When deciding on and booking your family photography session this is a question many of my clients ask. Should they buy the digital images or physical prints and tangible products like albums and wall art? Or do they get both?
The first question to ask yourself is: Do you print your own photos on a regular basis or are all they are they all just sitting on your hard drive or phone?
Have you and been meaning to print out some photos for ages?
Are you terrified that if something happens to your hard drive or phone that you will lose all your photo as you have never got around to printing them?
Have you had time to put together albums of all of your kids photos?
Did you find the time to complete their baby book with all their baby milestones?
The true reality:
Most of our photos these days are sitting on our hard drives on our computers and never get printed. When you go to a professional photographer it’s a perfect opportunity to get some beautiful photos printed and framed to go on your wall or beautifully printed into an album that you can flick through in years to come. This will mean that your family will be able to enjoy those photos every day, and treasure them forever.
The digital files are generally one of the most expensive options on the photographer’s price list. You’ve got a bear in mind that that the photographer is giving you full print rights to print from those photos which means you can go print photos as many times as you would like. This may sound great but the reality is that most people will never get around to printing their photos and so you end up paying for an expensive product that you never actually do anything with. Those digitals just sit on your USB or hard drive or phone for years.
It may seem like a more expensive option to get the photographer to print it for you but you’ve got to remember that your photographer is using a professional printing lab, beautiful archival paper that will last your family a lifetime, all their framing is also archival and will last a lifetime.
Ask for your photographers help:
Your photographer is regularly helping their clients with how to best display their photos on their walls, so they have the best knowledge in regards to what will work in your home and your space. Ask them if you can take some photos of the rooms you would like to hang your photos and they will be able to help you with the correct sizing for the space you are wanting to display them.
So should you buy those digital images? I think in this digital age, digitals images are important to us, but don’t lose site of also getting some beautiful professionally printed and displayed portraits for your walls. You have invested in family portraits, don’t you want to show them off in your home?
Plus displaying family portraits can boost your child’s self esteem! Read more about this in my recent blog post.