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My resolution this year was to share more of me with my clients. Not in the sense of babysitting and cleaning (I need my own help with that stuff) but with sharing more of my thoughts and knowledge regarding all things photography.

For those of you from way back when, remember prints? You use to develop a roll of film and get all your little 6×4””s in a neat envelope, it even had that pocket for storing the negatives. You would umm and ahhh over gloss or matte? Border or no border? Us busy folk would throw an extra $5.95 over the counter and request “One hour please”.

You would return 59 minutes later with the excitement of seeing what your genius photographic skills had caught on film, delightfully flicking through your barely dry prints and gushing over just how many photos you now had to show off.

Well, when was the last time you had that experience?

These days we just look at the back of the camera, delete the dodgy photos then upload the good ones to Facebook and wait for the likes to roll in. All the while your albums and frames sit empty in the draw while you keep promising yourself you””ll get some photos printed. Eventually. Maybe.

Believe it or not those One Hour photo labs still exist. The film processing has retired but you can still get your files made into those fun 6×4””s and guess what? They still offer borders.

This brings me to the main part of the story. Hands up who has professional photos on their computer? Perhaps your wedding images or a newborn session that you received in high resolution format? Keep your hands up if you have had some of those files printed yourself. Keep your hands up if you were blown away by the results.

No one? I thought so.

There is a bit of a theory that professional photographers just sell prints to make money. This isn”t entirely untrue, I mean, we certainly don”t do it for free do we? There is however another reason why we love printing for clients- Our prints are just plain awesome.

Any good professional photographer will use a professional photographic lab for printing. You may not have seen one before, they don”t have frames on display in the window, they don””t have a fluro light over the door flashing “1 Hour Printing” and they certainly don”t have kiosks for you to stick your USB in. What they do have are large, quality printers that are finely tuned to produce accurate colour onto archival quality paper.

For those of you who are now falling asleep at your desk, I will make this story easier to follow with pictures. Here is a digital photo of my son:

It has had some basic editing done but overall it is a pretty straight forward shot off the camera. I sized this image as a 5×7 inches and had it printed twice, once at my pro lab and once at a local One Hour Photo. Here is what I received-

The image on top cost me $1.50. The image below retails at $30.

Now, like any girl out there, I love a bargain but sometimes you just get what you pay for. I think the comparison shot speaks for itself.

Having said that, before you start emailing your photographer the contents of your memory card and trying to decide between gloss or matte let me just say- There is a time and place for one hour photo printing. I wouldn”t expect any average person off the street to start having all their happy snaps professionally printed and framed, the cost alone makes that unrealistic. However, getting your professional photos professionally printed just makes sense.  When you”ve gone to the time, effort and expense of having professional photos taken, why cheapen them with 5c printing? It””s like building a beautiful home then filling it with plastic furniture, it makes the whole project look and feel well, cheap.

Hopefully this can shed a bit of light on why I and other photographers recommend pro printing. When it comes to preserving something as precious as your wedding photos or your family portraits for generations, sometimes $1.50 just doesn”t cut it.

-Clare

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Meg & Ash were married on February 18th 2012 in  ceremony on the balcony at True South before joining guests for a relaxed reception overlooking the water.