clientgallery.io

Answer

How to Let Clients Pick Their Favorite Photos Online

One link, opened in the browser your client already has. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, a count that follows them down the page, and one button that hands you the finished selection.

Updated 7 September 2026

The short answer: publish the shoot as a web gallery and send your client the link. In clientgallery.io that link is the whole login. They open it in the browser already on their phone, mark photos with their thumb as they scroll, watch a running count at the bottom of the screen, and press one button when they are finished. Nothing gets installed and nobody signs up for anything.

This page is written from the client's side of the screen, because that is where a selection round is won or lost. Below: what your client sees at each step, what lands on your side the second they send, the route for photographers who finish in Capture One or Hasselblad Phocus, and how Pixieset, Pic-Time, ShootProof and CloudSpot run the same round. Every competitor statement was read off the vendor's own page on 7 September 2026 and is listed in the Sources section. Where a vendor publishes nothing on a point, this page says so rather than filling the gap.

What your client does, from opening the link to pressing send

Six steps, in the order your client meets them. Most of a selection round happens on a phone, so read this as a phone flow.

  • They tap the link. It arrives by text or email and opens in whatever browser is already on the device. There is no app to fetch, no extension, and no signup screen standing between the link and the photos. If you gave the gallery a password, the first thing they meet is the prompt, and the server hands back nothing else until it is answered.
  • They land on your work, not on an interface. Your logo or studio name sits across the top, the gallery title under it, then the photos. Sections appear as named blocks on the same page with a jump bar above them, so nobody has to click into folders to find the ceremony.
  • They mark photos with one thumb. One tap on a photo stars it, two taps love it, and opening a photo full screen turns those into labelled buttons reading Star and Love. Tapping the mark a photo is already carrying takes it back off.
  • The count follows them down the page. A tray pinned to the bottom of the screen shows the number of stars and the number of loves as they go. Your client never has to leave the grid, open a basket, or scroll back to the top to find out how far along they are.
  • One button ends the round. The tray carries a button reading Send my picks with the running total in brackets, always in the same place.
  • The dialog confirms the handover. It repeats how many photos are starred and how many are loved, says plainly that sending locks the selection, and asks for a name and an email address. Both are required, and the address is checked on the server as well as in the browser. Confirm and send closes the round, and the gallery locks so the list you work from stops moving.

Two design decisions sit under that flow and are argued properly elsewhere rather than here: why the gallery gives a client two marks instead of one heart, and why marking asks for nothing while sending asks for a name. Both are made in full in the guide to star and love pick levels.

What reaches you the moment they send

The client's last tap is your first notification, so nobody has to check a gallery on a hunch.

  • An email. It names the client, names the gallery, and states how many photos were loved and how many were starred.
  • A phone notification. The same event pushes an alert saying the client sent their picks, with the count.
  • The studio dashboard. The gallery flips to a completed state naming the client, with an export button beside it.

Until then the studio side reads as picks so far, with a line stating that the client has not sent them yet. That wording is doing real work. Halfway through a round looks exactly like the end of one if all you are shown is a number.

If you edit in Lightroom Classic, the selection comes back as catalog metadata rather than as text. The plugin matches by filename: a starred photo arrives at three stars, a loved photo arrives at five stars with a Pick flag, and everything the client touched is gathered into a collection named after the gallery. Every completed gallery also carries an Export picks (.txt) button, which downloads the picked filenames as a plain list, and which appears only once the client has actually sent. What that file carries, and what it leaves out, is set out line by line in the same guide so you can decide before you build a workflow on it.

If your cull happens in Capture One or Hasselblad Phocus

Plenty of photographers never open Lightroom Classic, which makes the plugin route irrelevant to them. The .txt file is the way out for everyone else, and it is deliberately dull: filenames, one per line, in a file named after the gallery.

Dull is the point. A filename is the one thing every cataloguing tool already understands. Paste a name into the search field of a Capture One session or catalog and the frame comes up. Do the same in Hasselblad Phocus, or in a Finder or Explorer window pointed at the shoot folder, or in a spreadsheet column beside your own delivery list. Nothing in the round depends on which editor you bought, and nothing asks your client to know what you use.

If Lightroom Classic is where you work, take the plugin instead and let the ratings and the collection arrive on their own. The text file is there so that choosing a different editor does not cost you the automation.

How the other platforms run the same round

All four platforms below let a client pick, and three of them hand the photographer a file they can filter on. The differences worth knowing are what the client marks, and what shape the picks arrive in.

PlatformHow the client marks a photoHow the picks reach the photographer
clientgallery.ioStar or love in the same grid. One tap stars, two taps love. No account and nothing to install; the link is the loginEmail plus phone notification on send. A filename list as Export picks (.txt), or three stars, five stars with a Pick flag and a named collection through the Lightroom Classic plugin
PixiesetThe heart icon on any photo, adding it to a new or existing favorite list. Pixieset states the list is saved under the client's email address, and clients can create several lists and add notesThe client can send the list to you and confirm they finished. You read it under Activities, Favorite Activity, organized by email address, and can export a .CSV of filenames or a Lightroom Copy List
Pic-TimeThe Selection Request tool. The client hovers a photo, clicks the flag icon, and checkmarks which selection it belongs to. Selecting more than the requested count shows a red indicator and blocks submissionThe client clicks Send to Photographer and Pic-Time emails you when the selection is complete. You open the Workflow tab, then User's Favorites, and can download the list or a .csv. Client Selections is listed on the Professional and Advanced plans only
ShootProofFavorites inside the gallery, then Favorites in the top navigation for a filtered view of what was picked. ShootProof describes proofing as favorites, labels and moreA dashboard notification and an email when a linked contact finishes selecting. The count appears in the Gallery Visitors report, the favorited files can be sent straight to the client, and favorites can be filtered in Lightroom
CloudSpotThe client favorites images inside the gallery, then opens the Download icon at the top right and picks their favorites list plus any other foldersThe documented path is the client's own download. Downloads must be enabled in gallery settings first, the client enters an email address and the download link is sent there, and CloudSpot shows the photographer the download activity

