How to safely store and protect your photos in the long term
Yay! Your memories have been delivered by way of digital images (jpegs)! But don't stop there. Technology is a fickle beast and I want to make sure you safely store your images so you can still access them when you’re old and wrinkly.
When you first get your photos delivered
FIRST, at the very least, download the web resolution versions. They won't take up too much space.
High resolution = the highest file size with the most information, perfect for printing good quality images at any size.
Web resolution = small compressed file size with a compressed amount of information, perfect for online stuff but won't print in the best quality or bigger than a 6x4 print.
SECOND, create a favourites list and download these as high resolution files so they can be printed.
Your photos will live temporarily in the Pic-Time gallery system for 12 months. As I pay for storage using this system, I will host your wedding on there for 12 months before the photos are removed. I will email you, with notice, before I do this.
NOTE: As of mid 2026 Pic-Time updated their gallery design system but have not updated their Client Tutorial videos as yet. This older video should still give you a basic understanding, but the location and look of buttons and menus may be different.
How to Curate the Perfect Gallery
Some photographers will curate your gallery with their favourite images, but I want to give you full control over your memories, allowing you to choose your own favourites. This does, however, mean I deliver a lot of photos - and then I provide them in both colour AND black and white.
Here are some ways to help narrow down and curate a perfect gallery:
-
Create a FAVOURITES list (the love heart icon at the bottom left of an image) this will create a separate folder that you can go straight to and even share
-
HIDE the images you don’t like, especially when there are multiples of a similar image (the eye with a cross through it at the top right of an image)
-
Create a COLLECTION list to organise your images (e.g. “Guest photos” “To be printed” “Album Shortlist” etc)
-
WATCH the client tutorial videos on how to setup your gallery
Privacy & Sharing Images
I value your privacy and want to make sure you are aware of the default settings of your gallery and images. If you are at all concerned with the privacy of your gallery, do NOT share the gallery link with anybody until you have read these instructions.
You are the owner of your gallery. Your account is password-protected, allowing you to hide photos from public view, save selections, and more. When you first view the gallery, you will receive a unique password and I highly recommend you change it to something easy to remember.
Sharing your images with guests and Vendors
-
Sharing a selection of photos with guests or vendors. You can create a 'Collection' of curated images that you're happy to share, and invite guests (or Vendors) to view and download. Learn how to create a Collection here.
-
Sharing your gallery - full access to whole gallery. If you share the link provided in the bottom of your "Your Gallery is Ready" email, this will provide full access to your entire gallery. Whoever has that link will be able to access the gallery. Once this is shared, you will lose control over who is viewing your gallery.
-
Sharing your gallery - restrict access to specific folders. If you are happy to share an entire Scene (i.e. "guest portraits" or "dancefloor") then I can create a special link to grant restricted access to those folders, saving you having to select all the images yourself.
Who else has access to your images?
-
I might use your images for marketing. As per my contract, I might use your images for marketing which means sharing them online for the purpose of providing examples of my work. However, I totally respect your right to privacy, so if you do not want these images shared please advise me ASAP and I will mark your client file as private. If you would simply like to approve the images before they are shared, I can provide a copy before it is made public.
-
Sharing images with Vendors. It's nice to share images of a Vendor's work with them, and one of the greatest ways to say thank you. But remember, these images are likely going to be shared publicly. For this reason I would recommend using the Collections feature (mentioned above) to share specific photos, or downloading them and sharing via email. Alternatively, I can share images for you (it's very easy to do on my end). PRETTY PLEASE remind Vendors to credit/tag me in their images: Red Eclectic or @redeclectic
Sometimes Vendors will contact me directly for images. Please let me know ASAP if you would like control of this. Otherwise I will generally restrict the images to their product (i.e. flower photos for a florist).
My archive system
Once your wedding is delivered, I will archive your wedding photos as high resolution jpegs. I keep the raw files (very large in size) for 12 months before they are deleted. I can not guarantee I will keep your wedding photos for an extended period beyond five years so long term storage is your responsibility.
If I need to access the archives to retrieve your wedding photos, there will be a $60 archive retrieval fee.
Keeping your images safe in the long term
Suggested ways to store your images once downloaded:
-
Upload the images to an External Hard Drive
-
Upload all the images to a Cloud Based Storage System like Dropbox or Google Photos (and be prepared to pay for this on a long term basis)
-
Print your images
-
All of the above!
Don’t save your images to your computer as your only storage option. I’ve had many couples contact me years down the track asking for their photos because their computer died, or they mysteriously lost the photos.
Remember that you can save space by saving the low resolution images for the long term, but please know they can never be resized beyond a small 6x4” photo print size.