Get every guest shooting
(without begging)

8 min readUses Content capture Lead capture

The short version

1Put the QR where people wait. Queues, coat check, the bar. Not the door.
2Lead with their photos. “Come find your photos from the event” is the line. Adding their own comes second.
3Fill the album before they arrive. Your photographer’s shots and your team’s phone photos give everyone something to find.
4Ask once, out loud, with a reason. Then stop asking. The next morning, tell them their photos are up.
5Read who came. Every guest who joins leaves a name, and the workspace keeps who opted in and what they said.

Five moves, in order

1Step 1 of 5

Put the QR where people wait

Nobody scans a QR on the way to something fun. They scan when they are stuck: in the bar queue, at coat check, waiting for the photo wall to clear, in the line for the bathroom (yes, really).

Walk the venue before doors open and find the three spots where people stand still for more than a minute. That is where your signs go. The entrance is the worst spot of all: everyone is busy finding their friends.

Print it bigger than feels reasonable. A coaster-sized QR works from about a metre away. A postcard-sized one works from across the bar.

A QR poster for the Sundown Festival album: the cover photo behind a large QR code, with Come find your photos from the event — A QR poster for the album, big enough to scan from the queue.

2Step 2 of 5

Tell them their photos are waiting

“Share your photos” asks guests for something. “Come find your photos from the event” offers them something they want. Everyone wants the shots they are in, and almost nobody has them, because those were taken on someone else’s phone.

Put that line on the sign and in the album description, and say it when you call it out. Once guests are in, looking for themselves, adding the photos they took is an easy next step.

Keep the promise specific: whose photos are in there (your photographer’s and everyone else’s), how they find themselves (Find me in the You tab looks on their own phone) and what it costs them (about 20 seconds, no app). Their own recap the next morning is a nice extra, so mention it once.

One asks for photos. The other says theirs are waiting.

3Step 3 of 5

Fill the album with your own photos first

Nobody opens an album to look at nothing. The photos are the draw, so the album needs some before guests arrive, and the best ones to have in there are photos of the guests themselves.

Brief your photographer to shoot people as well as the brand moments, and add their shots in batches during the event so the album keeps filling. Give your team the same job on their phones: every guest they snap is one more person with a reason to open the album.

Before doors open, add a few of your own: the setup, the team, the venue. Then tell guests what is coming: “Our photographer is here for the whole event, and every shot goes in the album.” Keep the polished press shots for your feed. Guests open the album to find themselves.

The album’s Photos tab: all 22 photos, filed in groups — Photos already in the album give every guest something to find.

4Step 4 of 5

Call it out once, mid-event, with a reason

Signs do the quiet work. One announcement does the loud work. Pick a moment when everyone is already looking the same way: after the speech, before the DJ, when the cake comes out.

Give them a reason to look now: the photographer’s first shots are up, so come find yourself. A live poll in the album or a raffle for anyone who adds a photo in the next 20 minutes works too. If you switched on Lead capture, this is when most sign-ups happen, because people are already in the album.

Once is enough. Twice is a reminder. Three times and you are the person with the clipboard and the petition.

A group gathered in a studio space — One call out, while everyone is already looking up.

5Step 5 of 5

Close the loop the next morning

The album is not finished when the event ends. The next morning is when people want to see how they looked, and when they find six more photos in their camera roll.

Send one short message before 11am: “Your photos from yesterday are up. Come find yourself.” Send it wherever you invited people, and guests who left an email on the sign-up card get it in their inbox too. Late uploads are often the best ones, sent after a coffee and a think.

Then open the workspace. Every guest who joined left a name, and next to it sits who opted in to hear from you and what they said in the prompts. That is the audience the photos brought in, and it is what goes in the debrief.

The Attendees page: everyone who took part, who came back and who signed up — The next morning: everyone who came to find their photos, and who signed up.

Your take

Three quick ones. Tap an answer to see how everyone else replied. We read every answer, it shapes what we build next.

1 of 3

Where does your photo QR usually end up?

2 of 3

Roughly how many guests add photos at your events?

3 of 3

What stops guests adding photos, in your experience?

Anything else on your mind?

What you wish this guide covered, what drives you mad about event photos, anything. Read by the people building MyWrap.

Steal this

Four lines to start from. Copy, paste, swap in your own link.

For the QR sign

“Come find your photos from the event. Our photographer’s shots are already in. No app, about 20 seconds.”

For the album description

“Our photographer is here for the whole event, and every shot lands in this album. Come find yours, and add the ones you took while you are here.”

For the mid-event shout

“Quick one! The photographer’s first shots are in the album. Scan any QR by the bar to find yours, and add a couple of your own. Okay, back to the party.”

For the next-morning text

“Morning! Thank you for coming. Your photos from yesterday are up: [link]. Come find yourself, and add anything you missed.”

Fair questions

Do guests need to download anything?

No. They scan, the album opens in their browser, and they add photos from their camera roll. No app, no account.

What if nobody adds anything in the first hour?

Completely normal. Early on, people are saying hello, not taking photos. Uploads pick up once drinks are in hands and the first big moment lands. Check your sign spots and check that your photographer’s first batch is in the album before you panic.

Isn’t asking for emails a bit much?

Only when it feels like a wall. With Lead capture the sign-up card sits inside the album, in your own words, and guests opt in while they look for their photos. The first time a guest saves a photo, an unticked box offers to share their email with you, and the download goes ahead either way.

How many QR signs do I actually need?

One for every spot where people stand still, plus one per table if guests are seated. For a party of about 150, three to five signs usually does it.

How often can I send the link before it gets annoying?

Twice is plenty: once before the event and once the morning after, when the photos are up. The QR signs and one call out cover the event itself.

What does the brand get out of it?

The audience record. Every guest who comes to find their photos joins with a name, and the workspace keeps who opted in to hear from you and what they answered in the prompts and polls. The debrief and the social library are built from the same album.

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