Kwikpic
FotoOwl
Samaro
Pixieset / ShootProof / Pic-Time
Features No Existing Product Supports
- Private + Public folder access control with role-based permissions across three user types. No platform offers this.
- Pay-to-unlock download gate. Photographer confirms payment, all downloads unlock. No competitor does this.
- Managed bulk download with auto-chunked files, background generation, and ready notification.
- Video + photo delivery with AI face matching in a single unified platform.
- Photographer approval workflow on AI-matched photo sets before guest delivery.
What this means: This is not rebuilding something that exists cheaper. This is a product you will fully own, with capabilities no competitor provides, and one that can be operated for your business or resold to other photographers.
| Module | What It Does | Complexity | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|
Auth & Roles | Photographer, Couple, Guest roles. Invite-link onboarding, OTP, sessions. | Medium | 1A |
Event Management | Event CRUD, private/public folders, configurable retention. | Medium | 1A |
Upload System | Resumable chunked uploads, parallel workers, presigned URLs, EXIF extraction, duplicate detection, progress for 10,000+ files. | Critical | 1B |
Media Processing | Queue workers: thumbnail + watermark + original per photo. Orientation fix, colour profile, EXIF strip, video thumbnails. | Critical | 1B |
Gallery UI | Virtualized grid for 10K+ photos. Lazy loading, lightbox, folder nav. Mobile-first (90% phone viewers). | High | 1C |
Download System | Individual via secure links. Bulk: async ZIP, auto-split 2GB chunks, temp storage + expiry, ready notification. | Critical | 1C |
Payment Gate | Toggle "paid" per event. Watermarks before, originals after. Downloads locked until confirmed. | Low | 1C |
QR Codes | Unique QR per event, routes to landing page, printable for venue. | Low | 1C |
Notifications | Email (photos ready, download ready). In-app for couple. Processing status for photographer. | Medium | 1C |
Face Indexing | Rekognition indexes all faces. One collection per event. 30-40K face vectors per large event. Async queue. | High | 2 |
Selfie Matching | Guest selfie via camera API. Match against collection. Return all photos of that person with confidence scoring. | High | 2 |
Approval Pipeline | Matched sets → photographer review/approve → couple review → guest notified → personal gallery + download. | Critical | 2 |
Guest Portal | Pre-registration (QR + selfie + phone at event). Post-event self-service. Personal gallery of approved matches. | Medium | 2 |
Why the approval step matters: Without it, any guest could selfie-match and access unvetted photos. This pipeline ensures the photographer retains full creative and business control over every image that leaves the platform.
Authentication with three roles, event management with folder structure, cloud storage + CDN setup, lifecycle policies, and application shell.
- Photographer can log in, create events, manage folders
- Cloud infrastructure operational
- Couple and Guest invite-link onboarding works
The engineering core. Resumable uploads for thousands of files, async processing pipeline with queue workers generating all image variants. Video thumbnails. Backpressure management.
- Upload 5,000+ files with real-time progress
- All image variants generated automatically
- Processing status in dashboard
- Orientation, colour, EXIF handled
Guest-facing experience: mobile-first gallery, bulk download with chunking, payment-gated access, QR codes, and notifications.
- Full flow: upload → process → view → pay → download
- Guests browse public gallery on phone
- Couple sees private + public, downloads unlock after payment
- Bulk downloads auto-chunked with notification
- QR codes per event
Rekognition integration for face indexing. Selfie matching. Full approval pipeline: photographer review, couple review, guest notification and personal gallery. Pre-registration and post-event self-service.
- Photos auto-indexed for faces
- Guest selfie finds all matching photos
- Photographer reviews and approves
- Couple reviews before guest access
- Guest gets personal gallery + download
- Pre-registration via QR at venue
- Unregistered guests self-serve post-event
Phase 1 standalone delivers a fully functional product in ~16 weeks. Phase 2 adds AI over ~8 additional weeks. Development pricing discussed separately based on scope confirmation.
| Factor | Standard Business App | This Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Core pattern | Forms → DB → Lists | File I/O, async queues, CDN, cloud APIs |
| Cloud services | None | 3-4 (Storage, CDN, AI, queues) |
| Async processing | None | Core to 5 modules |
| File handling | None | 10,000 files, 100-300 GB per event |
| Infrastructure | Single server | Storage lifecycle, CDN, workers, AI pipeline |
| Frontend | Forms and tables | Virtualized gallery, camera API, mobile-first |
| AI / ML | None | Face detection, vectors, similarity matching |
| Relative complexity | 1× | 3.5× – 4× |
Object Storage
Scales with data. Lifecycle policies auto-tier older events to cheaper storage.
CDN
Gallery bandwidth. Peaks when photos released to 100+ guests.
AI Recognition (Phase 2)
Per-face indexing + search costs. Scales with volume.
Server + DB + Queue
App server, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ. Starts lean, scales with growth.
Estimated: ₹3,000-8,000/month Phase 1. Add ₹1,000-3,000/month for Phase 2 AI. Paid directly to AWS, separate from development.
| Layer | Tech | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Backend | Go | High-performance concurrency for uploads + workers |
| Frontend | Next.js | Fast load, mobile perf, gallery ecosystem |
| Database | PostgreSQL | Events, users, metadata, permissions, states |
| Queue | RabbitMQ | Thumbnails, watermarks, indexing, ZIPs, approvals |
| Cache | Redis | Sessions, caching, rate limiting |
| Storage | AWS S3 + CloudFront | Scalable storage + global CDN |
| AI | AWS Rekognition | Managed face matching, no custom ML |
Payments
Milestone-based per phase. Portion held until deliverable demonstrated and accepted.
Communication
Weekly updates. Staging access to see progress after each milestone.
Scope Changes
Minor adjustments included. New features quoted separately before work begins.
Code Ownership
Full source, schemas, deployment docs transferred on complete payment.
Support
30-day bug-fix support post-delivery. Extended maintenance on retainer.
Infra Setup
AWS configuration in Phase 1A. Ongoing bills paid by you to AWS.
- WhatsApp Business API — template approval, sending, per-message costs. Phase 3 candidate.
- Native mobile app — platform is mobile-optimized web. Native/PWA separate.
- Payment gateway — manual toggle. Razorpay/UPI automation separate.
- Video streaming — download-only. Transcoding pipeline separate.
- UI/UX design — development only. Figma/brand work separate.
- Multi-language — English only. Localization added later.