Delivery
How to Send Full-Resolution Photos to a Client
Every delivery contains two different files, and most of the confusion comes from treating them as one. Here is what full resolution actually means, and how to hand it over.
Updated 2026-09-07
A client asks for "the full-resolution photos" and means one thing: the files they can print. A photographer hears the same phrase and has to decide between two very different assets. One is small, instant on a phone, and meant for looking. The other is heavy, awkward to move, and meant for keeping.
Nearly every delivery that goes wrong goes wrong at that seam. The client browses a set of previews, saves a few to their phone, prints one at 20 by 30 inches, and calls you about the quality. Or the reverse: you push twenty gigabytes at someone who wanted to look at forty pictures on a train.
This guide sets out what full resolution means inside a delivery, the three routes photographers actually use, and the shape that works for most client work: a branded gallery of proofs that stays online, plus a full-resolution download for the handoff. Where it helps, it describes how clientgallery.io does it, at a flat 10 $ a month.
What full resolution actually means in a delivery
There are two files behind every image you deliver, and they do separate jobs.
The proof is a compressed JPEG made for viewing and choosing. It has to load on a phone in a weak signal, in a grid of hundreds. The full-resolution file is the edited photograph at its native size. It is what the client prints, frames and archives, and it is the reason the folder is measured in gigabytes rather than megabytes.
On clientgallery.io that split is explicit rather than implied. Photos are compressed in the photographer's own browser at upload into proof JPEGs of roughly 0.6 MB each, and those are what the gallery shows. The gallery view is a proof. Full resolution is a separate ZIP that the photographer uploads for the gallery, and the client downloads with its own button.
| Proof | Full-resolution delivery | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Viewing, choosing, sharing a link | Printing, framing, the client's own archive |
| Typical weight | About 0.6 MB per photo on clientgallery.io | Whatever your export produces, times the whole set |
| How it is delivered | The gallery page itself, all photos in one click or any single image | One ZIP per gallery, uploaded by the photographer |
| How long it lasts | Hosted for as long as the account exists | Live for 3 days per handoff, re-uploadable at any time |
Read the last row as the whole argument of this page. The heavy file is a handoff with a window. The gallery is not.
How do photographers deliver full-resolution photos to clients
In practice there are three routes, and each one is genuinely the right answer for some jobs.
| Route | What the client opens | How long it stays |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer service | A list of files with a download button | On WeTransfer Free and Starter, uploads can be kept online for up to 3 days, counting from the moment the transfer is sent |
| Shared cloud folder | A file manager showing your folder | Until you move, rename or delete it |
| Client gallery plus a full-resolution ZIP | A branded page of the work, with a download button on it | Gallery hosted as long as the account exists, ZIP live 3 days per handoff |
The honest version first. If this is a single delivery to a client who wants the files and nothing else, a transfer service or a shared folder is simpler, and there is no reason to add a gallery. A commercial client who will drop the folder straight into their own system does not want to browse anything. Send the files and move on.
A gallery earns its place when the client is going to look, choose, come back, and show the work to somebody else. That is most portrait, wedding, event and editorial work, and it is the case the rest of this guide covers.
Sending full-resolution photos to clients without WeTransfer
Start by discarding the myth. WeTransfer states officially that it uses lossless compression and that files are never altered or reduced in quality during the transfer process. Your JPEGs arrive as you exported them. Anyone telling you that a transfer service degrades photographs is repeating a rumour.
The real reasons to move are different, and they are about time and presentation.
- The clock starts when you press send. WeTransfer says the availability countdown runs from the exact moment the transfer is sent, not from the first download. On the Free and Starter plans an upload can be kept online for up to 3 days. A couple on their honeymoon can miss that window without doing anything wrong.
- Recovery is not universal. WeTransfer restricts recovering an expired transfer to Ultimate, Teams and Enterprise. Files larger than 256 MiB can be recovered for up to 90 days after expiry, and files smaller than that for up to a year.
- Volume is metered. The Free plan allows up to 10 transfers, or 3 GB in total, in any 30-day rolling window. Starter allows up to 10 transfers, or 300 GB in total, in the same rolling window. Ultimate provides unlimited transfers up to 1 TB per transfer.
- It is a transfer, not a gallery. WeTransfer previews images up to 256 MB each, in a wide set of formats including camera raw, and it publishes a brandable personal subdomain page and a branded transfer background. What it does not give you is a sequenced page of the work under your own name, with the picks and the downloads living on it.
No WeTransfer price is verifiable today, so this page states none. The comparison that matters is not cost anyway. It is whether the thing you sent is still there in March.
Shared folders are a different trade, not a better one
A Dropbox or Google Drive link solves expiry by never expiring, and that is a real advantage. It pays for it in presentation and in housekeeping.
Dropbox accepts individual files up to 2 TB, and warns that uploading files larger than 375 GB in a web browser may cause timeouts or interrupted uploads, recommending the desktop app instead. Google states that files other than Docs, Sheets, Slides and Sites can be up to 5 TB. Neither will choke on a photo set. The friction is elsewhere: Dropbox Basic is free with 2 GB of storage, and every Google Account includes 15 GB at no charge, so a real full-resolution delivery generally means a paid tier on either. Prices on both storefronts rendered in Canadian dollars today, so no cross-currency figure is quoted here.
Control is uneven too. Dropbox publishes shared-link expiration dates and passwords as available on Professional, Essentials, Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus and Enterprise. And a folder is a folder: the client lands in a file manager, sorts by name, and sees your directory structure rather than your work.
The gallery is the delivery, the ZIP is the handoff
The shape that holds up over years of client work separates the two jobs instead of choosing between them.
