How do you deliver photos to a client?

[StevenN]

I do event photography for a local daily newspaper and its website, and after I edit my photos I upload them to the newspaper using software called Filezilla, an FTP application.

Now, I have been hired by an organization to shoot an event next weekend, and expect to turn in about 100 high-resolution photos. What is the best way to deliver my photos? Email is not practical; should I put the photos on DVDs?

Thanks.

--StevenN

 

[J Rowley]

I use shootproof. Clients can download the images and/or order prints.

 

[EricK214]

I do event photography for a local daily newspaper and its website, and after I edit my photos I upload them to the newspaper using software called Filezilla, an FTP application.

Now, I have been hired by an organization to shoot an event next weekend, and expect to turn in about 100 high-resolution photos. What is the best way to deliver my photos? Email is not practical; should I put the photos on DVDs?

Thanks.

--StevenN

Not everyone has CD or DVD drive anymore. You should just get a cheap flash drive, build that price in to you fee and just keep a couple on hand. 128GB drive are as little at $20-$35

 

[skyrunr]

Google Drive, One Drive, or DropBox. You can compress/zip the files with a password as well. You can put low resolution watermarked images to deliver/preview/watermarked, and refer the customer to an ecommerce website (smugmug/shutterfly/zenfolio/shootproof/anything) to purchase them. Then their customers can easily purchase them too. Try to offer a site that offers products that are ready to hang.

--
SkyRunR
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
'Out of the darkness there must come out the light.' Bob Marley

 

[jjz2]

Dropbox or gdrive

 

[LTheWafflePWN]

I let clients download them from my website. Zenfolio is where I have my site. However, I do have Google Drive as a backup and have used it for clients before.

Also, one time a client wanted me to download photos for them. I told them this was fine, but they needed to give me a storage medium (external drive). After some conversation they were okay with it and they amazon'd me a external drive, and I downloaded things for them and dropped it off to them. The only reason I did not tack on the drive and buy one myself was A: anything physical is subject to sales tax in Indiana whereas my digital photos are not, so I wanted to avoid that. And B: I wanted to avoid any future headache with either me buying a reliable -but more expensive- drive for them and they become upset at the price, or being roped into issues from a cheaper -junk- drive purchase (if I bought the drive instead of them). That was a one-off though.

If you're savvy enough, it actually isn't too hard to make your own FTP at home. Plenty of tutorials out there for that.

 

[lgs6632]

Dropbox has taken over for a majority of my deliveries, the professionals know how to use it and they can easily scroll through the gallery mode. If you're delivering directly to the public, then you may need to send instructions (some people cannot find the link to download the entire folder and then they just screen shot the images). Also some don't know that they can work with it in a browser and not install an app or set-up an account.


If it's a zip file, i'll usually use my own servers to store it and just give a link though email.


Some clients do use their own FTP server, like your client that you connect to with filezilla.


If you'll see them in person for a reason, then USB thumb drive is a great option, it's allows physical conversation and discussion. Personal contact is always great, but if you're thinking about mailing a thumbdrive then use electronic delivery instead.



As to DVD/CDs.....i would not recommend it. As people have mentioned, most people do not have a drive anymore. They haven't been included in most computers for at least two refresh cycles, so they've hard to find.

 

[jjz2]

Dropbox has taken over for a majority of my deliveries, the professionals know how to use it and they can easily scroll through the gallery mode. If you're delivering directly to the public, then you may need to send instructions (some people cannot find the link to download the entire folder and then they just screen shot the images). Also some don't know that they can work with it in a browser and not install an app or set-up an account.

If it's a zip file, i'll usually use my own servers to store it and just give a link though email.

Some clients do use their own FTP server, like your client that you connect to with filezilla.

If you'll see them in person for a reason, then USB thumb drive is a great option, it's allows physical conversation and discussion. Personal contact is always great, but if you're thinking about mailing a thumbdrive then use electronic delivery instead.

As to DVD/CDs.....i would not recommend it. As people have mentioned, most people do not have a drive anymore. They haven't been included in most computers for at least two refresh cycles, so they've hard to find.

Yes, I forgot to mention I mostly work with businesses/events, not generally a singular person, so I guess it would depend on the client. Most of the time it's them putting a folder and me just uploading to THEIR dropbox.

As for DVD drive, I haven't had one since at least my 2015 MacBook Pro, I think the one before that had one.

 

[El Duende]

I've been using Pixieset for years, does everything I need.

