A computer-implemented technique can receive, at a computing device including one or more processors, a plurality of photos. The technique can extract quality features and similarity features for each of the plurality of photos and can obtain weights for the various quality features and similarity features based on an analysis of a reference photo collection. The technique can generate a quality metric for each of the plurality of photos and can generate a similarity matrix for the plurality of photos by analyzing the various quality features and similarity features and using the obtained weights. The technique can perform joint global maximization of photo quality and photo diversity using the quality metrics and the similarity matrix in order to select a subset of the plurality of photos having a high degree of representativeness. The technique can then store the subset of the plurality of photos in a memory.