In our last blog post, we talked about how you can bring your photos to life through the joy of printing! Now, you may be asking, what's the point in printing if I have digital images? Well, we're going to tackle that question in today's blog post!
First, I want you to think about how long digital has been around. Then I want you to think about computers and how they have changed throughout the last 30 years or so. Digital images are subject to changes in technology and can become corrupted with time. Technology changes often, and when it doesn't your photo formats may no longer be supported by newer machines. Converting them to a different format is not always an option, and when it is an option it is a timely one. Once a file is corrupted, it is essentially lost forever. One misclick can also cause all of your saved photos to lose resolution. Once that happens, it can be nearly impossible to scale the photos back to their original size without a dramatic loss in quality. Prints, on the other hand, will never change due to technology. A bigger print will always hold its resolution no matter what is happening in the digital world. On top of that, if it is ever damaged, we can easily restore it to its former glory using our photo restoration process. Learn more about our previous photo restorations here.
There is also the problem of storing your images safely. Are they on a hard drive? The cloud? Thumb drives? Where do you store your images? Let's talk about each of these. Hard drives will fail. It's a fact. There is no getting around it. Thumb drives also fall into the category as do camera memory chips. The average life of a hard drive is about 5 years. After that, it's just a matter of time. We hear weekly about family photos, children photos-essentially all of their family memories being gone forever because of a drive crash. CD's are not much better. You are lucky to get 10 years on a CD...IF you do not write on the disk. IF the disk does not get scratched. IF your computer or device still accepts CDs. (Remember that bit about technology changing)? But I have my pictures in the cloud you might say. Well, what happens if you forget to pay your membership? What happens if the company that runs your cloud service disappears or goes bankrupt? I was recently told a story by a customer. All their digital images were in the cloud on an account owned by her late husband. After he passed, she did not think to check the account. The card expired, and the pictures were deleted by the company. She was not able to get any of them back. Everything is lost.
You also have to do research on the cloud company you are using. Did you know that most of the companies shrink your image size and/or limit the amount of space you have to upload the images to? This is HUGE! You do not know how many times a week we have people bring in digital images that they want to make large only to find out the file size is 2 inches big. "But it looks great on a computer, why can't we print it?" Computer resolution and print resolution are two TOTALLY different things. More on this in a future blog.
Printing is the perfect way to highlight your favorite photos, but it also has a few hidden benefits when it comes to increasing the longevity of your pictures. Using our high-quality, durable prints, your photos will last the test of time. Printing not only allows you to safely store your photos, but it also makes for the perfect home display. Images on a hard drive are just that, you see the hard drive. Images in a book, on a wall, on a shelf bring joy to the viewer. They are something you can share with others or just look at to remember "the good old days". Printing lasts forever. The print may get damaged, but there are ways to repair it. We often see photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 100 years, will your great-grandchildren be able to bring in a hard drive and say "this is a photo of my grandparents and great grandparents?" The answer is no!
Printing is a much safer method of archiving that lets your photos be cherished by generations to come. With the help of our plethora of printing options, you can rest easy knowing your photos will always be there. Learn more about our various printing options in our blog post here. Need photos to print? We’ve got you covered - Call us today to schedule a family or personal session!