Two things in that table are worth acting on. If your contract fixes a hard number of images, Pic-Time and Pixieset both address the overshoot problem head on: Pic-Time blocks a submission that goes over the requested count, and Pixieset lets you preset a favorite list with a limit on how many selections the client can make. And if your filenames are already tidy, Pixieset hands you a .CSV of filenames and a Lightroom Copy List from the same screen, which may be all the round ever needed.

When a named-list platform is the better buy

Not every selection round is a narrowing job. Some clients are filing: this frame goes to the album designer, that one to the parents, that one to the framer, and one photo can belong in two of those at once. Filing wants named containers, and the argument for containers against levels is made properly in the guide to star and love pick levels. If that describes your normal round, buy for it: Pixieset publishes that clients can create multiple favorite lists, rename them, add notes to individual favorites, share a list, and send the finished list to the photographer, and Pic-Time publishes that gallery guests can create Collections of media in their gallery, including a Favorites list.

Two more honest disqualifiers. clientgallery.io sells no prints and never touches your client's money, so if the selection round is supposed to end in a print order, you want a platform with a store attached to the gallery. And a studio that runs its selections inside a system that also holds the contract and the invoice has bought an integrated workflow on purpose; a standalone gallery is not a replacement for it. There is more on running the round itself in the proofing guide.

Four things that make the round easier on the client

The gallery is half the job. The message you send with the link is the other half.

  • Name a number. Aim for about 25 loves lands far better than let me know which ones you like. A target gives your client something to measure against. An open request gives them nowhere to stop.
  • Put the instruction in one sentence. Star anything you like, love the ones you are sure about, then send. That is the whole manual, and most clients read nothing else.
  • Publish fewer photos. Fifteen near-identical frames of one pose do not widen the choice, they flatten the client's attention. A gallery holds up to 1,000 photos, which is a ceiling rather than a goal.
  • Password it when the subject asks for it. The check runs on the server, so a gallery with a password returns the prompt and nothing else until it is answered.

One thing you do not have to set up: the page your client marks photos on sits on your own subdomain and wears your logo, your name, your colours and your fonts, with no platform name, badge, footer or link anywhere on it. The selection round is the most attention your work will ever get from that client, and it should not be shared with somebody else's brand.

Sources

Product behaviour was verified in the clientgallery.io source on 7 September 2026. All competitor pages were fetched on 7 September 2026. Plan availability and features are stated as each vendor publishes them on that date.

Frequently asked

How do I let clients pick their favorite photos online?

Publish the shoot as a web gallery and send your client the link. In clientgallery.io they open that link in the browser already on their phone, tap once to star a photo and twice to love it, and watch the running count in the tray at the bottom of the screen. When they are finished, the Send my picks button hands you the whole selection, and you get an email and a phone notification straight away.

Do my clients need an account or an app to pick photos?

No. There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for: the link itself is what gets them in, plus the gallery password if you set one. The only details the gallery ever asks for are a name and an email address in the send dialog at the very end, so the finished selection arrives with somebody's name on it.

What does the client actually see on their phone?

Your logo or studio name across the top, the gallery title, then the photos, with named blocks and a jump bar if you divided the shoot into sections. A tray pinned to the bottom shows how many photos they have starred and how many they have loved, next to the send button. There is no separate favorites screen to open and no mode to switch into.

How will I know when my client has finished choosing?

Three ways at once. An email naming the client and the gallery with the loved and starred counts, a notification pushed to your phone, and the studio dashboard flipping to a completed state with the export button beside it. Before they send, the studio side shows the picks made so far and states plainly that the client has not sent them yet.

How do I get the picks into Capture One or Hasselblad Phocus?

Use the Export picks (.txt) button on the completed gallery. It downloads the picked filenames as a plain list named after the gallery, and a filename is something every cataloguing tool already understands: paste one into the search field of a Capture One session, into Hasselblad Phocus, into a Finder or Explorer window on the shoot folder, or into a spreadsheet. If Lightroom Classic is where you work, take the plugin route instead and let the ratings arrive on their own.

Which platform should I use if my client needs separate lists for albums, prints and social?

Pixieset or Pic-Time. Pixieset publishes that clients can create multiple favorite lists, rename them, add notes, share a list, and send the finished list to the photographer. Pic-Time publishes that gallery guests can create Collections of media in their gallery, including a Favorites list. A client sorting photos into separate destinations is doing a filing job, and named containers are the right shape for it.

Your client galleries, under your name

Unlimited galleries, your branding, one-click Pixieset import, and a Lightroom plugin, all on a flat 10 $/month with everything included. Your first gallery is free.

Create your studio

Related guides

How to Let Clients Pick Their Favorite Photos Online