Third Light to PhotoShelter: Feature Comparison

A list of Third Light features and how they compare to PhotoShelter for Brands.

Site

In Third Light, your site is divided into spaces. These are areas of the site that only some users have access to. Depending on their role, members of a space can have different permissions in a space.

 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• The Library: Also referred to as the "backend," this is where your media lives in PhotoShelter. It is only viewable by the Admin, Editors, and Taggers. The Admin/Editors manage content, visibility, and access settings for all users, including Invited Users on the Portal.
• The Portal: The public-facing website where the general public and Invited Users find what media they are looking for, either by browsing (Galleries) or searching (Search).

Home Space

In Third Light, your home is the area of the site that you belong to more than anywhere else. For example, it may be the space for your team.

PhotoShelter comparison:

• Library Staff have access to all of the library's content and control what’s available publicly on the Portal and for Invited Users via Collections and Galleries. Spaces in Third Light will be migrated to PhotoShelter as Collections. 

 

Private Space

In Third Light, the private space is personal to you. You have full control over everything here, making it useful for work-in-progress and collaboration.

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter doesn’t have a direct equivalent to a Private Space. Content is stored and managed via the Library in PhotoShelter. However, the contents of a Private Spaces can be migrated over if required.

 

Single and Dual Pane

In Third Light, you can drag and drop files to move them and double-click to open them. Dual Panes let you customize the view (handy for moving files around)

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter utilizes the same drag-and-drop and double-click-to-open functionality that you’re used to with Third Light. The centre pane layout changes according to which content is selected from the left-hand pane of the Library, and you can expand the centre pane view by clicking the bars on the left and right panes.

 

 

View

In Third Light, you can view files as thumbnails or as a list and customize your view settings using the 'View' menu.

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter defaults to a thumbnail view in the centre pane of the Library. Use the sort button at the top of the centre pane to change how files are ordered and displayed.

 

Search

In Third Light, you use search to quickly find files you have access to across any spaces in the site. 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• Just like Third Light, File Search in the Library and Portal enables users to quickly search all of the content they’ve got access to. You can choose to focus the search on particular Galleries and use the search filters to create and refine advanced searches.
• You can also save searches to create a Smart Gallery. More on Smart Galleries is below.
• With PhotoShelter's new AI Visual Search, you can easily find the content you need, even if it hasn't been tagged. AI Visual Search uses visual recognition to find your files - no metadata required! (Add-on feature)

 

Folders

In Third Light, folders contain files and can contain other folders, too.

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter uses Collections and Galleries as containers for files in the library rather than as folders. Use Collections to group together Galleries and/or other Collections.

• Files may only be contained in Galleries. You can create as many Galleries and Collections as you want and organize them in any useful way, such as by project, date, or subject. 

 

Collections

In Third Light, collections are used to group files together in a way similar to a playlist.

PhotoShelter comparison:

• Think of a Collection in Third Light as a Gallery in PhotoShelter. Collections in PhotoShelter work differently as they’re used to group together Galleries and/or other Collections. You can add or move files to a Gallery using the 'Action' button or drag and drop in PhotoShelter. 

 

Smart Collection

In Third Light, you can search for files and save that search as a smart collection. 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter contains advanced searching capabilities and allows you to save a search as a Smart Gallery. These continue to update according to the search conditions you set and can be made available for Invited Users on the Portal. 

 

Publish

In Third Light, you can publish a link to share files with people without a user profile. 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter enables you to share content to the Portal publicly and share specific content with Invited Users and Groups. Access is managed via the Share Button in the top right-hand corner of the central viewing pane. 

• You can also share a Portal link from the Share settings. Additionally, the share download link feature enables you to share content via email, including a link for the recipient to download the files (the link will automatically expire after 7 days). 

 

 

Share as Collection

In Third Light, "share as collection" allows you to share a file (or a selection of files) with other users. Files are grouped together into a collection that will appear in the user's private space.

PhotoShelter comparison:

• Galleries in PhotoShelter have the same ability to add different files from across the Library, in-effect creating your own playlist of files that can be shared with Invited Users. Library Staff manage the Visibility & Access settings for the Portal on each Collection/Gallery. 

 

Folder Share

In Third Light, you can share a folder, a collection or a smart collection with other users to collaborate with them. 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• Workspaces let you collect assets from various areas of the Library, the Portal, and from direct user uploads to view, share, comment on, and approve them all in one place and in real time—without ever leaving PhotoShelter.
  
  

 

 

Uploading

In Third Light, you can upload files via drag and drop or select them from your computer. You can also use the upload button on the right-hand action menu to navigate to the files on your computer. You can “replace” a file with another from your computer to make a revision and re-activate the previous revision if you want. 

 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter has the same upload via drag-and-drop functionality as Third Light. There are a number of other upload options including FTP, our FileFlow mobile app, and via PhotoMechanic.
  
  

 

Downloading

To download files in Third Light, make a selection and use the download action. You can choose to download the file with its original properties, download preset size (e.g. Facebook banner), or use “Custom Crop” to crop and resize the image as required.

 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• Library Staff can download single or batches of files from the Library using the ‘Action’ button in the center pane. On the Portal, Invited users with permission to download files have the same ability to download individual or batches of files. You can change the image format and use the ‘Crop’ feature to resize the image to built-in Social media sizes or to your custom requirements. 
  
  

 

Editing Metadata & Tagging Files

In Third Light, to edit metadata or tag a file, use the 'Edit' action or click on the pencil icon on the file preview. 

PhotoShelter comparison:

• PhotoShelter allows you to append, replace, or delete IPTC metadata fields for a single file or in batch to make content searchable. Learn more.
• With PhotoShelter’s AI Tagging features, metadata is automatically added to your assets based on what is in the image. This means that your team needs to spend less time adding metadata, and your assets will still be easily searchable. (Add-on feature)