What to do with your wedding photos

After your wedding, you’ll likely receive a gallery of hundreds of images of your wedding day. It’s a lot to take in! You might not know what to do with your wedding photos or how to keep them safe. As a wedding photographer of eight years, I’m here to help! Don’t be those people who spend thousands on wedding photography, just to enjoy them once a year from your cell phone! Or worse… lose access because you didn’t store them securely!! Wedding photography is a lifelong investment, and it’s worth knowing how to protect those irreplaceable images. Here’s what to do with your wedding photos, how they’re stored, and what happens with them after your wedding day. 

How do wedding photographers protect your wedding images from loss?

Before I get into the detailed process, I do want to point out that different photographers operate in different ways. I’m going to outline my own process and some industry standards for wedding photographers. But, there’s always variation. It’s great to ask your wedding photographer during the interview process about their own system, operations, and storage preferences. Novice photographers may not yet realize all they need to or could be doing to ensure the safety of your images. It’s important to verify! 

As a side note, this process is very similar for videographers. While the editing software and workflow  is different, we use many of the same memory cards, recording devices, storage solutions, and file systems. It’s fair to ask the same questions of your videographer.  

How are your images protected during your wedding?

During your wedding, your photographer will likely use a camera that records on dual memory card slots. This means that each image is simultaneously being recorded to two different cards at the same time. That way, if one card is damaged, corrupted, lost, etc, you still have a second copy of all of these images. Despite having a backup, I treat them both as equally valuable and critical, protecting both and storing them safely. Some photographers even shoot on smaller memory cards, changing them often throughout the day. This way, if any data loss occurs, it would only impact a small portion of the wedding day. 

What happens with your wedding photos after your wedding?

After the wedding, your wedding photographer will back up your images. This looks different for different people. There are a wide variety of secure processes and systems to properly backup images. The end goal is that they live in two places, preferably one physical location and one cloud location. 

For me, I take one copy of the memory cards and store them in a case in my safe. I will only access these cards again if I have issues, errors, or loss with the other copy of the memory cards. With the second copy, I’ll import the raw images to my working external solid state hard drive. This is the working copy I will use to begin culling and editing your images. Once the files have been copied to the hard drive, I keep them on the  memory card and store that one as well. Then, through a program called Backblaze, a copy of that hard drive and every file on it is copied into cloud storage and backed up daily. 

How is progress saved throughout the editing process?

Through a combination of Lightroom catalog backups, Imagen AI, and Backblaze, my editing process gets continually backed up. First, I utilize the help of AI editing for basic adjustments through a program called Imagen AI. Running my images through Imagen is typically a first step in my editing process. They store my Lightroom catalog in the cloud, so I can always download that and start from the basic adjustments step if anything were to happen to my hard drive. 

As mentioned before, Backblaze is a program that copies my hard drive (external and my laptop hard drive) to the cloud. This means that any change or additional file is backed up on a daily basis. Should my hard drive fail, I can order an exact copy of my most recent backup from Backblaze, and have an identical copy sent to my house. Or, I can choose to download those files. Given the size of them (usually 2 to 4 TB per drive), my preference will be to order a physical copy. 

I do the majority of my editing in Lightroom Classic. After Imagen AI has done first pass adjustments based on my personal profile to match my editing style, I will go through the Lightroom catalog and make further fine adjustments. Each day as I close a catalog, I have the opportunity to back up that catalog. Just like any other file types, Lightroom catalogs can corrupt, get deleted or lost, or encounter technical difficulties. The catalog backup of each stage of editing gives me checkpoints to return to if anything should happen to my current version. Furthermore, each of these backups is being uploaded to the cloud through Backblaze, in case the local storage device I am working on corrupts. 

Do wedding photographers keep raw images after delivering the gallery?

Sometimes! This is where the terms of your contract and personal preference comes into play. All of these storage and backup solutions have costs, usually calculated per GB or TB. Some photographers view their delivery of the editing images as the conclusion of their responsibility for storing backups, and will then delete older raw files once they’ve handed off the gallery. My own contract promises no storage of the raw files, and one year of storage of the finalized images. 

While I do not contractually promise to keep images longer than one year, I do not delete images or raw files, ever. After I deliver a wedding gallery, I may reformat the memory cards to use in the next wedding. But I keep the raw files backed up on the external hard drive, the lightroom catalogs and each backup, and the duplicate backup saved in Backblaze. I don’t promise as a professional commitment that I will keep these files forever. But I do want to give myself the option to help couples in the future who might lose access to their images, if I can restore that for them. 

