Delivering RAW Photos to Clients and Editors Without the Headaches

JPEG galleries are a solved problem. Every gallery platform handles them. RAW files are a different beast. A modern 40 to 60 megapixel camera produces somewhere between 40 and 100 MB per RAW frame depending on the model and compression setting, so a wedding with 1,500 frames is easily 75 GB or more.

Here’s a workflow that holds up when you need to hand over the originals, whether it’s to a retoucher, an agency, a second shooter, or a client who’s asked for “all the files”.

First, ask whether they really need RAWs

Plenty of clients say “RAW” when they mean “full resolution”. A high-quality JPEG or a 16-bit TIFF export might be exactly what they need, at a fraction of the size, and it doesn’t hand over your unedited frames. It’s worth a quick question before you ship 80 GB.

Retouchers and editors genuinely do need the RAWs. So do second shooters merging into your catalogue.

Cull before you send

Nobody wants 1,500 frames when 400 are usable. Cull first: blinks, misfires, test shots and near-duplicates. It’s faster for you to send and much faster for them to work through.

If you’re handing over to a retoucher, flag or star the picks in Lightroom or Capture One so they know where to start.

Decide on sidecar files

If you’ve edited in Lightroom, your adjustments might live in XMP sidecar files next to each RAW (or inside the catalogue, depending on your settings). Send the XMPs along with the RAWs if you want the other person to see your edits as a starting point. Leave them out if you want them to start clean.

For DNG files, edits are usually stored inside the file itself.

Package it

Group everything into one folder with a clear structure, for example:

2026-10-11_Sharma-Wedding_RAW/
  01_Prep/
  02_Ceremony/
  03_Portraits/
  04_Reception/
  README.txt

A two-line README with the shoot date, camera bodies used and any notes (“ceremony shot at ISO 6400, expect noise”) saves a round of emails.

Then zip the folder. Use Store (no compression) in 7-Zip or similar, because RAW files are already compressed and you’d waste ages squeezing them for almost nothing. We go into the details in sending a whole folder.

Send it

For files this size you have two broad choices. We compare them more fully in upload services vs direct transfers:

• A direct transfer, when the recipient can download it now. With BoltShare, drop the ZIP in, send the link, and it streams from your machine to theirs with no size limit and no upload wait. Ideal for a retoucher who’s ready to start.
• An upload service or shared drive, when the client will pick it up whenever they get round to it. You’ll wait for the upload, but you don’t need to stay online.

Either way, plug the computer into Ethernet if you can. Uploading 80 GB over Wi-Fi is asking for trouble.

Verify, then keep your copy

Before you mark the job as delivered:

1. Ask the recipient to open a few files from different sections to check they’re readable.
2. For important deliveries, compare a checksum of the ZIP on both ends.
3. Don’t delete your copy because the transfer finished. Keep your own backup for however long your contract says (and ideally longer). “Can you resend the reception files?” is a very common email six months later.

A note on privacy

Wedding and portrait work is personal. Some couples aren’t comfortable with their unedited photos sitting on a third-party server for a week. A direct transfer leaves no stored copy anywhere, which is easy to explain to a client and genuinely reassuring for them.