How long before prints are redundant?

FlyTVR

FlyTVR

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Are we nearing the end of prints as the favoured medium of photography?

With social networking, digital picture frames etc, surely prints are on the way out.

How long have we got?
 
i still get excited about picking up my prints because i can actual see them in my hand. they feel 'real' if that makes sense, whereas when they are on the computer they only have the potential to be real.

i think there will always be a demand for prints, although there is definitely a growing presence of images online. the amount of pics uploaded to places like flickr everyday is unreal!!
 
Nothing like holding a print or seeing it on a wall, can't see them disappearing in the near future?
 
People are so accustomed to seeing photos only on a screen these days, that when you hand them a framed 12" x 16" or similar, their jaws literally drop.... no chance of prints vanishing any time soon.... or probably any time at all.
 
I've had more prints done [for my own use] in the past five years than I 've had done in the previous 40 odd years. Thousands of 6x4s to put in albums mainly, plus maybe three or four hundred 12x8 or A4s and a handful of biggies. It's all down to the cheapness and simplicity of online printing for me.
 
MartinH32 said:
You can't put social networking, facebook, your laptop on a wall, but you can a print!

:)
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I can't see people pulling their iPhone15 in 25 years time to show the wedding photos at the silver anniversary party either.
 
FlyTVR said:
Are we nearing the end of prints as the favoured medium of photography?

With social networking, digital picture frames etc, surely prints are on the way out.

How long have we got?
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Depends how important the picture is... School pics.. a wedding pic or somehting real special might make the living room wall.. some older generation still like to have a photogrpah to put in the collection...But other than that everyone loves lots of pictures and shoving them online.

My wife has drawers full of pictures pre digital/online era... now every pic she gets she puts on facebook and hasnt had a print done in donkeys years..

A digital file on facebook all your family and friends can see instantly against a print shoved in your drawer to be forgotton? Only one winner..
 
I've never even touched a film SLR, but the feeling i get when prints arrive is just the pinnacle of the whole process for me. Feels kinda like the image has completed its journey, freed from the confines of a hard drive and given a place amongst the physical world.


Buckets at the ready!
 
I agree with most people here, Prints would still be around.

However, the traditional framed photo may be less popular now, with consumers given the option to have fridge magnet photos, t-shirts etc.

But, as previous members have written, nothing beats that great pic hanging from your wall :)
 
Prints won't die.. I have a drawer full of digital shots I've had printed at DSCL that I pull out and go through from time to time and rotate through frames, the fridge door, etc. Until you see your shots on paper you don't really appreciate their full beauty.

I haven't yet seen a screen that can display an image as clearly and accurately as even a basic print. Try taking a stack of prints and a digital frame or tablet to a family gathering.. I bet in almost all cases the digital option will be dropped in favour of a stack of 6x4s to pass around.
 
I would rather look at an enprint than a full screen image on a monitor.

Besides, a final print is how I want it to look, not dependent on how somebody looking at it a thousand miles away has their monitor set (yes, in an ideal world, all monitors would be calibrated to look the same but in real life, relatively few are).

Who's to say that the current common file types will exist in 20, 30 or 50 years' time?
 
I too love prints - but I'm not sure their future is as safe as many presume.
 
In the same way as paintings have not been replaced with photographs, that which is truly good will be around for a long time to come and that which is not will get lost in the trash can IMHO
 
It's always fascinating going through older generations photograph collection. How many lost images will there be when someone dies and the family have no access to the digital images.
 
Lomond Lad said:
It's always fascinating going through older generations photograph collection. How many lost images will there be when someone dies and the family have no access to the digital images.
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Moving forward, digital archive is a better bet than hard copies under the bed.

Look at the concept of cloud computing. Most of us are happy with the banks looking after our money, so with regards to images and storage is there any difference?
 
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Prints will never get redundant. We will always have a need for them.
 
FlyTVR said:
Moving forward, digital archive is a better bet than hard copies under the bed.

Look at the concept of cloud computing. Most of us are happy with the banks looking after our money, so with regards to images and storage is there any difference?
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I agree its better....but not as easily found by the family who clear under the bed. Password protected storage, lack of IT knowledge etc.
 
KIPAX said:
Depends how important the picture is... School pics.. a wedding pic or somehting real special might make the living room wall.. some older generation still like to have a photogrpah to put in the collection...But other than that everyone loves lots of pictures and shoving them online
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That's absolute pish, I'm not part of the "older generation" as you put it, but I would much rather browse a stack of 10 nice prints than 100 crappy low resolution pictures on the internet any day. You can't beat holding a physical object.
 
Jakska said:
That's absolute pish, I'm not part of the "older generation" as you put it, but I would much rather browse a stack of 10 nice prints than 100 crappy low resolution pictures on the internet any day. You can't beat holding a physical object.
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and I would rather hold a women than look at pictures... Why does the online picture have to be crappy low res? your making your own rules up..

Also I was talking majority not 100% everyone..

so up yer pish :)
 
Looking forward, online storage will be the only way. Fact. Stop looking in the past. You don't store cash under the mattress anymore!!!
 
KIPAX said:
and I would rather hold a women than look at pictures... Why does the online picture have to be crappy low res? your making your own rules up..

