For your clients

This page is written for your customers, not for you. If a client asks how any of this works, send them here.

Everything below is what they see. Nothing on this page requires them to understand Tobren, or to know it exists.

Opening your gallery

Your photographer sends you a link. Open it and your photos are there.

Your photographer can email you a sign-in link. Click it and you’re in. Some links ask you to choose a password the first time (at least 8 characters) to finish creating your account. You can also sign in later from the studio’s sign-in page with your email and password, or with Google. Sign in with Apple appears there too when it is available; if you don’t see the Apple button, use Google or your email and password.

A sign-in link works for one hour and can only be used once. If it has expired, request a new one from the gallery sign-in page. Links are short-lived on purpose: it’s what keeps your gallery yours.

Finding your way around

Galleries (in the menu) lists every gallery your photographer has shared with you. If your photographer has shot for you more than once, each one is a separate gallery.

Within a gallery, photos may be sorted into folders. If they aren’t, everything sits together under Unsorted — that’s normal, not a mistake.

Click any photo to see it full-size. Use the zoom buttons (or the + and - keys) to look closely.

Hearting the ones you like

Tap the heart on a photo to favourite it.

Favourites are for you — a shortlist you can come back to, and a way to tell your photographer which ones you loved. They don’t buy anything and they don’t change what you can download.

Once you’ve hearted something, a button such as 3 favourited appears above the photos. Click it to see just your shortlist.

Watermarked and unlocked photos

Depending on the arrangement with your photographer, photos arrive one of two ways.

Already yours. Everything is unlocked from the start. Download whatever you like.

Watermarked until purchased. You can see every photo, marked with your photographer’s watermark, and buy the ones you want. Buying removes the watermark and gives you the full-quality original. Photos you own say Owned under them; the ones you haven’t bought show a lock.

Either way you can see everything. Nothing is hidden from you.

Buying photos

Pick the photos you want and check out. You’ll pay through Stripe or Square — whichever your photographer uses — and your card details go to them, never to us and never to your photographer.

You might buy:

Individual photos
A package — a set number of photos at a set price
The whole gallery

Once payment goes through, the watermark comes off and the originals are yours to download. That usually happens within a few seconds.

If it doesn’t, don’t buy again. Refresh the page first — if it’s still not unlocked after a minute, contact your photographer, who can see the order.

Downloading

Download a single photo with the download button. When your photographer allows it, you also get buttons for everything you own, each saying how many it covers: Download 12 photos (or photos and videos), Download 10 as ZIP and Save 12 to Drive. A ZIP is the easier way to take a large gallery. On a phone, a big download can take a while and needs a decent connection — if you’re picking up a whole gallery, a laptop and Wi-Fi will be less painful.

The ZIP holds your photos only; videos are never put in a ZIP, so its number can be smaller. The Download button beside it fetches the videos along with everything else, and each video has its own download button. If your photos come to more than about 1 GB, the ZIP is split into numbered parts of up to 1 GB each (“Part 1 of 3” and so on). The box tells you how many parts there are and has a button for each one. If a download shows Your download is queued, leave the page open; it tries again by itself. If it later says Your download failed. Please try again., start it again.

ZIPs open with Windows’ built-in Extract All as well as on a Mac. Folder and file names that Windows can’t use, such as names with a colon, are adjusted, and long names are shortened so every photo fits Windows’ path limit.

Where it’s available, you can also save straight to Google Drive if you’d rather not fill up your device. You’ll be asked to connect your Drive account the first time. If you don’t see the option, use the download button instead.

Finding your purchases later

Orders (in the menu) has two tabs. Downloads lists photos and videos you bought from a shared gallery link, grouped by gallery, with a link back to it. Photos you bought inside your own galleries aren’t listed there, so find those in the gallery itself. Receipts lists your paid orders by date, each with its package and gallery name, and lets you open a receipt or have a copy emailed to you.

A photo or video that is still being processed shows Processing instead of a download link — check back in a few minutes. A download link stays live for 30 minutes; if one has expired, refresh the page for a new one. My purchases keeps this in view: links last 30 minutes, and a gallery’s files are deleted when it expires, so download them before then. How downloads work opens the full rules.

Your photos stay available for as long as your photographer keeps the gallery open. Galleries don’t last forever — if you’re told one is expiring, download what you want before then. Once a gallery closes, your photographer can reopen it, but that’s a conversation with them rather than something you can do yourself.

Some galleries are public — your photographer can publish a gallery at a link anyone can open, without signing in. If that’s how yours was shared, anyone with the link can see it.

If your photographer has turned it on, your gallery also has a Share gallery button. It makes a link you can send to someone else, and you can turn the link off again whenever you like.

Your private gallery is different: it’s tied to your email address, and the sign-in link we send you is what proves it’s you. Don’t forward that email — the link works for whoever clicks it.

The Share gallery button is off until you turn sharing on. Go to Settings and open Customer sharing (under Customer delivery):

Let clients share view-only links — off by default. Turning it off also stops every link a client has already sent.
Let people with a link save the previews — only available while sharing is on. Visitors can then save the same preview they can see: watermarked, or on prepaid shoots the unwatermarked 800-pixel preview. Never the original file.

Someone with a link sees the watermarked previews only, with no prices, no buying and nothing else from the client’s account. On a prepaid shoot there is no watermarked copy, so they see the unwatermarked 800-pixel preview.

When a client shares, they give the link a label and choose how long it works: 7 days, 30 days, 90 days or Until I turn it off.

To see who has shared a shoot, click the pencil (Edit details) on it in Shoots and find Client share links. It lists each link with its label, who made it, and whether it Works until a date, Works until turned off, Expired or Turned off. Click Turn off on a link to stop it straight away (this needs permission to manage the studio).

If something’s wrong

Your photographer is the right person to ask, for anything about the photos, the prices, a refund, or a gallery that’s expired. They can see your order and fix things we can’t.

Tobren is the software your photographer uses to deliver your photos. We don’t know what was agreed, and we can’t refund a purchase on their behalf.

Your profile

Profile in the menu opens your account. A row of links at the top moves between its pages: Profile, Security and Privacy & data.

Profile — your Name and Phone, plus a Billing address and a Shipping address. Tick Same as billing if they match. Your email is shown but can’t be changed here. Click Save to keep your changes. If you sign in with a password, a Change password tab sits beside it.
Security — your email address, two-factor authentication if you want a second step when you sign in, and your password.
Privacy & data — export your data, or ask for it to be deleted.