Three Tips to Make Your Wedding Photos Last Forever
In an increasingly digital world, it's sooooo important to know how to properly care for all your photographs... Especially photographs of those irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime moments like your wedding day. Luckily, caring for your wedding photographs is pretty easy. Follow these steps to increase the longevity of your photographs, so when your hard drive crashes (it will, trust me); you're not left with just your memories.
Tip #1: Actually Download Your Photographs
This sounds really basic, and it is... But I'm writing it down anyways, because it's really important that you even do this. Please download ALL your photographs! You'll have options to download the high resolution and the web size images. Download them both. Don't take screenshots. The quality of a screenshot is just bleh. Your high resolution images can be printed huge, and your web size images are ready to be blasted to the masses on Instagram & Facebook.
Tip #2: Back Your Photographs Up!
All hard drives will fail eventually. It's not a matter of "if it fails", it's a matter of "when it fails." It breaks my heart when I read Facebook posts like, "Help! My computer crashed, and I lost everything!!" Let's completely avoid that situation, okay?!
After you download your photographs, you should back them up to a separate hard drive AND some sort of online cloud. Simply doing one or the other is not enough. When your hard drive fails, your online cloud should have you covered. Honestly, the more copies you have of your photographs, the merrier. If you want to get serious about making sure your stuff is secure, read this article, which goes over the 3-2-1 system of caring for your digital data. It's the system I use to care for all of my images.
Tip #3: Print Your Photographs!
If you're friends with any photographers, you've probably heard this a few hundred times. But y'all it's so important! One of my favorite memories from growing up is going through my grandparent's old photographs. I loved the way their photographs felt in my hands, and I equally adored questioning my grandmother about the contexts of the photographs. And those cute little notes on the back with the dates and names? DO THAT. Seriously. Give that discovery process to someone else 50 years from now. Let your granddaughter's daughter find your wedding album and relive your day.
Ordering prints and albums in your online gallery is easy peasy and highly recommended. Seriously. There is NOTHING like holding a old photograph. That being said, you should avoid printing your photographs on the cheap, and instead invest in photographs from quality labs. Using a professional lab to print your photographs rather than CVS or Walmart will guarantee photos with accurate colors and better resolutions. Professional photo labs also print your photographs on quality paper so your photographs won't fade or turn yellow after a few months.
Your online gallery is equipped with a professional photo lab, and you will receive 25% off photo prints during the first week that your gallery is live. And the double bonus? This discount is available for all your friends and family members too. Just e-mail or text them the link with the good news.
