Digital Negatives, Hi-Res Images, Printable Images

Many brides have heard about digital negatives or high-resolution images and would like to have them. These are the version of your wedding photographs that you can print yourself. You don't have to pay the photographer for each print, if you have the hi-res images, so there you should be able to save a lot of money, especially since Aunt Harriet wants pictures of your cousins from the wedding, etc. etc.

The reality is, however, that this is not just a straightforward subject.

First of all, we photographers have been told by our high-end gurus and advisers never to sell the digital negatives or hi-res images, even though unlike real negatives, we always have copies.

On the other hand, many photographers plying the low-end side of the business, will offer coverage with digital negatives in a relatively inexpensive package, known pejoratively in the industry as the "shoot-and-burn" photographers.

What should you as a bride want? What can you ask for? What can you expect to get?

The first thing that you should know is that unlike film-based photography, the digital image almost always benefits from some sort of editing. Well, so did film negatives, and this was done laboriously in the chemical darkroom, mostly by dodging and burning in, that is, intensifying or diminishing the light from the enlarger hitting the paper. I did it for years.

With digital photography, though, we have many more controls than this. We can take a mediocre image, or even a bad one, and turn it into an acceptable or even outstanding image. This is the final edit of the image. After putting so much work into a small number of images from a wedding, will your photographer just give you this final version for you to make unlimited prints from?

So the digital negatives you receive may not be the final edits. They will probably have some preliminary editing done, just so that they are reasonable images, and you might not know the difference if you don't see a final edit alongside. So they will still probably look better than your uncle's point-and-shot photos. You may not be able to make really big (wall portrait size) enlargements from them, however, and this might not be a bad thing.

So if the photographer is willing to give you the digital negatives for you to print, they will probably be decent but not outstanding images (no skin softening, no teeth whitening, no bringing up the dark background, etc.) If there are any you end up wanting as wall portraits, you will want a second, more intensive edit, to make the photograph the very best it can be, since you'll be looking at it for a long time—and your perceptions may change. So it is probably worth it to have your photographer handle the really big enlargements. You can still use the digital negatives you receive for "snapshot" distribution, and you really can save money this way.

Another thing to consider is when you receive your digital negatives. If the photographer will give them to you only after you order an album, this, too might be to your benefit. After all, any image that goes into an album will receive a second, more detailed editing, and you will get this re-edited image among your digital negatives. If you don't purchase an album from your photographer, be ready to receive "snapshot" level images in your digital negatives.

My own policy is to include the digital negatives in my middle and high-end packages, after my bride and groom have ordered their album. This means they get high-quality edits, well above the usual "snapshot" grade. Any wall portraits they order will receive a third edit and look really superior blown up, including details that might not be visible in a 4x6 or even in an 8x10.

If you have any other questions about this or any other topic, just give me a call at 908-686-9539.

Joel Simpson
www.joelsimpsonphoto.com
jssphoto@verizon.net