This is not a typical approach, and plenty of photographers delete older files. I also have not always had this complete system for protecting my client’s images. Wedding galleries from three, four, or more years ago were stored differently and may not be able to be restored quickly in the same way my current clients’ galleries could. This is also why I don’t make contractual promises about how long I store files. Technology will continue to change and I will keep evolving this process to make sure I am following the latest industry standards and using the best options to ensure longevity of everyone’s wedding images.

Where to keep your wedding photos

Now, you get to view your wedding gallery! Yay! It’s the best feeling. You’ll soon want to download and store those images securely. First, know how long you’ll have gallery access. Most photographers offer a few months to a year of access. Some galleries offer “forever” access. BUT! After a couple years, those are downgraded to compressed, low resolution images that won’t print well. Don’t trust a gallery link to preserve your images forever! 

Downloading your wedding images

Download and store the images yourself. Think about longevity and protect against things like a corrupt device, changing computers, etc. You may want a folder on your current device for easy viewing. But make sure to also save them in other locations. I suggest a hard copy on an external solid state hard drive as a physical backup (you can put this in a safe with your marriage license and other important docs), as well as some cloud storage—Google drive, OneDrive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc. PS – your phone is not a storage device! (Well, not for this purpose!)

Make sure to ask your photographer for instructions on how to download your images in high resolution. Some gallery programs offer multiple types of files–web size images for sharing and high resolution for printing. Sometimes this isn’t clear, and the default is one or the other. Pay attention to the fine print and double check with your photographer if you aren’t sure. You can always compress or downsize the files in the future or for duplicate storage, but you can’t create a high resolution file for print from a low resolution file. 

Printing your wedding photos

Okay, now that they’re stored securely… you need to enjoy them! Most people don’t sit down at the computer to view a folder of images. They might enjoy the “on this day” Facebook memories from time to time. But there’s something about having a physical copy in the living room that prompts memories, conversation, and emotion. Here are a few ways to print your images:

Wedding albums

Create an heirloom wedding album that tells the story of your wedding day by highlighting your favorite and the most important images. This will be a story book that your family members will want to pick up, that your kids will enjoy, and that will outlive you. If I were only able to grab one physical item from my house (in case of emergency), I would be going for the wedding album, maybe next to my kids’ baby footprints. It’s that meaningful. You’ve spent the money for quality wedding photography, and I really want you to enjoy those images, remember the moments, cherish your loved ones who celebrated with you, and feel the affection of that day over and over. It’s a lifetime investment, and you’ll be thankful you have your wedding day story to view whenever you wish! 

Wall art for your home

Hang custom artwork in your home. From canvases to framed prints, you can use custom artwork from your wedding to make your house feel like home. Prints are powerful. Studies show that children who grow up with family portraits on the walls have more secure attachments with their parents and have better self confidence! When guests enter your home, they’ll remember your wedding day too. These prints prompt reminiscing and joyful conversations. 

Folio boxes and fine art prints

Loose print boxes make great memory time capsules for the coffee table. If you’re looking for an aesthetic way to display photographs that invite conversation but don’t take up the space of a full album, then a folio box is perfect!

What do prints and wedding albums cost?

Like everything else in the world of photography, there’s going to be a wide variety of options here. Each photographer has preferred print labs, their own design and layout costs, and may offer different materials, customization, and shipping options. That leads to a lot of variation in cost. 

We sell wedding albums starting at $490 for 20 page albums in the smallest size, and build from there. Wall art begins at $120 for 8” to 12” pieces and varies by medium, framing options, and size. 

Do I have to order prints through my wedding photographer?

Each company has their own contract that will specify what rights and ownership you have over the images, and how you can go about printing them. Some of the benefits of working with your professional photographer include quality control, warranty, and color correctness. Photographers work meticulously to make sure their computer screens are calibrated to match their print labs, so their edits are accurate to what will be printed. When you intend to keep a wedding album forever, minute changes to shadows, skin tones, and overall image color grading is really important to get exactly right. 

Photographers have relationships with their print labs which they can intercede on your behalf to get great customer support. If there are file or layout issues, color correction issues, damages in shipping, or anything like that, the photographer can typically have your product replaced or remedied. Some photographers use local print labs where they can address those issues in person and navigate projects together onsite. Lastly, professional print labs offer archival quality. These products are built for longevity and can’t be purchased through consumer print labs. 

My personal approach is hybrid. I deliver digital images, offer print and product options, but also release my clients to print where they prefer. I know not everyone has the budget for heirloom and archival products, and I believe you should start with printing what you can. You can always go back and upgrade later for longer lasting products.

Where are the best places to print my personal photos?

If you cannot afford prints through a professional lab, there are some consumer print labs you can order through online for higher quality prints than Shutterfly, Walmart, and CVS. I recommend these labs for personal printing:

• Mpix
• Nations Photo Lab
• Artsy Couture
• CG Pro Prints