7 Reasons Why Digital Images Are Hurting You
These days, digital images are incredibly convenient. They can be easily stored on your computer or a USB, they take up less space than albums and wall art, and they are always on hand when you need them. But how many times have you set that USB of photos in a desk drawer, planning to get prints but never quite getting around to it?
Digital images can be useful, especially when it comes to sharing your family photos with your family and friends on social media, but they can also be easily lost or permanently damaged. Check out these seven reasons why digital images just aren’t as great as we need them to be.
You can’t archive them
You can store your digital image files on your computer, in the cloud or in a variety of other storage places both online and in your home. But what happens if you cancel your cloud service or fail to keep up with the subscription? What happens if your computer dies, and or is stolen? What if the flash drive you kept your photos on is lost? Then your images are gone for good. There’s no way to keep a permanent archive of digital photos without constantly moving from platform to platform as technology evolves.
They can be corrupted
Just as bad as lost images are corrupted ones. Unlike prints or physical products, digital files can be corrupted, making them inaccessible and impossible to salvage. All your memories can easily be destroyed, living you with no way to get them back.
You may forget about them
Digital images are great to have—until that flash drive starts gathering dust in your junk drawer or gets left in the car. Let’s face it: We all lead pretty busy lives, and it can be hard to remember to get around to downloading those photos and actually doing something with them. Often, our digital images end up forgotten instead.
Our phone is the perfect example of this. We take photos of daily life with our kids, and yet how often do we go back and look at them. Or we upgrade to a new phone, and then we have the dilemma of what to do with all those old photos on our phone. And then when we do look through them on the odd occasion there are 20 images of the same thing we tried to take from different angles and it is so easy to get quickly bored looking at them.
They are costly—and that doesn’t include wall art
Let’s say you do remember to do something with that flash drive, and you log on to Shutterfly or visit your local Harvey Norman or Kmart to get some images printed. You’ve already paid for the session and for the digital files, and now you have to pay high prices for wall art and albums too. And the worst part? Most big companies don’t even offer high-quality prints, so you may end up with images that are too dark, too light or just not great, which is a waste of money. And within a short time, they can fade or turn yellow.
You have to keep up with new storage options
Not so long ago, you may have stored your images on floppy disks, but good luck finding a computer with a floppy disk drive these days. As technology changes, your chosen storage for your digital files has to change as well, which means you may keep switching from one storage option to another as the years pass, just to ensure that your images aren’t lost.
They have less impact
Physical prints such as wall art and albums can remind your children of their importance in your life. They can be a celebration of your family’s bonds and an ever-present sign of how much your family means to you. Digital images, however, are just photos on a screen. Studies show that they don’t have the same impact on children as seeing prints, which means you could be depriving your children of a chance to boost their confidence and self-esteem.
You aren’t respecting your photographer’s art
Photography is an art form, and the creation of beautiful images is something that your photographer has worked hard to learn. By asking only for digital images, you are missing out on the chance to see that art reproduced in high-quality heirloom prints and wall art for your family to appreciate for generations to come. That’s why it’s so important to choose a photographer who appreciates the importance of having digital images, as well as tangible albums and prints to commemorate this moment in the lives of your family.
Choose a family photographer that offers the full service
When you take the time to go to a professional family photographer, let them help you with displaying your images so they look their best. They put together displays for their clients on a regular basis. They have met and gotten to know your family, so they can hep you with which family image would be the best to blow up and put on the wall, which images really capture who your kids are at this age.
They will also have a relationship with suppliers for things like framing, and most likely will offer it to you at the same price as if you took it to a framer yourself, or even cheaper. They will also use the absolutely best products available, as their focus is on making your images last. So they will choose archival printing and framing to make sure that your wall art looks as good in years to come as it did the day you purchased it.