Every year our family busts out old photo albums, brews strong coffee, and have some sort of dessert as we reminisce of the old times and wonderful memories from life’s greatest moments. When that image touches your fingers, you are transported back in time before cell phones, facebook, or the internet.
It’s no surprise where this post is going. But I will say it over and over, we’re too used to enjoying images on our phones and tablets. Everything that we do revolves around these tiny screens. Yes they have vivid displays and so much can be accomplished with them, but so much can be lost when you decide to leave your most memorable photos in digital exile.
I cannot count the times when my couples tell me they still haven’t printed their beautiful weddings photos. You can be like my mom and print every photo that was taken, or you could choose your favorites to be printed and cherished for decades. Printing your photos with your photographer has so many benefits to the outcome of your images.
Here are 5 reasons you should print your photos through your wedding photographer.
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Quality Photo Labs: Printing your images on your own is totally okay since you’ll have a print releases to all your photos. However your choice in photo labs, paper, and editing might affect how your images are printed. Most low end labs may cause your images to look different than how they were edited. Printing on high gloss paper can also damage the color integrity of the photo. Most low end labs (Costco, Walmart, Walgreen, Shutterfly) use this type of paper since it’s most cost effective. By having a matte finish paper that absorbs the light, your photos will look more natural and resemble artwork more than a magazine clipping.
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Expert Retouching: Every photographer should always deliver color corrected and cropped images. Beware of photographers that say that there is no need to edit because they use the best settings in camera. Applying color correction will make your photos pop and set your images apart from the rest. Color correction is different than retouching. Correcting the color is simply that, adding an effect that manipulates color, shadows, exposure, saturation, and highlights. Most of my clients are happy with those adjustments. But sometimes there are objects in the frame, fly away hairs, and the notorious nip and tuck retouching effects needed to turn your image into a masterpiece. Specifying your favorite photos to your photographer will ensure that those images will go through a retouching process prior to large scale printing.
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The softest paper you’ve ever felt: There are dozens of paper options to choose from when printing with a professional photo lab. It can be very overwhelming to know which one is best for your. I always go for a Matte Finish type of paper. These materials will ensure that your photo won’t catch any glare from the surrounding light. How many times have you had to turn a photo back and forth like a holographic pokemon card to see the details in the image because of the glare? Your photo paper should absorb the light and give the image a slight glow in the highlights and rich tones in the shadows. Glossy paper is nice… if you’re printing a coupon book.
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Luxury Wedding Albums: Still have your $3k wedding photos on that online shutterfly gallery waiting to be designed? DIY albums are ideal if you want to save on cost, but it’s not that simple to create spread templates (aka the place where each photo is placed on the page). Each spread must be unique and display all your photos without clashing. Once you hit print, that’s it, you’re stuck with it. Having your photographer design your album will save you time and headaches. From there you can make any necessary adjustments to the spread layouts before you print. My studio offers albums exclusively from Floricolor and our prints from Printique.
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Support your kicka$$ photographer: The wedding industry is full of vendors that are small business owners. Our business depends on the support from our amazing couples and we do a happy dance when each product is sold. Because of you, I get to provide beautiful images to dozens of families every year. Thank you!
Whenever I have guests over, the first thing they do is look at the photos I have hanging on my wall. When in doubt, prints make the best gifts for any occasion! I cannot tell you how many times printing a photo for someone meant so much to them. Especially for loved ones. When you’re looking for a photographer for your wedding, or any life event, remember to make a priority to print your favorite images or have an album designed. Chances are you’ll have the perfect place to put them where outdated images currently are.
