picdrop for Advanced Users

Please be aware that the client login function is no longer included for accounts created from 04.11.2024!

The function has been deactivated for new accounts because it has repeatedly led to misunderstandings. Nevertheless, we explain below how to understand the client login function in picdrop and how you can make good use of it, especially for picdrop users who still have the function available in their account.

So don't worry, client logins can be helpful if you keep a few things in mind.

The most important thing you need to know is that within the client login function some important gallery settings will not be taken into account. These include the password setting and the setting for navigating between the gallery levels.

You should definitely keep this in mind if you decide to use a client login with recurring customers and also always check these settings again before you send the login data out so everything works exactly as you want it.

Do you work with the same clients over and over again?

Then you (or your clients) surely have been in the situation to search for the exact link that belongs to the current shoot from a long list of gallery links.

With a client login, you give these clients a place where they can find all their galleries at any time with just one login code - no more saving or searching for individual gallery links.

In the account settings of your picdrop account, you can set up this client login. Just enter the name, an access code and add all the galleries that should be accessible via the client login.

And how does the client login work for my clients?

Your clients will receive their individual access code from you. They enter this access code on the login page of your picdrop account at picdrop.com/your-username.

After clicking on "Login" your clients will see a personal dashboard page listing all the galleries you have shared with them.

What else can client logins be used for?

Of course, you can also use the client login in a completely different way.

For example, create a client login to which you add all your portfolio galleries with a specific theme. Then you just send the appropriate access code to potential buyers. Or if you regularly sell your images or licenses for your images, you may combine all your galleries that you offer for licensing into one client login.

You can use team members to invite other people to collaborate in your picdrop account.

You can invite one team member on the Pro+ plan. With our Business plan, it's possible to work with even more people in one picdrop account.

You can find more information about how team members work here.

You've probably seen how to filter out your clients' image selections in Lightroom, Capture One, Photo Mechanic, Finder, and Explorer. The whole thing is not only possible with image selections but also with all color-coded images.

Many image editing programs allow you to use the file search to display exactly the images of an image selection you or your clients made in picdrop. This saves you the trouble of searching for each individual file. Here we show you how to do it:

Copy the filter text to your clipboard

Filter out all images with the desired color flags using the filter function on the left side. Now you see only the images with the desired color flag.

Click on "select all images" (bottom left) or use the keycombination of cmd-A or Ctrl-A to select all currently displayed images.

You have now created a selection that you can use to filter out the images locally on your mac / PC.

Click on the "Export selection" icon in the selection menu, bottom right. When you are logged in to your account you will find the various filter texts to filter out this selection in Lightroom, Capture One or in your Finder / Explorer.

Optionally, you can save this selection permanently in picdrop to make it easier to find it again later.

Once you have copied the list of filenames to your clipboard, please continue on your computer in your tool of choice:

Filtering the images in Lightroom Classic

• Open the folder of the shooting in Lightroom’s Library mode.
• Press the "<" key (to the left of the Z) to display the filters at the top.
• Select the "Text" category there.
• Select "Filename" and "Contains" from the drop-down menus.
• Paste the filenames from your clipboard into the search field.
• Now you will only see the images you have saved in the selection.

You can now save the filtered images in a new collection or mark them with stars / colors for your further workflow.

Filtering the images in Capture One

In Capture One, you can search for your images in multiple places using the exported folter text. To do this, open a folder or collection in Capture One with the images you want to filter. Then you have three options:

1st option: Search in Browser

• Press cmd-F or ctrl-F to open the search in the browser. 
• Paste the text from the clipboard directly next to the magnifying glass. 
• The images you searched for will be displayed in the browser.

2nd option: Filter-tool

• Open the Filter tool in the toolbar.
• Paste the text from the clipboard next to the magnifying glass. 
• Only the searched images will be displayed in the browser.

3rd option: Select by file name list

• Open in the menu bar the item Select > Select by > File name list ...
• Paste the text from the clipboard into the search field. 
• Select "Space" as separator under the search field and "Ignore file extension".
• Click OK. 
• Only the searched images will be displayed in the browser.

