How to Share Your Wedding Photos Without Destroying the Quality
Your wedding gallery has arrived.
You have selected your favourites.
You have an Instagram carousel mentally planned before you've even made it halfway through the gallery.
We support this behaviour.
But before you screenshot a photo, crop it three times, text it to yourself, save it again and upload what's left to Instagram…
Please stop.
Your beautiful wedding photograph is currently fighting for its life.
Here's how to share your wedding photos online without turning them into pixel soup.
Use the Web-Size Downloads
When you receive your Cedar & Cove gallery, you'll have access to files intended for different purposes.
High-resolution files = printing.
Web-size files = social media, texting, emailing and sharing online.
The web-size versions are already optimized for digital use, so there's no need to resize them yourself.
Download them directly from your gallery and upload those files to social media.
Easy.
Please Don't Screenshot Them
We know it's tempting.
You're scrolling through your gallery.
You see THE PHOTO.
Screenshot.
Instagram.
Done.
Except screenshots dramatically reduce the quality of the original image.
Instead, download the actual photograph from your gallery.
It takes approximately twelve additional seconds and makes your photographers significantly less twitchy.
Don't Add Another Filter
We edited your wedding photographs very intentionally.
Skin tones.
Colour.
Contrast.
Exposure.
All those little details are part of what makes your gallery look cohesive.
Adding an Instagram filter on top is essentially the photographic equivalent of seasoning a meal before you've tasted it.
Give the original a chance.
Be Careful With Cropping
Instagram loves telling photographs what shape they're allowed to be.
Sometimes a crop is unavoidable, but pay attention to what you're cutting out, particularly with group photos and wider compositions.
There is nothing quite like realizing Instagram has removed Grandma from the family portrait.
When possible, use Instagram's carousel sizing options or add space around an image rather than aggressively cropping it.
Why Does Instagram Make My Photos Look Different?
Even when you do everything right, social media platforms compress images.
That's normal.
Your photograph may look slightly different online than it does in your original gallery.
The goal isn't to prevent compression completely, it's to start with the best possible file so Instagram has less opportunity to commit crimes against it.
What About Facebook?
Same idea.
Use your downloaded web-size photographs rather than screenshots or images that have already been downloaded and re-saved multiple times.
Every time an image gets compressed, sent, downloaded and compressed again, it can lose a little more quality.
And Yes, You Can Absolutely Share Them
Post them.
Make the carousel.
Change your profile picture.
Post the anniversary photo every year until your children beg you to stop.
Your photographs are meant to be enjoyed.
And if you're sharing them publicly, we'd love if you tagged @cedarandcovephotography.
Mostly because we love seeing which photographs our couples choose.
But also because we're nosy.
→ READ NEXT: 20 Things to Do With Your Wedding Photos
→ READ: Your Gallery Is Here — Now What?
Brandie + Rhonda
Cedar & Cove Photography
