Technique Behind the "Proofs" Section of a Photography Portfolio website??

[aaron_t]

Hey cats. Intermediate web-design skills here.

So I've got a client who's looking to put together a Photography Portfolio website for herself. Every example site she's showed me are entirely Flash based, or some hybrid of HTML+CSS+Flash. That's all fine.

I was wondering if anyone out there has built a Photo-Portfolio site that has included a "Proofs" section. Essentially it's place where clients log in via username+password to access prints of their photography session, then can let the photographer know what ones they want printed.

So a few specific questions around the mechanics behind the "Proofs" page:

1) I need a tutorial on how to create user log-in capabilities (PHP...database?? Should I outsource? Oh god I need answers.)

<Second question optional for people who've designed sites like this...>

2) Once the user logs in, is it basically bare-bones FTP server at that point? Or does it maintain the site theme? I suppose this could be as complex as the client wanted it to be... But if other developers/designers have done it different ways, I'd like to know.

Cool, thanks people.

Aaron T

[erilidon]

as for the login, thats easy look up information on .htaccess login - that is if you are using a linux server. I am not sure about windows hosting as I have never even bothered with it but I am sure it is something with protected directories.

As for your second question it depends on how you set it up. I know I was considering this at one point and I just decided it would be easier to just have the images in a down loadable zip file. otherwise you will have to setup some sort of review and selection form. But I know w/ 90% of the photographers they don't want to give the digital copy of the image away.