Delivering photos to clients: an elegant gallery instead of WeTransfer

Most photographers deliver finished photos the way they send any large file: a WeTransfer link, a Google Drive folder, sometimes a USB stick. The files arrive, but the client’s experience ends on a grey download screen — and that is the moment they remember from the whole job.

A week later the questions start: “the link expired, can you send it again?”, “where are the photos from the church?”, “grandma can’t open a ZIP on her phone”. Transfer links expire after a few days, cloud folders get mixed up with private files, and every resend is another message on your side.

Then there is the order of work: if the client picked photos in one tool and gets the final files in another, you run two separate processes for one shoot. Delivery should be the last step of the same path, not a new email thread.

1. Export the final files. Export full-resolution JPEGs from Lightroom or Capture One, with names the client will recognise — ideally the same ones they saw when choosing.

2. Create a Delivery gallery. Pick the photo tier and the storage period. You see the price before the gallery is created and pay only for that gallery — no subscription.

3. Upload and set access. Turn on a password if the material is private and, in a package with branding, add your studio’s logo and colours.

4. Check the preview. Open the gallery the way the client will see it before you send the link. Only then pass it on.

5. Send one link. The client opens the gallery on a phone or a computer and downloads single photos or everything as a ZIP — no account needed.

6. Give a deadline. The gallery lives for the storage period you chose. Tell the client until when they can download, and ask them to make a copy in that time.