I am looking for opinions on Photoshelter

[denisbalibouse]

I am looking for feedback on Photoshelter.
All advantages and against are welcome.
I am a freelance photpgrapher with a mix of clients, newspapers and corporate and sometimes i am looking for solutions to have my pictures available in an easier way.
I currently post html galleries on my private website.

Thanks for taking time to share your experience.

Denis

PS I don't know if this is correct to post that message here if not please feel free to move it or delete

[Ron Hawkes]

Denis, Photoshelter rocks, I have been a member since the start and love what they are doing and how they listen to photographers. They are constantly trying to improve the site and its function, much like this one. Being able to upload right from PM is great.

The guys who run Photoshelter are the best. Give it a try, you will not be sorry.
Ron Hawkes

[Pavel]

I'm a big fan of some parts of it but am going to wait a few months and if some parts don't improve then cancel the service.  I like the straight forward approach to moving files and realy like the idea of having separate galleries from archives.  I also very much like the look of the pages.

It is however pretty useless to me until cascading folders are an option.  I shoot racing and to upload 1200 files into one pot is not a very attractive option.  So what I would like is to be able to direct my customers into a web page and in it have multiple folders available from the shoot to organize the shoot so that they can find their shots by bike number.  Right now this is not possible.  The new beta browser is there but missed the mark (as far as I can tell) in that the multiple folders are only on the archive side and not on the gallery side (what's the point in that?)

The other reservation and reason that I may drop the service is the fact that web integration costs a fortune at $20 bucks a month extra whereas it  is free with exposure-manager.  I would not mind paying a one time fee to make it so that it does not let the customer know they've left my site but I feel that a monthly fee like that is gouging.  Exposure-manager is free for their $12 a month fee and that seems like a far more attractive bargain.

The prints are a bit pricey compared to the competition but not too bad, not bad enough to leave.  I absolutely love the photomechanic integration - in fact it's the reason that I'm going to give it a bit longer before I head off to exposure-manager if some of the details don't come about.  PM integration is a big, big plus.

Last thing that is a minus for me is the limit of 500 pixels for the display of my shots.  That is just a bit too small.  Funny, but 600 is not that much more but it makes a big difference.  There is also something going on where even though I take my shots a t 500 pixels out of capture one for photoshelter - it seems to resize them anyway or something because it seems like the shots are a bit blurred afterwards viewing them at photoshelter.

I also find the price structure starts very low and then jumps very fast if you need more space.  I wish the jump was more gradual.

I really like the service despite these negatives I've mentioned.  There is something about the interface and going about things in photoshelter that is logical and nice to use.  I hope that in the future I can put nested folders to organize my shoots in the galleries.

OH ... and the newsletter that photoshelter puts out is a very nice bit of information and help.  I appreciate how much photoshelter is doing to improve things - it really looks like a customer based enterprise.

[Melissa Wade]

Do you capture the bike numbers in the IPTC at all?  Users have the ability to search within a gallery so if the bike number were captured, they would be able to pull up just their own pictures.

I assume you are wanting it to be possible to have the gallery collections go to multiple levels - Season/Race/Bike numbers, for example.  If not, have you tried that option - individual galleries for the bike numbers included in a gallery collection for the particular race.  I would like to see them allow multiple levels in the future.

The monthly cost for integration has put me off that option for now (esp. since I'd also need to finally shell out for someone to design my site). 

-Melissa

[pcalvin]

I have been using Digital Railroad the past two years as an archive for stock sales and out of town/state/country delivery to clients without an FTP server.  It has made money for me, and I am staying with the service in the future.

That being said, I have this month signed onto Photoshelter as well.  I am looking for another storefront for my images, located in another neighborhood.  That is, it may reach clients who search there for stock, but not DRR.

Peter

[JAS Photo]

Has anyone seen a comprehensive review of these online pro photo site's? is there a good list of alternatives somewhere? - I use Printroom - their service is good- pricing is a percent of sales so to start it's cheap. but their software sucks. - I'd love to be able to use PM to upload.
Is there a place to discuss them not to tie up PM's board?
Thanks
Joe

[bmangin]

I am a big fan of PhotoShelter and have been using it for over a year now.

I use the lightbox to get images to clients and I store all my raw files (currently 14,577 of them) there. PhotoShelter also blends in seamlessly with my Flash-based website: www.manginphotography.com

Here are some of my favorite things about PhotoShelter:

1) Local and Geographic Redundancy
2) Able to read raw files
3) Blends seamlessly into my website
4) Collaborative lightbox feature is great for communication with editors
5) Export to FTP servers directly from PhotoShelter means super fast uploads
6) Export from Photo Mechanic and Apple's Aperture ties in directly with my existing workflow

No ther existing service out there today can do all of these things- therefore PhotoShelter is perfect for me and my needs.

Best of luck with your decision.