Q: Digital Railroad

I myself am about to find out. The main thing of course is that you have your archive organized and available for download in hi res from wherever you are in the world. You can give a client access so you are not always ftping editors individually. You upload in hi res once to the DRR servers. It’s like having an agency’s infrastructure at your finger tips although of course you have do the promotion yourself!

Peter, There are some very long threads on DRR and Photoshelter already on LS. It would be worth doing a search and reading those first. I am sure if you had any unanswered questions, users would be more than happy to answer those.

As for me, I use Photoshelter customisation option. Check it out: www.thomaspickard.com

Or try it yourself with their free starter account: www.photoshelter.com

I have no affiliation with Photoshelter – just a paying customer.

Thomas

I was a DR user for over a year and it saved my ass many a time. However, it is expensive and I’ve waited too long for the marketplace thing. I’m currently in the process of switching to PS and I’m rather enjoying the PS interface. It’s really terrific. I’ll save some money and get more storage space but I’ll also have the ability to sell prints as well as usage rights. It’s the print sales capability that brought me over and the fact that it is integrated with PayPal. I actually feel much more at ease with my workflow using Photoshelter for some reason. It’s a good environment to be in online and a nice place to work. Good luck. They are both great facilities.

Thomas, you’re right I posted this rather late last night before doing a search
on the subject. I read most of what I can find and have a good idea of the differences.

But would it be worth the money if “you” had the know how to setup a website, ftp server
and all the other bells and whistles… it would just be a question of marketing at this point, no?

Was it a big deal to move your archive Paul? Did you download everything and re-upload it? I guess the metadata would be fairly consistent between the two if you did that?

Peter: well, I do not know how to set up a website with all the capabilities of Photoshelter. Nor do I want to spend my time managing the technology side of it either – I’d rather drum up new business and take photos.

As for marketing, well having a PS site doesn’t mean people will come rushing to your door, so yes, marketing is definitely needed (which ever you choose).

Wade: Could be wrong on this, but if you have a DRR archive and a PS archive, couldn’t you ftp the images from DRR to PS?

Thomas

Yeah, I think you’re right, Thomas.