A Headshot Proofing Gallery Built Around Retouch Notes

A headshot is looked at closely, usually by the person in it.

Small things matter to that person: a flyaway hair, a blemish, a crease in a jacket, a reflection in glasses.

A pick tells you which frame they want.

It does not tell you what they expect the finished frame to look like.

When the notes arrive separately, by email or text, you have to match each sentence to a filename by hand. That matching is where mistakes happen.

A note written on the photo itself removes the matching step. A mark drawn on the photo removes the guessing about where.

For the policy side, meaning what counts as included retouching and what gets quoted, read how to handle client photo revision requests.

Picks come in two levels: star and love.

The client opens a photo full screen to pick it.

One tap on the photo stars it, a double tap loves it, and there are star and heart buttons as well.

In the grid, a picked photo shows a small badge.

For a headshot client, the two levels map well onto "this is the one" and "I would also take this". The guide to star and love pick levels goes deeper on how to brief a client on them.

When they are done, the client presses "Send my picks" in the bottom tray.

The confirmation asks for a name and an email and tells the client that sending locks their picks.

You receive an email with the loved and starred counts, an entry in your activity feed, and a push on your iPhone if you turned picks notifications on in the app.

Comments are off by default.

You switch them on for the galleries where you want notes, which for headshots is usually every gallery.

With comments on, the client can open a photo, write a note, and draw directly on the image.

The drawing is saved with the note, so you see the circle exactly where they put it.

A note can be a drawing with no text at all, which suits a client who would rather point than describe.

Comments stay behind the gallery password, if the gallery has one.

Each note is signed with the client name set on the gallery, or "Client" when none is set. The client is never asked to type a name to comment. You set the client name in the gallery’s Pro proofing settings, and the name the client types when sending picks replaces it.

Because every note carries the same signature, one gallery per person keeps the notes readable. A team sharing one link will all appear under one name.

Notes keep working after picks are sent, so a client can add a retouch request once their selection is locked.

You get an email when notes come in, grouped so that one gallery sends at most one email every 15 minutes.

Comments send email only; they do not trigger a phone push.

In the studio, each gallery has a Retouch round page.

It is a worklist, not a chat.

It shows every client note, drawings included, next to the photo it belongs to.

Picked photos that carry notes come first, then the other picks, then photos with notes but no pick, then everything else.

That order puts the frames you have to deliver and fix at the top.

Each note has a done check.

Marking a note done strikes it through and adds a Retouched chip to that note on the client page.

Each photo also has its own retouched flag, set on the same page.

That per-photo flag is separate from the note checks.

A photo can have three notes and one flag; the flag is what says the frame is finished.

The top of the page shows how many picks are retouched out of how many were picked, with a progress bar.

Replies are not written on this worklist. Any reply you post on a note is tagged as the photographer’s, so the client can tell the two apart.

If you edit in Lightroom Classic, the two-way plugin pulls the picks back into your catalog by filename. A star becomes 3 stars, a love becomes 5 stars plus a Pick flag, and every pick lands in a collection named after the gallery. You then retouch those frames against the notes on screen.

Each photo you flag as retouched shows a green check badge in the client’s grid.

Each note you mark done shows its Retouched chip.

A pill on the gallery reads "X of Y picks retouched" with a progress bar.

That pill counts the per-photo flag across the picked photos only. It is not a count of finished notes.

It appears once picks have been sent, while picks are switched on for the gallery, and when there is at least one pick.

For a client waiting on a headshot for a profile or a press kit, the count answers "is it done yet" without an email.

Clients install nothing and log in to nothing; the gallery is a web page on your own subdomain, with your name and logo and no platform branding.

Hosted photos are proof JPEGs sized for fast viewing, not print files.

The finished headshots go out as a full-resolution ZIP you upload to the same gallery, on a paid plan.

The client sees a download button with how many days the file stays available.

You can replace or re-upload the ZIP at any time, which restarts the clock.

When the client opens that ZIP, you get a push on your iPhone if download notifications are on.

The gallery’s download switch controls "Download all photos" and the per-photo download button. It does not hide the full-resolution ZIP once one is live.

After picks are sent, the client can also save their picks as social crops in four shapes, cut from the proofs and centred automatically.

A headshot client who wants a precise crop for a platform should ask you for it rather than rely on those buttons.

Sending picks locks them.

If the client wants a different frame, the studio presses "Reopen picking".

The existing picks stay in place, and the client sees the tray again on their next visit.

The client is not notified automatically, so tell them yourself.

When they send again, you get a fresh email.

Retouched flags stay on the photos you already finished, so a swapped frame shows up as not yet done in the count.

clientgallery.io has no print store and takes no commission.

A headshot studio that earns meaningful revenue from prints or wall products should keep a platform with a store built in.

There are no seats or roles either; a studio with a separate retoucher shares one account.

The platform hosts JPEGs; your RAW files and masters stay on your own drives.

If your headshot work is volume school or event portraits sold by package, a lab-connected system will serve you better.

This page states no external figures. Every number and behaviour above describes clientgallery.io and was checked against the product’s own code on 16 September 2026: the client gallery page, the studio gallery manager, the Retouch round page, the picks, comments and completion routes, the full-resolution delivery limits, and the pricing section.