Photoshelter Users Group

[MDM]

11 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

It appears that Zenfolio offers 1TB of storage.

 

I use around 2.6 TB at the moment. 

 

JPEG storage is unlimited but you pay for raw storage as far as I know (maybe over a certain amount). I never used raw storage on Zenfolio.

Edited August 30, 2021 by MDM

[Phil Crean]

8 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

JPEG storage is unlimited but you pay for raw storage as far as I know (maybe over a certain amount). I never used raw storage on Zenfolio.

This is correct. I also don’t use the RAW storage.

Phil

[MDM]

9 minutes ago, Phil Crean said:

This is correct. I also don’t use the RAW storage.

Phil

 

Yes it is way way cheaper to store raws on hard drives. 

[geogphotos]

[BobD]

17 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 Yes the American site does seem to offer different packages to the UK site. Strangely one of a very few instances where the UK seems to be getting a better deal than the US.

 

Edit

I have sent a question to clarify.

Edited August 30, 2021 by BobD

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

 

Yes it is way way cheaper to store raws on hard drives. 

 

Until they break. As they will.

[BobD]

I have a 12tb external raid system plus also a separate external hard drive as well as storing on an internal 4gb drive.

I'm pretty well covered unless the house burns down or a plane crashes into the house, in which case I think the last thing to worry about are raw files 🙂 

[geogphotos]

16 minutes ago, BobD said:

I have a 12tb external raid system plus also a separate external hard drive as well as storing on an internal 4gb drive.

I'm pretty well covered unless the house burns down or a plane crashes into the house, in which case I think the last thing to worry about are raw files 🙂 

 

 

This is why I prefer uploading everything I shoot to Photoshelter.  It is the very first thing I do when I come back from taking photos. Then comes the external HDs, I keep the pics on my Mac hard drive for maybe a year. 

 

What I am saying is that for me the ultimate purpose of Photoshelter is what is set out to be - secure online 'photo shelter'.

Edited August 30, 2021 by geogphotos

[MDM]

39 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

Until they break. As they will.

 

I buy G-Technology drives and have yet to have one fail. I reformat them every so often and get new ones as well as I get more files. I also have offsite storage for the important stuff. 

[BobD]

4 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

I buy G-Technology drives and have yet to have one fail. I reformat them every so often and get new ones as well as I get more files. I also have offsite storage for the important stuff. 

That's what I have in the 12tb raid and as mentioned earlier the livedrive cloud storage.

[geogphotos]

Clearly if you don't want to pay for online storage with Photoshelter then it may not be what you need. I have used other Cloud storage/back up systems but much prefer PShelter because it most closely matches my requirements.

[Panthera tigris]

Well we are about to hit another January deadline without any forward movement again. Last post from the update blog of PS on this subject is 6 months old already. I wonder if they have just scrapped the idea without telling anyone. 

 

 

Update page is here but you have to log in to see it https://support.photoshelter.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059401754

Edited December 8, 2021 by Panthera tigris

[Panthera tigris]

It's official, the new version of photoshelter templating has been canned. They are going back to the drawing board to see what other improvements can be made without the "whole new template system" they promised.

 

Two interesting quotes from the thread ....

 

Grover :
"I no longer have any input on product or strategy at PhotoShelter. Your best bet is to contact Andrew Fingerman with this question."

 

Fingerman :

 

 

"When we announced our development plans for the PhotoShelter Photographers’ platform two years ago, our objective was simple: Build new website templates. Mistakenly, our drive and passion to build a modern platform that did everything our community has been dreaming about for years was far too ambitious. After many iterations, multiple rounds of user testing and nearly $1.5 million invested, we found ourselves in late 2021 with mere fragments of a new site builder that did not meet our standards. Releasing what the team had achieved to-date, meaningfully less than the full product we promised members, would have been a disappointment to you and an embarrassment to us.

After assessing the state of the project, our leadership team made the call to pause development work on the site builder project."

 

https://support.photoshelter.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4441092253207-Not-feeling-the-love-

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Panthera tigris

[geogphotos]

Thanks for the update.

 

Very disappointed.

