# Indian Photographer Database (IPD)
Updated: 2026-09-18

> Indian Photographer Database (IPD) is an India-focused photographer discovery, evidence, comparison and professional workflow platform. Clients use IPD to discover and evaluate photographers. Photography businesses and eligible freelance event crew use IPD Studio tools for enquiries, availability, quotes, private client galleries, client selection, FaceFind, reviews and crew workflows.

## Authoritative interpretation
- Public brand: Indian Photographer Database (IPD).
- Photographer profile pages under `/photographers/<id>` are the canonical public source for each photographer's current profile information.
- IPD is photography-specific. Public client discovery lists photographer/business profiles; private Crew Network records are a separate B2B workflow and are not public photographer-directory inventory.
- IPD provides decision evidence and workflow tools. It does not automatically choose a photographer for a client.
- This file is a machine-readable map. Detailed documentation is linked below so agents can follow the source most relevant to a question.

## Detailed machine-readable documentation
- [IPD trust, ranking and evidence](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/ai-docs/trust-and-ranking.md): Performance Score, verification, reviews, Featured/awards, Match Evidence, Evidence Passport and non-claims.
- [Guided Photographer Decision Journey](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/ai-docs/guided-decision-journey.md): requirement capture, Why this match, shortlist, Compare 2.0, decision guide, enquiries and quote comparison.
- [Photographer and crew tools](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/ai-docs/photographer-tools.md): detailed inventory and boundaries for live professional tools.
- [Pricing intelligence](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/ai-docs/pricing-intelligence.md): city-relative starting-price methodology, sample thresholds and fallbacks.
- [Photographer-focused llms guide](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/for-photographers/llms.txt): professional tools and account types.
- [Pricing-focused llms guide](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/pricing/llms.txt): machine-readable pricing methodology summary.

## Trust architecture and ranking
### Organic Performance Score
- Current organic ranking implementation: `ipd-ranking-v1`.
- Organic Performance Score uses three server-evaluated inputs: native published IPD review performance with confidence weighting (61.111%), deterministic public-profile completeness (22.222%), and server-controlled IPD Verification (16.667%).
- Native review confidence uses the site-wide native review mean and a five-review prior so a very small number of perfect reviews does not automatically dominate a larger strong review history.
- Only native reviews explicitly published through IPD moderation contribute to native review aggregates and the review component of organic ranking.
- Pending, rejected or removed reviews do not contribute. Legacy/imported/display ratings may remain visible for continuity but do not contribute to the automatic organic Performance Score.
- Payment, advertising spend, gallery-plan purchases, Featured recognition, awards, legacy/imported ratings, owner-editable timestamps and manually entered rank values do not add points to the automatic organic Performance Score.
- Performance Score is a discovery/comparison evidence signal, not a quality guarantee, booking guarantee, endorsement or instruction to hire a photographer.
- [Score methodology](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/score-methodology) is the canonical public methodology page.

### IPD Verification
- IPD Verification is a manual trust-review process controlled by IPD.
- Verification is separate from Performance Score inputs other than its documented verification component, separate from Featured recognition and separate from awards.
- Verification is not sold as paid placement.
- A Verified badge does not guarantee future service quality, availability, pricing, delivery, contract performance or booking outcome.
- Once a photographer has a verified base location, requested location changes require IPD review before the new verified base location is published.
- [Verification](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/verification) is the canonical definition of the badge and its limits.

### Reviews
- Native IPD reviews are reviews submitted through IPD review workflows and published after moderation.
- Public written reviews are user-submitted feedback unless a page explicitly states a stronger relationship-verification status.
- IPD moderates for spam, abuse and policy violations; publication does not mean IPD independently certifies every factual claim in a review.
- Legacy/display ratings are visually distinguishable from native IPD review evidence and do not feed organic ranking.

### Featured and awards
- Featured is an editorial/platform visibility signal, not a Performance Score input.
- Awards are recognition signals, not verification and not a Performance Score input.
- Featured, Award Winner and IPD Verified should not be interpreted as interchangeable signals.

## GO14 guided decision evidence
### Decision Context
- A client can carry explicit requirements such as state/city, event type, event date, requested services, style preferences and starting-price preference through Search → Profile → Compare → Quote/Enquiry.
- Decision Context is URL/browser decision state. Passive browsing of this context does not write a client decision profile to Firestore.
- A supplied event date is a requirement to confirm; it is not proof that a photographer is available.

