A two foot drop. That’s all it took to make forty thousand photos become inaccessible. In the matter of just a few seconds, terabytes of information was gone; years of work undone. That hard drive still sits in storage, with the hope that one day the information can be retrieved. But for many, once the information vanishes, it’s simply gone.

Many of us have faced similar situations. We get a new phone and never backup or transfer the photos, thinking we can do it later. Or we place our photos on an online hosting site, and that site ends up vanishing, or changes their terms, forcing their users to either download all of their photos or lose them. And if you never get the memo, then those photos are just gone.

There is another danger to our photos that often isn’t thought about. As we move forward with technology, it means older image formats, and media used to store photos become obsolete. The oldest digital camera we have in our collection is a Sony Mavica, that used floppy disks to store the images. Not many of us have floppy drives anymore.

Physical Format
There are a variety of ways to help prevent the total loss of a person’s photos. Some ways are a bit more practical than others. For some, having multiple backups of the images on different hard drives or online may be a solution. If you’re running a business that needs those photos, that is an excellent route.

For many people though, the work and effort on maintaining those multiple backups just isn’t practical. Instead, an option that suits most people is to print their photos.

That’s not to mean that every photo we take should be printed. We probably don’t need to preserve that photo of our last meal, or that quick snapshot of a craft we want to create later on. A lot of the photos we take are ones that if they vanished, it wouldn’t be a big deal. We probably don’t need thousands of photos of our last trip, photos we will never look at again.

But there are certain photos that have a special meaning, that if they were lost, it would matter to us. Photos of a child’s first steps, or the last photo of a loved one. Or there’s that landscape photo we shot that we are very proud of. Those are the photos that deserve some extra attention; some extra preservation.

By printing a photo, it takes on a physical format that is easier to preserve. Today, photos that were taken over a century ago continue to be preserved in their physical forms. They are passed on from one generation to the other, allowing us to keep a piece of our history secure.

The Selection
Having a physical copy also forces a person to be a bit more selective on what images they want to preserve. Today, with gigabytes of space reserved for photos, and nearly everyone of us having a camera in our pockets, we are taking more photos every 2 minutes, then all the photos in the 1800s. Over half a trillion photos are taken every year now. That’s more than all the photos taken in the first century and a half that people have been shooting.

We all have photos that we will probably never look at again, or that just clutter our phones or computers. It also means that many of the photos we really enjoy, that we want to show others, get lost in the noise.

Having to, what we say in the photography business, cull our images, and only select the photos that are worthy to be printed, means that we save those memories and images that mean something to us. It also means that when we want to show people a specific photo, it is more easily accessible. We can sit down and have a nice selection that also tells a story.

Think of the last trip you went on. Trying to show a person hundreds of photos will lead them to become bored an uninterested, and each photo ends up blending into the next. But a handful of selected photos allows a story to be told, and allows the viewer to feel more connected. It opens a different door.

Problems
Printing a photo doesn’t necessarily mean that the image will be immune to destruction. House fires, floods, theft, and even mildew can damage physical prints, as they would also ruin digital copies.

No one single precaution will guarantee that an image survives over the long haul. But having multiple formats helps reduce the risk that the information is completely lost. Physical prints also add a different advantage though.

While photos can be ruined by water, mildew, tears, etc., they can also be repaired. Nearly as long as there have been photographers, there have also been those who retouch and restore photos.

With today’s technology, restoring photos has become increasingly more practical. Restorers today can more quickly bring an image back from near destruction through the use of computer programs. Restoring color to images that have faded, colorizing photos that are black and white, eliminating tears, holes, and creases are all possible, and much more available to those who want such retouching done.

There are photos that are too far gone, and simply can’t be repaired, but often, there is some saving that can be done, which adds another layer of protection to our cherished images.

A Bit of Magic
Having a physical copy of a photo can add a bit of magic to the image. We spend countless hours staring at screens. Most of the photos we see today are digital. Printing a photo though adds something to it.

At times, the medium that the image is printed on can bring something new to it. Printing on canvas can give the image a more painterly quality, while printing it on glass can allow it to shine in a way you wouldn’t get with a digital image.

Not all prints are created equally though. The printer used, and the material that is being printed on, adds or takes away a lot in a final print. At times, that can be fine, but when looking at getting high quality prints, choosing the right printer can make a huge difference.

A professional print shop, with a skilled person printing the images, will generally give you a much higher quality final print compared to a place where the files are simply processed through a machine. With a professional print shop, you will also generally get a higher quality medium that the image is printed on. Some materials are prepared better and have a longer life than others.

Finding a print shop you trust can make a big difference, and add some comfort in having your photos printed. But regardless of what avenue you decide to go with, printing an image can be a great way to help preserve that photo, and save it from possibly vanishing, as so many photos do.