Even if you individually control the photons, I'm not sure that's possible. Matter still behaves like a wave at quantum levels. I don't know enough to say with certainty. This is all highly speculative.
You don't need all your photons to get to the destination. Only some of them. And you can use error correcting methods to ensure they have a useful pattern when they arrive.
If the errors are happening further out than your civilization has ever been, what's correcting them?