She wanted to meet at a local coffee shop she had heard great things about. But when we arrived, the inside seating was closed due to Covid. Fortunately, because this is Texas, there’s always a Whataburger near by. Before Covid, I met almost all of my clients in coffee shops. Now I meet them in Whataburger’s because there’s always one nearby and they are open.
Our first face-to-face meeting started off just the way they always do. She was already frazzled from the work of planning her wedding but as she showed me her ideas and we talked about her plans, everything was absolutely beautiful! As a photographer, I love all of the beautiful creative work that brides and their friends and families pour into weddings to make them very beautiful and also personal events. We chatted and the conversation naturally moved on to planning and organizing the photography, I mean after all, it was the reason we were both there!
At some point, usually about half-way through the discussion, the bride-to-be always asks “Now, am I going to get all of the digitals”
“STOP ASKING ABOUT DIGITALS!!!” I screamed at the bride as I flipped the table over in a fit of rage.
Well, not really. But there is an unhealthy obsession with digital images. Brides and families always want the digitals. But digitals aren’t really what brides should be worried about!
The truth is, digital downloads are not actually the best way to get your images, display your images, or preserve your images! Most brides are concerned with digital downloads first and printed images second, but that is actually BACKWARD!
“Ok,” you might be thinking, “so whats wrong with digitals?”
Everything actually. I could write a book on what’s wrong with receiving digital images as your final wedding product from your photographer. Let’s take a brief look at some of the issues
Long-Term Storage
You downloaded them from a gallery, or received a flash drive and then downloaded them to your hard drive and you assume they will be there forever. But hard drives crash, flash drives get lost, and your gallery expires eventually. Digital storage is prone to corruption and loss more so than I am personally comfortable with. Every digital image I have is backed up with triple redundancy because I don’t trust digital storage for the long term. It has failed me too many times. And losing all of your wedding photos because of a crashed hard drive is just tragic. After all, who wants to be showing your grand children screen shots of wedding photos from Facebook because you lost all of the images in a hard drive crash 30 years ago?
Quality
Most of the images you receive digital are compressed and not the full resolution. The high resolution images that us photographers take and store are really large. What you are downloading is not the best image. Its good don’t get me wrong, but its not the best.
Display
Most people’s digital images never get seen. They show up on social media memories every once in a while, but that’s it. You can print the images yourself, but the print quality isn’t usually that great. I guess your desktop wall paper is a good option for displaying them. But who wants icons all over you and your spouse?
Prints actually fix all of these issues!
First, photographic prints last for hundreds of years (when printed professionally). They do take up physical space, but so does the computer or hard drive you are going to store them on. Print quality is also significantly higher when professionally printed. You can select from a variety of papers and finishes as well, not to mention sizes and frames! Printing an image literally moves it from being pixels on a screen to being a work of art hanging on a wall or a preciously moment sitting on your desk. Plus you’re paying tons of money and it just seems silly to not get a physical product.
We feel so passionately about prints, we’ve changed the way we do business!
As a wedding photographer, I’m not just trying to sell you prints. I actually believe in the power of prints personally. I still use my cell phone to take photos, but in the process, I order a print of every image I take! For our personal family photos, I print every image I take! We have wonderful photo albums full of our story and we can sit down as a family and share those moments again and again together.
When you book with us, you will get prints first! And also digital copies but our main focus is to give you an amazing and beautiful collection of masterfully created images, printed on real photo paper in a lab by professionals, ensuring your moments will last for centuries. Digitals, are a great back-up and we aren’t try to keep them from our brides and families, but they shouldn’t be your main focus! Get the prints! Get the photo book or photo album! Get them framed and decorate your home with those precious and beautiful moments from the first real day of your committed lives together!
And please, when we meet, you can ask about the digitals, but don’t forget to ask about the prints!