Protect Your Proofs with Safe Frame Pro
Building the app
Both Nina and Agata stress that they don’t consider themselves to be highly technical, so it was a case of discussing the issues and agreeing on what needed to be done to come up with a solution, and then the support of professional software developers was sought.
“We started working on the project back in July,” says Nina, “and it was a challenging process, but we were incredibly lucky to build a small, committed team who believed in the idea straight away. Since then, development has been ongoing almost non-stop (often late at night) as the product was refined based directly on photographer feedback.
“We don’t have investors and so are fully self-funding the project, which adds to the pressure, but also gives us freedom. We’re not building this tool from behind a desk, rather inside the industry, continually listening to photographers, reading group discussions, answering messages and implementing changes that can actually help people to earn more.
“There is a clear distinction between the photographer side and the client experience. SafeFramePro is the photographer’s panel, where galleries are uploaded and managed, while clients view and select images through a separate mobile app called MySafeFrame. At the moment, SafeFramePro is the only solution out there using a mobile app approach to genuinely block screenshots on Android and detect them on iPhones.
“Our focus has never been to replace studio management platforms. Instead, the goal is very simple: to help photographers sell better by restoring the emotional value of image access. Preventing screenshots during the proofing stage helps preserve the value of image access and encourages clients to make considered selections before images might become permanently unavailable. Any features we include are there to serve that purpose, not to add to the overall complexity.”
Helping fellow pros
Launched in mid-November, already the app is proving its usefulness and, as word spreads, fellow professionals are signing up to address an issue that, it turns out, is virtually universal.
One of those to have encountered the package, and who has declared herself blown away by what it’s offering, is Maggie Robinson, who runs the Dinky Feet family portrait studio in Worksop. “SafeFrame Pro stood out to me because it doesn’t attempt to be another all-in-one gallery or studio management system,” she observes. “Instead, it fills a very specific gap that most existing platforms simply don’t address.
