How to Deliver Photos to Clients Online: Simple Guide 2026

Knowing how to deliver photos to clients online is the difference between a finished shoot and a business that runs on autopilot. The short answer: export your finals as full-resolution JPEGs, load them into a password-protected client gallery, set download permissions deliberately, test the link in a private browser window, then send one short message telling the client exactly what to do. For a standard portrait set, that process takes about 20 minutes once your folder structure is in place.

Most delivery problems I see are not technical. They are a raw folder sent by accident, a filename like DSC_4821.jpg, or a link that expired three days before the client opened it. Those are all fixable with a repeatable routine, and that routine is what this guide walks through.

What You Need

Before the first gallery goes out, gather these six things. Anything missing here is a delay waiting for your client.

• Final edited files exported from your editing software, not the camera card.
• Three folder sets: proofs at low resolution, web-resolution images for social use, and high-resolution downloads.
• A delivery platform that supports a branded client gallery with password protection and link expiry.
• A naming convention you can repeat without thinking.
• Your contract terms in writing: usage rights, download deadline, guest access rules.
• Client contact details and a second email address, in case the first bounces.

A cloud folder works if you are handing off a handful of files to one person and never need it again. If you deliver every month, a gallery platform saves an hour a month on average, mostly because it handles the password, the expiry date and the mobile layout for you.

Step-by-Step

Five stages, in order. Skipping ahead is how RAW files end up in a client’s inbox.

Prepare a Client-Ready Photo Set

Start from your culled finals. Apply the edits you agreed on, then look at every file once more at full size before it goes anywhere near a client.

Check for four things: closed eyes, missed focus, colour casts from mixed lighting, and duplicates you thought you had removed. Then split the set into folders.

• 01_PROOFS for anything the client still needs to choose from, small files only.
• 02_WEB at around 2000 pixels on the long edge for social media and quick sharing.
• 03_HIRES at full resolution for the final download.

A filename that carries the project, date and role saves arguments later: OC2026-SMITH-JUNE_HIRES_0142.jpg. No spaces, no camera prefixes, no brackets that get mangled in transit.

How you know it worked: open the HIRES folder, count the files, and confirm the number matches the number of images in your delivery note.

Choose the Right Delivery Method

Three methods cover almost every situation. Each one trades privacy against convenience.

Private client gallery. The best default. Your branding, your domain, a password the client chooses, optional expiry. Clients browse on a phone, tap favourites, download all. Costs a subscription and takes ten minutes of setup per gallery.

Direct cloud link. A shared folder from Google Drive or Dropbox. Fast, free for small sets, but it looks like a shared folder rather than a finished product, and the preview thumbnails are usually compressed. Fine for a rough cut, wrong for finals.

One-off transfer link. Services built for moving large volumes with no gallery interface. Good for a video handoff or a commercial set going to one contact, poor for anything a client will want to browse again in a year.

A client gallery also handles video in the same place as the photos, which removes the awkward second email with a separate video link attached.

Set Permissions Before Sending

Configure access before you share anything, not after. In most gallery tools this is a settings screen with three toggles that matter.

• Download permission: all files, web-resolution only, or none.
• Access window: a start and end date. Three months is typical; six months is kinder.
• Print release: whether the gallery allows third-party printing without a watermark.

For wedding work, keep two separate galleries or two access levels. One for the couple with full downloads, one for guests with a download cap and a shorter window. Sharing a single link with everyone is how you end up with a photo posted publicly that was never meant to leave the family.

Security check before sending: open the gallery as a stranger. If you can see more than the client’s job, the permissions are too loose.

Add Context and Delivery Instructions

An empty gallery makes clients email you. A gallery with a short welcome note at the top saves two or three emails per job.

Organise folders the way the client will use them, not the way your card does. Getting ready, ceremony, portraits, reception works for a wedding. Session and selects works for a portrait. Group photos belong in their own folder so the family can find them in ten seconds instead of scrolling for an hour.

Mark favourites or heart images when the client needs to choose, and say plainly that favourites are for their reference only unless you offer print ordering. Then add the practical instructions:

• How to download the full set as one archive versus image by image.
• Where the web-resolution folder lives and what it is for.
• The date the link expires, stated twice.
• Your contact details for reprints or corrections.

A short version works: “Hi Jordan, your 240 images from the June session are ready. Download the full-resolution set from the HIRES folder; the WEB folder holds social sizes. Favourites are just for your reference. The link closes on 3 March. Message me if anything looks wrong.”

Test the Download and Notify the Client

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that prevents the phone call. Open a private browser window, paste the gallery link, enter the password, and try the download exactly as the client will: on a phone, if that is how they will mostly use it.

Confirm four things. The link opens. The password works. The archive downloads rather than opening into a folder of loose files. A single image opens at the size you intended, not a screen-sized preview.

Then send one message. State what is ready, where it is, what the deadline is, and what you need back from them, if anything. Ask them to tell you if the link misbehaves rather than sitting quietly.

Before you close the job, save the delivery note with the date, the file count and the expiry date. When the client writes in eight months later asking for the photos again, that note is the whole answer.

Common Mistakes

These six account for most of what goes wrong, and each has an obvious fix.

Sending unedited or raw files. A RAW file opens as black in half of all desktop viewers, and a straight-out-of-camera image undermines everything you did beforehand. Fix: export only from your final catalogue, and never deliver straight from the card.

Filenames that mean nothing. DSC_4821.jpg tells a client nothing and helps you nothing a year later. Fix: project, date, role, sequence, as in the example above.

Relying on public links. A link anyone can find and reshare is not delivery, it is a leak with extra steps. Fix: password plus an expiry date, always.

Never testing the download. Expired certificates, quota limits and mobile browsers all fail quietly. Fix: the private window test, every time, even on the gallery you built ten minutes ago.

One link for everyone at a wedding. Fix: two galleries, two permission levels, two messages.

Skipping the usage and access note. A client who reprints from an unlicensed lab and then argues about ownership is a problem your note would have prevented. Fix: written terms attached to the delivery message, short enough to read.

A few habits worth keeping: put video in the same gallery as the photos so there is one place to look. Write the file count into the delivery email, because clients use it to check nothing went missing. And when a link is about to expire, send a reminder a week ahead instead of a replacement afterwards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Prepare the set, set the permissions, test the download in a private window, then send the message. Do those four things on your very next delivery and the awkward follow-up emails will tell you it worked.