How to choose photos for your wedding album
Choose from the photographer's delivered files by fixing the spread count and checking your agreed people and moments. Record each chosen file name, alternate and spread before approving the album.
This page is about the album made from your professional photographer's delivered set. A book built from guests' phone photos as well is a different job with its own steps.
The hard part is the cut. A full set can run to several hundred images, and an album that holds all of them is slow to look through and heavy on the knee.
Before you choose anything, agree with the photographer who designs the album, how many changes are included and when the final files arrive.
Make your photobook
Arrange your photos on A4 pages, check the proof and order a printed copy.
Questions to ask your photographer about the album
- How many edited photos will we receive, and by when?
- Are the files full resolution, and in what format?
- Does our licence let us print the photos in a book we make ourselves?
- Is an album included, and how many spreads does it hold?
- Do you make the first selection, or do we?
- How many rounds of design changes are included?
- Can we see the whole design as a proof before it is printed?
- Will the file names follow the order of the day?
- Which formal groups are on the shot list?
- Can we add spreads, or order a smaller copy for parents?
- How long do you keep our files after delivery?
- Can you return a list of selected file names matched to spread numbers?
Fix the size before you choose
Count backwards from the album. At three photos a spread, 20 spreads hold about 60 images; 30 spreads at four a spread hold about 120. Pick the spread count and the number follows.
Plan some spreads with one photo across both pages, or one large and one small. They give the eye a rest between the busier pages of groups and details.
Three passes through the full set
First pass: move quickly and mark only the clear rejects, such as closed eyes, blur and near-repeats. Do not pick favourites yet.
Second pass: sort what is left by part of the day and keep one image per moment, unless a second one shows a different face or angle.
Third pass: compare your count with the target. Cut whole moments rather than squeezing more photos onto each spread.
Keep a selection sheet with moment, chosen file, alternate and spread number. Check it against the agreed shot list so a missing group is found before the final design.
- Record picks by file name so the photographer can find them.
- Each of you picks separately first, then compare the two lists.
- Keep a short list of near-misses for a parents' album later.
Family groups and the shot list
Compare the delivered group shots with your own must-include list. Agree which groups belong in the album; there is no requirement to give every branch of a family equal space.
Put the groups together on two or three spreads rather than one in every chapter. Run them in the order the shot list ran.
Look along each row before you approve it. A relative who stepped away during one group will notice their absence before anyone else does.
Ordering the day
Use the parts of the day that actually happened as chapter headings. A civil ceremony, several ceremonies or a small gathering may need a different order from a conventional wedding album.
Break that order once at most, for example by opening on the strongest portrait. More breaks than that make the day hard to follow.
Rings, flowers and place cards work as small images beside a larger one. They rarely need a spread of their own.
Before you sign off the design
Read every page of the proof at full size. Check the spelling of any printed names, look for faces running into the fold and count the spreads against what was agreed.
Ask for a list of the file names used. If the album is ever lost or damaged, that list lets anyone rebuild it from the files.
Steps
Opening spread
One portrait of the two of you across the left page, with the venue or the invitation small on the right. Two images at most.
The ceremony
A wide shot of the room at the start, with three smaller images beside it in time order: the walk in, the vows, the walk out.
Family groups
Four to six formal groups on one spread, all at the same size, in shot-list order. Keep a note of every name for later.
The evening
Use a final candid photo, a departure or another moment you choose together. Leave out dances or reception scenes that did not form part of your day.
Questions
How many photos should a wedding album have?
Work from spreads. Twenty to thirty spreads at three or four photos each gives 60 to 120 photos. Fewer spreads with larger images are quicker to look through.
Should we let the photographer choose?
You can ask them to make a first selection and then swap images in and out. They know sequence and light; you know which guests matter most.
Can we have the album made somewhere other than with our photographer?
Read your contract first. An album may already be included, and the licence to the files may or may not cover printing elsewhere. Ask before you order.