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I had someone send me an email this week: she had found my blog while doing some research. She said my tone-of-voice was so friendly, and since she didn’t know any photographers personally, she felt like I was a safe person to reach out to for a little help.
She explained that she and her husband are coming up on their 16th wedding anniversary and she really wanted to have a wedding album created as a surprise for him. 16 years ago, she received proof pages of her images, as well as a set of CDs with the digital negatives on them.
But after receiving their photos, like most of us, she put off getting anything printed.
Days stretched into weeks, which stretched into months, which stretched into years.
And after a big move, those proof sheets and CDs got misplaced and she feared that her wedding photos were lost forever.
Thankfully, she recently found them! Never wanting to lose them again, she was determined to do something with her photos – and do it now.
There is just one problem: her photos are in old-school, outdated formats. And they are no longer accessible to her.
She doesn’t have a computer with a CD-ROM drive anymore.
And the proof sheets are just low-quality, small “previews” of her images.
I wrote her back with my best suggestions in proceeding and realized: this would make a great blog post!
And so here we are.
I’m sure this sweet lady is not alone.
If you got married more than a few years ago (when digital galleries became more prominent and accessible and acceptable), and you received your wedding images on a USB, a DVD, or a set of CDs, (or even a proof book of 4x6s, like my best friend did) – your first task is getting your photos onto your computer.
- Most computers still have USB ports – and if your computer has USB-C ports instead of regular USBs, it’s as simple as getting an adapter (like this one: USB to USB-C adapter). From there, you can copy your photos onto your computer and with that, you’re in business – you can move on to the next step.
- Most computers do not still have CD-ROM drives as that technology is simply a thing of the past. You can however still buy an external CD-ROM drive! It plugs into your computer via USB and allow your computer to read your CDs and DVDs.
Once upon a time (about 10 years ago) when I was still giving my clients their images on CD & DVD, I burned out the CD-ROM drive in my laptop, so I had to buy an external drive. They’re fairly inexpensive & usually work pretty well (assuming of course that the information can still be read off of your CDs or DVDs.) Unfortunately, CDs and DVDs do deteriorate over time, especially if left in not-ideal conditions – which simply makes it all the more imperative that you get those images onto your computer and backed up to a hard drive ASAP! - If the only copies of your wedding photos are in prints (whether they’re in a proof album, proof sheets, or a shoebox), you can send them off to a company that will scan them at the highest quality possible and digitize them for you. One of the most prominent digitization companies out there is Legacy Box. They have a great reputation and can do more than just digitizing prints – they do VHS tapes (do you have an old wedding film you can no longer watch?), negatives, slides, 8mm films, etc.
Is all of this “digitization” a lot of hard work? Does it take a lot of time?
Yes.
But I promise you, it’s 110% worth it.
Take the time to set a course of action in bringing your wedding photos up to the year 2024.
Okay, so you’ve done the hard work and you have your images on your computer (YAY) – now what?
FIRST THINGS FIRST: BACK THEM UP (and then, back them up again).
- If you have cloud storage anywhere – upload your wedding photos there (Google Drive, iCloud, Amazon Photos – there are TONS of options out there and you might even be already subscribed to one or more!)
- Back up your images onto a hard drive (and then for safety, back them up again onto a USB.)
Trust me: you’ve gone through all of this work – the last thing you want to happen is for your computer to crash and for you to lose your images again. So, get them backed up.
And then – the sky is the limit!
There are SO many cool options for printing photos now! Obviously, printing a few to display around your home will always be a winner. You simply cannot go wrong with prints hanging on your wall. (There are so many fun opportunities within the statement “print your photos for the wall” too! Canvases! Acrylics! Metal prints! Mounted on styrene! The list goes on and on.)
Additionally: creating a wedding album is actually easier than you might think. The company I print my own wedding albums through, actually has a consumer side called MPIX – their Signature Photo Albums are absolutely beautiful! Thick pages! A leather cover! It is truly a work of art! (They’re simply a small step down from the albums I create for my own clients!)
Shutterfly has a few album options that are also really beautiful as well! I’ve had a few clients turn their engagement photos into their wedding guest book using Shutterfly & I’m always amazed at how beautiful they turn out!
You simply cannot go wrong in finally printing some of your wedding photos.
After all – those are your precious memories and all you have left from your wedding day. And the more time that passes, the more your memories of that beautiful day will fade. Having photos printed that you can look at brings back all of those incredible memories and instantly become family heirlooms.
Go print your wedding photos.