[geogphotos]

Thought this from Andrew Fingerman would be interesting to PS users:

"Thank you for your patience of late...I can see I've tested it with too slow of a reply. With full transparency, I’m sharing a long-awaited update on the site builder overhaul, where things stand now, and a glimpse into our future plans. I'll be sharing a version of this message more publicly in the coming days.

When we announced our development plans for the PhotoShelter Photographers’ platform two years ago, our objective was simple: Build new website templates. Mistakenly, our drive and passion to build a modern platform that did everything our community has been dreaming about for years was far too ambitious. After many iterations, multiple rounds of user testing and nearly $1.5 million invested, we found ourselves in late 2021 with mere fragments of a new site builder that did not meet our standards. Releasing what the team had achieved to-date, meaningfully less than the full product we promised members, would have been a disappointment to you and an embarrassment to us.

After assessing the state of the project, our leadership team made the call to pause development work on the site builder project. Despite that pause, our teams continue to work diligently to re-scope our objectives, re-focus the proposed roadmap, and research workable alternatives. 

Moving forward, here’s our plan: 

• First, we’re fixing long-standing bugs and user experience issues in the current site builder. 

• Second, we’re building integrations that enable you to keep your archive with PhotoShelter - the part we do really well - while tapping a number of third party website design options. 

• Finally – we’re actively scoping out plans to deliver many of the features on the PhotoShelter for Brands platform to make the next generation of the PhotoShelter Photographer platform more dynamic and robust based on what we’ve learned and built for brands. 

Stepping back, it's important that I take responsibility for the imbalance that has occurred between our two platforms and which has been noted by members already. Admittedly, we have over-invested in the Brands product while thousands of photographers waited patiently and loyally for us to deliver improvements to the tool they rely on. 

The photographer community remains critically important to PhotoShelter and our future plans. We realize it's time to prove it to you in earnest that we truly help creatives thrive.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have."

[geogphotos]

Hopefully they will now get moving on something useful such as closer integration with Wordpress or similar as a front-end.

 

It seems that there are lots of goodies within Brands that might be coming our way?

 

I'm relieved that this is actually out in the open. 

Edited April 2, 2022 by geogphotos

[Harry Harrison]

Well that is a drag, hopefully they can withstand that $1.5m loss and 3 years wasted. Squarespace seems to have gone from strength to strength in that time.

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Thought this from Andrew Fingerman would be interesting to PS users:

<snip>

Stepping back, it's important that I take responsibility for the imbalance that has occurred between our two platforms and which has been noted by members already.

 

When I read 'it's important that I take responsibility' I expected the next sentence to include I shall be stepping down, but no.

 

I receive regular offers of 40% off for the first year, but still expensive. I'm still looking around.

[sb photos]

On 30/08/2021 at 17:38, BobD said:

I have a 12tb external raid system plus also a separate external hard drive as well as storing on an internal 4gb drive.

I'm pretty well covered unless the house burns down or a plane crashes into the house, in which case I think the last thing to worry about are raw files 🙂 

 

Eventually I'll move on to a mirrored raid with redundancy. Until then even after ingesting a shoot I don't erase the SD cards (mirrored in my Nikons) until I've made a final cull and edited. Then I backup the RAW's to 2 3TB 3.5" EHD's, one syncs to the other. Alamy uploads are are then saved in their own folders within their matching folders of RAW's and sidecar files. I then disconnect them and store safely. They only have minimal time running and are catalogued. It works for me so far.

[Panthera tigris]

For those who want a secure backup offsite of everything, Backblaze has saved my life twice. 

[geogphotos]

I thought I'd experiment with the Prints and Products option.  I set up some prices ( all a bit random but this is an experiment).

 

Then I thought I would buy a print myself to see how the system works. Couldn't manage to achieve this - just sent round and round in circles. 

 

Tried to be a 'Guest' but then had to enter an email address - tried mine and my wife's both already on the system so that wouldn't let me in. 

 

Go back and log in as myself - put an image in the Cart, where I found one already there from previous attempt. Try to edit the Cart to remove the duplicate and get taken to a page that says 'Cart is Empty'.