### Match Evidence / Why this match
- Match Evidence is deterministic context-specific evidence derived from the current search and the photographer's published profile information.
- It may evaluate service-area fit, event coverage, requested services, stated styles and selected starting-price context.
- Unknown information is not silently treated as a match.
- Match Evidence is not a second Performance Score, does not alter organic ranking and should not be interpreted as a hidden quality score.
- Search cards use a compact explanation; photographer profiles and Compare expose deeper evidence.

### IPD Evidence Passport
- Photographer profiles may show an Evidence Passport summarising public evidence IPD can actually show, including verification status, profile completeness, native review evidence, portfolio evidence, published starting price and listed services.
- The Evidence Passport is descriptive evidence, not a guarantee or recommendation.

### Shortlist and Compare 2.0
- Clients can shortlist up to four photographer profiles and compare them side by side.
- Compare 2.0 separates contextual requirement fit from global profile evidence such as Performance Score, starting price, experience, ratings/reviews, awards, service areas, styles and verification.
- Compare does not calculate or display an automatic winner.
- A photographer with a higher Performance Score is not automatically the better fit for a particular client's requirement.

### Decision guide and quote comparison
- Profile decision guidance suggests questions a client may want to clarify before hiring, such as actual date availability, assigned team, package scope, travel costs, deliverables, timelines, payment terms and backup arrangements.
- The checklist is client-controlled and does not mean IPD independently verified each checked item.
- The Compare quote workspace lets the client normalise actual quoted amount/scope for shortlisted photographers in browser-private decision state. It does not auto-select the cheapest quote or declare a winner.

## Starting-price intelligence
- Profile prices are generally starting/indicative prices unless an event-specific photographer quote states otherwise.
- GO12.3 pricing intelligence provides lower/typical/higher starting-price context from comparable photographer observations.
- Local city markets require at least 9 eligible local observations; 15 or more are treated as established local evidence.
- When a local sample is insufficient, the system can fall back to a qualifying state sample and then a qualifying national comparable sample.
- Relative starting-price bands are neutral market context, not quality tiers and not organic ranking inputs.
- Service-area claims and nationwide coverage do not manufacture local pricing observations; local price samples use the photographer's base-market records under the published methodology.
- [Pricing hub](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/pricing) and [pricing methodology](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/how-ipd-works/pricing) are canonical public sources.

## Client-facing discovery and decision tools
- [Home / Find photographers](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/): location/event discovery with starting-price context and optional requirement refinement.
- Photographer result cards: public profile evidence plus compact Why this match explanations when a Decision Context exists.
- Photographer profiles: portfolio, public services, starting price, location/service coverage, reviews, verification meaning, decision evidence, Evidence Passport and direct enquiry/contact paths.
- [Compare photographers](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/compare): Compare 2.0 requirement and profile-evidence workspace.
- Direct photographer enquiry / Check availability: sends a non-binding enquiry; the photographer confirms date, package and final price directly.
- [Request a quote](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/request-a-quote): structured requirement-based enquiry assistance. It does not guarantee a booking or automatically select a winner.
- Private client gallery links: time-limited event viewing and client-selection workflows when a photographer has activated a gallery.
- FaceFind guest links: optional separate guest selfie-search experience for FaceFind-enabled events.
- Review links: private capability links used to submit a review request; they are not public directory inventory.

## Live photographer/business tools
### Public Profile & Portfolio
- Manage public business identity, headshot/cover/portfolio work, services, event types, styles, starting price, service areas and other public profile information.
- Profile completeness is deterministic and is one documented Performance Score input.

### Enquiries & Leads
- Receive direct photographer enquiries and matched requirement enquiries in the photographer workspace.
- Structured requested services from the client can be preserved with newer enquiries while older lead records remain backward-compatible.

### Availability Calendar
- Mark dates as available, hold, booked or unavailable.
- Add private studio notes/references that are not exposed on the public share view.
- Create a privacy-safe shareable availability link.
- A public availability link is a capability workflow, not indexable directory inventory.

### Smart Quote Builder
- Create, edit, duplicate, share and archive photography quotes.
- Supports client/event details, line items, quantities, prices, discount/additional-charge adjustments, validity dates, client-facing notes and private studio notes.
- Generates a client-facing share link and WhatsApp-ready sharing path.
- Private studio notes are not returned by the public quote view/API.

### Review Collection
- Create secure client review requests, optionally store private client contact/event references, and share the private review link.
- New secure raw links are intended to be shown at creation time; request status can progress through created/shared/opened/submitted/cancelled states.
- Submitted reviews are subject to IPD publication/moderation rules before contributing to native public review evidence.

