PhotoShelter Product Updates: A Note from Andrew Fingerman

Today I’m very excited to share some eagerly-awaited updates on PhotoShelter for Photographers. It’s been a while since we last connected about new product efforts – here at PhotoShelter we’ve been working on several projects that deliver a new user experience, more capabilities and improvements on key features, and we’re pushing forward on new ways to serve our photographer community.

More modern design, features and experience

Many of you have told us you’d like to see a more modern PhotoShelter for Photographers, and we are investing in delivering exactly that. We’re currently working on modernizing our platform to bring significant enhancements to both our UI and your workflow. This update will include a replacement of the Image Browser with a new Library that offers improved functionality and a more streamlined user experience, including the potential for photographers to leverage the latest features introduced in our Brands platform. We started this project in late 2022 and anticipate it will stretch through all of 2023. 

If you’d like an inside look as we proceed, we are now adding photographers to the list to be testers and advisory council members. Fill out this form to get involved!

Investing in our infrastructure to keep your images safe (and looking great)

Your trust in us to safeguard each and every image you upload to PhotoShelter is paramount. One of our key company values is “we are rock solid reliable,” and over the years we’ve built a robust infrastructure to ensure you never have to worry about your files. Recently, behind the scenes, we’ve been making various infrastructure improvements to ensure a fast and reliable platform for you. These backend updates have already contributed to a better and faster overall experience, and allow us to continue serving you and protecting your images effectively. 

Additionally, we’ve been working to ensure we have the most modern image processing technology so the quality of how we display your photos is uncompromisingly strong. We just released a major enhancement to our RAW image processing that significantly improves the quality of your RAW file display. For all newly uploaded RAW images, we’ll now use the embedded JPG preview that cameras usually provide along with RAW files so your preview images in-camera look exactly the same when viewed in PhotoShelter. 

New Templates: Next steps

We’re heading down a new path of rebuilding PhotoShelter for Photographers from the inside out. As you may know, in recent years we had plans to create an entirely new site builder. After carefully reassessing our efforts, we decided to pause development on that project. Following the above improvements that will reset PhotoShelter’s foundation, we’ll be exploring integration options to bring you the next generation of website designs you deserve. We’ve been listening – you’ve told us you want more design options, optimal image navigation on mobile devices, and stronger search engine optimization. Why are we taking an “inside out” approach? Because the new “front end” website templates will need to closely align with the user experience and information architecture we are upgrading on the product “back end.” As with the above platform improvements currently in motion, we will tackle this next phase with you, with greater communication and photographer feedback.

Smoothing out the lines of communication

Lastly, we heard your feedback that you prefer faster access to our support team. In an effort to respond to our customers as quickly as possible, we’re moving away from the call scheduling tool we introduced last year as we felt it delayed our ability to assist you in real time. We’ve since increased our support staff to make it easier to connect when you need us most. Just send us an email and if we can’t solve your issue with an easy reply, we’ll book a chat with you as soon as possible.

I want to emphasize that we’re committed to your success as photographers and to delivering a platform that empowers you to showcase, share and monetize your work effectively. We deeply appreciate your support as we move toward the future of PhotoShelter for Photographers together. Your success and satisfaction remain at the core of our mission.

I also want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to the photographers who call PhotoShelter home – many of you have been with us through the better part of 18 years! Thank you for being part of our community. This is the beginning of a new chapter, and we’re very excited to deliver on these new investments and projects, and to open up new opportunities to collaborate and help you thrive with PhotoShelter.