How do I password-protect an iPhoto album on MobileMe Gallery?

I'm a busy photographer myself, taking thousands of photographs annually, and you're right, it is definitely fun to be able to click a button or two and share your best work with your friends and family (and clients, for that matter). Not every photo album, however, is appropriate for the general public (and Google Image Search, for that matter).

I've used a variety of online photo album utilities and have to say that I don't think Apple did a very good job of implementing this particular feature in MobileMe: what it has is clunky and definitely non-intuitive. But it's workable. So let me show you how to get from here to there.

First off, on the lower right of iPhoto you should see your usual list of external site icons:

Select a gallery, album, or even use Cmd-Click to select a specific set of photographs you want to publish to your private album, then click on the MobileMe icon.

You'll see something like this:

If you click on "Everyone" in the area "Album viewable by..." you'll see your options:

This is where I wish there were more options. For example, I'd like to be able to define what in security circles we'd call concentric access rings: just me, my immediate family, my extended family, family and friends, and then everyone online. MobileMe doesn't support that, so to create a password-protected album you will instead have to choose "Edit Names and Passwords..."

At this point I create an account called "family" and specify the password I want everyone to share:

Click "OK" and the photos will be uploaded and the album is uploaded and made available.

If you then log in to MobileMe, you'll see in your administrators view the album shown with a tiny padlock icon:

Try to view the album without having logged in, however, and it prompts you for an account/password pair before letting you proceed:

Just what we want. It's just a bit more awkward than I'd like...