Your photos deserve to live in print

If not to live in print, what is the point?

Investing in professional photos is a gesture of wanting to hold onto something precious - to have your moments documented while they feel so important and special - with the knowledge that things will change and this time is fleeting.

So why do so many people then not get around to printing them out, allowing them to live simply as a screensaver, or worse- in a drawer on some storage device that will soon be obsolete?

We’ve let you down

If you have nothing printed after your time with me - that you can hold in your hands or see on display in your home - then I have surely failed as a professional photographer. I haven’t truly given you a full service - because between us we have missed the point entirely and for that I’m sorry.

Digitals have become the standard product for photographers, but what are you really getting? Are they really the best value, long term? If we answer that question truthfully I believe that digitals would not be the only result from any session.

What digitals are worth

Digitals are the negatives, the image as a final, edited representation in its raw form. It is the fully created prototype - a moment has been noticed or created, then captured on a [VERY expensive] camera sensor (exposed correctly with intentional depth of field, and countless other factors that are decided by a photographer’s level of skill, experience, training, personality, way of feeling, life history, taste and style).

The image has then been imported into an editing software (sometimes more than one programme), and worked on artistically - colours, light, white balance and retouching to give it an aesthetic in accordance with the photographer’s style, taste, personal history, training etc. All done with an experienced, artistic eye (or AI, for some). It has then been sharpened and exported, ready for you.

Give a man a cow

A popular analogy is that instead of selling milkshakes and cheese, we’re giving away the entire cow with digitals. If you think about it, it’s the most valuable thing we have in our possession.

By selling the digital it means you can print limitless copies, in whatever size or format you like. You don’t have to order these from us any more. So it’s a significant loss of sales opportunities for modern photographers. This is what used to make it a sustainable business in the past, so we’re kind of shooting ourselves in the foot.

But is that really what clients want, or need?

I don’t think so.

Why it’s so confusing

You are presented with something that looks a lot like the thing it is supposed to produce (for example, a print).

And because there is no visual difference between the jpeg and the print, in terms of what you think you see, it can very easily be assumed to be a finished product in itself.

And of course, for some purposes it is - my website would not be very appealing if I couldn’t show my portfolio digitally. But have you ever seen a photo you love, as an enlarged fine art print? Something deep is touched when you see it - it’s an experience, it’s alive. It literally takes my breath away just thinking about it, it’s truly stunning.

This is what I want my clients to feel long after the initial novelty of their images on a screen has worn off.

This is an image of my son in the sea printed onto fine art cotton rag, and the splashes are almost 3D. It is one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen, but I only notice those water droplets on the print and as a digital it’s not a remarkable shot. Isn’t that strange? How many other works of art aren’t realised because they’ve stayed in digital form?

A fine art print demonstrating the incredible detail and quality

We are truly image rich, but print poor.

At what cost??

Then there’s the question of where people are getting them printed, if they do. Poor quality inks and papers don’t last as long, colours don’t render well so skin tones look off, and it’s just not how they’re supposed to look.

It’s when I hear from people that they never got any printed, or as it’s usually put ‘haven’t printed them out yet’ that I really feel a weight of dissatisfaction. I wonder what the point of all that effort and expense was?

Contrasted to when people tell me with big smiles about how the photos from their sessions are decorating areas of their homes, and how much they love them and are so glad they’ve got them up. That is when I feel like the job was seen through to completion.

Digitals are great to have as a back up, and yes of course it is lovely to be able to have then saved to your phone to look at and show others when you first get them.

But what about in 15 years time? What will be the same, and where will the images be then?