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Downloading your photos

You can take one photo or the whole gallery. They are different buttons.

One photo​

Open the photo, then use the download icon on it. On a phone you have to open the photo first: the icons are not on the small thumbnails.

The first time, a Download photo panel asks for your email. It asks for the four-digit PIN too, if the gallery uses one. Saving a single photo goes through the same check as saving the whole gallery.

If your photographer offers more than one size, a short panel asks which you want, with a Remember my selection box so you are not asked again.

Use the Download gallery icon in the row of buttons at the top of the gallery. It opens a new tab. If nothing seems to happen, check whether your browser blocked that tab or opened it behind this one.

Then:

  1. Enter your email, and the four-digit PIN if you are asked for one, then Continue
  2. Tick the chapters you want, or use Select all
  3. Pick a size if you are offered a choice
  4. Click the download button and wait while it packages your photos
  5. When it says Your photos are ready, save the file or files it lists

Keep that tab open while it prepares. Nothing is emailed to you, so closing it means starting again.

If you prepared a download here before and it is still live, the page offers Download existing files or Choose new photos. Taking the one you already have saves you the wait.

Which size to pick​

You will see one or two of these:

  • Original is the full-quality file. Pick this for printing, or for anything you want to keep properly.
  • Web Size (2048px) is large, quick to download, and fine for screens and most small prints.
  • Standard (1024px) and Small (640px) are for sending to people and posting online.

If you are not sure, take the originals. You can always make a small copy from a big file, never the other way round.

If your connection is slow, a smaller size is far easier. Your photographer decides which sizes are offered, so if you only see one, that is why.

Large galleries come in parts​

A big gallery is split into several files, listed one under another. Nothing downloads on its own: you have to click every part in the list.

A small gallery is simpler. It gives you one Download your photos button instead.

Missing a part is the most common way people end up without half their photos and never notice. Work down the list to the bottom.

The four-digit PIN​

Some galleries ask for one before downloading. It comes from your photographer, usually in the same message as the link. There is no way to reset it yourself, so ask them if you do not have it.

Once you have entered it you are not asked again for a day. Too many wrong guesses pause you for about fifteen minutes.

Saving to an iPhone or iPad​

Apple handles this differently, so the gallery does too. Tap download and you are told the photo will open in a new tab. Then touch and hold the photo and choose Save to Photos.

You are shown that explanation once. After that, downloads open the photo straight away and you save it the same way.

If nothing opens, allow pop-ups for the gallery and try again.

Prepared downloads stay live for two days. If yours has lapsed, there is a Request again button on the same page. It is a normal thing to do, not an error, and you do not need to bother your photographer about it.

If you left the page in the middle of picking chapters and came back much later, it tells you too much time has passed and offers to start that again. Same thing, no harm done.

Things you cannot do here​

  • Right-click and save. That is switched off deliberately. Use the download button.
  • Order prints. There is no shop. Ask your photographer.
  • Get the photos back after the gallery comes down. Galleries do not stay up forever. Download what you want to keep, and keep your own copy somewhere safe.

That last one matters more than any of the rest. Your gallery is a delivery, not a permanent archive.

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