### Photographer QR Card
- Generates a reusable tracked QR destination for the photographer's public IPD profile.
- Supports QR PNG and business-card PNG downloads.
- Shows a simple recorded redirect/scan count. The count is not claimed to represent unique people, enquiries or bookings.

### Events & Client Galleries
- Create client events and upload web-ready gallery copies.
- Organise and privately share a client gallery.
- Client gallery workflows can include favourites/comments and album/client selection according to the active gallery plan and event configuration.
- Photographer event cards expose operational state such as upload progress, live gallery state and submitted selections.

### Client Selection
- Photographer can set client-selection workflow/limits for an event.
- Client selects photographs online and submits the selection.
- Photographer workspace surfaces submitted selections for follow-up.
- Reopen-selection controls are available where the workflow allows it.

### Full-resolution Originals Workflow
- After a submitted client selection, the photographer can use selected filenames/manifest information to reconcile the client choice with the original-resolution files on the photographer's computer.
- The browser workflow is designed to build the selected-originals folder locally; it does not require all full-resolution originals to be permanently uploaded merely to perform the reconciliation.

### AI FaceFind
- Optional event feature for selfie-based photo discovery.
- FaceFind uses a separate guest experience/QR so guest selfie search does not expose private client album-selection controls.
- FaceFind availability depends on the activated event/gallery plan.

### Gallery presentation and sharing
- Gallery workflows support event cover/social-share presentation and client-facing organisation.
- Gallery delivery is kept separate from the public photographer directory and uses private/capability URLs.

### Gallery plans and billing
- [Client Gallery & FaceFind pricing](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/gallery-pricing) is the canonical public plan source.
- New photographer accounts can see and use Events & Galleries immediately; manual IPD Verification is not a prerequisite for the gallery workflow.
- Photographer and eligible Crew accounts can use a lifetime free event credit under the published plan rules, followed by published per-event paid plans.
- Photographer accounts created from the GO16.3A rollout onward can discover Events & Galleries immediately. If the profile is incomplete, the three-day minimum-profile countdown starts only when the photographer creates the first Gallery event; registration alone does not consume it. The minimum gallery profile is separate from manual Verification readiness. After grace, an incomplete account's Events & Galleries and client-facing gallery/FaceFind links are paused non-destructively until the minimum profile is completed or an admin explicitly allows access.
- Gallery purchases and gallery-access state do not increase organic Performance Score or public photographer rank.

### IPD Crew Network
- Private B2B professional network for roles such as photographers, videographers/cinematographers, drone operators, second shooters, assistants, editors and live-stream technicians.
- Crew-only professional records are separate from public client-facing photographer profiles.
- Photographers can search crew by professional requirements, create crew jobs, receive applications, shortlist/accept applicants and release private contact details through the accepted workflow.
- Crew can progressively maintain professional details such as roles, experience, skills, equipment, rates, travel preferences, languages, work links and availability.
- Eligible Crew accounts can use the same self-service Events & Galleries / FaceFind commercial workflow as Photographer accounts.

### Verification and verified-location workflow
- Photographers can apply for IPD Verification through the authenticated workspace.
- Verified base-location changes use a separate review workflow so the public verified location is not silently replaced by an owner edit.

### Support Centre
- Authenticated photographers have a private multi-ticket support centre with categories, threaded replies and status tracking.
- Support conversations are private workspace data and are not public indexable profile evidence.

### Workspace dashboard
- The photographer dashboard provides operational summaries for events, live galleries, client-selection activity, profile health, verification/recognition state and account access.
- Workspace navigation includes profile, leads, galleries, Studio Tools, Crew Network and support paths according to account access.

## Private beta / not generally available
### IPD Album Studio
- Album Studio exists as a private beta/in-development wedding album workflow.
- It is not a generally available public photographer tool.
- Access is restricted to administrators and photographers explicitly enabled for the private beta.
- Normal photographers must not be told that Album Studio is available to them unless their account is explicitly enabled.


