Photography delivery · Reference
Photography delivery specs
An example of the delivery spec we send a unit stills photographer before a shoot. We customise it production by production, so treat this as the shape of the ask rather than the final word, and get a sheet written for your own shoot.
Download a Delivery Spec Sheet for your photographer
A one-page cheat sheet to hand directly to your photographer so they deliver to you in the correct format, volume and with best practice file naming. Tell us where to send it and it's yours.
Images
Be sure to deliver a copy of your stills in both RAW and full-resolution JPG format.
RAW files: Send them either in your native camera format, as DNGs, or as TIFFs, whichever you prefer, but please pick one and send them all in that single format. If your native RAWs have sidecar .XMP files or Capture One Settings folders carrying your edits or metadata, include those too: without them, your work on the image does not travel with it. New to the formats? See our guide to RAW files, or read up on XMP sidecars.
JPGs: Alongside the RAWs, please create full-resolution JPG copies of all of your images. These JPGs should carry any edits you want included. They are what cast see during approvals, so they should look the way you intend the images to look.
| What to send | A copy of every still in both RAW and full-resolution JPG: one full set, once all photography days are complete. |
|---|---|
| RAW formats | Native camera RAW, DNG or TIFF. Please send RAWs in one format only, not a mixture. |
| Sidecars | Include any .XMP sidecars or Capture One Settings folders holding your edits or metadata. |
| JPGs | Full-resolution JPG copies of every image, carrying the edits you want included: cast review these during approvals. |
File naming
You usually don't need to do this yourself. Image Approvals typically handles file naming on behalf of photographers, precisely to keep the admin off your plate, so unless we've agreed otherwise for your production, send the images as they come off the card.
If you would rather name files yourself, or you want a protocol for your own cataloguing, this is the one we recommend. Separate each part with an underscore:
ProductionName/Abbreviation_Episode(if TV)_YYYYMMDD_PhotographerInitials_5DigitSequenceNumber
Film example
The movie Enchanted:
Enchanted_20210101_AB_00001
TV example
Season 1, episode 3 of Adolescence:
Adolescence_103_20241101_BB_00001
What each part of the filename means
- Production name / abbreviation
- The film title or a short, consistent show code (e.g.
TWDfor The Walking Dead). Keep it identical across every file. - Episode (TV only)
- Season and episode combined as a number:
101is season 1 episode 1,102season 1 episode 2,204season 2 episode 4. Omit this part entirely for films. - Date (YYYYMMDD)
- The shoot date, e.g.
20210101. ISO-style ordering keeps files sorting in chronological order automatically. - Photographer initials
- The unit photographer's initials, so authorship is clear at a glance across a multi-photographer shoot.
- 5-digit sequence number
- A zero-padded frame counter (
00001,00002) running continuously across shoot days, so the last number equals the total images delivered.
The file-naming rules
If you are naming files yourself, these are the rules that keep a delivery clean, and each takes seconds to apply with the right tool.
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1
Keep the image count running across days
Do not restart the sequence at 00001 each morning. Carry on from where the previous shoot day finished. A running count tells you at a glance roughly how far into the collection any frame sits, and the final number is the total number of images delivered, so it doubles as a check that everything is accounted for.
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2
Understand the episode ID, and move it on
The episode ID combines season and episode: season 1 episode 1 is 101, season 1 episode 2 is 102, season 2 episode 4 is 204, and so on. Films have no episode ID, so omit that part entirely. If you shoot more than one episode in a day, make sure the ID moves on with the episode you are shooting.
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3
Safe characters only, and never a period
Use letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores, and nothing else. Avoid spaces, slashes, colons, ampersands, quotes and accented characters: they break URLs, command-line tools and some archives. Above all, no periods (.) anywhere in the name except the one before the file extension. A stray period can corrupt your images.
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4
Keep RAW and JPG names identical
The only difference between a RAW file and its JPG should be the extension. No editing signifiers such as -edit. Rename the RAWs first, then export the JPGs, so the pairs cannot drift apart.
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5
Rename in bulk, not by hand
Renaming this way takes seconds with the right tool, and there is no need to type each name. Use Adobe Bridge or Bulk Rename Utility (both free) to batch-rename a whole day at once.
Need the longer version, or help renaming?
Our file naming guide walks through bulk-renaming step by step, and our team can take the technical file handling off your hands entirely.
Delivery
If you are working on an Image Approvals project, we'll provide you with a means to send the images over to us, so you don't need to arrange anything yourself.
For the background on why we ask for these formats, see our guides on RAW vs JPG for production stills and captioning film & TV stills.
Remember that this page is an example of the spec we issue. We tailor it to each production, so if you are a producer or publicist, ask us for a sheet written for your shoot and forward that to your photographer.
That's everything. Thank you, and we really look forward to seeing your work.
Free scorecard · 5 minutes
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Questions about delivering your stills?
If anything here doesn't fit your production, talk to us. We'll agree a delivery approach that works for your shoot.
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