How to find your photo of the year
Choosing one photo from a year of thousands is hard because you are comparing moments, not pictures. These criteria make it faster, and the end of this guide explains how Recapped picks one on your iPhone.
Criteria that work
Would you print it?
Imagine it on a wall. A photo you would frame usually has a clear subject, readable light and a moment you remember.
Does it say something about your year?
A technically perfect sunset is not always your year. A blurry photo from the day you moved may be. Decide whether you want the best picture or the most meaningful one, and pick on purpose.
Are people or pets in it?
Photos with faces you know get the longest look from anyone you share them with. If one of your strongest candidates includes someone you care about, it probably wins.
Does it work as a thumbnail?
Your photo of the year will mostly be seen small, on a phone, in a feed. Strong shapes and light survive; busy backgrounds do not. Check it at the size of an app icon.
Can you share it?
If other people are in it, make sure they would be fine with it being posted.
A quick method by hand
- Open the Favorites album and sort by date. Favorites are photos you already marked.
- Pick ten candidates, one or two per season.
- Remove anything that fails the print test.
- Compare the last three side by side on a larger screen.
- Sleep on it. The one you still like the next day is the one.
Avoid screenshots, scans of documents and receipts. They are useful for life but they are not what you want to remember.
Common mistakes
- Choosing the newest photo because it is fresh in your mind. Scroll back to January first.
- Choosing the most liked photo on social media. Likes measure your audience, not your year.
- Choosing a group photo where you look good but nobody else does.
- Never narrowing down, so you post five photos and none of them lands.
How Recapped picks it on your iPhone
Recapped automates the shortlist so you start from a strong guess instead of a blank screen. Everything runs on the phone and no photo is uploaded.
- Aesthetics score. It uses Apple's on-device aesthetics analysis to rate how well composed each photo is.
- Favorites. Photos you hearted get extra weight, since you already told your phone they matter.
- People and pets. Photos with faces or animals are favoured over empty scenes.
- No screenshots or documents. These are filtered out before scoring, so a receipt can never win.
The result is one photo for the photo of the year card, which is free in Recapped. It is a recommendation, not a verdict, and you can disagree with it. The pick works on the whole library, so a library of thousands is fine; the first run takes about 30 seconds for a typical one.
What to do with it
Post it with a single line of context: where, who, why it was the year. Pair it with the rest of your recap, covered in our guide to making a year-in-photos recap from your camera roll. Recapped is $4.99 once with no subscription: get it on the App Store.