In short
Photo challenges – often run as a photo scavenger hunt – are a list of subjects for guests to capture over the course of an event. They usually sit on the tables as small cards. The nice thing is that they run in the background, don't interrupt the schedule and get people talking who hadn't met before.
Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash
The idea comes from the classic scavenger hunt, where teams track down items on a list; in one variation, players photograph the items instead. According to Wikipedia, gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell popularised these games at New York parties from the early 1930s.
Example
At a wedding, each table gets five cards: "Two guests who met for the first time today", "The couple laughing – not posing", "A detail nobody else noticed", "The dance floor at midnight", "A deliberately blurry shot full of movement". The next morning, the couple discover pictures of their day they would never have seen otherwise. Our wedding photo scavenger hunt guide has dozens more ideas.
What to watch out for
- Quantity: Five to ten challenges per table is plenty. Too many feels like homework and the cards end up next to the bread basket.
- Timing: Start after the formal part, such as the ceremony, so nobody is wandering around with a phone while the vows are said.
- Mix it up: Combine easy subjects with tricky ones and funny prompts with emotional ones.
- Keep it optional: Challenges are an invitation, not an obligation.
- Brief your photographer: Let them know, so they aren't surprised by phones popping up.
- Decide where photos go: Put a QR code on the card, otherwise the results end up scattered across dozens of phones.
Put the prompts on a grid and add a winner, and you've got photo bingo. Must-have shots like family group photos don't belong on challenge cards, though – they go on a shot list for whoever is covering them. At work events, photo challenges also double as low-key team building.
For other occasions, see our party photo challenges and bachelorette party games.
With Filmriss
Photo challenges pair well with a shot limit: when each guest has a fixed number of shots, they think more carefully about every picture. Guests scan the QR code, shoot in the browser, and every answer appears together at the reveal the next morning.
