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Supply to clients Digital Delivery
DVD / Hard Drive
We either burn DVDs for the client or supply an external USB 2 hard drive depending on how much data was shot. We supply the i-View multimedia catalogues with viewing software for both PC and Apple Mac formats too and as we make the catalogues with extra large thumbnails, the client can quickly view the images without needing to zoom every image to get a better idea of the shot. Sending DVDs is slow or expensive by courier and what we don't like about sending GVDs is that they lie around on desks or in draws, often picked up by designers and reused when there is no rights to use the images.
Online Delivery
We have not used FTP as a delivery solution for years and email is almost a waste of time and effort with the receivers email box allowances are often too small to receive the full size file, or is just too full. As a solution to digital delivery hassles we developed ProMediaserve.com hosted image database systems (previously called DigitalPhotosonline.com) to present and sell stock images on line, but also as an online deliver method of commissioned work. Images are uploaded to a hosted account with ProMediaserve into a folder for the client where the client has a log in that allows him to view thumbnails of the shoot, zoom to 100% images to check sharpness and details such as facial expressions and make a choice of which images to download. And all through a simple we browser. The images are obviously further backed up upon upload and are available 24/7 to several independent parties involved in the shoot. So you could have an art director, graphic designer and the client all checking the images remotely at the same time and making a decision on which image best suited their needs and downloading it directly. Features such as a light box that allows comments that can then be emailed help the decision processes too, without anyone the needing to download anything other than final images to be used. With ProMediaserve you can manage the permissions for who can see and download what images. It can be set up so the client can download what he wants, but the ad agency can only view but needs to order images to download, so does not have complete access to all the images. ProMedaiserve also handles RAW images, producing a jpeg copy to view and zoom to help the choice online and without needing special software or download to view the photo. Rotations are handled by the server reading the exif data and performing and necessary rotations upon upload including the jpeg made from the RAW
Our ProMediaserve account has allowed us to deliver shoots to meet deadline impossible by other means. We have shot product in the morning in Spain that is to go to print in the afternoon in the UK. Sure emailing images is possible, only often restrictions on email sizes are only 2MB and it would mean sending a lot of individual emails. The online account has meant uploading the images from the hotel DSL line (its even been done from a 3G cell phone connection for a few images) to the account with the client in one location looking at the images with the graphics designer in other and making an immediate decision and downloading the shot to run with. Instead of emailing or sending the images to several people separately everyone has immediate access to the images at the same time.
FTP is very basic file transfer and you need several FTP accounts to manage permissions. Even I-view catalogues can be large file sizes and each person involved in the shoot would need to download the iView catalogue by FTP and then make the choices independently. When working with several clients you need several FTP folders and change passwords to keep each clients work separate and private.
Whether you use FTP or an account such as we have with ProMediaserve, it is only a limited selection of a shoot that can be uploaded by DSL or ADSL as the upload speeds are usually a fraction of the speed of internet download speeds. It could take days to upload just Gigabytes of data to the hosted FTP or ProMediaserve type account so an initial, small selection of the shoot needs to be made for uploading.
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Digital Work Flow