DropYourFiles

Blog · October 28, 2026

How to send photos to clients without losing quality.

“They look a little soft on my phone.” You texted her twelve photos from the shoot.

Send a link to the original files instead of the photos themselves. A text message can shrink a photo to get it through, and email stops at 25 MB, so the file your client ends up with isn’t always the one you exported. A link hands over the same file, pixel for pixel, however big it is.

By Vitaly Kibenko

Where a photo gets smaller on the way.

  • Text messages

    Apple says an iPhone can compress photo and video attachments when it needs to, and that carriers set their own size limits. Fine for a sneak peek. Not for the files a client will print.

  • Email attachments

    Gmail and Outlook.com stop at 25 MB a message. That’s a few full-size JPEGs, so a whole set turns into several emails, or into a cloud link anyway.

  • Screenshots and saves from a preview

    If your client saves what’s on the screen rather than downloading, they get the screen’s copy, which is smaller than your export.

A father laughing at a family dinner table, under the line “and eat dinner while it’s hot.” A client’s message, “Sorry, which folder is it in?”, is struck through, and under it: “Every file on one page.”
Every photo on one page your client can scroll, instead of folders to dig through.

Send the originals on a link.

Upload your exported photos to DropYourFiles, at full size. Your client looks through them on a phone or a computer, hearts favorites and taps the spot on any frame that needs a fix. What they’re looking at is a preview made for the screen. The file they download is yours, untouched.

Your client picks the size.

  1. Original, the default

    The file you uploaded, byte for byte, with its own name. IMG_0412.jpg arrives as IMG_0412.jpg.

  2. Web size

    A 1600 px JPEG of each photo, small enough to send to a friend or post, so your client doesn’t pass the full-size file around to do it.

  3. Everything at once

    All photos, or Your favorites on their own. More than one file comes as one zip, and the zip holds the photos as they are, without squeezing them again.

Downloads open when your client presses Approve. If they need the files today, turn on Download before approval for that project. There’s more on keeping a set private until then in how to stop a client downloading before approval.

Questions.

What is the best way to send professional photos to a client?

A link to the original files, where your client can look through them first and download at full size. Texts and attachments can shrink or split the set.

How do I email photos without losing quality?

Put a link in the email instead of attaching the photos. Gmail and Outlook.com stop attachments at 25 MB, which is a few full-size JPEGs.

Does a zip file lower photo quality?

No. A zip packs files together and gives them back unchanged when it’s opened.

Will my client get the original file names?

Yes. The original download keeps the name you gave each file.

Keep reading.

New here? See what DropYourFiles does, or compare the plans.

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