Multi-User

Getting Started with Multi-User

PhotoShelter Multi-User (MU) allows multiple users to access a single archive. Each image in the organization's account belongs to the organization, but can be attributed to "photographers" connected to the organization. There are three main user types within the MU structure:

Editors (paid seats)
Contributors (photographers, scanning vendors, etc)
Clients

You can set up all your users under:

Organization -> Users & Permissions

Manage your users and permissions from a single console.

Editors
Editors have access to the archival folders and galleries within an organization. At least one editor in each organization must be designated as an "Administrator," which gives them access to create and assign Permission Sets, and add and remove users.

All Editors can upload images. They can optionally be named as a "Photographer" within the organization.

Each editor seat is a paid seat.

Contributors
Contributors do not have access to the organization's archive. In most cases, contributors have upload access (for example, a working photographer, or a scanning vendor). They may or may not be named as a "Photographer" within the organization. Photographers that are dead or unlikely to use PhotoShelter can be listed as "Photographers."

Identifying a user as a "Photographer" within your organization allows you to attribute images to those users. In turn, you can search images by a specific photographer.

Clients
A "client" is someone who needs access to images within your archive. Unlike public users, you can give your clients high-resolution download access to images without creating an explicit gallery invitation.

Each MU account comes with (3) free client seats. Additional seats are paid seats.

Understanding the "Photographer" Designation
When you set up Editors and Contributors, you have the option to list them as a "Photographer." This designation is important in order to attribute an image to a given photographer/illustrator in the PhotoShelter database. This field is separate from any IPTC fields (e.g. IPTC Author, IPTC Copyright) that you might have populated prior or after upload.

When you add someone in your organization as a "photographer," they are assigned a database ID, which is used to identify images attributed to them in PhotoShelter. Unlike a freeform IPTC field, this database ID guarantees that there is no misassociation due to misspellings, etc.

You can always edit the attributions that your originally assign. When you are uploading images, you can also leave the Photographer "unspecified" and then assign the photographer at a later date.

What if I represent a photographer with no e-mail, or who is dead?
When you click the Contributor tab, click the link to add users with no e-mail. This will add them to the photographer list without linking them to an actual PhotoShelter account.

Permissions allow you to create different access levels within your organization.

What is a Permission Set?
Each editor must be assigned a Permission Set. The Permission Set controls what an editor can do within the organization's archive. For example, the administrator could create a set called "Junior Editor" that allows the user to create galleries, but not dispatch invites.

Permission Sets give the admin granular control over aspects of the archive.

What is an Internal Gallery
An internal gallery is a gallery that can only be viewed by designated Clients. Editors can copy images into an internal gallery, and grant clients access to these galleries. The galleries are fully searchable by clients only. Clients can be granted the ability to download the original images on a blanket basis.

For example, Yayle University is a mid-sized school with (2) staff photographers. Both photographers have editor seats. Their clients include the local newspaper that needs access to the sports images, and the admissions office that needs images for various publications.

They set up two internal galleries called "sports" and "general." The newspaper's photo editor has access to the "sports" gallery, while the admissions officer has access to both galleries. Most of the images contained within the internal galleries are not publicly available.

What should I do first to set-up my account?

Set up a Permission Set Even if you are the only user of your MU account, you will need to set up a permission set to add contributors.
Add your Contributors Add the names of any artists/photographers that will have images in your system. Make sure to list them as "Photographer" if you intend to attribute images to them.
Upload Images You or your contributors can upload images into your archive.
Create Galleries After you've gone through your own editing process, create internal or normal galleries to show the public or your clients.
Add your Clients

What happens when I add a Contributor? How do they upload images?
When you add a contributor, a free PhotoShelter account is created for them using the e-mail address you specify. They will receive an e-mail instructing them to set their password. Once they've set a password, they will be logged in to the free area of PhotoShelter.

From the "My PhotoShelter" area, they can click the "Upload to Org" link where they can either use the web interface to upload images, or they can download the PhotoShelter Uploader. Version 2.1 or higher is required to interact with MU accounts.

Public-side help is available here.