How many photos should I send?

For a club night, roughly 15–30 finished frames covering every act, a wide room shot and something croppable. Sending everything you shot pushes your culling onto the recipient.

How fast do I need to deliver?

24–48 hours for most shows. The image loses most of its value to a promoter once the night stops being current.

Should I watermark them?

Not for the promoter who accredited you. Put your name in the IPTC metadata instead and agree a credit line.

What if they use the photos without crediting me?

Usually an oversight. One polite message resolves it most of the time. Agreeing the exact credit line at delivery prevents it in the first place.

No. Deliver sRGB JPEGs. Raws are your working files and your evidence of authorship.

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Delivering the photos after the show

Deliver concert photos within 24 to 48 hours; speed matters more than volume. Send a tight edit of roughly 10 to 20 images, colour-corrected, in both web-sized and full-resolution versions, through a single link, with the credit line and the agreed usage stated in the message itself.

Access compounds through reliability, not talent. The delivery is the part promoters actually remember, and it is the easiest part to be excellent at.

Updated 10 August 2026·By Paul Visions

A promoter books rooms every month. They will forget which frame was sharp. They will not forget that you sent the photos on Tuesday like you said, correctly sized, with the right names spelled right.

This guide is the boring half of the job, which is the half that produces repeat access.

Turnaround: fast beats perfect

A concert photograph has a short half-life. The promoter wants to post while the night is still current — realistically within 24 to 48 hours, and for a big show the useful window can be the next morning.

Delivering ten strong frames the next day is worth more than forty immaculate ones the following week, because the later set arrives after the moment has passed and often never gets posted at all. If you promised 48 hours, deliver in 48 hours; if you are going to miss, say so before the deadline rather than after.

Send a selection, not an archive

The single most common mistake is sending everything. A folder of 300 frames is not generous, it is homework: you have handed the recipient your culling job.

For a support-and-headliner club night, something like 15 to 30 finished images total is plenty. Cover the obvious needs rather than your favourites only — each artist that played, a wide shot that shows the room and the crowd, and at least one frame with clean space around the subject, because it will end up cropped into a square or a story.

Ruthlessness here reads as confidence.

Format and sizing

Full-size JPEGs in sRGB. Not TIFFs, not raws — nobody wants them and they will not open them.
A web-sized set alongside, around 2000px on the long edge, if you want the versions actually posted to look the way you intended.
Embedded metadata: your name and contact in the IPTC fields. Images get separated from emails within days.
A plain link that does not require an account, does not expire in three days, and works on a phone. Whatever your host, test the link while logged out.

Do not watermark work you are delivering to the promoter who let you in. It signals distrust, and it is the fastest way for an image to be cropped badly or quietly not used.

The credit line

Agree it in advance and state it again on delivery, in the exact form you want it: the handle or name, spelled as you use it. "Please credit @yourhandle" in one sentence gets followed far more often than an unspoken expectation does.

Credit failures are usually accidents rather than theft. One polite message fixes most of them, and burning a working relationship over a missing tag costs far more than the tag was worth.

The delivery email

Short, and it does three things: the link, what they may do with the images, and the credit. Something close to this:

Great night on Saturday — photos from the show are here: [link]. Free to use on your channels with credit to @yourhandle. Let me know if you want any of them resized or a different crop for stories.

That third sentence is the one that gets you booked again. It costs you five minutes and it makes you the photographer who is easy to work with — which, as covered in the accreditation guide, is what actually decides who keeps getting in.

Then close the loop

Note what you sent, to whom, and on what terms. Two months later, when someone asks whether they can use a frame in a festival announcement, you want to know what you already granted rather than guessing. If money was involved, this is also the moment the invoice goes out — see invoicing a promoter.

Common questions

How many photos should I send?: For a club night, roughly 15–30 finished frames covering every act, a wide room shot and something croppable. Sending everything you shot pushes your culling onto the recipient.
How fast do I need to deliver?: 24–48 hours for most shows. The image loses most of its value to a promoter once the night stops being current.
Should I watermark them?: Not for the promoter who accredited you. Put your name in the IPTC metadata instead and agree a credit line.
What if they use the photos without crediting me?: Usually an oversight. One polite message resolves it most of the time. Agreeing the exact credit line at delivery prevents it in the first place.
Do I send raw files?: No. Deliver sRGB JPEGs. Raws are your working files and your evidence of authorship.

Liaison tracks which shows you shot, what you delivered and what is still owed.

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