Overview

All PhotoShelter for Brands accounts support image, video, audio and other file types. During upload, our system detects the file type and format automatically. PhotoShelter for Brands sorts files into 4 different categories based on file type and format:

• Image
• Video
• Audio
• Other

• File formats determine what kind of software can be used to preview or work with a file. For example, Adobe Lightroom handles many image file formats, but cannot work with audio files
• The easiest way to know a file’s format is to look at the file extension, the characters after the last period at the end of the filename
• For example, the file baseball-game.jpg has a file extension of .jpg, which means it’s a JPEG, a specific type of image file
• It’s important not to edit or remove the file extension for your files, if you know the extension is accurate. Never name a file ending with a special character, especially a period.
• For example, if you changed the filename of baseball-game.jpg to baseball-game.mp3 (an audio file extension), or removed the extension entirely so the file was named just baseball-game, your computer might have trouble knowing what software program to use for that file, and you may not be able to open it correctly

Image files

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

• JPG, JPEG
• TIFF, TIF
• PNG
• PSD
• AI
• HEIF, HEIC
• Camera RAW photos: most proprietary RAW formats, such as CR3 and NEF, and any RAW file converted to DNG

RAW files are supported for archival use only and will be displayed as resized JPGs on PhotoShelter. Our image processor creates JPG previews for RAW files, so you may notice color AND/or display variances when viewing them in the Library or Portal. RAW files downloaded from PhotoShelter as resized JPGs will retain those display variances in programs like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, so we recommend downloading and delivering RAW files in the “Original File” format when possible. RAW files are uncompressed and do not store metadata. Any IPTC metadata applied to RAW files in PhotoShelter will not be applied upon download (notes on XMP sidecar files below).

Note: PhotoShelter uses your camera’s generic color profile as a reference when converting to sRGB for web display. For a better visual experience, pleasure ensure that your color profile is set to sRGB prior to upload.

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.

Limited file support:

• GIF
  • No playback is available within PhotoShelter for Brands, so GIFs will render as a static image. If downloaded, a GIF can be played back.
• 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

For more information on specific image file types, check out the article on preparing your files for upload.

Video files

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

• MOV
• MP4
• M4V
• MXF
• HEVC-encoded video files
• 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 contact our Technical Support team.

Caption files

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

• SRT
• VTT

Recommended video 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

Videos can be uploaded via the Library web uploader, Contributor web uploader, or incoming FTP. If you upload a video file in a format that PhotoShelter for Brands does not support, your video file will be uploaded as a generic file.

Videos will display with an auto-generated cover image. When you click into the single file view in your Library or on your Portal, you can play back a video:

In your Visibility & Access settings, you can choose to enable original file or MP4 video downloads on your Portal.

Audio files

PhotoShelter for Brands can handle many audio file types, such as:

• MP3
• WAV
• MP4, M4A
• AIFF, AIF
• AAC

Recommended audio settings:

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

Audio files can be uploaded via the Library web uploader, Contributor web uploader, or incoming FTP. If you upload an audio file in a format that PhotoShelter for Brands does not support, your audio file will be uploaded as a generic file. 

Audio files will display with an audio file icon:

When you click into the single file view in your Library or on your Portal, you can play back an audio file:

In your Visibility & Access settings, you can choose to enable original file downloads for audio files on your Portal.

Other files

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

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

These file types can be uploaded via the Library web uploader, Contributor web uploader, or incoming FTP.

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:

Other miscellaneous files in this category will display with a generic file icon:

In your Visibility & Access settings, you can choose to enable original file downloads for these files on your Portal.