How to send your wedding photos to your album maker

The short answer

Before you send anything, agree three things: how many photos, by when, and in what form. Then send exactly that: for an album of 250, 250 full-size photos, numbered 001 to 250 in the order they should appear, with the photographer's file name kept after the number.

Send them in one shared folder or one download, not in pieces over WhatsApp. One place, one version, one date: that is what lets your album maker start.

What album makers usually ask for

Every album maker works a little differently, so ask yours for their list. These are the questions most of them will have, and it saves a round of messages to answer them up front.

• How many photos, or how many sheets, your package includes
• The photos themselves, full size, as the photographer delivered them
• The order: numbered files, folders by function, or a list
• Which photo goes on the cover, and the names and date to print on it
• A few venue and decor photos for chapter openers and backgrounds
• Any photo that must be large, such as the jaimala or a family photo
• The date you will send everything by, and the date the album arrives

File names in album order

Put a number in front of each file name, in the order the photos should appear, and keep the photographer's own name after it. Three digits are enough for most albums: 001, 002, up to 250 or 400.

The number makes the files sort the same way on every computer and phone, so your album maker sees your order without a list. The photographer's name after it means anyone can find the original again in the full folder.

Use 001, not 1: without the zeros, file 10 sorts before file 2 on many computers. Do not rename the photos to anything else; the photographer's name is how a lost photo is found.

Folders by function

Many album makers like one folder per function: Haldi, Mehendi, Sangeet, Pheras, Reception. It lets them lay out one chapter at a time and check nothing is missing. Number the photos across the folders, so the order still holds when they are put together.

Others prefer one folder and a list. Either works if you ask first. What does not work is a folder per day, a folder per photographer and a folder of the ones you love, all overlapping.

Full-size photos, not copies

An album is printed large, so it needs the full-size files your photographer delivered. Photos forwarded over chat apps, screenshots and photos saved from a preview are often made much smaller on the way, and they show it in print.

Google Photos is a common trap. Its help pages say that in Storage saver, photos are stored at a slightly reduced quality and anything larger than 16 MP is resized to 16 MP. If your copy came through Google Photos in Storage saver, send the album maker the photographer's originals instead.

To check a file, open its details and compare its size and dimensions with the same photo in the photographer's folder. If they match, you are sending the original.

Deadlines that hold

Without a date the folder waits; with one, the album gets made. Agree the date you will send the photos by, then ask the album maker for the date they will show you the layout, how many rounds of changes are included, and when the printed album arrives.

Work back from any date that matters, a first anniversary or a grandparent's visit, and leave room for one round of changes. If the album waited a long time already, a date a few weeks away is better than a perfect one.

1. Agree the number of photos and the date you will send them.
2. Send everything in one place, once.
3. Check the layout when it comes, and send all your changes together.
4. Approve the final layout in writing before it goes to print.

Sending it from Phopho and Toto

Once your album is ready, Send gives you two ways to hand it over. Both send the photographer's full-size originals, and both come with the album's one payment, when you unlock changes.

Send to your album maker puts the album into a Google Drive folder. Make a new folder in your Drive, open Share on it and add us as Editor with our address, then paste the folder's link. We put the album's photos in it, named 001 onwards in album order with the photographer's name after the number, and a list beside them with each photo's number, original name, function and folder. Then share the folder with your album maker.

Download the photos gives you every photo in one download, full size, numbered the same way, in folders by kind of photo: the two of you, you with family, guests and the rest. On a phone, Email me the link sends you a link to open on a laptop or on Wi-Fi.

Before you send, you can also keep a few venue and decor photos aside for your album maker, for openers and backgrounds. If you would rather lay it out yourselves, Set up your album lays out every spread and gives you a file for printing.

Questions people ask