The first thing do when your final images gallery is ready is to make sure to download you images in the full resolution on a device that has a hard drive. That means on a desktop or laptop computer. Phones are great, I love mine too. However, it is not the best place to safeguard your images. 1. what if you lose your phone, and 2. phones can’t support large file sizes so your images are being compressed. Compressed images means you aren’t getting the full resolution, which isn’t ideal for printing.
Beyond making sure you download your digital images to a computer or laptop – you want to make sure you have your precious pictures secured for safekeeping. Your images should be handled like family heirlooms. Here’s a few ways to do that:
- Keep your images on multiple locations. This will help give you a protection against unforeseen events such as nature disasters.
- Invest in high quality storages. Choose a storage media like google photos or dropbox.
- Maintain the original full resolution. When you first down your images they will be full resolution. However, please be careful when transferring your images around. For example, sending images through email can risk your images to be compressed which does compromise the full resolution of your images.
Of course as a photographer the best way you can treat your images like family heirlooms is to you use. All your images should be printed for easy enjoyment. Your family pictures are an investment, and should used in beautiful wall displays and gorgeous albums. Having your images printed evokes a completely different level of emotion when seeing them. I remember as a teenager, thumbing through 4×6’s in a shoebox – going down memory lane. Searching through digital files on a computer just doesn’t have the same affect.
Making sure you are securely downloading your pictures in multiple locations and having backup storage is the best way to preserve your digital images.
As always, if you are a client of mine and ever have issues downloading or preserving your images. Please know, I’m here to help. Your images are important to me too.