Done! You can now save the displayed images as your own collection or mark them with a color / stars.

Filtering the images in Photo Mechanic

Open the corresponding project folder in Photo Mechanic.

Paste the filter text from your clipboard into the search box (via Edit > Find... menu or cmd-F on Mac or Ctrl-F on Windows) and set the following search options:

• Find: Any of the words

• In: All items

• Searching: Filenames

After clicking "Find" in the lower right corner, Photo Mechanic will now select all photos of your choice from picdrop and you can continue working with them.

Please note that the search in the upper left corner of Photo Mechanic ("Search my Mac") cannot be used for these steps.

Filtering your images in macOS Finder and Windows Explorer

• Open the folder containing your images

• Click into the regular search field

• Copy the list of filenames into the search field

• You will now only see the images that were previously saved in the selection.

Please note that the filter text in Explorer can only hold a maximum of 259 characters.

The filter text in Finder is limited to 2048 characters or 99 files.

Many image editing programs allow you to use the file search to display exactly the files of a selection you or your clients made in picdrop. This saves you the trouble of searching for each individual file. Here we show you how to do it:

Copy the filter text to your clipboard

Open the selection in the gallery that you want to filter out on your computer. Or mark the files with the selection tool (blue plus sign in the overview of your gallery).

Click on the "Export selection" icon in the selection, bottom right. When you are logged in to your account you will find the various filter texts to filter out this selection in Lightroom, Capture One or in your Finder / Explorer.

Copy the corresponding file list / filter text to your clipboard.

Now continue on your computer in the program of your choice:

Filtering the files in Lightroom Classic

• Open the folder of the shooting in Lightroom’s Library mode.
• Press the "<" key (to the left of the Z) to display the filters at the top.
• Select the "Text" category there.
• Select "Filename" and "Contains" from the drop-down menus.
• Paste the filenames from your clipboard into the search field.
• Now you will only see the files you have saved in the selection.

You can now save the filtered files in a new collection or mark them with stars / colors for your further workflow.

Filtering the files in Capture One

In Capture One, you can search for your files in multiple places using the exported folter text. To do this, open a folder or collection in Capture One with the files you want to filter. Then you have three options:

1st option: Search in Browser

• Press cmd-F or ctrl-F to open the search in the browser. 
• Paste the text from the clipboard directly next to the magnifying glass. 
• The files you searched for will be displayed in the browser.

2nd option: Filters tool

• Open the Filters tool in the toolbar.
• Paste the text from the clipboard next to the magnifying glass. 
• Only the searched files will be displayed in the browser.

3rd option: Select by file name list

• Open in the menu bar the item Select > Select by > File name list ...
• Paste the text from the clipboard into the search field. 
• Select "Space" as separator under the search field and "Ignore file extension".
• Click OK. 
• Only the searched files will be displayed in the browser.

Done! You can now save the displayed files as your own collection or mark them with a color / stars.

Filtering the files in Photo Mechanic

Open the corresponding project folder in Photo Mechanic.

Paste the filter text from your clipboard into the search box (via Edit > Find... menu or cmd-F on Mac or Ctrl-F on Windows) and set the following search options:

• Find: Any of the words

• In: All items

• Searching: Filenames

After clicking "Find" in the lower right corner, Photo Mechanic will now select all files of your choice from picdrop and you can continue working with them.

Please note that the search in the upper left corner of Photo Mechanic ("Search my Mac") cannot be used for these steps.

Filtering your files in macOS Finder and Windows Explorer

• Open the folder containing your files

• Click into the regular search field

• Copy the list of filenames into the search field

• You will now only see the files that were previously saved in the selection.

Please note that the filter text in Explorer can only hold a maximum of 259 characters.

The filter text in Finder is limited to 2048 characters or 99 files.

Yes, of course!

If you reach the storage limit in your Pro plan or your Business plan, you can book additional storage space for your picdrop account:

In the Pro plan, you can expand your storage space at any time and as often as you like in 250 GB increments.
For each 250 GB you pay 7.99 € net per month in addition to the basic price of your Pro plan.