 

[z2122]

I use wetransfer ... easy to use and free

 

[sirhawkeye64]

I do event photography for a local daily newspaper and its website, and after I edit my photos I upload them to the newspaper using software called Filezilla, an FTP application.

Now, I have been hired by an organization to shoot an event next weekend, and expect to turn in about 100 high-resolution photos. What is the best way to deliver my photos? Email is not practical; should I put the photos on DVDs?

Thanks.

I guess if you have to mail them, either a DVD or better yet, a flash drive would be good.

Hardly any computers these days come with a DVD drive (or CD drive for that matter). Flash drive is probably the safest route as every device has some sort of USB connection, either natively or using an adapter (like with the older iPads). You could also do both though... flash drive for immediate use, and DVD for archiving (not that DVDs are the best for archiving, but the most cost effective route to provide to a client).

All of the clients I've done work for so far( which isn't many) have been done online. I usually set up a proof gallery first, and once they chose the ones they want, and I've edited them, then I send them a link to the files (usually just a folder that's hidden from public view on my photo gallery site). All payment and stuff is done offline.

--
NOTE: If I don't reply to a direct comment in the forums, it's likely I unsubscribed from the thread/article..

 

[PaulDunlopPhotography]

I ask if they have their own Dropbox - or if they want me to create one

usually they already have one - I just create folders and upload for them

 

[AZ Indie]

I do event photography for a local daily newspaper and its website, and after I edit my photos I upload them to the newspaper using software called Filezilla, an FTP application.

Now, I have been hired by an organization to shoot an event next weekend, and expect to turn in about 100 high-resolution photos. What is the best way to deliver my photos? Email is not practical; should I put the photos on DVDs?

Thanks.

Not everyone has CD or DVD drive anymore. You should just get a cheap flash drive, build that price in to you fee and just keep a couple on hand. 128GB drive are as little at $20-$35

^^^This is good advice, and works well for stills. For my video clients I do the same thing, I bake $100 into the quote to cover a 1TB external drive. Easy day. Saves on monthly bandwidth issues of daily uploading to the cloud given the workload, and leaves the door open for future sales once they corrupt/mess up the drive and "need" footage in an hour -- at 4:15p on a Friday... ask me how I know, LOL #chessNOTcheckers

 

[LoScalzo]

As another commenter mentioned, beware that the decision to deliver images online or in tangible form (e.g., DVD) may have implications for collecting sales tax. Many (United States) states exempt digital files delivered online from sales tax.

This article summarizes key info: https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/nor...-guide-to-digital-products-and-sales-tax.html

 

[ahinesdesign]

I haven’t delivered digital files with physical media in perhaps 7–8 years, maybe longer. I use DropBox almost exclusively these days, but have also utilized FTP, WeTransfer, Flickr, and other digital delivery platforms at times. I haven’t had working optical disc drive in at least a decade, and haven’t missed it at all. Needed to use a USB flash drive last week (plugging into a TV for a slideshow display) and although once quite common in the office, are decidedly rare these days.


Saw some magnetic tape equipment at a thrift store over the weekend. Used to be the gold standard for backup and critical storage applications, not to mention VHS video and floppy disks, but technology moves on whether we follow or not! Can’t give that stuff away now…

 

[j_photo]

Dropbox is simple and easy.

 

[astirusty]

For such an event, (as non-professional), last time around, I picked up ten cheap but decent r/w speed USB sticks and handed them out. Previously, I had uploaded pictures to website and emailed link to key people. Who then disseminated the link.

When a person was done with USB stick, they passed it on to next person in their group. Nobody voiced a preference of Ethernet vs. Sneakernet. All seemed happy with USB sticks as with emailed links.

 

[jjz2]

I haven’t delivered digital files with physical media in perhaps 7–8 years, maybe longer. I use DropBox almost exclusively these days, but have also utilized FTP, WeTransfer, Flickr, and other digital delivery platforms at times. I haven’t had working optical disc drive in at least a decade, and haven’t missed it at all. Needed to use a USB flash drive last week (plugging into a TV for a slideshow display) and although once quite common in the office, are decidedly rare these days.

Saw some magnetic tape equipment at a thrift store over the weekend. Used to be the gold standard for backup and critical storage applications, not to mention VHS video and floppy disks, but technology moves on whether we follow or not! Can’t give that stuff away now…

Off topic but Vhs and vcr have quite a nice market actually depending on what it is, same with crt and retro games, old computers, etc…