A finished set of photos has to do more than transfer. It has to present the work, protect it, and stay reachable long after the shoot. Most of what separates a professional delivery from a file dump is decided before the link goes out: where the files live, what size the client receives, how their picks come back to you, and what happens a year later when they ask for a print. This guide walks through each of those choices in the order you make them.
The three delivery approaches
- Cloud drives and transfer links (Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer). Zero learning curve, and the presentation is a file list. Fine between professionals; underwhelming as the reveal of finished work. Expiring links also mean the delivery has a shelf life.
- Client galleries. Built for the reveal: designed grids, your branding, favoriting, passwords, download controls. This is the professional default for a reason.
- Unified delivery platforms. Galleries, plus everything photo-only tools leave out: real video delivery for hybrid shooters, review, file transfer, and a library underneath. The consolidation option.
| Approach | Best for | Falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud drive or transfer link | raw files to a retoucher or second shooter | no presentation, links expire, no picks |
| Client gallery | the final reveal to a client | video and long-term storage are often extra |
| Unified platform | studios that deliver photo and video together | more to set up the first time |
Most photographers end up using two of these: a gallery for the client and a plain link for collaborators. The question is whether those live in one place or two.
Resolution and download strategy
Deliver full resolution. A delivery platform should make that effortless rather than something you compress around. Never make full resolution a hostage; it is the client’s work product. That starts at upload: large JPEG and TIFF exports go up whole, so nothing gets downsized on the way in. A direct upload takes up to 100 GB per file, and if the connection drops, picking the same file again in the same browser continues it from where it stopped.
Offer a web size alongside the originals. Most clients open the gallery on a phone, save a handful of images for social, and only reach for the full files when they order an album or hand the set to a designer. On FRGMT the client chooses at download time: full resolution, or web size (2048 pixels on the long edge, which posts cleanly everywhere). You can also limit a gallery to web size only, or turn downloads off while the client is still choosing picks.
RAW files are a separate conversation. A client gallery is for finished images, and a browser cannot show a RAW file anyway. When a commercial client has paid for the RAWs, send them through a cloud drive or file transfer link alongside the gallery. FRGMT holds processed photos and video, not RAW files.
Colour and export settings
Export the client set in sRGB with the profile embedded. Phones, browsers and social apps are built around sRGB, so a wider space such as Adobe RGB often looks flat and desaturated on the screen your client actually uses. Keep a wider-gamut master in your own archive if your print workflow calls for it, and send it to the lab directly rather than to the client.
- JPEG at high quality (around 90 to 95 in Lightroom) for the main set.
- Long edge at native resolution; resize only for the web copy.
- Output sharpening for screen on the web copy, and none or light sharpening on the full files.
- Filenames that sort: a shoot prefix and a sequence number beat camera defaults.
Structure the delivery before you send it
Keep one folder per shoot, with subfolders for edits, outtakes and anything the client should not see yet. On FRGMT a gallery is a selection from that folder, not a copy of it: you add the finished images to the gallery and leave the rest in the folder, so the client sees the final set while the full shoot stays organised underneath.
Long shoots read better in chapters. A long event split into arrivals, the main event, portraits and the evening lets a family member jump straight to the part they care about. On FRGMT these chapters are Sets: one photo can sit in more than one Set without being uploaded twice, and the client switches between them from a menu above the grid. Put the strongest image first and choose a cover; the first screen is the first impression.
Check it on a phone before you send it
Most clients open the link on a phone, often minutes after it arrives. Before you send, open the gallery on your own phone the way they will: from the email, not from your dashboard. Check that the cover crop still frames the subject in portrait orientation, that the first few rows open on strong images rather than near-duplicates, and that the download button is easy to find. Ten minutes here saves the follow-up email asking where the photos are.
Selects, proofing, and the feedback loop
Favoriting (“Selects”) turns the gallery from a download into a conversation: the client marks picks for albums, retouching, or prints without a spreadsheet of filenames. On FRGMT a client stars photos as they scroll, and the picks are saved in their browser. When they are done they share the list or email themselves a link to it, which also lets them pick up where they left off on another device.
Their list arrives in your Review tab, where you can copy the filenames as one comma-separated line and paste it into a Lightroom filter to pull exactly those frames. Give clients a date to finish choosing; an open-ended proofing round is how an album slips by a season.
If you want words as well as stars, turn on comments for that gallery. Clients can leave a note on a photo, pin it to a spot in the frame (“soften this shadow”), or comment on the gallery as a whole, and you reply from the same tab. For video, a React view on the same folder does the same job with timestamped comments, and that review is included on every plan, including Free.
Passwords, expiry, and access
- Keep a password optional per gallery. A public engagement shoot and a boudoir session need different answers.
- Send the password in the same message as the link, so nobody has to ask for it twice.
- Skip client accounts. Requiring a login before someone can see their photos is friction dressed as security.
- Set an expiry date only when you mean it, and say so in the email. FRGMT shows an expired gallery as a branded page rather than an error.
- If you need to know who opened a gallery, ask for an email before it opens instead of a full account.
Prints and products
A gallery that sells prints turns the delivery into a second sale. On FRGMT’s paid plans, clients order prints straight from the gallery: they pick a size and paper, adjust the crop, and pay you directly. The lab produces and ships the order, and you set your own markup over the lab price. Shipping covers the contiguous United States today.
If you sell prints yourself, the gallery still matters: the Selects list is your order form, and full resolution files mean the print is made from the real file rather than a screenshot.
Timing and the delivery email
Send a short preview within a few days of the shoot, while the excitement is fresh, then the full gallery on the date you promised. One email should carry everything: the link, the password if there is one, how long the gallery stays up, and what you need from the client next, whether that is album picks or a print order. Publish from your own branded link where you can; on Starter and above FRGMT galleries open at yourstudio.frgmt.app.
After the delivery: keep the work reachable
Clients come back. An anniversary print, a lost phone, a parent who wants the family portraits a year later. Archive old galleries to keep your dashboard clear, but keep the link working; on FRGMT an archived gallery stays live for the client and comes back to your dashboard in one click.
The professional checklist
- Branded gallery under your studio identity.
- sRGB exports, full resolution plus a web size.
- Chapters for long shoots, strongest image first, a deliberate cover.
- Password, if any, in the same email as the link.
- Selects enabled, with a date to finish choosing.
- Videos from the shoot in the same link, not a Vimeo URL pasted in the email.
- An archive that keeps the link working past the season.
The hybrid-shooter caveat
If your shoots produce video, photo-first gallery tools put video inside a gallery built for photos, or on a second subscription. That problem has its own guide: how to deliver photos and video together.
Already on another platform? On Starter and above, FRGMT imports your existing files directly from Dropbox (folders and all) or Google Drive (the files you pick), so you start with your work in place instead of an empty dashboard.
FRGMT’s Gallery is full-resolution, branded delivery with Selects, passwords, and video inline, on a library that persists. See Gallery, or how it fits a working studio in photo delivery for photographers.
Updated .