Are photo prints headed towards extinction?

keethjon · Jan 3, 2011

I was thinking... with all the digital electronics like computers, digital photo frames and albums, cell phone cameras, etc, photo prints might soon become a thing of the past. What do you guys think?

Keith
Easy Basic Photography

HWesh · Jan 3, 2011

Pen and paper still haven't gone extinct. There are many flaws in technology and many have lost all their files for various things. You can still loose your hard copies of things due to unfortunate events such as fires and floods though.

IgsEMT · Jan 3, 2011

Had a client just few weeks ago. As w/ all client, I give them low res disk as proofs. This guy wants prints. Last time I had a client who wanted printed proofs was 5 yrs ago.
Also, people still print album. You can try to enjoy wedding album on the monitor, but it isn't the same...

Jcampbelll · Jan 3, 2011

I think people will always want prints from their wedding.

IgsEMT · Jan 3, 2011

Also, keep in mind that just like classical music, won't disappear, classical traditional aspect of photography (like prints) are unlikely to disappear.

table1349 · Jan 3, 2011

keethjon said:
I was thinking... with all the digital electronics like computers, digital photo frames and albums, cell phone cameras, etc, photo prints might soon become a thing of the past. What do you guys think?

Keith
Easy Basic Photography

Are you one of those people that has graffiti all over your walls, are they bare or is there something on them?

Restomage · Jan 3, 2011

I highly doubt prints will ever die.

keethjon · Jan 3, 2011

I dont they think will die anytime soon for something like wedding prints, but I meant I don't think average people are running to the photo processing place every time they take a few good shots. Seems its just as easy to post them on flicker or some other website.
Keith
Easy Basic Photography

ClickAddict · Jan 3, 2011

The percentage of prints vs digital is certainly going down. People who used to print off 4-5 copies of each halloween costum, kids birthdays etc... are now posting or emailing these. So a huge market that used to print in multiple copies of 3x5s has converted to digital. But certain prints will probably never go away. Like others have said, people love wedding albums, people like prints on walls. (And until our entire walls turn to full digital screens, these wont go away) And something else to consider, facebook and such has spawned a much larger # of amateur photographers who although may be posting most, are also printing some of their work as well.

oldmacman · Jan 3, 2011

Because digital is more accessible, I shoot more than I ever did with film. I may not print everything from a session, but some still get printed. I talked to our local printer a year or so ago about this very issue and he indicated that since the boom of digital cameras, he has never had more business. I think this is supported by the fact that just about every drug store and grocery store now has a least one print kiosk. Our store recently expanded to 3 because the wait times were getting too long.

I just picked up a set of pics (some of which I posted here) from the fitness shots I recently processed. Amazing. I am always pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail and clarity in a printed image vs what is visible on screen. All those pixels packed into an 8x12 surface.

Some of the comments I had received on the first set were about how the image was over-exposed and I had washed out detail. When I had them printed, I brought two files: one for my original processing and one with a darker processing. The original has nice detail and clarity while the darker one looks muddy. I point this out because compressed images for the web (especially moving from a 30 MB RAW file to 250 Kb jpeg) merge tones and detail and, imo, it is nice to be able to view the actual print.

syphlix · Jan 3, 2011

take the favorite shot you've ever taken, spend a cpl bucks, and print it out at 18x24 or 20x30... you'll see that print won't die for quite a while...

zoogirlbc · Jan 3, 2011

If we were still in film days I would never be a photog. I sucked at film and disliked the permanence & expense of having to develop a whole roll of unknown (usually very bad for me!) quality of images.

Since going digital I haven't printed a lot but I just did a few prints to test the quality of my new lens and they were gorgeous! I will be making an effort to print more. I recently have decided that instead of offering Prints OR Digital Files when selling photos I would do both - client gets a 4x6 print plus a DVD of their images. Win/Win as far as I'm concerned - then when they go to Walmart and get crappy prints they will know that their photos do print nicely if you use a GOOD lab.

gennatay · Jan 3, 2011

I love giving prints as gifts, and always include a frame. You can always get a discount frames anywhere these days.

Light Artisan · Jan 3, 2011

Headed for extinction? Yes, along with cameras... one day we'll just have to look at something and it will appear wherever we want, whenever we want.

Then again, we're headed for extinction as well - mother nature will only take so much of our crap before kicking us out.

dylanstraub · Jan 4, 2011

I'm in the process of taking all the files on my photo cd's and putting them on my new nas and I was thinking that I should start shooting film again because there was something about these pictures that was very compelling. Don't get me wrong, I sucked badly back when I was shooting film but the few that I did get were really nice.