Something To Hold On To - The Popularity Of Digital Photo Prints

Digital photography has been around now for several years, in fact the days when we had to post rolls of film or wait days for them to be developed at the local chemist seem an age away. How did we ever cope with just 24 shots? The new age of digital photography has brought with it a flexibility and a freedom that the old wet process never had and now we are able to take and store thousands of images whereas before we would have been severely limited as to how many we could have.

The freedom has opened up all sorts of possibilities not least of all the ability to look at pictures on computer screens, TVs and in digital photo frames. We can put images on the web via social networking sites and people on the other side of the world can view our pictures any time of the day. The possibilities for sharing experiences with friends and relatives are huge but has something been lost? Is there still room for actual, physical photos? Are people who collect digital photo prints in a minority?

When digital photography took off in the 1990's it was still relatively expensive as a hobby. As time progressed and the price of equipment came down more and more people turned from traditional film to the digital form and as a consequence some companies began to predict the death of the industry. Some companies announced they would stop making wet process materials altogether and concentrate on the new media. Many predicted that digital photo prints were the future and that high street shops that processed films were finished. They were half right.

Because many of the early adopters, people who buy new technology when it first appears, in the field of digital photography were familiar with technology already most had computers and printers already. These people were able to print their own digital photo prints from home but as the technology was new many of the results were disappointing. Without very expensive equipment the digital photo prints that could be made at home were nowhere near the standard of old wet process prints. The only way to get anything remotely comparable was to take them to a specialist.

It was this gap that many of the high street film processors latched onto. Rather than digital photo prints killing of the need for high street printers they reinforced the need. There was also the aspect of cost to consider. Inks for home printers are not cheap and often to get the maximum quality from their digital photo prints people would have to buy several cartridges to print out any reasonable number. Taking them to a specialist produced a better quality digital photo print at a fraction of the cost.

Technology has moved on again and now home printing is much more affordable and user friendly. Instead of using the inkjet printer that you would use to print letters on to print digital photo prints there are specific models that just print photos. But it seems that there is still a place for the high street printers. Even as camera phones and digital cameras become better, smaller and more popular, people it seems still like to get a good quality print that they can keep in a wallet or purse and occasionally take out and show to people. As long as there are images in the world that is unlikely to change.

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