If you work with a lot of imagery, such as in fields like photography, e-commerce, or product marketing, you know how challenging it can be to get good feedback and timely client approvals on photo shoots.
From imprecise feedback to confusion about selections to vague approvals, client review and approval can be a minefield of delays and frustrations.
A client proofing gallery can streamline your workflows and alleviate a lot of that strain. That’s why online proofing tools are a must-have for creatives working with photo sets.
What is a Client Proofing Gallery and Why Do You Need One?
There’s a growing need for faster and smoother content production. This is thanks to the way people consume content. Faster marketing cycles, remote teams, and just the sheer scale of content require a smarter, more efficient client proofing workflow.
A client proofing gallery is an online space where creatives can upload photos, videos, or other files for clients to review. Creatives and clients can then leave comments and markups, review revised files, and approve directly from within the platform.
What Happens Without Online Proofing Tools
Not having an online proofing tool likely means creatives and teams are forced to rely on long email chains or non-purpose-built tools designed for image proofing. Or even just an online gallery platform that doesn’t allow precise feedback, smart selections, or intuitive client approvals.
This is a recipe for miscommunication and missed or misinterpreted feedback. It often even results in the wrong files being edited and sent back to a client. Working without the proper tools means creatives are vulnerable to a range of problems, including client confusion, messy feedback, challenges with sharing, and perhaps the worst of all, missed deadlines.
Key Features of an Effective Proofing Gallery
An effective proofing gallery provides clients and all stakeholders with an intuitive, secure way to view files. You have greater control over the review and approval process.
Here are just some of the online proofing software features that make working with image files much more straightforward:
Visual Clarity
Clients can view and mark up high-res images, selecting from a range of annotation tools to share precise feedback on the finest details. Precise markup tools enable clients to leave feedback directly on the image itself, eliminating ambiguity and cutting down on the need to seek clarification.
Easy Sharing
Sharing a link with clients is easy. Reviews can be password-protected for guests – or not. It’s completely cloud-based, so there’s nothing to download, update, or install.
Comments to Tasks
If you are working with multiple creatives, such as photographers, editors, retouchers, or others, turning feedback into tasks is easy. It’s also very easy to filter and sort by users and tasks.
File Protection
Reviewers and stakeholders can download the final approved version if that’s what’s needed. Or, you can disable downloads – which functions like a watermark, without actually having to add a watermark (which can hurt the review experience).
Threaded Feedback Tools
Comments are synced in realtime and threaded, making it much easier to keep track of the discussion. And if you need to clarify a comment, everyone gets the same clarity.
Batching Features
You can review and approve files with batch options, so people can quickly approve, reject, comment on, rate or even label multiple files at a time. It makes it easier to review large file sets and narrow them down faster.
Organization Options
Features like customizable labelling (at the file, proof, or project level) make organization simpler. You can also present as many images as required in a review (or a proof), along with other formats.
And features like star ratings also allow the client to leave a rating (1-5 stars), to help narrow down large sets.
Intuitive and Integrated Approvals
Integrated approve/reject options mean clients can move smoothly through the review, while you get instant clarity about how to proceed.
Versioning Tools
Built-in version control means clients will always see the most recent version of a file. Previous files are stored if you need to compare, or review why changes were made.
With tools like ReviewStudio, it’s possible to compare file versions side-by-side and to highlight any amends that were made.
Benefits of Implementing Better Proofing Tools
There are huge benefits to proofing gallery tools for professional photographers, retouching teams, editors, studios or any other creative teams working with photo and image files.
Keeping feedback centralized and contextual means you lose far less time to miscommunications, misunderstandings, and rework. This leaves your team free to focus on delivering great work. Approvals are easier and more intuitive for clients to handle, cutting down on the time spent waiting for their input.
It’s also a massive boost to your client experience and takes the stress and inconvenience out of leaving feedback, as it massively cuts down on the back-and-forth clients need to go through. And of course, having an intuitive system in place makes your team and company look great from the start.
Online Proofing Galleries Deliver a Better Client Experience
When you don’t have purpose-built proofing tools, clients are forced to get creative trying to share what they mean. This often results in lengthy clarification discussions and work having to be redone. Working like this can also lead to chaos with versioning. It inevitably leads to a poor experience for clients.
Using an online proofing tool like ReviewStudio effectively addresses these problems. Not only is it a great showcase for clients, but it also acts as a collaborative and accountable review and approval workspace.
A client proofing gallery specifically designed for reviewing images and other files means clients can comment, get clarity, review edits, and approve or reject specific images. All from one user-friendly interface.
The specialized markup tools enable clients to leave revisions directly on the file. Likewise, the threaded comments keep requests from falling through the cracks. Versioning is also tightly controlled, so leaving feedback on the wrong file is a thing of the past.
Upgrade Your Client’s Online Proofing Workflow
Online proofing tools are essential to the workflows of many creative teams, photographers, and designers. When you’re working with images, the right online proofing tools can make a massive difference. They can improve both your client relationships and your creative results. Investing in your proofing workflows can boost your efficiency, improve your bottom line, and deliver a great client experience.
