Safelight - Now on Kickstarter! Can you help?

Hi everyone,

I just wanted link you to a piece of software i'm designing and developing, targeted at photographers. I think some of you could find it very useful.

It's called Safelight and it allows you to give your clients access to view their photos for proofing, print ordering and digital download.

We've just launched a Kickstarter campaign with full details here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanhavoc/safelight

And you can view the print rewards gallery here:

http://safelightapp.com/rewards

Any feedback would be most welcome.

I'm asking for your help to spread the word, your support if you're interested in the software and anything you could do to help me reach a wider audience would be fantastic!

Best Regards

Ryan
@safelightapp

Don't think you will get any replies Ryan as members won't really be interested, but I may be wrong. Most photographers I suspect already have their own means of selling their photos without having to pay in the hope of selling, that defeats the object of selling in the first place.

Quote " It's called Safelight and it allows you to give your clients access to view their photos for proofing, print ordering and digital download." unquote

I don't understand this statement as photographers can already do that by putting photos on a web storage site such as flicker - Image Shack etc and point clients towards the photos without any cost. They can also send photos direct with watermarks or poor image quality so they can't be blown up for clients to see or even proof sheet.

One of the problems is web site designers/programmers only look at it from their perspective and not the whole picture or from the end users view point. Some don't even consider what is already available.

This is so common an oversight in my particular line of work. I have had many "test" programs to try out and they missed the target purely because before they embark on a program they fail to approach many end users to find out exactly what and if they want it.

I have even taken the trouble to contact the programmers and asked the simple question " how many prospective clients have you approached to find out what they want"? Invariably each and every one has said they hadn't approached anyone and did what they thought would suit instead. One local to me I even invited to show what my industry wanted and the reply was " I have produced the program and not going to alter it as it took too long to make"

Yes the product may be great and no doubt yours is but the question is even before starting has to be "will people want it"? not " its fantastic and everyone will want it"!

Its so easy to get blinkered into a project and dive into a build without doing loads or research first.

The program I use for my business the programmer actually visited myself and another local business friend of mine and spent a lot of time refining the program with suggestions from both of us. This took 6 visits to get it spot on and only then did he release it nationally which then went on to sell in great numbers. This is what is necessary to market any product.


Just to add my son is a web designer with a 1st class honours degree and is head hunted all over the world, at the moment Adobe are presently trying to snatch him from another well known UK company and want him to live in the USA. He has already worked out there for 2 years after being head hunted by another large company. At present he represents the company he works for and give lectures all over Europe on web design and programming.

So I do know a little of what web design and programming envolves even though I can't do it myself and a lot of what he talks about is way over my head.

Ryan just remember most, if not all, professional photographers have their own web sites for their clients to view/buy the pictures from and therefore have no need to pay a third party outlets to do the same thing.

You best chance is to go to Focus -on-imaging at the NEC starting in the next couple of days as see if any of the stands are willing to promote your product on a commission basis

Bazza

Hello Bazza,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Allow me to be as thorough as you have been with my response.

I’m sorry to hear that you don’t think anybody will be interested in my software. I agree that many people will likely have means of selling their photo’s however it is my wish to reach those people who do not have an existing solution and hopefully convince those who do that my software may be a better option.

I wouldn’t expect anyone who doesn’t have the need to provide prints to their clients to be interested in Safelight, therefore anyone who did invest in the software would find that it provides a specific solution. “Hope of selling” their prints wouldn’t come into it.

I’m sorry to hear you’re confused, indeed I believe you’ve misunderstood what Safelight does and why it’s different to services such as Flickr. I’ll be sure to review the content on my Kickstarter page to be clearer.

Safelight allows you to control the order process in it’s entirety. It “hooks” on to your website so you can set it to be accessible through a url such as clients.yourdomain.com. You control the print options and the prices per print so you can add your own markup to them i.e. more profit to you. You can set limited runs of prints and you can set prints to be exclusive. The proofing aspect of the software allows for one-to-one photographer-client communication to discuss options and approve finals, all from one place. The goal of Safelight is to make your life easier, which in turn saves you time, which of course saves you money.

How disappointing that this is the experience you’ve had with web designers/developers. You’re right, there certainly are people out there who dive into projects without fully considering them first however I assure you I am not one of them.

I’ve been working with a team of photographers who have all helped shape Safelight to be what it is today and all of these people want to use it.

One of the advantages of using a service like Kickstarter is it allows me to gauge the demand for the product and build a community of users right from the start.

My reason for posting on this forum is to reach as many users as possible.

I believe I’m quite clear on our Kickstarter page that Safelight is not yet built and that the funding through Kickstarter will be used to this end.

Indeed, but this too is part of the problem. You were in a position to be able to fund the development of a bespoke system for you to use. I’ve done this for several photographers myself, however a lot of people aren’t and my aim is for Safelight to be accessible to as many people as possible.

Congratulations on your sons success. What’s his name? Perhaps I know him. Over my 8 year career I’ve had the pleasure of becoming quite well connected with a wide number of industry leading professionals through work, conference, podcast interviewing etc. I’ve also regularly written for publications such as .net magazine and have been on the judging panel for their annual .net awards for the last 4 years (I’ve even won an award myself for wed design podcast of the year).

Some, if not most, will of course have a solution out of necessity. But that doesn’t mean they’re not interested in improving their current process. And new photographers come to the industry all the time.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll looking into Focus-on-Imaging.

Best Regards

Ryan

This is my son

http://www.paulrobertlloyd.com/about/

bazza

Yep I know Paul and the Clearleft guys, you're right he's very good at what he does.

I didn't know my son was so well known

bazza

I know him through knowing the guys at Clearleft. Last time we spoke was SXSW in Texas I believe.

Bazza,

Just to let you know I've reviewed the details on our Kickstarter page and hopefully it's clearer what you can actually do with Safelight. I've also answered some questions in the FAQ section at the bottom of the page that you may find interesting.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanhavoc/safelight

I'd also be very much interested in hearing about how your current solution to print order and proofing works? Would you be willing to share some more details with me?

Thanks

Ryan

I do all my own prints and don't have to proof as they are all for my own viewing use only. So can't help sorry

bazza