Product Photography Approval Workflow: The Brand Review Round

Product feedback tends to arrive in the worst possible shape.

One reviewer sends a spreadsheet of filenames.

Another replies to the email with screenshots and arrows.

A third says "the blue one looks off" with no filename at all.

By the time you start retouching, nobody is sure which list is current.

The fix is to keep every decision on the photo it concerns, in one place the whole brand team opens. That is what a proofing gallery with comments and labels does.

Both tools are off by default. You switch them on per gallery, in the Pro proofing panel of the gallery settings.

Allow comments lets anyone with the link leave a note on any photo. A reviewer can also draw on the photo, and the drawing travels with the note. A note can even be a drawing alone, which is often the clearest way to point at a dust spot or a crooked label.

Color labels gives reviewers the five Lightroom colors: red, yellow, green, blue and purple. Each photo carries one label, shared by everyone who has the link. Tapping the current color clears it. The settings panel notes that labels land back in your Lightroom catalog.

In the same panel, fill in the client name and email. Comments are signed with that client name, or with "Client" when none is set. The page never asks a reviewer for their own name.

Labels only help if both sides read them the same way.

Write the legend into the gallery’s welcome note, which shows under the gallery title.

An example legend for a product shoot:

The meanings are yours to set. For a deeper look at label conventions, see client color labels for proofing.

Product reviewers think in SKUs, not in frame numbers.

The full-screen view shows the photo’s filename in a small pill, and the comment panel shows it in its header.

So a reviewer can quote the exact file in an email or a ticket without guessing.

Publish from Lightroom with the plugin, which matches picks back to your catalog by filename, so name files by SKU before you publish. Photos uploaded from the iPhone app get generated names instead, which is fine for a sneak look but weak for a SKU review.

There are no reviewer accounts and no seats.

Everyone on the brand side opens the same link, behind the gallery password if you set one.

Reviewers install nothing and log in to nothing.

Because every comment carries the gallery’s client name, ask reviewers to start each note with their initials when more than one person is commenting. It is a small habit, and it saves a round of "who asked for this?".

Send the whole gallery link, not a section link. A section link is view-only: it has no comments, no labels and no picks.

Picks are one shared set per gallery. If two reviewers pick at the same time, each sees the other’s changes only after reloading the page. Agree on one person who presses Send my picks.

Reviewers pick in the full-screen view.

A star marks a frame they want; a heart, or love, marks a must-have.

One tap on the photo stars it, and a double tap loves it.

When the list is final, the reviewer presses Send my picks in the bottom tray. The confirm step asks for a name and an email, and warns that sending locks the picks.

That name and email replace the gallery’s client name and email, so later comments carry the sender’s name.

You hear about it three ways:

• an email with the loved and starred counts;
• an entry in your activity feed;
• an iPhone push, if your device has picks notifications on.

Once picks are sent, the Export picks (.txt) button appears in the studio. It lists one filename per line, loved photos first, then starred, with nothing in the file marking which is which.

If you use the Lightroom plugin, picks come back into the 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.

Locked picks do not stop the conversation. Labels and comments keep working after the send.

Open the gallery’s Retouch round page in the studio.

It is a worklist: picked photos with notes come first, then picked photos, then photos with notes only.

The rest of the gallery sits in a collapsed list at the bottom.

Each card shows the photo, its filename, its pick level and every note, with a link to view any drawing on the photo.

Each card has two separate checks, and they do different things.

The count follows the per-photo flag only. Ticking every note on a photo does not move it; pressing Mark retouched does.

The pill appears on the client page only after picks are sent, with picks switched on and at least one pick. The Retouch round page shows the same count at the top, so you see what the brand sees.

A useful rhythm: tick each note as you apply it, then mark the photo retouched once it is truly finished. The brand can open the link any afternoon and read the count instead of emailing you for a status.

Someone on the brand side will ask to swap a pick after sending.

In the studio, press Reopen picking.

The selection unlocks and the existing picks are kept, so the reviewer edits the list rather than starting over.

The client is not notified, so tell them yourself that the list is open again.

A second send emails you again.

Set a rule in the job brief for how many reopenings are included. Extra rounds are billable work, not a favour.

A review round is for judging frames, not for taking them away.

Switching downloads off hides Download all photos, the per-photo download button and the proof ZIP.

It does not hide a full-resolution ZIP you have uploaded, so upload that only when the handoff is due.

It also leaves the social-crop buttons in place. Those appear after picks are sent, when social crops are on, which is the default. They save each pick as a centre-cropped JPEG made from the proof.

For the handoff itself, the finished-file side is covered in delivering photos to an ad agency.

This workflow suits a brand team that wants a clear, visual review without a new login.

It is not a digital asset manager.

If the brand needs a signed approval from each named person, per-reviewer accounts, or an audit trail of who approved what, use their DAM or a dedicated review tool.

If you sell prints or wall art from your galleries, keep a platform with a store; clientgallery.io has no print store.

The gallery hosts proof JPEGs sized for fast viewing. Masters and RAW files stay on your own drives.

For how this fits a wider commercial practice, see the commercial photographer client gallery guide.

This page states no external figures. Every product behaviour and number above comes from the clientgallery.io product itself, checked against the application code on 16 September 2026: the gallery settings, the client gallery page, the Retouch round page, the picks and comments handling, and the pricing section.