How to deliver a photo shoot to a client

Send a selection, not everything. A first pass marking rejects and a second giving stars bring two thousand frames down to the few hundred worth looking at. Clients choose better from less.

Proofing — the client picks which frames you will edit — and delivery — they take home the finished files — are two different moments. Make them two rooms, and say which one this is in its name and in the invitation.

Originals carry EXIF, and often the GPS position they were taken at. For a wedding at a private home, or a shoot with children, remove the location before the files leave you. In Peak, Remove location strips it from the room’s copies without re-encoding them.

A link forwarded around a family ends up with people you have never met. Invite by email address and you know who picked what; a room open to anyone with the link still asks each visitor to sign in.

A selection without a deadline is never finished. Give the room a closing date and say it in the invitation — two weeks is common for proofing. A room stays open up to 72 hours on Peak Free, and up to 90 days on Pro. Two days before it closes, Peak emails the clients who have not sent their selection yet.

Each client sends their selection when they are done, and Peak emails you. The room’s activity shows the frames chosen most and who chose them; save the picks to a collection in your library and edit those, then open a delivery room with downloads on — one by one, or the whole room as a single zip.