For your picdrop account in the Business plan, you can expand your storage space in 1 TB increments.
You pay 50,00 € net per month for each 1 TB storage expansion.

Please send us an email to hello@picdrop.com and let us know how much additional storage you need.

We have included this feature of analogue photography in picdrop, so that every photographer has the possibility to save a contact sheet of his or her galleries from within picdrop. There, e.g. printed out, notes can also be entered by hand.

What is a contact sheet used for?

A contact sheet is a great way to compare, evaluate and get an overview of your images - exactly because the images are shown in a small size and all together.

On the contact sheet you have all images of the gallery at a glance and can also choose whether the color markings, comments and selections from picdrop should be directly visible.

The contact sheet always contains all images of your gallery, as already in analogue times the whole film roll was content of the contact sheet.

How do I create a contact sheet in picdrop?

You can create a contact sheet in every gallery by clicking on "print contact sheet" in the gallery menu...

... and then either print it, or save it as PDF with the help of the system dialogue.

ATTENTION

You can only use the FTP connection to your picdrop account if your picdrop account was registered before June 2022.

For accounts registered after June 2022, please use the upload directly in your browser.

______

Your FTP login data can be found in your account settings.

Setting up your FTP accounts isn’t rocket science and in most cases the same procedure. There are differences in the applications though. We compiled a list of the most common FTP clients and provide you with a step by step guide on how to set them up.

One more thing before you start: if your FTP program has problems uploading using Windows, please disable the option to run uploads in .filepart format. (Applies mainly to WinSCP/Putty)

Cyberduck (Mac)

Click on “New Connection” on the top right

Enter the following details:

• Connection type: SFTP (SSH Connection)

• Server: ftp.picdrop.com

• Port: 22

• Username: your picdrop username

• Password: your picdrop password

Click on “Connect”

Your picdrop-account can now be found in your bookmarks and can be opened anytime.

Transmit (Mac)

Click on “Favorites”

Click the + sign on the bottom edge

Enter the following details:

• Protocol: SFTP

• Server: ftp.picdrop.com

• Username: your picdrop username

• Password: your picdrop password

Click on “Save”

Double click the just created item to connect to picdrop

Your picdrop-account can now be found in your bookmarks and can be opened anytime

Attention: When renaming and moving files and folders in Transmit there might be some issues. This is a Transmit issue, we can not solve on our. Additonally, only the latest version of Transmit is compatible with picdrop. Version 4 and older will produce an error when uploading to picdrop’s servers.

Forklift (Mac)

Click on the star in the “Favorites” menu at the top

Click the + sign on the bottom edge

Enter the following details:

• Protocol: SFTP

• Name: picdrop

• Group: Favorites

• Server: ftp.picdrop.com

• Username: your picdrop username

• Password: your picdrop password (please leave the field “Ask” blank)

Click on “Save”

Double click the just created item to connect to picdrop

Your picdrop-account can now be opened anytime via the “Favorites” in Forklift.

Filezilla (Windows)

Click on  “File”

Click on “Servermanager”

Click on “New Server”

Enter the following details:

• Server: ftp.picdrop.com

• Port: 22

• Server Type: SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol

• Logon Type: Normal

• User: your picdrop username

• Password: your picdrop password

Click on “Connect”

You can now use the new picdrop-login via the Server Manager.

This function is deliberately not available in picdrop. Therefore, if you want to revoke access to a gallery that has already been shared with clients, please manually set the gallery to ‘private’ in the security settings.

As much as we understand that the feature of an ‘expiration date’ seems tempting at first glance, we would like to ask you to reconsider your request: As a photographer, you should always focus on the satisfaction of your clients. Automatically putting pressure on clients by threatening to lose access to their data at a certain point in time is not a good way to make them happier. Of course, you can continue to communicate your desire for prompt feedback personally with your clients.

To learn many useful details of picdrop, we have put together a guide for advanced picdrop users. You can find it here.

Have fun exploring and trying it out!