Once you understand what photo proofing is, the practical question is how to actually run one without it turning into a mess of emails and spreadsheets. An online proofing gallery handles the whole thing in one place: you share a private set of images, the client marks what they love and leaves feedback, and you review it all from a single dashboard. Here is how to set that up and run it from start to finish.
Before you start
You need a culled set of images ready to show. Proofing is not the moment to share every frame straight off the card; do a first pass to remove the obvious rejects, the test shots, the blinks, and the duplicates, and keep the images that are genuinely in contention. You do not need to finish-retouch anything yet, which is the whole point of proofing, but the set should be clean enough that every photo in it is a real candidate. A tighter gallery leads to faster, more confident decisions from your client.
Step one: upload and create the gallery
Create a new gallery for the client and upload your culled selects into it. Give it a clear name the client will recognize, tied to their session or event, so there is no confusion about what they are looking at. This is also the point to decide presentation details such as whether images carry a watermark and what download quality, if any, is available at this stage. During proofing many photographers keep downloads off or watermarked, because the goal right now is selection and feedback, not handing over final files.
Step two: publish and share access
Publish the gallery and give the client access. They receive a private link to their own gallery, which they can open on a phone, tablet, or computer without installing anything. Because the gallery is theirs and private, they can browse at their own pace, come back to it over several sittings, and share it with a partner or family member who has a say in the choices. The moment they can see the images, proofing has effectively begun; there is no separate switch to flip.
Step three: let clients star favorites and comment
This is where the client does their part. As they browse, they mark the images they love as favorites with a single tap, building up a shortlist without any effort on your end. When they want to say something specific about a particular frame, they leave a comment right on that photo, so their note is attached to the exact image it refers to instead of floating in an email that says “the third one where I am laughing.” In FrameCourier this happens directly in the client’s gallery view, the same place they browse and, later, download, so there is nothing new for them to learn.
Step four: watch the selections roll in
On your side, everything the client does collects in one place. FrameCourier gives each gallery a Proofing view with a badge showing how many photos have been starred, so you can tell at a glance whether there is anything to review yet. That view shows only the starred photos, each displaying its heart count and its comment count, which means you are never hunting through the full set to find what the client actually chose. The photos they cared about rise to the top automatically.
Step five: respond as the studio
Proofing is a conversation, not a drop box. Open any starred photo and you can see how many people starred it and read every comment on it, then type a reply and send it as the studio, clearly labeled so the client knows it is you and not another family member. This is how you answer a question, confirm a request, or gently steer a choice, all without leaving your dashboard or opening your email. If a comment becomes irrelevant or was left by mistake, you can remove it so the thread stays clean.
Step six: finalize the selects and move to delivery
When the client has starred their favorites and your back-and-forth is settled, you have a clear, unambiguous list of the images to finish. You retouch only those, and then you move from proofing into delivery, the separate step where the polished final files are handed over. That whole sequence, from first upload to final handoff, is worth running the same way every time, which is exactly what we cover in the complete photo proofing workflow.