Delivery
Aerial and Drone Photo Delivery to Clients
Drone stills rarely travel alone. They sit inside a property shoot, a construction record or an event, so the delivery is a section of a larger gallery plus a full-resolution ZIP the client pulls once.
Updated 24 September 2026
Aerial photos are often one line on a larger invoice.
A listing shoot has exteriors, interiors and a flight. A construction record has ground photos and an overhead view of the site on each visit. An estate or a venue has a set of ground images and a handful of aerials that show the land.
The client wants all of it in one place, with the aerials easy to find.
This guide covers that delivery on clientgallery.io: how to section the gallery, what files to upload, how the full-resolution set changes hands, and what the service does not do for drone work.
It is about delivering files. It states no flight rule, permit or licence requirement. For those, go to your national aviation authority.
Keep the aerials inside the job they belong to
A separate link for the drone photos is one more link the client can lose.
Deliver the aerials in the same gallery as the rest of the job, in their own section.
Sections are a studio-side organising tool. The client sees one scrolling page. A jump-to bar at the top lists each section with the number of photos in it, so the aerials are one tap away.
Photos you leave outside any section appear first, and the jump-to bar lists them as Highlights. That makes a natural home for the three or four frames that sum up the job, whether they were shot from the ground or the air.
For the ground side of a listing shoot, the section pattern that fits agents is in the real estate delivery guide.
Three ways to section aerial work
Pick the scheme that matches how the client will look for photos later.
| Section by | Example section names | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Flight pass | Orbit, North approach, Top-down, Context | A single-visit property or venue shoot |
| Visit date | 2026-09-03, 2026-09-17, 2026-10-01 | A construction or landscaping record flown on a schedule |
| Deliverable | Ground exteriors, Interiors, Aerials, Panoramas | A mixed job where different people pull different sets |
Date sections work best written as year, month, day, so they read in order.
For a recurring site, you can add photos to a gallery you have already shared, and the link does not change. Each visit becomes a new section. Every photo in every section counts toward the fair-use ceiling of 1,000 photos per gallery, so a long project may need a second gallery for a later phase.
What to upload: JPEG proofs, not the drone's raw files
clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs. It does not warehouse RAW files or master video. That is what keeps the price flat.
Every photo you upload is compressed in your browser into a proof JPEG sized for fast viewing. The client sees and downloads those proofs.
So process the aerials in your editor first and export JPEGs. Keep the raw captures on your own drives and backups.
Stitched panoramas deserve a word. A stitched aerial can be far larger than a single frame. Export the panorama as a JPEG at a sensible size for viewing before you upload it, and put the full stitch in the full-resolution ZIP. Why very large files should be downsized before upload is covered in the guide to proofing 100-megapixel files.
| File | Where it lives | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Raw captures and flight video masters | Your own drives and backups | As long as you keep them |
| Proof JPEGs in the gallery | clientgallery.io | As long as the account exists |
| Full-resolution ZIP of finished stills | clientgallery.io, paid feature | 3 days per upload, re-uploadable any time |
The full-resolution handoff: a ZIP the client pulls once
The proofs are for looking. The finished files are for printing, for site boards and for the client's own records.
On a paid account you upload one full-resolution ZIP per gallery. The client sees a separate button for it, with the number of days it stays available.
It stays live for 3 days per handoff. You can upload it again at any time, which restarts the window.
The account holds 100 GB of standing ZIPs across all galleries at once. Read that as a working window rather than storage: the ZIP is up while the client collects, then the space frees for the next job.
Tell the client in your delivery message to download the ZIP that week and keep it on their own drive. The gallery link keeps working after the ZIP comes off.
For a recurring site, upload a new ZIP after each visit, holding that visit's finished files. The same gallery link carries each one.
The full walk-through of that handoff is in the guide to sending full-resolution photos.
When several parties want the aerials
Aerials often interest more people than the one who booked you: an owner, a contractor, a listing agent, a marketing team.
