Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#1

Post by pigcat » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 3:38 PM UTC

I am getting married next week on a beach (yay!)

I'd like to collect everyone's photos into a high-res shared album.

100 friends/family are joining and we are all staying at a resort for the week. They will be taking lots of great photos during the week!

We will have a WhatsApp group chat. In my experience folks tend to send their photos there, but the image quality is very poor once it's uploaded to WhatsApp.

My two requirements:

1. Should be very low friction for people to upload. No downloading another app.

2. Images/videos should remain in original/high quality

I am willing to pay for a good solution.

Does anyone have any ideas?

My ideal solution would be a bot that you could add to a WhatsApp group chat. Images uploaded to the WhatsApp group chat also get automatically uploaded in their original quality to a shared google album. I don't think this is possible.

If anyone from WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/etc is reading this, I would pay a lot for a "Pro" account to have high-res photo uploads for my wedding/music festival/travel/etc group chats

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#2

Post by PaulHoule » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 3:54 PM UTC

It is something wedding photographers should offer. I've seen wedding photographers expand the traditional model and set up Purikura so people can take their own group photos:

https://www.jrpass.com/blog/say-cheese-the-ultimate-guide-to...

Pro photographers are ideally equipped for some the tough problems in wedding photography (the reception dinner that is poorly lit, large group photos, etc.) but there is going to be a lot of value in gathering and curating guest photos in 2023 and who's in a better place to do it?

I noticed these products

https://www.weddingphotoswap.com/

https://guestpix.com/weddings/

https://weddybird.com/en/photo-gallery

also this discussion

https://www.reddit.com/r/wedding/comments/14mmcqc/best_websi...

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#3

Post by solardev » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:29 PM UTC

Set up a Google Photos shared album, and an equivalent iPhone one (don't know how it works there, but presumably they have one?)

Let guests choose which one to upload to.

Do some hourly backend sync between the two. https://www.multcloud.com/tutorials/sync-google-photos-to-ic...

Also, congrats!!

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#4

Post by h1fra » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:32 PM UTC

I have used https://www.wedshoots.com/ few months ago. Never underestimate your guests to not understand tech or not even bother uploading anything, even if they love you.

If I had to do it again I would stick to WhatsApp and manually ask to get high res for the best pictures.

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#5

Post by tayo42 » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:43 PM UTC

My wife did alot of the work, but she set up a Google drive folder then posted qr codes to the upload link around the venue for people to upload photos too. We emailed the link out a few times.

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#6

Post by Espressosaurus » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:45 PM UTC

I've used a shared google drive or google photos to good enough effect, but that presumes nobody is running short on space.

I've also seen some screwiness however so I'll be watching with interest what other people suggest.

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#7

Post by pigcat » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:50 PM UTC

h1fra wrote: post #4

I have used https://www.wedshoots.com/ few months ago. Never underestimate your guests to not understand tech or not even bother uploading anything, even if they love you. If I had to do it again I would stick to WhatsApp and manually ask to get high res for the best pictures.

Honestly this might be the way. As you correctly pointed out I'm concerned even a Google Photos/iPhoto shared album is too much friction for most people.

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#8

Post by pigcat » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:50 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #3

Set up a Google Photos shared album, and an equivalent iPhone one (don't know how it works there, but presumably they have one?) Let guests choose which one to upload to. Do some hourly backend sync between the two. https://www.multcloud.com/tutorials/sync-google-photos-to-ic... Also, congrats!!

I hadn't considered setting up two shared albums to meet people on their platform, so thanks for that idea!

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#9

Post by solardev » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

pigcat wrote: post #7

h1fra wrote: post #4

I have used https://www.wedshoots.com/ few months ago. Never underestimate your guests to not understand tech or not even bother uploading anything, even if they love you. If I had to do it again I would stick to WhatsApp and manually ask to get high res for the best pictures.

Honestly this might be the way. As you correctly pointed out I'm concerned even a Google Photos/iPhoto shared album is too much friction for most people.

The last couple of weddings I went to just had Polaroids on site (yeah, the old school kind). It was fun for attendees with none of the digital hassles. You can scan them (or not) afterward, but either way you have physical keepsakes, often signed by the guests!

Re: Ask HN: What photo sharing solution should we use for our destination wedding?

#10

Post by pigcat » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #9

pigcat wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this might be the way. As you correctly pointed out I'm concerned even a Google Photos/iPhoto shared album is too much friction for most people.

The last couple of weddings I went to just had Polaroids on site (yeah, the old school kind). It was fun for attendees with none of the digital hassles. You can scan them (or not) afterward, but either way you have physical keepsakes, often signed by the guests!

We got some polaroids! :)

In this case I'm looking for a solution to saving memories of the entire week, not just the main event