Proofing
Photo Selection Reminder Email Templates for Photographers
The gallery went out eleven days ago and nothing has come back. Here are four emails you can paste, keyed to the two things you can actually see: whether the gallery was opened, and whether any picks have arrived.
Updated 5 September 2026
Most reminder emails fail for the same reason. They repeat the sentence the client already ignored. "Just checking in on your gallery" adds no information, asks for no decision, and gives the client nothing to do that they could not have done ten days ago. So it gets filed next to the first one.
The four templates below are different from each other on purpose. Each one is written for a specific moment in the job, and each one carries a piece of information the previous email did not. Copy them, put your own name in them, and change the tone until it sounds like you. The shape is the part that matters.
The two signals you actually have
Before writing a reminder it helps to be honest about what you know. On clientgallery.io, two per gallery signals exist, and they are the ones worth building a follow-up on.
| Signal | Where it lives | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Opened indicator | The gallery tile | Whether the link was ever opened at all |
| Pick and comment counts | The clients page | Whether anything has come back from this gallery |
| Picks sent | Push and email | Arrives the moment the client sends, stating how many were loved and how many starred |
That is two states before the picks land, not three. Not opened, and opened with nothing back. There is no per client behaviour trail here: no time on page for one couple, no report saying they favourited twelve photos and lost their nerve. The studio analytics dashboard is account wide, with headline numbers like Gallery visits, Photo views, Favourites and Picks sent across everything you have published. It reads your year, not one client. Any guide that tells you to segment reminders by a client's browsing trail is describing a product nobody has handed you.
Two more pieces of ground truth. When the client sends their picks, a push notification and an email reach you straight away, and the email says how many photos were loved and how many were starred, so silence is real silence rather than a notification you missed. And hosted galleries never expire, so a reminder never has to pretend the link is about to die. That threat is the cheapest trick in proofing email, and the client catches you the moment they click.
A four email schedule
Timings below are a starting point for a portrait or family job. Weddings run longer, commercial work runs shorter. What should not move is the order: terms first, delivery check second, decision help third, deadline last.
| When | Sent because | |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Delivery, with the number and the date | Always |
| Day 3 | Did this land | The gallery tile still shows it unopened |
| Day 7 | Help with the decision | Opened, and the pick count is still zero |
| Deadline day | The date we set, once | Nothing has arrived |
Template 1. The delivery email that prevents the other three
Subject: Your gallery is ready, 25 picks by Friday 19 September
Hi Marie,
Your gallery from Saturday is up. 312 photos, culled down from the day.
Two things before you open it. Pick 25. That is what your package covers. If you want more than 25, tell me and I will quote the extras rather than guess. Send them by Friday 19 September. I edit in the order picks arrive, so that date is what holds your spot in my week.
How it works: tap a photo once to star it, twice to love it. Stars are your shortlist. Loves are the ones you would put on a wall, and those are the ones I edit first. There is nothing to install and no account to create. The link is the key. When you are done, press Send my picks and put your name and email in the box, so your list arrives with your name on it.
[gallery link]
Christian
Why it is shaped this way. A reminder can only repeat terms that were set. If the number and the date are not in the first email, every later email is you introducing a rule after the fact, which is where proofing arguments come from.
Template 2. The gallery has not been opened
Subject: Did this land, Marie
Hi Marie,
Short one. Your gallery still shows as unopened on my side, and gallery links have a habit of landing in Promotions or getting held by a work filter. So here it is again, plainly:
[gallery link]
It opens on a phone, there is nothing to install, and no account to make. If you have already opened it somewhere I cannot see and you are just taking your time, ignore this and take your time.
Christian
Why it is shaped this way. Not opened is the one state you can read cleanly off the gallery tile, and it is almost always a delivery problem rather than a client problem. So the email is about the email, not about them. The escape hatch in the last line costs you nothing and keeps the message from reading as surveillance.
Template 3. Opened, and no picks have arrived
Subject: Stuck at 312 photos, start with the stars
Hi Marie,
You have been in the gallery and nothing has come back to me yet, which usually means the pile is too big to choose from rather than that you have gone off the photos. So do not try to find 25 out of 312. Do it in two passes.
First pass, go straight through and single tap anything you would not delete. Do not deliberate. Second pass, look at the starred ones only and double tap the ones you would hang on a wall. Those are your loves. If the starred pile comes out at 50 and the package is 25, send it anyway and tell me, because cutting a strong pile in half is the part I am actually good at.
One thing worth knowing: your list reaches me when you press Send my picks. Until that button, I have no idea which ones you liked.
[gallery link]
Christian
Why it is shaped this way. The client has already seen the photos, so repeating "here is your gallery" is noise. This email is about the decision, and it works by making the decision smaller: a pass with no thinking in it, then a pass over a shorter list. The line about the send button matters because a client who marked ten photos and closed the tab genuinely believes you have them.
Template 4. The deadline, said once
Subject: Picks were due today, here are your options
Hi Marie,
Today was the date we set for your picks. Nothing is lost. Your gallery does not expire and the link keeps working, so there is no emergency and I am not going to invent one.
What does move is my calendar. Editing starts when the list arrives, and lists that arrive after today go into the following week's batch. Three ways forward, all fine by me. Send the picks tonight and you keep your slot. Reply with a date that works and I will hold it. Or tell me to choose, and I will send you my 25 for approval.
[gallery link]
Christian
Why it is shaped this way. Once, and without apology. The honest consequence of a late list is a scheduling consequence, so say that and nothing bigger. Offering to choose for them closes a surprising number of stalled galleries, because the client who has not picked is often a client who cannot.
Details worth keeping in your templates
Three product facts do real work in a reminder, so leave them in when you rewrite these in your own voice.
