Digital files are priced per gallery, not once for your whole studio. A wedding and a newborn session rarely want the same ladder, and the gallery is where you're already thinking about what this particular client should pay.
As with prints, you need a connected Stripe account first — the money goes to your Stripe account, so without one there's nothing to pay into.
The three kinds of package
| Package | What the client gets | How many you can have |
|---|---|---|
| One photo | A single photo, bought as many times as they like | One |
| A pack of N | An allowance of N photos they choose themselves | As many as you like — one per size |
| The whole gallery | Every photo in the gallery | One |
A sensible ladder is three rungs: one photo, a pack of ten, and everything. Mark one as Most popular and it gets a ribbon in the store — that's the rung most people take, so make it the one you'd rather sell.
Reusing your prices
Once a gallery's ladder is right, Save as my defaults keeps it as the starting point for new galleries. Use my defaults drops that ladder into whatever gallery you're in. You still edit each gallery afterwards — defaults are a starting point, not a rule.
A whole-gallery package doubles as the paid-download unlock price, so the separate unlock price field disappears once you add one. One number, edited in one place — see Control downloads and ZIPs.
What buying looks like
- The packages appear above the photos in the gallery's store.
- Choosing a pack switches the grid into picking mode, with a bar along the bottom counting “6 of 10 chosen”.
- Prints and digital packs share one cart and one payment.
- Going over the allowance offers the next pack up rather than refusing, and carries across every photo already picked.
A half-filled pack doesn't block checkout. Someone who has chosen six of ten can pay now and finish choosing later from the downloads page we email them — making them decide on the spot costs you the sale more often than it tidies the order.
After they pay
The receipt email carries a link to a downloads page that belongs to that purchase and keeps working — it isn't an expiring link, and it survives a new phone or a cleared browser. They re-download from there whenever they like, and finish choosing a part-filled pack there too.
Once a photo is claimed against a pack it can't be swapped for a different one. Otherwise a ten-pack would slowly walk the whole gallery. It's worth saying so if a client asks you to change one — the fix is another pack, not an edit.
What this doesn't do
- Two of the same pack in one order — a client who wants twenty photos takes the twenty-pack, not two tens.
- Per-album or per-photo pricing — packages are gallery-wide.
- A client login — the emailed link is how a buyer gets back to their downloads, so tell them to keep it.