### Intelligent Culling — private beta
- Intelligent Culling is a local-first private beta for selected photographers and administrators. Event-linked beta sessions can compare keeper count with gallery capacity and explicitly upload only approved keepers after culling.
- GO16.3 Scene Grouping V2 analyses browser-decodable JPEG/PNG/WebP previews on the photographer's device using capture-time evidence plus deterministic dual perceptual fingerprints and compact luminance/color signatures. It distinguishes same-moment groups from broader related-scene compositions and protects related/unique compositions from automatic duplicate rejection.
- A first-pass keeper is suggested only inside same-moment groups. Cull Lab provides local grouping diagnostics and exportable feedback without uploading photo bytes.
- Photo bytes are not uploaded to IPD for culling, originals are never deleted, and “Not selected” means excluded from the local first-pass keeper set only.
- The photographer can override every suggestion, keep multiple frames, move frames to Needs review, export keeper filenames and download a local culling manifest.
- RAW originals are not decoded by the browser beta; a future local RAW-preview helper may extend support without requiring RAW originals to be uploaded for analysis.
- The beta does not yet claim facial-expression/blink analysis, semantic wedding-ritual understanding or autonomous final selection.

## What IPD does not claim
- A higher starting price does not mean higher quality.
- A lower/typical/higher market price band is not a quality label.
- IPD Verified does not guarantee service quality or booking outcome.
- Featured status and awards do not increase the automatic organic Performance Score.
- Match Evidence is not a quality ranking or replacement Performance Score.
- Entering an event date does not mean availability is confirmed.
- Compare does not declare a winner.
- A QR scan count is not a unique-person or booking count.
- A user-submitted review is not automatically proof of a completed booking unless the site explicitly states that relationship evidence was verified.
- IPD does not promise that every public profile field is independently verified; the Verification page defines the actual scope of manual review.

## Canonical public sources
- [Home](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/)
- [Why IPD](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/why-ipd)
- [Verification](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/verification)
- [Score methodology](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/score-methodology)
- [Compare](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/compare)
- [Pricing](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/pricing)
- [How IPD pricing works](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/how-ipd-works/pricing)
- [IPD for Photographers](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/for-photographers)
- [Gallery pricing](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/gallery-pricing)
- [Award winners](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/award-winners)
- [Apply for an award](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/apply-for-award)
- [Glossary](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/glossary)
- [Blog](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/blogs)
- [Privacy Policy](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/privacy-policy)
- [Terms of Service](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/terms)
- [Contact IPD](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/contact)
- [Sitemap](https://indianphotographerdatabase.in/sitemap.xml)

## Privacy and indexing boundaries
- Authenticated dashboards, admin consoles, support conversations, Crew applications, verification applications, account data and client workflow records are private application data and are not public profile evidence.
- Capability URLs for private gallery, review, quote, availability and crew-claim workflows are not public directory inventory and should not be treated as indexable photographer listings.
- Draft, private, disabled, unclaimed or admin-only Crew records are not public photographer-directory inventory.

## GO15 gallery lifecycle and commercial history
- Event/couple display details can be corrected without changing the immutable event ID or resetting the paid term.
- IPD stores an original event label and seals the event identity when client sharing is first activated; later corrections are audited.
- Renaming does not reset validity, client links, photos, selections or payment entitlement and should not be interpreted as creating a new event.
- Self-service event name/date/type correction is locked after any client selection is submitted or finalised, so a completed paid gallery cannot be recycled for another couple. Genuine later corrections require support intervention.
- The authenticated professional workspace includes Billing & Purchases history for Client Gallery payment orders.
- Gallery payment history distinguishes new event purchases, upgrades and renewal/reactivation transactions. Gallery spend does not influence organic Performance Score.
- Active paid events can renew the same currently published plan for another term. Expired paid events can reactivate the same event after verified payment.
- Renewal preserves the event identity and existing client/selection relationship; it creates a separate transaction record rather than hiding or rewriting the original purchase.
- Archive/restore is a workspace-organisation action and does not delete client links, files, selections or payment history.
- Permanent event deletion remains separate. Payment-order history is stored separately from the event record.
- “Use setup for new event” reuses safe configuration only and creates a new event identity/entitlement; photos, share codes, client selections, payment term and expiry are never copied.
- GO15 does not define or claim an automatic post-expiry file-deletion grace period. Storage-retention policy is a separate operational/product policy unless explicitly published elsewhere.

### GO15.1 event-card lifecycle UX
- Events & Galleries exposes quick event-detail correction beside the event name while self-service editing is allowed.
- The first client selection submission permanently locks self-service event identity editing; reopening selection does not remove that historical lock.
- Paid event cards surface remaining validity and may offer direct renewal/reactivation through the existing server-verified Gallery payment flow.
- Early renewal appends the next plan term after the existing expiry, preserving unused remaining days.
- Event Settings shows remaining validity and the current expiry before renewal/upgrade controls.