- No account, just the link. Picking is authenticated by the share link alone, so "nothing to install, no account" is true and it removes the most common silent objection. Sending is the one step that asks for something: a name and a working email, both required before the list goes through. Say so up front instead of letting the client hit it as a surprise.
- Two levels, one tap and two taps. A star for yes and a love for album worthy lets the client rank without managing folders. Explaining the gesture in one sentence is worth more than any amount of encouragement.
- Make the ask smaller than the shoot. A gallery holds up to 1,000 photos, which is a ceiling and not a target. For a wedding, split it into sub galleries, one level deep, each with its own share link, and ask in chapters. "Pick 10 from the ceremony" gets answered. "Pick 60 from the day" gets postponed.
The best reminder email is still a shorter gallery. Every near duplicate you leave in is a decision you handed to someone who does not do this for a living.
What we do not do
These are templates you send yourself, from your own inbox. clientgallery.io does not send reminder emails for you. There is no automated sequence, no scheduler, no send this in three days if unopened rule, and no CRM behind it. The email side of the product is one message in the other direction: when your client sends their picks, you get a push notification and an email telling you how many were loved and how many were starred.
If what you actually want is a follow up that fires without you, be honest with yourself about that and buy for it. A platform with a built in CRM and workflow automation, or a studio management tool sitting alongside your gallery, is the right purchase. We are the flat priced gallery under your own brand, and the reminders stay in your hands.
How the loop closes elsewhere
Worth knowing if you are comparing, and stated carefully. None of the four major gallery platforms documents a push notification to the photographer's phone when a client finishes picking. ShootProof documents a dashboard notification and an email. CloudSpot documents an Alert Photographer button that sends you an email, plus a bell in the dashboard. Pic-Time does ship a mobile app with push, and its documented trigger list covers galleries viewed, orders, sales, vendor and guest registrations and support chat, but a client finishing their favourites is not on it. Pixieset documents reviewing favourite activity inside the collection dashboard.
Not documented is not the same as impossible, so read that as what the vendors publish today rather than as a limit of their software. The practical difference is small but real: on every one of them the loop closes when you check a dashboard or open your inbox, so the day you find out is the day you happen to look.
Sources
Product behaviour was verified in the clientgallery.io source on 5 September 2026. All competitor pages were fetched on 5 September 2026.
- clientgallery.io product source (star and love with single and double tap, picking authenticated by the share link with no client account, name and validated email required to send picks, opened indicator on the gallery tile, per gallery pick and comment counts on the clients page, account wide analytics dashboard, push and email on picks sent stating loved and starred counts, sub galleries one level deep with their own share links, 1,000 photos per gallery, hosted galleries never expire), verified 5 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/
- ShootProof, How to use Favorites Notification ("You'll receive a notification on your ShootProof Dashboard, as well as an email notification"), fetched 5 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500009323842-How-to-use-Favorites-Notification
- CloudSpot, How Do I Know When My Client Has Finished Favoriting Photos (the Alert Photographer button, the email notification, the dashboard bell), fetched 5 September 2026, https://help.cloudspot.io/en/articles/1711787-how-do-i-know-when-my-client-has-finished-favoriting-photos
- Pic-Time, push notification triggers for the mobile app (galleries viewed, an order needing attention, a sale, vendors registering, guests pre-registering, a support chat message), fetched 5 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/11972011
- Pixieset, How can I review my client's Favorite Activity (favourite lists reviewed in the collection dashboard under the Activities tab), fetched 5 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002991071-How-can-I-review-my-client-s-Favorite-Activity
Frequently asked
How many reminder emails should I send about a photo gallery?
Four in total, and only one of them is a reminder in the usual sense. The delivery email carries the number of picks and the deadline. A short check goes out if the gallery has not been opened. A different email goes out if it was opened and nothing came back, and that one helps with the decision rather than repeating the link. The deadline email is said once, on the day.
Can I see whether my client opened the gallery?
Yes. Each gallery tile in the studio carries an opened indicator, and the clients page shows the pick and comment counts for that gallery. That gives you two states before picks land: not opened, and opened with nothing back. There is no per client behaviour trail beyond that, so reminders should be keyed to those two states rather than to invented telemetry.
Does clientgallery.io send selection reminders automatically?
No. There is no automated sequence, no scheduler and no CRM. The templates on this page are ones you send yourself from your own inbox. The only automated message runs the other way: when your client sends their picks you get a push notification and an email stating how many photos were loved and how many were starred. If you need reminders that fire without you, a platform with a built in CRM is a better fit.
Should a reminder say the gallery is about to expire?
Not if it is not true. Hosted galleries on clientgallery.io never expire, so an expiry threat is a bluff the client discovers the moment they click the link. Use the real consequence instead: editing starts when the list arrives, and a late list moves into the following week's batch.
What should I tell clients about how to pick photos?
Give them the gesture and the number in one sentence each. A single tap stars a photo, a double tap loves it, stars are the shortlist and loves are the album or wall photos. Then name the count their package covers. Mention that picking needs no account, only the link, and that sending the list asks for a name and a working email so nothing surprises them at the last step.
My client picked photos but I never received them. What happened?
Marking photos and sending them are two different actions. The picks reach you when the client presses Send my picks and completes the name and email fields, which is the moment the push notification and the summary email fire on your side. If nothing has arrived, the most likely explanation is a client who starred a set of photos and closed the tab believing that was enough, which is why the third template says so plainly.
How do I keep a big wedding gallery from stalling?
Ask in chapters. A gallery holds up to 1,000 photos, and sub galleries go one level deep with their own share links, so you can split the day into ceremony, portraits and reception and ask for a small number from one chapter at a time. A request for 10 photos from the ceremony gets answered. A request for 60 from the whole day gets postponed.
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