Everyday delivery is the gallery. The client opens a link, sees the work sequenced the way you arranged it, and takes what they want. A button in the header downloads the whole gallery in one click, and every tile has its own download for a single image, saved under its original shoot filename. There is no account to create: the link is the access, optionally with a gallery password. On clientgallery.io the page carries the photographer's logo, name, colours and fonts, on the studio's own subdomain, with no platform name or footer anywhere on it.
The final handoff is the ZIP. The photographer uploads one full-resolution ZIP per gallery from the studio page. It stays live for 3 days per handoff, and each new upload restarts the clock. It can be replaced at any time. An account can hold 100 GB of live ZIPs at once across all its galleries, and expired ZIPs release their space. On the client's page the button appears only while the ZIP is live, labelled with its size and the days remaining.
The gallery stays after the ZIP window closes. This is the part that matters to a client. Nothing expires the gallery or its proofs; they are hosted for as long as the account exists. When the download window ends, the client has not lost the work, they have lost the heavy archive, and you re-upload the ZIP when they ask. That is a two-minute favour rather than a re-edit.
The ceilings on the proof side are abuse tripwires rather than tiers: 1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB of proofs per paid account, which is hundreds of thousands of images at roughly 0.6 MB each, and 5 GB on a free account. clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs. It does not warehouse RAW files or master video, which is what keeps the price flat.
Switching downloads off, and what that actually does
Downloads are on or off per gallery, from a studio toggle. Use it as a business step, most often to hold delivery until an invoice clears, and understand exactly what it enforces.
The whole-gallery ZIP route re-checks the setting on the server and refuses the request when downloads are off. The per-photo button is a different matter: turning the toggle off hides it, but it does not make every proof URL unreachable. Treat the toggle as a clear signal to the client and a hard stop on the bulk download, not as a lock on individual proofs. If a gallery genuinely must not be seen, use the password instead, which is checked on the server before any photo is queried.
A sequence that works
- Export your edited set twice: proofs for the gallery, and the full-resolution files for the archive you will hand over.
- Build the gallery from the proofs. Order them the way you want the work read, and divide long shoots into named sections so the client can jump.
- Add a password if the shoot is private. Without it the server returns only the prompt, and the whole-gallery ZIP and the full-resolution download refuse the request too.
- Send the link with two sentences: what is in the gallery, and what to do next. Delivery is communication before it is file movement.
- Upload the full-resolution ZIP when the client is ready for it, and say plainly that the download stays live for three days and that you will put it back up any time they need it.
- Leave the gallery alone after that. It is the copy the client will come back to, and the link they will forward.
One habit is worth more than any feature here: never let "the link died" be the end of the story for a client. Either the download regenerates, or you put it back yourself. A delivery that can be restored on request is the difference between a referral and a complaint.
Sources
- WeTransfer, Plan limits. https://wetransfer.com/help-center/subscriptions/plan-limits (fetched 2026-09-07)
- WeTransfer, Transfer availability. https://wetransfer.com/help-center/how-to/transfer-availability (fetched 2026-09-07)
- WeTransfer, Download an expired transfer. https://wetransfer.com/help-center/how-to/download-expired-transfer (fetched 2026-09-07)
- WeTransfer, File size difference. https://wetransfer.com/help-center/how-to/file-size-difference (fetched 2026-09-07)
- WeTransfer, What are previews. https://wetransfer.com/help-center/how-to/what-is-previews (fetched 2026-09-07)
- Dropbox, Plans. https://www.dropbox.com/plans (fetched 2026-09-07)
- Dropbox, Upload limitations. https://help.dropbox.com/sync/upload-limitations (fetched 2026-09-07)
- Dropbox, Set link permissions. https://help.dropbox.com/share/set-link-permissions (fetched 2026-09-07)
- Google One, Plans. https://one.google.com/about/plans (fetched 2026-09-07)
- Google Drive Help, Files you can store in Google Drive. https://support.google.com/drive/answer/37603 (fetched 2026-09-07)
- clientgallery.io plan, proof compression, gallery hosting, full-resolution ZIP window and download toggle, verified in the product's own code on 2026-09-07. Product page: https://clientgallery.io/
Frequently asked
How do photographers deliver full-resolution photos to clients?
Three routes cover almost all of it: a transfer service, a shared cloud folder, or a client gallery with a full-resolution download attached to it. Galleries win when the client will browse, choose and come back, because the page stays online after the heavy download window has closed.
Can I send full-resolution photos to clients without WeTransfer?
Yes. A client gallery delivers the everyday download from the page itself, whole gallery in one click or any single image, and the full-resolution set as a ZIP the photographer uploads for that gallery. The gallery is not on a countdown, so a client who comes back months later still finds the work.
Does WeTransfer reduce the quality of my photos?
No. WeTransfer states officially that it uses lossless compression and that files are never altered or reduced in quality during the transfer process. The honest objection is expiry, not quality: on Free and Starter an upload can be kept online for up to 3 days, counted from the moment it is sent.
How long does the full-resolution download stay available on clientgallery.io?
Three days per handoff. Each upload restarts the clock, the ZIP can be replaced at any time, and an account can hold 100 GB of live ZIPs at once. The gallery and its proofs are not affected: they are hosted for as long as the account exists.
What happens when a client asks for the files a year later?
The gallery is still there, so they can browse and download the proofs immediately. For the full-resolution set you upload the ZIP again and send them back to the same gallery. Nothing has to be rebuilt or re-edited.
Should the full-resolution delivery include RAW files?
Usually not. RAW files need your software and your edits to look right, and a client opening a flat unedited file is a support conversation waiting to happen. Deliver edited files by default and treat RAW as a separate contracted item. clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs and does not warehouse RAW files or master video.
Does the client need an account to download the photos?
No. The link is the access, optionally with a gallery password you set. There is nothing for the client to create, remember or install, which is the main reason delivery links get opened at all.
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