalized client portal at /portal/[token]. The portal shows all their galleries, invoices, contracts, and session details in one place.

Gallery Favorites

Clients can mark photos as favorites while browsing their gallery. They click the heart icon on any photo (available in both the grid view and the lightbox view). This is useful for:

• Album selection — Have clients favorite the photos they want in their printed album.
• Social media picks — Ask clients to favorite the shots they'd like you to post on your business accounts.
• Retouching requests — Use favorites as a way for clients to flag photos they want additional editing on.

You can see which photos a client favorited on the Photos tab — favorited images get a heart badge.

Bulk Download

If you've enabled bulk download on the gallery (toggle in Settings), clients see a Download All button. Clicking it generates a ZIP file containing all photos in their selected download size. The ZIP is prepared on-the-fly and delivered as a single download.

For large galleries (200+ photos), the ZIP generation takes a moment. Clients see a progress indicator and the download starts automatically when it's ready.

Tracking Views and Downloads

The Analytics tab on each gallery gives you visibility into how clients interact with their photos:

• Total views — How many times the gallery has been opened.
• Unique visitors — How many distinct people have viewed the gallery (useful to see if clients are sharing with family).
• Daily view chart — A 30-day timeline showing view activity. Spikes often correspond to when you shared the link or when the client shared it with family.
• Device breakdown — How many viewers are on mobile vs. desktop. This helps you understand the viewing context.
• Top favorited photos — Which photos got the most favorites, sorted by count.
• Recent activity — A timeline of events: gallery viewed, photo downloaded, photo favorited, etc.

This data is valuable beyond just this delivery. If certain types of shots consistently get more favorites and downloads, that's a signal to shoot more of those.

Gallery Reminders

If a client hasn't viewed their gallery within a few days, you can nudge them:

• Manual reminder — Click the Send Reminder button on the gallery detail page. This sends a friendly "Your gallery is ready!" email.
• Automatic reminders — ShootMuse runs a daily check at 9 AM. If a gallery has been published for more than 3 days and the client hasn't viewed it, an automatic reminder is sent. You can see when the last reminder was sent in the gallery settings.

Gallery Templates

If you deliver galleries frequently with the same settings (same download sizes, watermark configuration, and album structure), create a Gallery Template in Settings. When creating a new gallery, select a template to pre-fill those settings and save time.