Post-Wedding: The Importance of Selecting and Preserving Your Favorite Photos
Your wedding day may come to a close after the final dance, but for photographers and videographers, the work has just begun. Unlike designers, planners, and DJs who work their magic on the day of, professionals capturing your day—like your Chicago wedding photographer—put in just as much effort after the event to ensure your memories are safely preserved. The process of saving the wedding photos and curating the best ones is crucial, and here’s why.
It doesn’t matter if you have a wedding in the city hall or in your backyard, a professional wedding photographer is more sensitive than you to save your wedding photos.
6 stages for saving the wedding photos
1. Backing Up the Files: Safety First!
The moment I get home from a wedding, my first priority is safeguarding your photos. Modern cameras allow us to shoot on two memory cards simultaneously, which acts as an extra safety net. You never know—if one card gets corrupted, the other is there to save the day.
Once I have the files on both cards, I immediately transfer everything to two external hard drives. I always make sure the number of files on the hard drives matches what’s on the memory cards.
Cameras sometimes create multiple folders on SD cards, so I carefully check each folder to ensure every file is accounted for. This multi-step process ensures that your memories are preserved long before the editing process even begins.
Read more: Why do you need a second wedding photographer?
2. Culling: Finding the Best of the Best
Digital photography allows us to capture as many moments as the memory cards can hold, but that also means a lot of images to sift through.
While I’m shooting, for example, family pictures at the church, I take multiple shots (sometimes up to ten of the same group) to ensure no one is blinking or looking away. But ultimately, you won’t need every single photo—just the best one. This is where culling comes in.
As a wedding storyteller photographer, I go through all the images, selecting the best of each set, so you receive only the most flattering, meaningful, and cherished moments of the day.
The culling process ensures your gallery tells the story of your wedding without overwhelming you with too many similar images.
Read more: Answering to 7 most common questions about wedding photography
3. Editing: Bringing Your Photos to Life
Once I’ve selected the best images, the real fun begins—editing! Us photographers use software called Adobe Lightroom to make your photos shine. Think of Lightroom as the cousin of Photoshop.
In Lightroom, I create a “catalog” for each wedding to keep everything organized. I edit each photo carefully, adjusting lighting, color balance, and other elements to enhance the images without altering their natural beauty.
Sometimes I even use Photoshop for more detailed adjustments. I also make sure to offer both color and black-and-white versions of key images, giving you options for different moods and aesthetics. This process takes up to 3 days for me.
Read more: Creating a Versatile Gallery of Wedding Photography
4. Delivering Your Gallery
After editing, I export the final images and organize them into separate folders for easy access. I group them by events of the day—getting ready,ceremony, first look, family portraits, first dance, cocktail hour, and reception.
These folders make it easier for you to relive your day in the order it unfolded. I upload the images to a secure online platform, where you can download and share them with your loved ones.
I also set up a shop option within the gallery, giving you the opportunity to order prints directly from professional labs that work exclusively with photographers.
Read more: Delivering the Wedding images to my clients Quickly!
5. Designing Your Wedding Album for saving your wedding photos
After the photos are delivered, I reach out to see if you’d like a custom wedding album. I work with an Italian company that creates handmade albums, exclusively available through professional photographers. These albums are a beautiful way to preserve and showcase your wedding day in a tangible format, something you can hold and treasure for years to come.
Read more: Turn your wedding photo into a love book
6. Social Media and Final Steps
Once your images are delivered, it’s time to share some of the best moments on social media. Posting on platforms like Instagram is an essential part of my work—it’s how I connect with future clients and showcase my style.
However, this is like a full-time job in itself! Finally, after your images are safely delivered, I can format my memory cards for the next wedding, while holding onto your files on my hard drives for a little while longer just to be safe.
Read more: Life of a Chicago Wedding Photographer with Couples!
In Conclusion, saving the wedding photos and selecting your favorites is a vital part of the post-wedding process.
Your Chicago wedding photographer works hard behind the scenes to ensure that your memories are preserved beautifully, allowing you to relive your special day for a lifetime.
