All PhotoShelter for Brands accounts can store image files. Depending on your subscription type, PhotoShelter for Brands can also store additional types of files and formats, such as video, audio, and other files.

• File formats determine what kind of software can be used to preview or work with a file downloaded from PhotoShelter for Brands. For example, Adobe Lightroom handles many image file formats, but does not work with audio file formats.

• The easiest way to know a file’s format is to look at the file extension. The file extension is the characters after the last period at the end of the filename.
• For example, the filename baseball-game.jpg has a file extension of .jpg, which means it’s a JPEG. A JPEG is a specific type of image file.

• Never edit or remove the file extension for your files, either in PhotoShelter for Brands or once downloaded from PhotoShelter for Brands. Similarly, never use spaces in filenames and never end a Collection or Gallery name with a period.
• For example, if you change the filename of "baseball-game.jpg" (an image file extension) to "baseball-game.mp3" (an audio file extension), or remove the extension entirely so the file is named "baseball-game", your computer might have trouble knowing what software program to use when you click to open it, and you may not be able to open this file at all.

Preparing for Image Upload

Preparing your image files for upload to PhotoShelter for Brands requires considerations of file format, color space, and metadata.

NOTE: Files with a filename exceeding 255 characters cannot be uploaded.

Image File Format

Considerations of file format inevitably come down to understanding which format is appropriate for a given workflow stage. Although PhotoShelter for Brands can support a wide variety of image file formats, uploading a format that is useful for your intended audience is a key consideration in creating a standard workflow. 

In many cases, PhotoShelter for Brands is used as a distribution/delivery tool. Generally speaking, we recommend uploading your largest resolution photos in TIFF or JPG. If your images are intended primarily for web use, we recommend the sRGB color space.

You can, of course, choose to archive your RAW (e.g. NEF, CR3 or DNG) or PSD files within your PhotoShelter for Brands Library. If you store these file formats, you would almost certainly never distribute these RAW images to your stakeholders or customers.  

PhotoShelter automatically creates multiple resized JPEG versions of every file you upload, so there is no need to upload multiple sizes of the same image.

PhotoShelter for Brands supports many image file formats, such as:

• PDF
• GIF
  • No playback is available within PhotoShelter for Brands
• EPS
  • PhotoShelter for Brands generates an image preview of an EPS file’s contents
  • Because this image is adjusted for web display, the image may not look exactly like the original EPS file
• SVG
  • SVG files that contain HTML will render as images
  • SVG files that contain JavaScript/CSS will not render as images, in the interest of security. They may appear blank when previewing in PhotoShelter for Brands, but their contents are not changed in any way
  • PhotoShelter for Brands generates an image preview of some SVG files’ contents:
    • Font files, such as DFONT, OTF, and TTF
    • PhotoShelter for Brands generates an image preview for some font files, but does not support previews for all fonts
    • Font files, such as DFONT, OTF, and TTF

PDF Files

Viewing multiple pages of a PDF file is fully supported in the Library and the Portal. Users can flip through all pages of a PDF booklet using the pagination arrows at the bottom of the single file view to scroll through a PDF booklet:

• PDFs are particularly useful for loading license and rights contracts to their corresponding images’ galleries)
• Protected PDFs, such as those with a password, are not supported

Note: PDF files exceeding 18 MB cannot be viewed in the Library or Portal, and must be downloaded first.

Image Color Space

Computers use a series of RGB values to represent color. How that color is redisplayed is influenced by the color space because the same RGB values can render very different colors depending on the color space.

Although color space might sound esoteric, the concept is pretty clear when considering something like your logo. Organizations and brands spends enormous marketing budgets to ensure consistency of their corporate identities. 

The discussion of color fidelity is moot unless you've calibrated your monitor.

Your color space decision depends on the final output. Generally speaking, for web use sRGB is the most practical and safe color space.

Image Metadata

Metadata, the data that describes your content, helps you and others find specific images. The efficiency with which you or others can find an image increases your library's market value and can save your staff time and money.

One best practice is to add IPTC metadata to your files prior to upload. Separate software like Adobe Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, and even the Mac's Photos application can help you and your Contributors if you'd like to add image metadata before uploading to PhotoShelter for Brands. PhotoShelter for Brands will pull in and display whatever embedded metadata is on your image at the time of upload.

Video File Format

PhotoShelter for Brands can handle video formats such as MOV, MP4, and other common video file types from DSLR and other cameras or those created by video editing software.

You can upload image and video files. Video files can only be uploaded via the Library web uploader, Contributor web uploader, FTP, or PhotoShelter for Brands mobile app.

Generally speaking, we recommend uploading your largest resolution video in MOV or MP4.

PhotoShelter for Brands can handle many video file formats, such as:

• MOV
• MP4
• M4V
• Other common video files from DSLR and other cameras, or those created by video editing software
• Full video support can depend on many factors, such as a video’s frame size, frame rate, data rate, codec, and other factors
• To ensure playback, you should use width and height dimensions for your video that are multiples of 16; your next best choice is multiples of 8, and after that, multiples of 4
• The general rule of thumb is: if it uploads and displays as a video file, PhotoShelter supports it.
• Drone videos can vary in formatting and can often be missing the metadata that our video processors require to upload the files and store them correctly. If you have upload issues unrelated to your Internet connection, try to run the video through a program like Adobe Media Encoder or Adobe Premiere Pro (or any video encoding software) and re-export it. Usually, this will apply the required metadata on the files and resolve any upload issues. If the issues persist, please reach out to our Support team at support@photoshelter.com.

Caption files

Library Staff may upload caption files alongside video files in the Library. Caption files should be uploaded in the following format:

• SRT
• VTT

Recommended video file settings:

Container: MP4
Codec: H.264
Resolution: 640px to 3840px (4K) wide
Bitrate: 10 to 60 Mbps
Framerate: 15-60 FPS (constant)
Aspect ratio: 16:9
File size: up to 20 GB

Uploading Audio and Other Files

PhotoShelter for Brands can also handle audio and other file formats, such as Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Office, and more (in addition to image and video files). Audio and other files can be uploaded via the Library web uploader, Contributor web uploader, or FTP.

Recommended audio file settings:

Container: MP4
Codec: AAC
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
Channels: Stereo

PhotoShelter for Brands can handle many other non-media file types and formats, such as:

• INDD and other Adobe InDesign files
• DOC, DOCX
• XLS, XLSX
• PPT, PPTX
• TXT
• CSV
• ZIP: will stay zipped upon upload
• XML
• Other miscellaneous file types

PhotoShelter for Brands does not offer previews for these file types. Common file types in this category, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe InDesign files, will display with specific icons.