Printed Pictures Still Rule

When Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the world’s first known photograph back in 1826, little could he have known how that remarkable discovery would change the nature of visual representation forever. In the next 186 years until 2012, approximately 3.5 trillion photos were taken. In 2017 Facebook’s users uploaded over 200 million photos and Google Photos received 1.2 billion photos! Globally more than 1 trillion images have been captured by digital cameras and smartphones.

So what is causing this boom in photography? Try and recall your memory of any past event and describe it. You will struggle with the detail. But take a look at a picture and you will explode with a plethora of details and facts surrounding the moment. That’s why we take pictures – to recall interesting, funny, or important moments or things of value, interest or desire to us.

Printing photos or catalogues delivers a unique way of experiencing information in the traditional rather than digital way, making the images much more difficult to forget or lose. And because of this, the photo output market is still big business. Keypoint Intelligence/InfoTrends estimates that more than 38 billion traditional prints were produced worldwide in 2017. The market is expected to stay relatively flat, declining to 36 billion prints by 2020.

So why do we print so many photos? Partly because we forget or lose many, if not all, of our digital photos. And, given how carefree some people are with their equipment, and how easy it is to lose or delete a digital photo, there is a great danger that the most important memories captured today will never be seen by future generations. Traditional prints and photo products are tangible memories that stand the test of time and are an important message to communicate to today’s consumers. Today (Wednesday 23 October) is also International Print Day so a perfect day to save some of your phone memories to actual printed copies!

Online photo services provide users with tools to improve the quality of the pictures and help to easily sort through memories and assemble them into printed albums. Retouching and post-production processes can significantly empower your precious memories and change their reception and perception. Whilst digital tools offer the possibility to do so independently, a professional retouching service can support you through your image journey to achieve the sales results you want.

ec2i’s retouchers have been called upon to restore paintings, old artwork and photographs as well as the more usual catalogue images. So next time you have a specialist photographic project that needs some TLC, take a look at the services we offer and get in touch for a free test and quote.