We offer complimentary digital downloads with all of our wall collections, keep scroling to see why!
The great debate... prints vs digitals! As a photographer specializing in beach portraits on the Gulf Coast, with my masters degree and 20+ years in the industry, I can tell you, we have experienced it ALL! While we have experience film to digital and embraced all the changes along the way, we can honestly say we still pride ourselves on the beautiful home decor we create for our clients. Families, Seniors, Engagements, Weddings, Maternity to Newborn ~ we have clients that are family because we have experienced everyone of these life events with them.
As a mother of 5, I have experienced the joy of each baby bump all the way up to my "baby" graduating from college. And I have printed images of every important milestone proudly displayed in my home. While I am partial to Home Decor, I also understand the importance of digital files.
I personally suggest every client have a digital copy of their images. I have designed home decor collections that allow you the best of both words, beautifully printed and crafted Wall Portraits, Heirloom Albums, Image boxes and all come with complimentary digital files! Let's take a moment to review the benefits (and pitfalls) of printed portraits vs digital files to see why you need both!
Topic #1: Viewability
It might seem obvious, and I know this sounds crazy... but the purpose of photography is to be seen! Family Portraits, senior portraits, any images of our loved ones are meant to be looked at! So the first topic we are going to discuss is the viewability of images.
Printed portraits:
Printed Wall Portraits have the advantage of being easily displayed and viewed everyday in your living room, or any other common areas of the home. A small print on your office desk, a large wall portrait over the living room sofa, a few framed photos on the mantle... when your images are printed and on display you are creating loving emotions each time you view them! Although our daily lives are becoming more and more digital, we still exist in a physical world and most of our important and milestone experiences happen with physical touch. This gives printed photographs a more "real" nature. They exist in our physical world and can be viewed and experienced directly and tangibly. When you decorate your home with printed portraits, you fill your physical living space with memories. The downside is that physical prints are restricted to space. You can't view your images everywhere you go, but you will experience them everyday in the places you most frequent--your home, office, etc.
Digital Images:
Digital images are peerfect for keeping those memories close to you when you are on the go. Thanks to smartphones, digital images can also be taken with you wherever you go. Saving your photos on your mobile device lets you access all of your images anywhere at any time. While many still carry a wallet with their favorite 'wallet print', most of us love the conveience of showing off our entire gallery of images. The downside is you're much less likely to view your images on a daily basis as you would with printed media. Compared to having your photos on display in your home, you're unlikely to regularly scroll through all of your images on screen. If you have the copyright release to print your digital images from anywhere you'd have the best of both worlds! You just have to make sure you go to a quality lab so your images turn out as beautiful as intended. Many common online retailers or drug store printers are not color accurate, you we recommend going with a professional lab for printing, even if it means spending a little bit more. You also want to make sure that your images are cropped and sized correctly as well as keeping the resolution high. Images that look great on screen don't always look great printed--hello blurry, pixely prints. It does take some extra work on your part, that's why we suggest printing Home Decor items with Melonie Marie Photography.
Topic #2: Longevity
The next topic to cover is how lasting your images are. You want the portraits you love and cherish to last for as long as possible! Especially with images such as Wedding Memories, Maternity Bumps, and Family Portraits, you want to be able to hang on to the special experiences for decades--even pass them down to your children! Portraits help preserve your legacy, so it's important for your images to last through the years.
Printed Portraits:
With proper care, professionally printed home decor items can last for generations! When avoiding things like water damage or sun fading, wall portraits, albums, etc will last throughout the years. Granted, not all prints are created equal. The image you have printed at a common online retailer or the local drugstore will not hold up as well as the ones created through a professional portrait lab. That's why Melonie Marie Photography works with professional labs to create high-quality photographic products to make sure that your valued images hold up to the test of time.
Prints also develop an emotional connection as time goes on. There's nothing quite as wonderful as going through a box of old photographs during the holidays. Photographs that you can hold in your hands and experience in a tangible manner have a timelessness about them.
Digital Images:
Digital images, on the other hand, have not stood the test of time. Many have been lost over the years due to misplace or stolen phones, dead hard drives, etc. When backed up onto separate hard-drives or online storage, your images could last until the end of time! You just have to make sure that you do, indeed, back up your images an update the storage device as technology changes- some of us still have a floppy disk laying around somewhere. Computers crash, flash-drives get misplaced and it can be all too easy to lose all of your precious memories in a matter or seconds if they are not saved somewhere else as well. There's also the risk of the "out of sight, out of mind" effect. When images only exist via your phone or your computer, it can be easy to forget that they exist at all... especially in the long term. Again, especially when it comes to Professional Portraits, you'll want to be able to pass your family photos down to your children. So make sure that your images are saved in a manner that your family will be able to access and not be forgotten.
Topic #3: Sharing
Some professional portraits you will want to to just keep for yourself and those closest to you and that's perfect. However, most of the time you are excited about your portraits and want to show them off! How you plan to share your photographers is another important item to consider. Printed photographs and digital pictures are shared in vastly different ways and each has their pros and cons.
Printed Portraits:
Printed photographs make great gifts for friends and family. When it comes to Senior Portraits, there's something fun about trading wallet-size pictures with your friends, and sending out those open house cards. Family portraits are the perfect holiday card when printed on our double sided 5x7 pearl finish card stock, many even frame them. Portraits also make fabulous gifts whether it's a Christmas present for the grandparents or something unique for Mother's Day. And then, of course, sharing your wedding printed thank you's can be a fun and emotional experience. The number one feel good feeling... going through and old album with your loves ones or showing off your beautiful family portraits displayed on your wall when friends visit your home.
Digital Images:
Digital images are the best option for sharing your photos to a large number of people, and quickly--via social media of course. This means that friends and family from across the country can still see and enjoy your portraits. You can your favorite images to nearly everyone with just the press of a button! Granted, you lose a little bit of that personal touch that comes with a printed image. Family are less likely to savor a digital picture like they do a printed portrait. Once they see the picture, and click the "like" button, they are scrolling on to the next thing. A bonus to sharing an image online, theoretically, it's there forever. So your images can be accessed by friends and family again in the future.
The value of both: Prints & Digitals
As you can see, both Home decor and digital files should be kept, stored and maintained so that you can pass on these memories from generation to generation. We believe in the value of having both print and digitals is so important that we offer complementary digital files with all of our Wall Collections.
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