How to download wedding photos from an online gallery

To download your wedding photos, open the gallery link on a laptop, enter the password if there is one, find the Download button, choose the whole gallery, pick High resolution (or Original), enter the download PIN from the photographer’s email if asked, and wait. Small galleries download straight away as a ZIP file. Large galleries are usually prepared in the background and sent to your email as a link. Then unzip the file, check the photo count, and copy the folder somewhere safe. That is the whole process. The rest of this page covers each step, the choices along the way, and what to do when it does not work.

The steps are the same on the platforms most wedding photographers use, including Pixieset, Pic-Time and ShootProof. The buttons move around and the words change a little. The pattern does not.

Before you start

• Use a laptop or desktop, not a phone. A full wedding gallery at high resolution is often several gigabytes. Phones can do it, but they fill up, drop the connection when the screen locks, and hide the ZIP in a folder you have never opened. Phone instructions are in how to save wedding gallery photos to your phone.
• Be on home wifi. Hotel and cafe wifi drops long downloads.
• Check free disk space. You need room for the ZIP and for the unzipped folder, so twice the gallery size.
• Find the photographer’s email. It has the link, the gallery password if there is one, and the download PIN if there is one. These are 2 different codes. The password opens the gallery. The PIN unlocks downloads.

Download the whole gallery

1. Open the link from the email. If the gallery asks for a password, type it exactly as written. Passwords are usually case-sensitive.
2. If the gallery asks for your email address before it opens, enter it. This is normal. It tells the photographer who has viewed the gallery and lets your favorites follow you between devices.
3. Look for Download at the top of the page, in the menu, or behind an icon shaped like a down arrow. On some galleries it only appears once you hover over the top bar or open a menu in the corner.
4. Choose All photos or the whole gallery, not a single section.
5. Choose the size. Pick High resolution or Original if you plan to print anything or want the files for keeps. Web size is for sharing from a phone.
6. Enter the download PIN if the gallery asks for one. If you do not have it, ask the couple or the photographer. Guests are often not given the PIN on purpose, because high-resolution downloads are meant for the couple.
7. Wait. A ZIP of 300 photos can start within seconds. A ZIP of 800 high-resolution photos may take a few minutes to prepare, and many galleries then email you a link rather than keeping you on the page.

Download one section or a single photo

Most galleries are split into sections or albums such as Getting Ready, Ceremony, Family and Reception. Open a section and use its own download control to get only that part. This is also the fix for a whole-gallery ZIP that keeps failing: download 5 sections one at a time instead of one large file.

For a single photo, open it full-screen. The download icon sits near the heart (favorite) and share icons, usually in a corner. Choose the size and it saves like any other file from your browser.

Which size to choose

Option	Typical size per photo	Good for
High resolution or Original	3 to 12 MB	Printing, albums, keeping for good, giving to family
Web size (often 2048 px on the long edge)	0.5 to 1 MB	Phone, social media, messaging

Web-size files print acceptably up to about 5x7 inches and look sharp on any screen. For anything larger, or for an album, use high resolution. If you are unsure, download high resolution once and make smaller copies yourself. You cannot go the other way. The photographer’s side of this choice is explained in web size vs full resolution.

When the download does not arrive

Work through these in order.

1. Check your email, including spam. Large ZIPs are often sent as a link, and that email can land in the promotions or junk folder. The link usually expires after a number of days, so use it when it arrives.
2. Check your browser’s download list. In Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox the download may already be running quietly. Look for the arrow icon in the toolbar.
3. Allow multiple downloads. Some browsers block a site from saving more than one file. Look for a bar or a prompt asking for permission and choose Allow.
4. Split it up. Download by section instead of the whole gallery.
5. Try another browser or a wired connection. A download that dies at 2 GB three times in a row is a connection problem, not a gallery problem.
6. Ask the photographer. If the button is missing altogether, downloads may be switched off, or the gallery may have expired. Neither is something you can fix from your side. Gallery link does not work: troubleshooting covers the other things that go wrong with the link itself.

After it downloads

Double-click the ZIP to unzip it. Open the folder and check the number of photos against what the photographer said they delivered. Then copy the folder to 2 places: an external drive and a cloud service such as iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox. The gallery is not your archive. Most photographers take galleries offline after a set period, often 12 months, and a laptop on its own is one spilled drink away from losing the wedding.

If you want family to have the photos as well, send them the gallery link rather than the ZIP. How to share wedding photos with parents and family covers the easy ways.

Example: downloading from a FOCL gallery

In FOCL Galleries, the photographer switches on Allow downloads and can set a Download PIN for ZIPs. You pick either High resolution or 2048px web size for single photos, and you can download the whole gallery or one section as a ZIP. Large ZIPs are emailed as a link that stays valid for 7 days. If the gallery has videos, they are not included in the ZIP. Each video has its own download, either the original file or a 1080p version. Downloads and bandwidth are never capped, so you can come back and download again if you lose a copy.