How do you deliver photos/video to clients?

[btaoka]

I just did my first photo gig this past weekend and I was wondering how folks deliver jpegs/mp4 files to clients when you're done. I have ~1000 photos and ~15GB of video to give. Do you do it the old fashioned way (i.e. burn to discs and mail)? Cloud services like Dropbox (need to sign up @ $10/month for 100GB of space) or Google Drive (15GB free space, not so great for sharing)?

 

[rwmson]

flash drive?

 

[privatebydesign]

Mostly Dropbox, but if it is impractical or too big then thumb drives, I haven't burnt a CD/DVD for years, too many people don't have disc drives now.

I was actually given an image to print on CD the other day and had to use my wife's computer to run it!

 

[procentje20]

I use kingston datatraveler usb flash drives that I put on the bill for a refundable 10 euro upon return. I never get one back. But this way I do not have to discuss the cost of this method of delivery when the size of the project goes over dual layer dvd capacity.

I do have to add that I don't do video projects.

 

[Dylan777]

flash drive?

+1

 

[bdeutsch]

I still mostly stick with DVDs, though I often just upload a zip file to my own website and let people download from there. If you have decent web hosting, it's free and in many ways easier than dropbox. In some states (NY being one), if you only provide clients digital files transferred online, they don't owe any sales tax since there is no physical product.

Deutsch Photography LLC: NYC Wedding Photographer | Actor and Corporate Headshots NYC | Family and Baby Portraits

 

[jsexton]

For her portrait business my wife does flash drives in a nice boutique box. Branded thumb drives are relatively cheap (no videos so the biggest she gets are 4GB) and a nice thing to offer as part of her package sales. It's also a nice way to gain some margin in the sale.

 

[BLFPhoto]

Via online galleries on my Photoshelter site. I started with Photoshelter with the lowest level that allowed eCommerce sales of prints directly from the galleries. I'm at the full Pro level now with more than 75% of 1TB of gallery images up there.

It makes it easy and fast to get images to clients, particularly clients who traveled from out of town for beach portraits or weddings. I can also give multiple distributions via email addresses or group passwords.

For one-offs, or early in establishing business, USB drives are my recommendation. But online distribution gives so many advantages that I won't do physical media again unless specifically requested by the client.

 

[Pag]

I subscribe to Microsoft Office 365, which comes with 1TB of space on OneDrive, their Dropbox-like service. If you need Office, it's a pretty good deal imho: you get Office for up to 5 computers and more online space than you'll ever need for $10 per month.

 

[jdramirez]

Always in person... and last time I copied 24 gbs of images over to two 16gb sd cards. I charge five bucks each for them... fair deal and better than getting 6 dvd roms.

 

[c.d.embrey]

... I often just upload a zip file to my own website and let people download from there. If you have decent web hosting, it's free and in many ways easier than dropbox. In some states (NY being one), if you only provide clients digital files transferred online, they don't owe any sales tax since there is no physical product.

No sales tax in California for digital files.

 

[leGreve]

We bought a WeTransfer account so we can uploader larger files… if the file size exceeds anyways we pack it up in several zip files.

The good thing about WeTransfer is that you get a download confirmation when the client has downloaded it.

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

I am the only one who does not trust media that can be deleted? ???
Pendrive, hard disc, SD card and all rewritable media may have accidentally deleted your files, or caused by computer viruses. :
Call me old, but I trust more in DVD-R medias high quality.

 

[mackguyver]

Mostly Dropbox, but if it is impractical or too big then thumb drives, I haven't burnt a CD/DVD for years, too many people don't have disc drives now.

I was actually given an image to print on CD the other day and had to use my wife's computer to run it!

+1 on Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

 

[jdramirez]

I am the only one who does not trust media that can be deleted? ???
Pendrive, hard disc, SD card and all rewritable media may have accidentally deleted your files, or caused by computer viruses. :
Call me old, but I trust more in DVD-R medias high quality.

Ok, you're old.

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

I am the only one who does not trust media that can be deleted? ???
Pendrive, hard disc, SD card and all rewritable media may have accidentally deleted your files, or caused by computer viruses. :
Call me old, but I trust more in DVD-R medias high quality.

Ok, you're old.

Thank you. I already knew.

 

[privatebydesign]

I am the only one who does not trust media that can be deleted? ???
Pendrive, hard disc, SD card and all rewritable media may have accidentally deleted your files, or caused by computer viruses. :
Call me old, but I trust more in DVD-R medias high quality.

Not only are you old, but you are misguided.

First, the question is about delivery, not archival storage. If a thumb drive goes missing or gets erased just do another one, but it has never happened to me.

Second, I had so many CD's and DVD's write badly, get scratched, get broken etc etc I can't understand anybody but a china plate merchant finding them any good for anything, that is why I have not used them for years.

Third, time has passed you by, you can protect images from erasure on a thumb drive, just lock them, then it takes a concerted effort to "accidentally" delete them. Indeed it you limit permissions on the drive it can't get a virus either as nothing can be written to it.

Burning discs is slow, unreliable, and expensive when compared to reusable thumb drives or free online folder delivery.

 

[dcm]

I switched to USB thumb drives and SD cards for delivery a while back when their capacities began to exceed optical media, optical media became optional in laptops, optical media was not supported in tablets/phones, SD card slots became widespread on laptops (even the lowest end machines), and televisions added USB ports with software to play photos/videos directly.

It really depends on the media needs of the client. For example, my 80+ year old mother-in-law much prefers SD media for pictures of the great grand kid. It's the same as printing at the store kiosk, her home photo printer, or loading onto her iPad from the SD card in her P&S camera. It also fits in her purse better than optical media

 

[LDS]

I am the only one who does not trust media that can be deleted? ???

Not only deleted, but modified also...

Delivering images on read-only media could still be a good idea - not an old one - because it can shield you from customers complains if *they* (or someone else on their behalf, say a print service) do something silly and/or irreparable with the images, and then try to assert that is what was delivered by you. If you ever need to demonstrate what the original was, you can point at the DVDs, and it is better if the DVDs contain digitally signed and time stamped hashes of the files delivered also. That will thwart any attempt to recreate a DVD.

Of course that depends on your kind of customers, how much you need to protect yourself from troubles, and for speed/versatility you can also make the same files available as downloads. Digital signature with a timestamp could also be a good idea for them also.

 

[Joe M]

I use branded usb drives now. They are very inexpensive, quick to load and easy to mail if need be. I have nothing against discs but little sticks are so much easier and optical media, as I see others have encountered, just don't have the capacity anymore. Boy, the days we thought 700 megs, and then 4700 megs was a lot! Now it's piddling. I also use Pixieset and the clients can download from there. Pixieset is only for images though but I've never done video so it's not been an issue (though in that case I'd provide a usb drive again).