Every photographer has a website these days, but very few are utilizing their website to its full ability.  A website consist of multiple files that are “hosted” online in a directory. To access your directory, contact your website hosting company and ask for your FTP information.

What FTP information looks like:

• FTP Server: ftp.yoursite.com
• FTP Username: exampleusername
• Password: samplepassword

Once you have this information, you can use FTP programs such as Fetch, FileZilla, Ubermind for Aperture, even some browsers have built in FTP such as Firefox FTP, to organize, store, deliver files, create web galleries, etc.

Basic way folders/directories work on your FTP:

Inside your directory, you have multiple folders and they are split up by the “/” and you can have various folders and images on your FTP site that you can access from anywhere you can jump online.  This can also be a great spot to store files you need while on the road and you can access them from any computer.  Notice below how the URL shows the path to the files.

Click on this link to see what the main directory of “ftpexample” looks like online: http://www.caseytempleton.com/ftpexample/ Here you can see that the other files on your website are safe because when you click on “Parent Directory” it takes the viewer to your main website.

Send large files to clients:

Sending large files is made extremely easy when using your FTP rather than emailing or using other file sharing programs. I believe this is also much more professional and keeps your client inside your brand. All you have to do is send them a single link and when they click on it, a window pops up and ask where you want to save the file. Try it below.

• Select a file, folder, or multiple files
• Right click and select “compress”
• Drop it on your FTP
• Send complete link to client ( ex. www.casytempleton.com/ftpexample/bigfile.tif.zip )

Post Web Galleries

You can set up folders for your clients and create web galleries showing your work or takes from a shoot. Programs such as Aperture, Lightroom, and Photo Mechanic are great programs to create web galleries. When you export a gallery using these programs, it produces a folder and inside has an index file, folders to hold your images and other files the site requires.  You can rename only the main folder and simply drag this into your main FTP folder. See below how this example gallery created in Aperture will look in your directory: http://www.caseytempleton.com/ftpexample/clientA/