Waiting for the Photographs, and Choosing From Hundreds of Them

Treat the sections below as a sequence. With wedding photographs after the day, getting the early decisions right makes the later ones much easier.

Why it takes so long

Editing a full wedding involves selecting, correcting and processing a large number of images, and it is slower work than the shooting was. Photographers work through weddings in order, so your delivery time depends partly on how busy their season is.

Contracts state a delivery window, and it is usually measured in weeks or months rather than days. A short preview shortly after the wedding is common and is worth asking about, since it satisfies everyone in the meantime. Chasing before the stated window has passed rarely helps and occasionally makes you the difficult client.

Making the first pass

Go through the whole set once quickly, marking anything you respond to immediately, without stopping to compare similar frames. Instinct on a first pass is a better filter than deliberation, and it takes a fraction of the time.

Once the deposit is paid, do it separately and then compare, since the images each of you chooses will differ in interesting ways. Only then compare near-identical frames, which is the part that consumes hours if you start with it. Most couples find their real selection is far smaller than they expected and much easier to agree on.

Building an album

An album is a story rather than a gallery, which means covering the day's shape rather than including every good photograph. Group them by part of the day and choose a small number from each, then look at what the sequence is missing.

Photographs of guests and family generally age better than photographs of details, which are the first things to look dated. Where the photographer offers design, their editing is usually better than yours because they are not attached to the memories. Set a deadline, since album projects left open are routinely still open several years later.

Sharing and privacy

Agree between you what may be shared publicly, and check whether your photographer's contract addresses their own use of the images. Some guests do not want their photographs online, and asking rather than assuming is a small courtesy with real weight. Children's images require particular care, and parents' preferences differ considerably and should be respected without discussion.

Where a religious ceremony restricted photography, respect the same restriction in what you share afterwards.

Agreeing this once prevents an awkward request to remove something later.

Prints and keeping them

Digital files are fragile in a way prints are not, since formats change, services close and devices fail. Keep at least two copies in different places, and consider a physical copy for anything you would be upset to lose.

On the run sheet, print a small number rather than none, because photographs that exist only on a phone are rarely looked at again. Older relatives frequently value a print far more than a link, and it is one of the easiest gifts to send afterwards. Check what your photographer's contract says about how long they retain files, since it is not indefinite.

Nobody executes the plan exactly, and guests do not notice the parts that slipped.

When you are disappointed

Occasionally the photographs are not what you hoped, whether through style, conditions or something that went wrong on the day. Raise it with the photographer calmly and specifically, since a clear description of the issue is far more likely to produce a response. Some problems can be addressed through re-editing, and reputable photographers would rather fix something than leave it.

Between the two families, where a specific shot was missed, it is worth saying so, though a missing moment cannot generally be recovered. Try to look again after some months, because the first viewing is heavily coloured by how you remember the day.

The takeaway

Do a fast first pass on instinct, print a few, and keep more than one copy of the files.

Decide early, decide once, and stop reopening it.