PhotoProof

PhotoProof turns WordPress into a proofing platform for photographers. Create galleries, share them with your clients, and let them pick their favorite shots — no account needed for browsing, login required only for validation.

Key features:

• Standalone gallery template — a clean, distraction-free gallery page, fully isolated from your theme
• Client selection workflow — clients click to select photos, auto-saved in real-time, then confirm with a single button
• Watermark protection — overlay your logo on gallery images (GD or Imagick), with adjustable opacity. Configured globally, applied per-gallery via a simple toggle.
• Automatic file renaming — organize your deliverables with a configurable naming pattern. Optional per-gallery custom name to override the default.
• Private UUID links — optionally replace gallery slugs with impossible-to-guess UUIDs for extra privacy
• Access expiration — auto-archive galleries after 30 days to keep your workspace clean
• Email notifications — photographer and client both receive confirmation emails when a selection is validated, with customizable templates
• Photographer recommendations — mark your favorite shots to guide the client’s selection
• CSV export — export the validated selection as a spreadsheet
• Client dashboard shortcode — [photoproof_galleries_client] displays all galleries assigned to the logged-in client
• Multilingual — fully translatable, ships with French (partial AI translations for German, Spanish and Italian)
• Customizable design — choose background, accent and text colors, upload your logo, toggle rounded corners

PhotoProof stores all gallery photos in a dedicated folder (/uploads/photoproof/), separate from the standard Media Library.

Built for photographers, by a photographer. PhotoProof is built and maintained by Cédric Stoecklin, a photographer who needed a proofing tool that wouldn’t lock him into a SaaS or share his clients’ photos with third parties. Free, open source, and built to last. More details and a full walkthrough on photoproof.cedricstoecklin.com.

For developers

PhotoProof is built to be extended. It exposes action hooks, filter hooks, helper functions and a shortcode — everything you need to wire it into your own workflow or build a plugin on top.

Action hooks include photoproof_gallery_selection_confirmed (fired when a client validates), photoproof_attachment_uploaded (fired after a photo is processed) and photoproof_daily_expiration_check (cron hook for daily maintenance).

Template tags include photoproof_get_client_galleries(), photoproof_get_gallery_status(), photoproof_get_gallery_selection() and more — callable from any theme template.

Shortcode [photoproof_galleries_client] displays a grid of galleries assigned to the currently logged-in user, with configurable columns and display options.

Full developer documentation with code examples is available at photoproof.cedricstoecklin.com#developer.

External services

PhotoProof does not connect to any external service. All gallery photos, client data, watermarks, email templates and CSV exports are stored and processed entirely on your own WordPress installation. No data is sent to third-party servers, no tracking, no analytics, no API calls. Your photographs and your clients’ selections never leave your hosting.

Privacy

PhotoProof stores the following data:

• Gallery metadata (title, status, client assignment) in WordPress’ standard wp_posts and wp_postmeta tables
• Gallery-specific metadata (UUID, watermark state, expiration date) in a custom table wp_photoproof_galleries
• Uploaded photos in /uploads/photoproof/ (separate from the main Media Library), with optional watermarked copies in /watermarked/
• Client selections as post meta on the gallery
• Photographer recommendations as post meta on each attachment
• Plugin settings (colors, watermark, email templates) as standard WordPress options

No data is collected, transmitted or shared with third parties. The plugin uses no cookies beyond WordPress’ standard session handling for authenticated users.

Uninstalling the plugin (not deactivating) permanently removes all of the above. Deactivation preserves all data.