how do you sync a photo album from your phone on to your laptop?

You don't, the photo sync is one-way: Computer to Phone. If these photos were synced to your phone, you'll need thid-party software to extract them:

http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php

I gave you a link to one. Re-read my post. There are others, you can do a search yourself.

Bear in mind, photos synced to your phone were reduced in resolution for display on your phone. There's no way to recover their full resolution.