Reading the collection while it is still arriving
One switch decides whether a photograph reaches the room the minute it lands or after somebody has looked at it. This is what each of the five outcomes does to the file, and how to work through a pile of three hundred in ten minutes.
A collection of guest photographs is not a curated set, and the moment a host knows that is the first time a stranger's elbow appears on the wall behind the cake table. Turning review on is the answer, but it changes what the host has to do on their own event, so it is worth understanding both halves before the evening rather than discovering them in it.
The switch, and what it commits you to
At the end of setup the wizard asks what happens when a guest uploads, and offers two answers: add it to the gallery straight away, or let me approve each one first. Straight away is the default, because most hosts would rather watch a collection fill than spend the evening reading it.
Straight away
A file appears the moment it lands. The host still deletes or hides anything afterwards, and the room sees a live collection with no gap between a photograph being sent and being shown.
Approve each one first
Nothing reaches the gallery or the room screen until the host says yes. It is the right call when the room contains people nobody has introduced, when the occasion is a surprise, when somebody else is running the collection, or when the wall is the point of the whole setup.
The one thing to know before turning it on
A submission nobody has read is invisible to everybody. An album that looks quiet during an event very often has a pile of photographs sitting in Pending review on a screen nobody has opened — which is why the switch is worth using with a phone in your pocket, not only with good intentions.
The five filters that find themFive outcomes, and what each does to the file
- Approve
- The photograph enters the gallery, the room screen and the archive. This is the outcome the guest was told about when the page said their file was received.
- Reject
- It stays with the host's pile and reaches nobody. The guest is not told, and the file is excluded from the download — which is the correct behaviour for a blur, and worth knowing before you use it on something a person cared about.
- Hide
- Off the wall, still held. Reversible, and the one to reach for when you cannot decide at eleven o'clock. Nothing is lost and nothing is shown.
- Delete
- Gone, and it gives the room back to the collection's allowance. Use it for the file that genuinely should not exist rather than the one you are tired of.
- Select
- Several files at once, then one action for all of them. This is what turns three hundred submissions into two minutes rather than three hundred taps.
Finding the pile in the first place
The media list has five filters and only one of them is interesting on the night: Pending review. The others are All, Photos, Videos and My uploads — useful the morning after, when the job is different and you are looking for a specific file rather than clearing a queue.
Open Pending review and read the count
The number tells you whether you are doing a quick look or an actual job. Forty is normal at the end of a wedding dinner; two hundred means the room has been enthusiastic and you should get help.
Reject the obvious ones without ceremony
Blurs, floors, ceilings, somebody's elbow, the four-hundredth photograph of the same cake. The pass is fast because it is not a judgement, it is a filter.
Approve anything a person would be pleased about
The test is whether the subject would want the photograph, not whether it is well-exposed. A bad photograph of a good moment is worth more than no photograph of it.
Hide the ones you cannot decide on
The unflattering shot of an aunt, the frame that is funny to three people. Hide is reversible, so the decision can wait until morning, when you are less tired and can also ask the person involved.
Then let the wall catch up
A screen in live mode picks up what you approved without a refresh. If it is in fixed mode, reopen it once before the next course.
Who else can see what
Photographs arrive straight away
- The room and the wall update while the evening is happening, which is the effect most hosts wanted
- Nothing is waiting on a screen nobody opened
- The host can still hide or delete afterwards, and the archive is what was left standing
- A bad photograph is briefly public to the people in the room
Each one is read first
- Nobody sees a file until a person decided it was allowed
- The pile is invisible, so a quiet collection may be a full one
- The host is working during their own event, which is the real cost
- The download is what was approved, and nothing else
The switch is on the collection rather than carved into it. Turning it on for the speeches and off at midnight — or the reverse — is a legitimate thing to do, and the only cost is that whatever sat unread stays invisible until you look.
Review questions
Am I obliged to read every photograph?
No. A file that stays in the pile is not lost — it is simply not shown, and it is not in the archive either. The honest default is that whatever nobody looked at is whatever nobody saw.
Does the guest know if I reject their photograph?
No message goes out. Their page said the file was received, and that is what happened; what the host chose to display afterwards is theirs to decide.
Can I undo a rejection?
Yes, from the same list, until the collection closes. Hidden files are easier still — hiding is designed as the reversible one.
What about a photograph I want off the wall but not deleted?
Hide it. It leaves the gallery and the screen, stays held in the collection, and can come back with one tap.
Is there an automatic filter for blurs and duplicates?
There is not, and there is no image analysis running on your guests' photographs at all. Duplicated frames from four different angles are also not the same photograph, which is why the pass is a human one and takes ten minutes rather than zero.
Decide before the room arrives
The switch is set at the end of setup, and can be changed at any point while the collection is open. Whatever you choose, the media list is the same screen at the end of the night.
How it works
From the invitation to the morning after
Nothing here needs an app, an account or a card. Guests give a name once and send their files.
Something this page does not answer? Write to support@candidphotos.myjoyfullday.com.