diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 1d69117e..b1407607 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# 7.2.2 (2024-11-17)
+
+* Catch and expand error message when GDAL cannot encode data using specified image driver
+
 # 7.2.1 (2024-11-14)
 
 * add official support for floating point values in ColorMap
diff --git a/rio_tiler/utils.py b/rio_tiler/utils.py
index 2c6b0abf..99843535 100644
--- a/rio_tiler/utils.py
+++ b/rio_tiler/utils.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 
 from rio_tiler.colormap import apply_cmap
 from rio_tiler.constants import WEB_MERCATOR_CRS, WGS84_CRS
-from rio_tiler.errors import RioTilerError
+from rio_tiler.errors import InvalidFormat, RioTilerError
 from rio_tiler.types import BBox, ColorMapType, IntervalTuple, RIOResampling
 
 
@@ -588,24 +588,30 @@ def render(
     }
     output_profile.update(creation_options)
 
-    with warnings.catch_warnings():
-        warnings.filterwarnings(
-            "ignore",
-            category=NotGeoreferencedWarning,
-            module="rasterio",
-        )
-        with MemoryFile() as memfile:
-            with memfile.open(**output_profile) as dst:
-                dst.write(data, indexes=list(range(1, count + 1)))
+    try:
+        with warnings.catch_warnings():
+            warnings.filterwarnings(
+                "ignore",
+                category=NotGeoreferencedWarning,
+                module="rasterio",
+            )
+            with MemoryFile() as memfile:
+                with memfile.open(**output_profile) as dst:
+                    dst.write(data, indexes=list(range(1, count + 1)))
+
+                    # Use Mask as an alpha band
+                    if mask is not None:
+                        if ColorInterp.alpha not in dst.colorinterp:
+                            dst.colorinterp = *dst.colorinterp[:-1], ColorInterp.alpha
 
-                # Use Mask as an alpha band
-                if mask is not None:
-                    if ColorInterp.alpha not in dst.colorinterp:
-                        dst.colorinterp = *dst.colorinterp[:-1], ColorInterp.alpha
+                        dst.write(mask.astype(data.dtype), indexes=count + 1)
 
-                    dst.write(mask.astype(data.dtype), indexes=count + 1)
+                return memfile.read()
 
-            return memfile.read()
+    except Exception as e:
+        raise InvalidFormat(
+            f"Could not encode array of shape ({count},{height},{width}) and of datatype `{data.dtype}` using {img_format} driver"
+        ) from e
 
 
 def mapzen_elevation_rgb(data: numpy.ndarray) -> numpy.ndarray:
diff --git a/tests/test_models.py b/tests/test_models.py
index 6268aed4..988b300a 100644
--- a/tests/test_models.py
+++ b/tests/test_models.py
@@ -10,7 +10,11 @@
 from rasterio.errors import NotGeoreferencedWarning
 from rasterio.io import MemoryFile
 
-from rio_tiler.errors import InvalidDatatypeWarning, InvalidPointDataError
+from rio_tiler.errors import (
+    InvalidDatatypeWarning,
+    InvalidFormat,
+    InvalidPointDataError,
+)
 from rio_tiler.models import ImageData, PointData
 
 
@@ -456,3 +460,9 @@ def test_imagedata_coverage():
 
     coverage = im.get_coverage_array(poly, cover_scale=1000)
     assert numpy.round(numpy.unique(coverage), decimals=3).tolist() == [0, 0.125, 0.25]
+
+
+def test_image_encoding_error():
+    """Test ImageData error when using bad data array shape."""
+    with pytest.raises(InvalidFormat):
+        ImageData(numpy.zeros((5, 256, 256), dtype="uint8")).render(img_format="PNG")