Ways to pick wedding album photos, compared
Five realistic options, including the ones that are better than this site for the job you actually have.
For picking album photos from a folder your photographer sent, the honest ranking is: a local tool or your file browser if the folder is already on your drive, a client gallery if your photographer already runs one, and Lightroom only if you already own it.
Google Photos works but costs you an upload of the whole delivery. Lightroom is the strongest tool and the most work to get started in. None of these is wrong — they just fail in different places, and which failure matters depends on where your photos currently live.
Side by side
| Option | Cost | Upload required | Works on phone | Best at | Worst at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaadi Pic | Free | No | No | Fast first pass on a folder already on your drive | Anything mobile; sharing with guests |
| File browser (Finder / Explorer) | Free | No | No | Always available, nothing to learn | Speed — no one-key keep/skip, so you drag files |
| Google Photos | Free tier, then paid storage | Yes, the whole delivery | Yes | Access from anywhere, easy sharing | Upload time and storage cost for a large delivery |
| Lightroom | Subscription | No (Classic) | Partly | Precision, ratings, and it is where editing happens anyway | Import and preview build before you can start |
| Client gallery (Pixieset, Pic-Time) | Photographer pays | Photographer uploads | Yes | Sharing, mobile, print sales, guest access | You cannot start it — the photographer has to set it up |
Start from where the photos are
This is the question that decides it, and it is more useful than any feature list.
- Already on your laptop's drive, or on an external disk? Use a local tool or your file browser. Uploading several thousand full-resolution frames somewhere just to pick a hundred of them is a lot of hours for no benefit.
- Already in a gallery your photographer sent? Use the gallery. It has a favourites function, your photographer gets the list automatically, and there is nothing to hand back.
- Already in Lightroom because you edit? Use Lightroom. Flags exist for this.
- Already in Google Photos because that is where everything lives? Use Google Photos, but check that what is in there is the full-resolution delivery and not a compressed copy.
Where Shaadi Pic loses
It is worth being direct about this, because the wrong tool for your situation wastes an evening.
- No phone or tablet support at all. Apple does not allow any browser on iOS to read a folder of photos, and mobile browsers generally do not support the File System Access API. This is a laptop and desktop tool. See browser support.
- Chromium browsers only. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and Opera. Safari and Firefox cannot do it.
- No sharing. There is no link to send your family. A gallery does that far better.
- No editing, no ratings, no colour labels. It is a keep-or-skip tool. If you want a five-star system, use Lightroom.
- No print sales, no branding, no client management. Photographers who need those want a gallery product, not this.
Where it wins
- Nothing is uploaded. The folder is read from your drive in the browser, so a 40 GB delivery costs you no upload time and no storage bill. You can disconnect from wi-fi after the page loads and keep working.
- No account and no cost. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to cancel.
- One key per photo. Left arrow skips, right arrow keeps,
Zundoes — which is the whole reason a first pass can be done in an evening. - Filenames survive. Keepers are copied into a
/selectedsubfolder unchanged, which is exactly what your photographer needs back. - HEIC and RAW previews work without converting anything first.
The comparisons in detail
Google Photos for album selection
Starring, storage cost, upload time, and the compression question that catches people out.
A free Lightroom alternative
Flags versus keep-and-skip, the preview build problem, and when Lightroom is still the right answer.
Client galleries, for photographers
Where Pixieset and Pic-Time beat a free local tool, and the narrow case where they do not.
Printed album vs online gallery
Not a tool question — a decision about what you are actually making, and it changes the numbers.
The free tool for the picking part
Shaadi Pic opens the wedding folder straight from your
drive — nothing is uploaded, there is no account and there is no charge.
Left arrow skips, right arrow keeps, Z undoes. Your keepers
are copied into a /selected subfolder with filenames
unchanged, ready to zip and send back.
Open your folder and start picking →
Free · runs locally · no sign-up · needs a laptop running Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc or Opera
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best tool for picking wedding album photos?
- It depends on where the photos already are. If the delivery folder is on your drive, a local tool or your file browser is fastest because there is nothing to upload. If your photographer already sent a client gallery, use its favourites function. If you already own Lightroom, its flags do the job.
- Do I need to pay for software to choose album photos?
- No. Your file browser is free and a free browser tool such as Shaadi Pic is purpose-built for the first pass. Paid tools are worth it when you also need editing, sharing, or print sales, not for the choosing itself.
- Is it worth uploading 10,000 photos to a cloud service just to pick them?
- Usually not. A full-resolution wedding delivery is commonly tens of gigabytes, which is hours of upload and, on most services, a storage bill. If the folder is already on your drive there is no benefit to moving it.
- Can I pick wedding photos on my phone?
- With a client gallery or Google Photos, yes. With a local browser tool, no — Apple does not let any browser on iOS read a folder of photos, and mobile browsers generally lack the File System Access API. A grid on a small screen also makes culling slower.