Wedding Album vs. Digital Files
Have you chosen to invest in digital files rather than a wedding album? Here are some considerations for you.
The Wedding Album
Tradition: The Wedding Album has become the benchmark for displaying a couple’s wedding images. The book becomes part of the family, especially in the early years as it is on display and later on stored and revisited by children and grandchildren and hopefully great-grandchildren.
Preservation: The quality and craftsmanship of today’s bookbinders have given The Wedding Album a look that can fit any style and personality. Easily stored in a preservation box at room temperature, these books last for generations.
Tangibility: The feel of the pages, the cover, the spine and the overall craftsmanship are a very large part of enjoying the modern wedding album. Photographic images were meant for print and these albums are a testament to this fact. A visit to a newlyweds home will undoubtedly involve a peak at the wedding album.
The Digital Files
Digital storage: With the access of large – resolution files comes the need to organize, store and back up these files for the future. The digital files need to managed, organized and protected. The DVD or Flash Drive where you received your files should only be considered a temporary vehicle for your digital file storage. They should be backed up onto at least one on site external hard drive and one off site hard drive or remote server.
Rate of advancement: Digital photography is here to stay, but what direction will it go? No one really knows if DVD’s, USB connections, or even JPG’s will be around in 30 years. Imagine all those floppy disks out there sitting in boxes with files from the 80′s; that very well could happen to a disk of wedding images.
Dependence on technology: There are infinite ways to use and show off digital files, from digital photo frames to slide shows with music, etc. The world has embraced the digital photography revolution, but what is often over looked it the dependence upon technology. You can’t very well look at digital images without the use of a computer, tv, and almost certainly the internet.
The Full Rant
It seems like everyone and everyone is looking for digital files these days. The majority of the people we meet on a daily basis are asking us if they can purchase the digital files of their favorite images and more often than not they ask to purchase the whole session. In this modern, digital age I can see the demand for digital products; people want to share, with friends and family, their favorite images, which until the last decade came in the form of prints and albums. It is so easy to upload your photos to facebook and show the world how good you looked on your wedding day, or how fast your family is growing and maturing. Has the demand for the digital image surpassed the demand for the print image? There are a few considerations with digital media that everyday folks might not consider when sacrificing the traditional photographic media. First, the inherent tangible nature of photographic images, specifically in the context of the wedding album. Second, proper storage and back up of all the data . Lastly the rate of technological advancement in the digital imaging industry.
The photograph has always been something you can hold in your hand, flip through and pass around. The Wedding Album, specifically has been the standard medium to show off your wedding images. Some, however, are choosing not to invest in an album and choose digital files and slideshows in lieu of the album. It’s our opinion that nothing can compare to the look and more importantly the feel of the wedding album. Just flipping through the pages, front to back, back and forth; it’s an experience that the digital medium will never replicate. Don’t get misunderstand, slideshows can be incredibly creative and eye popping, but it is different, and lacks the inherent nature of the traditional print. The true test is if you really love photographs, ask yourself this, “Would you rather see your images preserved artistically in an art book, or projected on screen?” If you are still on the digital side of the fence, I hope you have enough hard drive space.
In the world of the digital image one can never have too much storage, and you can never have enough backups. Where there were once boxes of negatives, there are now external hard drives. Digital files pile up faster than you can imagine. Take a look at your “photos” folder on your computer and then ask yourself if you’ve backed those up onto an external. If you have, are they also backed up on DVD as well; how ’bout an off site server for a fourth level of storage? The digital world is fun and pretty easy to manage, but it sure is sensitive and can quickly turn into disaster if you’re not prepared and backed up. It is common for computers and external drives to fail (knocking on all surrounding wood…. ahhh, IKEA everywhere) and data and images get lost. Whereas, it is highly unlikely your wedding album will be thrown away or will be unable to open.
Lastly we need to consider where the technology is going. We don’t really know where 10, 20 or 30 years of digital imaging innovation will take us. Will JPG be the appropriate format? Will a CD or DVD be readable in 30 years? Imagine all your digital images on floppy disk, seriously, imagine that right now. How are all your VHS home movies working out for you, have you put them on DVD yet? These are things we will all be experiencing in the coming decades, so it is easy to understand that the photographic print is not obsolete, nor will it ever be. Your wedding album is a tangible piece of art that can never be replaced by trend, even one as overwhelming as the demand for digital files.
So if you’ve chosen the digital road or are considering NOT investing in a wedding album … please let me know what you think? 978.516.0370
Great Post. It’s so helpful for wedding clients to see the importance (and the difference) of a timeless wedding book. It makes me want to post this on my blog!
A good friend of ours took pictures and video from her digital cameras. She then proceeded to make both an informal photo album and a formal album from those pictures. We were married on August 8, 2009 and I was showing the albums off at work on September 3rd. People I spoke with at work loved the albums and although they have been married for several years, they still have not put albums together from their digital media or even the negatives they purchased. If you don’t do it at the time, it just never seems to get done…and they seem regretful over the “unfinished” part of their special day.
Always go with some print media in an album or two! Especially if you share your only memories of your special occasion in a digital photo album on Facebook, Picassa, or other web-based media.