Also I was talking majority not 100% everyone..

so up yer pish :)
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You can't look at a high res image on-screen without having to scroll around unless you have a enormous screen (which I don't)! And you did say "everyone" to be fair :)
 
FlyTVR said:
Looking forward, online storage will be the only way. Fact. Stop looking in the past. You don't store cash under the mattress anymore!!!
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Well, there are two ways now and have been for a long time, so I don't really see why that would change so dramatically as to say that print will be totally defunct - although, if you only go by 'looking forward' you may, of course be referring to some strange futuristic lifestyle in 300 years (assuming we haven't killed ourselves/the planet) in which case you could well be right. In the meantime, I would predict that during the lifetime of the youngest member we have on here and, most likely, their first born, the two options will muddle along together reasonably well.

That said, I don't print as much as I used to merely because I HAD to print the bad with the good. I do like to have the ones I like in the 'old fashioned, behind the times' format, though just as I won't completely stop buying paperbacks just because I have a Kindle.
 
FlyTVR said:
Looking forward, online storage will be the only way. Fact. Stop looking in the past. You don't store cash under the mattress anymore!!!
Click to expand...

Well that's a very dramatic statement. A prediction even.. but certainly not a fact. The infallibility of the banking system has been questioned lately, and the rise in price of gold suggests that mattresses may indeed be gaining in popularity.

Cloud computing is here.. but it's highly unlikely to be the solution for everyone within the near future. And it's not going to supply an image for me to frame and hang on the wall. It's not going to provide a stack of 50 6x4s to hand around the in-laws at Christmas (or next Christmas..).

The one thing the recent past has told us is that digital data is not the great panacea for archiving information. Technologies and formats come and go, long-term archival storage media are expensive and not infallible.

Prints aren't permanent either.. but cloud computing is not going to provide the same tactile, pass-around item that can be shared, with grannie's handwritten notes of who's who on the back. It's not always about permanence.. it's about the experience and interaction of the physical medium.
 
Until you have a physical print in your hand all you have are a series of 0s and 1's.

One hard drive crash is all it takes to lose the lot.

There is one other factor that as yet has not been mentioned and that is the medium on which you choose to print can actually add to the finished product. You have a great choice of media to print onto for a reason.
 
AliB said:
Until you have a physical print in your hand all you have are a series of 0s and 1's.

One hard drive crash is all it takes to lose the lot.
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Minimum of two here plus external back ups and some still retained on Sd cards, but I see your point! :D

Minimum of one house fire for printed and negs go up as well, just to play devils advocate - at least using a hosting site prevents that issue.

Still think the two work well together and will continue to do so and agree with your comment! :)
 
AliB said:
Until you have a physical print in your hand all you have are a series of 0s and 1's.

One hard drive crash is all it takes to lose the lot.
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One spilt coffee and a print is ruined. Dribble IMHO :)

Back on track please guys - thread was not meant to be amount storage.

Put your tomorrows world hats on and think different mediums.
 
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FlyTVR said:
One spilt coffee and a print is ruined. Dribble IMHO :)
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Print's ruined but the original format is still intact whether that is from digital or negative............so, print replaced.....
 
~Sam~ said:
Print's ruined but the original format is still intact whether that is from digital or negative............so, print replaced.....
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As I said this thread is not about storage.
 
FlyTVR said:
Looking forward, online storage will be the only way. Fact. Stop looking in the past. You don't store cash under the mattress anymore!!!
Click to expand...

I can guarantee you that my house will never have electronic photo frames hanging on the wall.
 
FlyTVR said:
As I said this thread is not about storage.
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I which case I will merely refer you to my first reply.

Ironically, as technology advances, so does the tone of a thread. No apologies for that from me as it made a more interesting conversation.

On the other hand, your first post IS about storage - whether we store on paper or to a PC etc. Your entire argument centres around that point, as far as I can tell. Isn't a print storing a photograph? Isn't loading to the PC/Flickr/Facebook storing a photgraph?

You are free to believe what you wish, even if it flies in the face of other opinion. I am free to have my own opinion which is that print will survive for longer than you or I will have the will to argue over whether or not it will...:D
 
FlyTVR said:
Moving forward, digital archive is a better bet than hard copies under the bed.

Look at the concept of cloud computing. Most of us are happy with the banks looking after our money, so with regards to images and storage is there any difference?
Click to expand...

FlyTVR said:
As I said this thread is not about storage.
Click to expand...

:thinking:

So how about addressing the points raised about the tactile/social aspects of handing round prints at social gatherings? Digital has nothing to match this for social interaction and engagement with the medium.
 
Back in the 80s whilst chucking some stuff on the local tip I found a photo album from somewhere around the 1920/1930s. I wonder how many digital photos will still be around and easily viewable after 50 or 60 years.

I still have it and have wondered who would throw such a thing away. It's on my list of things to do to scan some of the photos and put them up here.
 
98% of all my orders are for some form of print, frame or canvas. People like frames on display in their house, and although I have not looked at high end digital frames, I have not seen one that looks any good.

Prints on display are 'always on'. I plan to do a photobook of my son and would much rather look at that than a digital display.
 
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