What to do with your wedding photos after the big day
Before digital photography took over the newlyweds would receive their photos printed, often in a slip in album. Three rolls of film was the norm so the couple would receive around 75 – 90 prints in total.
Times have changed and digital photography has completely revolutionised wedding photography. Now we’re not limited to 26 shots per roll of film, and it costs nothing for us to shoot way more frames. We’re able to be more creative, try different things and ultimately take and deliver way more photographs. The cameras focus and react much faster which enables us to capture natural moments and give a story-telling approach to the day, rather than setting each shot up and taking time concentrating on camera settings.
Digital photo’s can be edited better for consistency, we have faster access to them and once you receive your gallery link you can download them, share them, upload them to social media etc.
But along with a million benefits the main drawback of digital photography is making sure the photo’s are kept safe for years to come. Have you ever seen printed photos of yourself as children, or from your parents or grandparents wedding? Isn’t it amazing to see them. This is the risk with digital, we’re not printing enough and the digital copies may not be around for the next generation to view. Believe me, I’m really guilty of this with photos of my kids. I must start printing more.
You’ve received your gallery, what next?
Before we consider printing let’s just talk about making digital back ups. Now we are in the digital era newlyweds are receiving hundreds of photos. These days the most common method to deliver the photos is via digital download from an online gallery. This method is by far superior to sending a USB or DVD, both those media can become corrupt or lost. And as technology changes they would become obsolete (the MacBook Pro I’m writing this on doesn’t have a DVD drive and only has USB-C slots).
Some photographers will keep your gallery live for a year to give you plenty of chance to download the gallery. I keep my galleries live indefinitely, meaning you should be able to access your photos for years after the wedding. However, and I can’t stress this enough, please download and back up your photos as soon as you receive them. Whilst every photographer will intend on keeping back ups of your photos, once they’ve been delivered it is your responsibility to keep them safe. If I got abducted by aliens my wife wouldn’t be able to keep paying for the gallery hosting, so it’s imperative to get them backed up immediately.
Every year a good handful of previous couples contact me saying they’ve forgotten their gallery login and never downloaded the photos. Sometimes this is the groom in a panic as his wife had given this job to him! I’m always more than happy to help and with the online gallery being awesome I’m able to get the photos back to the couple immediately. But what if those aliens had taken me to their home world? The couples photos would have been lost forever. So please download them as soon as you receive the gallery.
How should we back up our photos?
Back ups should always be in at least two places. Cloud storage is the way forward and Google drive is free for the amount of space you need for you wedding gallery. So download a copy and pop them in drive for your first line of defence.
Next would be a local back up on your laptop hard drive, and ideally an external hard drive for extra security. Pen drives aren’t the best idea as they don’t last very long and are easily lost. This is the reason I stopped sending USBs in fancy boxes, after a few years they stop working and most couples didn’t have a back up (fortunately I did). The gallery and cloud storage is far more secure.
You can download directly from the gallery to your mobile. This is great but please don’t rely on this as your main back up. I’ve lost count of all the great photos of my kids I’ve lost when phones have been upgraded etc. Uploading to social media is great too, but they have software that compresses the photos so you wouldn’t be able to download them from Facebook to use for printing as it would be pixellated.
Print them, please!
I know it sounds a bit of a fiddle keeping digital photos safe but this is a sign of the times. This digital era of social media has been said to be the most photographed ever but there will be the least records of those photos in the future. This is why I advise you to select your favourite pics, go online and get the lot printed. Many online printers offer discounts and offers for new customers, so it really wont cost much at all. When you receive them pop them in a shoe box and put them in the loft safely. That way you’ve always got a hard copy of your favourite photos.
At the very least buy yourself a few frames and get a few of the picture around the house, and why not buy a few as presents for family too.
Albums
Of course a wedding album is by far the best way to view and keep your photos safe. The reason I didn’t mention this sooner is because I wanted this post to be about backing up your digitals, rather than appear to be an album ales pitch. But there is no doubt weddings and albums go together like hot fudge cake and ice cream. Sitting with your family with an album on your knee flicking through the pages isn’t just looking at photos, it’s an experience in itself. You can design albums yourself in your online gallery or I can design them for you. As well as your main album there are options for smaller copies to give to parents if you fancy treating them too. You don’t have to buy an album straight after the wedding, it’s not usual for clients to come back after a year or two.
You might ask yourself if an album is worth the investment, you probably wont be looking at it every week and it not the sort of thing to leave on the coffee table. Well thats totally true. When you first get your album you’ll look at to loads and show it to everyone. Then it’ll go behind the sofa and come out at Christmas and your anniversary. Eventually it’ll find its way into the loft and you might not get it out again for a couple of years. But you will always know where it is, the pictures will be safe. If you decide to have a family the album will be infinitely more important to your future generations than it will to you and will end up forming part of your family heritage. Your grand kids wont be accessing your cloud storage or ancient laptop hard drive, but they’ll absolutely love to flick through your wedding album. So give the some thought and when you’re ready give me a shout and I’ll talk you through the process.
All in all digital is the best thing to happen to wedding photography but it does mean the couple needs to be a little more careful making sure they have a back up. If you need any help at all with any of the above points I’m always here to help, just drop me a line and I’ll answer any questions you might have.
What other cool ideas are there for our photos?
One of my clients recently made instagram reels of each section of the day, ceremony, speeches etc. Also reels of family or friends. Whilst not a method of back up I thought this was really cool.
Mix tiles are cool. I’m not associated with this company in any way, I just think they look a great way to get pictures on the wall https://www.mixtiles.com
Photo gifts – your gallery has some options for you to consider
Scrap books are a great. Sometimes clients use the photos they didn’t put in their album for this. Get them printed in different sizes and put something together one Sunday afternoon.
Wall art – in the gallery you’ll see options for high quality canvas and framed prints.
Can you think of any other ideas? Let me know and I’ll add them here!