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Protecting your photos online

You decide who can see each gallery and who can take the photos home, and the controls work best together. Here's how to combine them, plus the few things no online gallery can stop, so you can set your clients' expectations (and your own).

The first layer is who gets in at all.

The gallery link on its own isn't a secret. An address like yourname.corehue.co/smith-wedding is easy to guess, so anything private needs a password.

Control who can download​

Seeing and saving are separate in CoreHue, so you can show a gallery widely and still keep the files close.

On the Free plan, clients can only download web sizes. Original downloads come with Plus and Pro.

Every download is recorded on the gallery's Activity tab with the email attached, so you can see who took what. See Seeing who downloaded what.

Control how long it's online​

A gallery that stays up forever is a gallery that can travel forever.

What CoreHue does automatically​

  • Right-click saving is switched off on photos, and photos can't be dragged out of the page. Visitors have to use the download button, which follows your download settings.
  • The gallery shows screen-sized versions of your photos. Your original files only go out through downloads you've allowed.
  • Password and PIN guessing is limited. After several wrong tries, the gallery pauses attempts for about 15 minutes.
  • Screenshots and screen recordings. Anyone who can see a photo on their screen can capture it. No website can prevent that, whatever it claims.
  • People sharing what they've downloaded. Once a file is on someone's phone, it's theirs to send on.
  • People sharing passwords. A password protects a gallery only as well as the people who have it.

CoreHue doesn't add watermarks to photos. If you need watermarked images, add the watermark in your editing software before you upload, and consider uploading watermarked proofs to one gallery and clean finals to another. See What CoreHue doesn't do (yet).

Put usage terms in writing

The strongest protection for your work is a clear agreement. Spell out how clients may use and share their photos in your contract, and credit requirements if you have them.

A sensible setup for most sessions​

  1. Turn on a Gallery password and include it in the gallery email.
  2. Keep a Download PIN on and send it only to your client.
  3. Offer Original for the client's own keepsakes on Plus or Pro, or a web size if you'd rather keep originals back.
  4. Set an Auto expiry date and tell your client when it is, so they download in time.

What your client sees​

A gallery that asks for a password before it opens, lets them browse freely, and asks for the PIN when they download. For most clients that feels professional rather than restrictive, especially when the password and PIN arrive in the same email as the link.

Frequently asked questions​

Can I stop clients taking screenshots?​

No. Neither CoreHue nor any other gallery service can stop screenshots. Right-click saving is off in CoreHue, but anyone who can see a photo can screenshot it. Limiting access with a password and keeping originals back are what make the real difference.

Does CoreHue watermark my photos?​

No. CoreHue doesn't add watermarks, so add them in your editing software before uploading if you need them.

Yes, for most sessions a gallery password is enough. For sensitive work, combine it with client access, client-only chapters, a download PIN and an expiry date.

Can I see if someone downloaded photos they shouldn't have?​

Yes. You can see every download on the gallery's Activity tab, with the email the visitor gave. If something looks off, change the gallery password and regenerate the download PIN.

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