Proofing by genre
School Photo Day Delivery to Parents: Class by Class, Behind a Password
Picture day produces photos for hundreds of families who must each see their own class and nothing more. The workable pattern is one gallery and one password per class, handed to the school to distribute, with no children's names anywhere on the page.
Updated 24 September 2026
School photo delivery is less a design problem than a distribution problem.
You have many classes, many families, and usually no direct line to any parent.
The school office has the email list and the rules about what may be shared.
And every photo shows a child, so the default has to be that a family sees its own child’s class and nothing else.
This guide covers how to structure the galleries, what to switch on and off, and what the studio can honestly see after the links go out.
Staff portraits for badges and the school website are a different handoff with different recipients, covered in the school staff headshot delivery guide.
Three kinds of photo, three audiences
Before building anything, sort picture day by who may see what.
| Photo | Who may see it | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Class group photo | Families of that class | That class’s gallery |
| Candids from the day, if the school agreed to them | Families of that class | A section inside that class’s gallery |
| Individual portrait of a child | That child’s family only | Never a class gallery; see below |
| Staff portraits | The school | A separate gallery for the school contact |
The rest of this page follows that table.
Why one gallery per class, not one school gallery
On clientgallery.io a gallery can be split into sections, and it is tempting to build one school gallery with a section per class.
For school photos, do not.
A password belongs to the gallery, and it opens every section inside it.
Every section also has its own share link, but that link asks for the same gallery password. It is a view-only page of one section, with no downloads, no picks and no link back to the full gallery. It is not a private gallery.
So a school-wide gallery with one password lets any parent with that password scroll to every class in the school.
One gallery per class, each with its own password, keeps each class to its own families.
| Question | One school gallery, a section per class | One gallery per class |
|---|---|---|
| Can a Grade 2 parent see Grade 5? | Yes, with the one password | No, unless given the Grade 5 password |
| Passwords the office distributes | 1 | 1 per class |
| Opened indicator in the studio | 1 for the school | 1 per class |
| Photo ceiling (fair use) | 1,000 for the whole school | 1,000 per class |
| Extra cost on the paid plan | None | None: no gallery count, no per-gallery fee |
Inside a class gallery, sections are still useful: the class photo outside any section so it appears first, and a Candids section below it. Parents see one scrolling page with a jump-to bar listing each section and its photo count.
Individual portraits
An individual portrait should reach one family.
A gallery that a whole class opens is the wrong place for it.
If the school has booked digital delivery of individual portraits, each family needs its own gallery and its own password.
The paid plan has no gallery count and no per-gallery fee, so a gallery per family costs nothing extra.
It is still one gallery you create and one message the school sends per family, and at the scale of a whole school that is real work.
If individual portraits are sold to each family as packages, see the last section of this page: that is a job for a platform built around per-family ordering.
Settings for a class gallery
A password on every gallery. Send the link and the password to the school contact in one message, one class per line.
Picks off. Picks are one shared set for everyone who holds the link, and the first person to press Send my picks locks picking for the whole gallery. A class gallery is not a proofing round. With picks off, the page tells visitors their photos are ready.
Downloads as the school agreed. Downloads are a separate switch. On, parents see a Download all photos button and a download button on each photo. Off, the gallery is viewing only.
Share button off. The gallery page has a Share this gallery button, and it can be switched off. That removes the invitation to forward, although it cannot stop anyone copying the address and the password.
A welcome note with the school’s rule. It appears under the gallery title. For example: these photos are for families of this class; please do not post photos that show other children.
Password setup is covered in the password guide.
No names on the page
- Title class galleries by school, year and class code, and leave teacher names out unless the school is happy to show them.
- Never put a child’s name in a gallery title or a section name.
- Check export filenames. A downloaded photo saves under its filename, so a child’s name in a filename leaves with every copy.
- Keep the roster, and any mapping of portraits to children, in your own records, not in the gallery.
What the studio can and cannot see
Schools sometimes ask whether the studio can confirm that every family received its photos. The honest answer is only partly.
| You can see | You cannot see |
|---|---|
| Whether each class gallery has been opened, through the opened indicator on its studio tile, with filters for Seen by client and Not opened yet | Which families opened it: there are no per-viewer logins, and visitors are counted anonymously |
| Account-wide totals: visits, unique visitors, photo views, ZIP downloads, shares, time spent and a mobile, desktop and tablet split | Any of those totals for one class gallery: the analytics are account-wide, not per gallery |
There is no referrer, location or browser breakdown either. Your own visits are excluded from the totals.
In practice, a class gallery still marked Not opened yet a few days after the school’s email is the one to ask the office about.
What a password stops, and what it does not, is set out in the answer on stopping clients sharing gallery links.
Retakes and the end of the school year
Retake day photos can be added to the same class gallery, so families keep the link they already have.
Hosted galleries do not expire. A class gallery stays up while your account exists, unless you revoke or delete it.
For school work that is not always what the school wants. Agree a retirement date, write it in the welcome note, and revoke the galleries on that date.
Revoking makes the link stop working and keeps the gallery itself. Deleting is permanent.
The service hosts JPEGs only. Keep RAW files and masters on your own drives.
The numbers
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Paid plan | $10 a month, or $100 a year (8.33 a month) |
| Galleries per paid account | No count, no per-gallery fee |
| Photos per gallery (fair use) | 1,000 |
| Hosted photos per paid account (fair use) | 250 GB |
| Passwords per gallery | 1, covering every section and section link |
| Accounts needed by parents | 0 |
When another tool fits better
clientgallery.io has no print store, no order form and takes no commissions.
A school photography business that earns its income from per-child packages, prints and yearbook ordering should use a platform built around that ordering.
clientgallery.io fits a smaller job: a studio paid by the school to deliver class photos digitally, or an independent school that wants its picture day photos in private, password-protected galleries under the studio’s own subdomain with no platform branding.
There are no seats or assistant logins, so a studio with several photographers on picture day shares one account.
The team-by-team version of this workflow for sports leagues is in the youth sports photo delivery guide.
Sources
This page states no external figure.
Every number on it is a clientgallery.io product fact, checked against the product code on 24 September 2026: the plan prices, the absence of a gallery count or per-gallery fee, the fair-use ceilings of 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB per paid account, the single password per gallery that also covers section links, and the account-wide scope of the analytics.
Frequently asked
How do I deliver school photos to parents online?
Create one gallery per class, each with its own password, and send the list of links and passwords to the school contact, who forwards each class its own. Parents open the gallery in a browser with no account.
Can I put the whole school in one gallery with a section per class?
You can, but every section shares the gallery's password, so any parent with it can see every class. Section share links also ask for that same password. For privacy between classes, use a separate gallery per class.
How do I send individual portraits to each family?
Each family needs its own gallery and password. Galleries carry no per-gallery fee on the paid plan, but each one is created and sent separately. If portraits are sold as per-child packages, a platform built for school ordering fits better.
Can I see which parents have viewed the class photos?
No. Each gallery shows whether it has been opened at all. The analytics are account-wide totals, visitors are counted anonymously, and there are no per-viewer logins.
Does a password stop parents from sharing the photos?
A password stops strangers and search engines. It cannot stop a parent from forwarding the link and password or saving photos they are allowed to download. Put the school's sharing rule in the welcome note.
How long do school photo galleries stay online?
Hosted galleries do not expire while your account exists. Agree a retirement date with the school and revoke the galleries on that date; revoking stops the link without deleting the gallery.
Your client galleries, under your name
Branded galleries, client selections and a Lightroom Classic workflow. Start with your first gallery, then compare the current plan. Full-resolution delivery is a separate handoff with its own limits and conditions.
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