Match the tool to what each party is allowed to do.
| Party | What to send | What they can do |
|---|---|---|
| The client who paid | The main gallery link and password | View every section, download all proofs, download the full-resolution ZIP while it is live |
| Someone who should only see the aerials | The Aerials section's own share link | View that section only; no ZIP, no picks, no full-resolution download, no link back to the full gallery |
| A second party who licenses the images separately | Their own gallery, holding only what they licensed | Download their own set, behind their own password |
The third row is the clean answer when several parties pay for the same flight. It is covered in detail in the guide to delivering one shoot to several parties.
A gallery password covers the whole gallery and its ZIP download. A password stops strangers; it does not stop the client from forwarding the link with the password.
Drone video: we do not host master video
Many flights produce video as well as stills.
clientgallery.io does not warehouse master video files. Deliver the flight footage through your usual video channel.
Use the gallery's welcome note, which appears under the gallery title, to tell the client where the video is. That keeps the gallery as the one page they start from, even when not every file lives on it.
Checking that the client got it
Each gallery tile in your studio carries an opened indicator. The filters All, Seen by client and Not opened yet sort every gallery by it.
That indicator is the only per-gallery signal. The rest of the analytics are account-wide: visits, unique visitors, photo views, ZIP downloads and the like, across all your galleries together.
If a site visit gallery shows Not opened yet a few days after delivery, send a reminder before the full-resolution ZIP runs out.
When you should use something else
- You want the platform to keep your raw aerials or master video. It does not; buy storage from a company that sells storage.
- You need maps, orthomosaics or measurement tools. A gallery shows images; it does not process survey data.
- Several pilots need their own logins. There is no seat model; a team shares one account.
If what you need is a branded page on your own subdomain where the aerials sit next to the rest of the job, at a flat price with no per-gallery fee, the method above is the whole job.
The numbers
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Paid plan | $10 a month, or $100 a year (8.33 a month) |
| Photos per gallery (fair use), all sections counted | 1,000 |
| Proofs per paid account (fair use) | 250 GB |
| Free account | 5 GB |
| Full-resolution ZIP lifetime | 3 days per upload |
| Standing full-resolution ZIPs per account | 100 GB |
| RAW and master video hosting | None |
| Gallery expiry | None |
Sources
This page states no external figure and no aviation rule. Every number on it is a clientgallery.io product fact, checked against the product code on 24 September 2026: the plan prices, the free account allowance, the fair-use ceilings of 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB per paid account, the 3-day full-resolution ZIP with 100 GB of standing ZIPs, the absence of RAW and master video hosting, the absence of gallery expiry, the section layout with its jump-to bar and Highlights label, the view-only section link, and the password check on the ZIP.
Frequently asked
How should I deliver drone photos to a client?
Put the aerials in their own section of the same gallery as the rest of the job, upload JPEG proofs exported from your editor, and attach the finished full-resolution stills as a ZIP on a paid account. The client pulls that ZIP within 3 days, and the gallery link keeps working after.
Can I upload the drone's RAW files?
No. clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs and does not warehouse RAW files. Process the aerials in your editor, export JPEGs, and keep the raw captures on your own drives and backups.
Can I deliver drone video in the gallery?
Not the master files. clientgallery.io does not host master video. Deliver the flight footage through your usual video channel and say where it is in the gallery's welcome note.
How do I organise aerials from repeat site visits?
Add each visit to the same gallery as a new section named by date, written year, month, day so it sorts in order. The link does not change. Every photo counts toward the 1,000-photo ceiling per gallery, so a long project may need a second gallery.
Can I share only the aerials with someone?
Yes. Each section has its own share link. It is view-only: no ZIP, no picks, no full-resolution download and no link back to the full gallery. A party that licenses the aerials separately should get its own gallery instead.
Does this page cover drone regulations?
No. It covers delivering files only. For flight rules, permits and licences, go to your national aviation authority.
Your client galleries, under your name
Branded galleries, client selections and a Lightroom Classic workflow. Start with your first gallery, then compare the current plan. Full-resolution delivery is a separate handoff with its own limits and conditions.
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