Digital Files in Your Portrait World
We are living in a digital world. Let’s face it. If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I would be selling digital files, I would have said, “Never!” I converted from film to a digital studio in 2000. I’ve learned over the years to never say never. Times change and the needs and wants of our clients change.
Ten years ago, my reasons for not selling digital files were very different than they are today. Back then, it was primarily the fact (or fear) that clients would take their files to be printed at some crappy discount store, or even print them at home on their even crappier home printer. We were all afraid of losing that control—that our work would be diminished because of how it was presented to the world. And while those are valid points, 10 years later, we know that printers are getting better and clients have many resources for printing their images, but research and statistics show that people are not printing their images anymore.
Yes, we live in a digital world. We live in a world of instant gratification. The average consumer has at minimum a decent camera, and many have the same or better cameras than we are using in our businesses. The average consumer (over two-thirds of Americans) owns a smartphone and has access to a digital camera 24/7, not to mention photo editing programs like Photoshop.
