Gallery delivery answers for working photographers: realistic turnaround times by genre, how many images to deliver, expiration windows that drive downloads, and the delivery email that prevents support questions.
Delivery is the moment clients judge the whole experience. They can't see your editing hours or your backup discipline — they see whether the gallery arrived when promised, worked on their phone, and made the images easy to get.
TL;DR: State a delivery date in the contract and hit it: 1–2 weeks for portraits, 4–8 weeks for weddings is the range clients consider professional. Deliver a curated set (roughly 50–100 images per portrait hour, 400–800 for a full wedding), in a mobile-first online gallery with downloads enabled, an expiration window of 90 days to 1 year, and a delivery email that answers the four questions every client asks before they ask them.
Portraits and small sessions: 1–2 weeks. Weddings and full-day events: 4–8 weeks. Commercial work: whatever the contract says, because agencies plan around it. The number matters less than the promise — a studio that says six weeks and delivers in six reads as more professional than one that says "soon" and delivers in four.
A sneak peek changes the psychology of the wait: 3–10 images within 48 hours gives clients something to share immediately and buys calm for the full edit.
Deliver the curated best, not everything:
| Job type | Typical delivered count |
|---|---|
| Portrait session (1 hr) | 50–100 |
| Family / branding (2 hrs) | 100–150 |
| Elopement / half-day | 200–400 |
| Full wedding day | 400–800 |
Never deliver RAWs or the full unculled take. Curation is part of the product — a tight 600 makes a stronger memory than a bloated 2,400 with duplicates and blinks. If clients want to choose favorites for albums or prints, use a proofing flow with selections rather than handing over the pile.
Yes — with a real window and clear communication. 90 days to 1 year is the standard range. Expiration does two jobs: it drives clients to actually download (the #1 failure mode of "forever" galleries is that nobody ever saves the files), and it keeps your storage costs tied to active work. Send an automatic reminder before expiry, and offer an extension or re-hosting fee for latecomers instead of arguing.
Four answers, in the first four lines:
Every support message you've ever gotten about a gallery is one of those four questions arriving late.
Phone-first layout (most clients open the link on a phone within minutes), a cover image that lands, favorites/selection tools for album picks, a private-set option for images not meant for the whole family, and download tracking so you know the files were actually saved before the gallery closes.
Galleries in Booksui live on the same job record as the contract and invoices, so delivery is a phase, not a separate tool: proofing and favorites for selections, passwords and privacy controls, download tracking, expiration windows with automatic client reminders, and delivery gated on a zero balance if you choose. The free plan includes three active galleries; paid plans scale up from there.