Digital Delivery - Need your thoughts and ideas
Many of you have asked for this feature and I have managed to add it to LRG Complete, but I have some questions. I am trying to figure out the best way to set this up and would like to know how you all plan on using this feature.
The way it is setup now is that the buyer selects their images and ads them to the cart as they normally would. if Digital Delivery is selected then the user is presented with a download page after payment is complete, and they are also sent an email with the download information as well.
The downloads are pulled from a folder of images generated and uploaded by Lightroom, which means they are all jpg files. So here is where I need you guys. If you plan on selling your images using Digital Delivery, are jpg images what you want to send your buyer? Do you plan on just selling one resolution of images or would you like to offer multiple, say High, Medium, and Low res images? If that is the case, im sure you would want to send tiff or psd files as the High and maybe Medium res images. Also, would your cart be Digital Download only or would you require a mixture of Digital Delivery and physical shipments?
Since Lightroom can only export jpg images from the web module I will probably have to make the Digital Delivery process a little less seamless in terms on Lightroom integration. You would have to export your images out of LR to your desktop (or anywhere you want) using the Library module and then upload them to your web server. Not really all that bad, but im trying to reach as many people as i can with this template and want to make it as easy and non-technical as I can.
Also, adding the ability to offer different resolutions of images is going to be pretty tough for me to implement because of the way things need to be for Lightroom. I may not even be able to do it at all (hopefully I can!). If that is the case, would you be happy with just offering one size or resolution for download? If not, I guess the images can be shipped on DVD to the user.
Let me know your thoughts and ideas on this whole thing. I am creating a forum post called Digital Delivery for you to post your responses in.
Thanks!
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Comments
The stock agencies all supply JPG’s so that should be good enough, but I think that multiple resolutions would definitely be required.
I agree all I need is high res jpegs but I am likely to have customers want to buy digital downloads as well as prints so a cart that can handle both at the same time would be ideal.
If you could have them select 3 different sizes @ different prices that would be great. full res, med res (Half of full .res), low res (640×480). And jpeg files would be fine
Same here, I’ve never had a client that wants or has any idea what a TIFF is. Plus, that would be a monster load on server bandwidth / storage anyway, so I’d probably burn a disc for the client if anything like a PSD or TIFF was desired. High quality JPG’s suffice just swell!
Thanks for all of your hard work! The galleries you produce are fantastic and I am forever grateful!
In 15 years, I have never been asked for anything other than a jpg. There may be specialty customers that need psd, tiff, or dng, but that can be handled by http://FTP.
Because my digital workflow for PRINTED images ends with a .jpg file, this is the file I would also sell to my clients if they choose to buy a 100dpi or a 300dpi file.
RE: I am not going to send out the original. That would be a no-no for a few reasons. So, they get a post process image file which has been tweaked for white balance, color, sharpening and possible cropping in Photoshop. And maybe a very small watermark in the corner 
jpg images by themselves is my vote. I would never send anyone tiff or psd files. If that was needed I would handle separately. My vote is also for one size file. Thanks!
Most of our clients use JPEGS, as for having the option for TIFF’S (Tagged Image File Format) which is just another type of image format, have not had many requests. Now as far as the .PSD (Photoshop document format stores an image with support for most imaging options available in Photoshop. These include layers with masks, color spaces, ICC profiles, transparency, text, alpha channels and spot colors, Clipping paths, and duotone settings). This is in contrast to many other file formats (e.g. .EPS or .GIF) that restrict content to provide streamlined, predictable functionality. Photoshop’s popularity means that the .PSD format is widely used, and it is supported to some extent by most competing software, again no request. But that’s not to say this will change. The simpler the better, Good luck
Hi, Dan is right, people doesn’t want to handle a TIFF or a PSD file wich often requires a Photoshop version to be used.
And by the way, greaaat job so far! This is a huge gallery you have done, it’ll be perfect with the digital delivery!!
Most of my clients just want big fat JPGS, and really don’t know what a TIFF or PSD is.
In those rare(r) cases, it wouldn’t be a problem to handle the transaction a different way.
For now, your single-serve concept would ROCK.