 

Round and round in this crazy loop,

 

So, long and short, simple question, has anybody got this set up and working? Anybody had any Print or Product sales - or is the system just as mad for actual buyers?

[Panthera tigris]

Interestingly most of what is quoted above, or linked, from the photoshelter lead staff seems to have been deleted. And last update is back to July 2021.

 

The members forum area is just a sea of bad feeling and unanswered complaints.

 

I worry that they may not be financially stable. Like others I remember how fast their stock project closed when they could not get funding.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Panthera tigris

[Harry Harrison]

Yesterday I was offered a 4 hour flash sale (40% off for a year) to move up to Standard or Pro. I don't need to but it's hard to feel confident that it would be money well spent.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Harry Harrison

[Marianne]

On 23/06/2022 at 02:43, geogphotos said:

I thought I'd experiment with the Prints and Products option.  I set up some prices ( all a bit random but this is an experiment).

 

Then I thought I would buy a print myself to see how the system works. Couldn't manage to achieve this - just sent round and round in circles. 

 

Tried to be a 'Guest' but then had to enter an email address - tried mine and my wife's both already on the system so that wouldn't let me in. 

 

Go back and log in as myself - put an image in the Cart, where I found one already there from previous attempt. Try to edit the Cart to remove the duplicate and get taken to a page that says 'Cart is Empty'.

 

Round and round in this crazy loop,

 

So, long and short, simple question, has anybody got this set up and working? Anybody had any Print or Product sales - or is the system just as mad for actual buyers?

 

I send people who see photos on my Photoshelter site and ask about buying them to my pixels/Fine Art America site. The most recent were three sales made in March and April to one buyer. I had a problem long ago and thought of trying again to set up direct sales once they finished the now abandoned updates. For a long time, I'd license images since they attracted magazines, book publishers, and designers who could search their entire platform, making sales to the likes of Smithsonian and Coastal Living magazines among the most well-known, but I haven't had an image licensed through them in a few years now and even then the system didn't always work and I'd have to invoice the client directly.  

 

I haven't changed mostly due to years and years and tens of thousands of RAW & other files that are so nicely organized and easy to find there with a simple keyword search. Not something you can do with other Cloud storage as far as I know. It seemed like a more organized system then Zenfolio.

 

I've lived through fires and floods and have had two Macs and an attached (Seagate) hard drive all die within three days of each other, paying for very expensive file recovery (I was behind on my uploads to Photoshelter, alas, and also lost documents I needed), so I have mirrored 12 TB G-TECH PRO drives as a RAID setup, also a couple of G-Tech portable 4TB drives for mirroring my laptop/leaving in my safe deposit box, an SSD for overflow on my laptop, and a very small portable SanDisk pro 1TB travel drive for backup on the road that I pack separately from my laptop. It's probably overkill but once bitten twice shy. I had a WD laptop backup die earlier this year but no info lost since it was duplicated.  

 

I hope Photoshelter keep the site going and improve it for photographers. The folks there are always nice to deal with but I too remember getting burned when they shut down their stock photo site. Last week I shared files with a client there for the first time in ages andI also used my site for a portfolio review earlier last month when I had a glitch on Zoom, so I'm still using it for more than storage. 

 

With Backblaze if you take anything offline for more than 30 days it's erased from the system, I believe. I visited my daughter twice last year for over a month each time, and would not have wanted to cart my RAID drives with me to keep the info on Backblaze. 
 

 

 

[Jansos]

On 18/09/2020 at 08:20, geogphotos said:

Changes ( improvements) are supposedly imminent at Photoshelter - new templates for web pages, new Sitebuilder, and the ability to host two domains from the one account. I have bought www.oldslidephotos.com for my old slide photos so that they are in a separate area from my other stuff. 

 

I thought it might be useful to have a group of Alamy users to help each other and offer advice etc. Also for those wanting to find out more or who are considering joining.

 

My site is here and I have not done anything to it for a while because I'm waiting for the changes to come:

 

www.geographyphotos.com

 

There are referral codes available from any member which give a small discount.

 

Please post your Photoshelter web page

 

 

Sadly, I use Format. I think my daughter uses Photoshelter. Personally, I'm quite happy with Format.