Do You Really Want Your Wedding Negatives ?
Yes, photography studios do make a profit shooting your wedding...why else would they do it?. However, before you ask your photographer for your wedding negatives, here are some important things to consider...
Do you really want to risk ruining your wedding negatives.. what if they get lost whilst moving home, get stolen or damaged?. These are not candid happy shots that can be replaced.
Digital Photography
The majority of photographers today use digital cameras to record your precious memories, with some even allowing you to purchase their digital negatives on CD after the wedding day, or as part of the photography package. Many couples are enticed into choosing a photographer who offers their images on CD...why wouldn't you be?.
Something to consider carefully, is it more important to capture the stunning imagery that is your wedding story, or to get your images on disc?. Are you willing to risk the quality, style and creativeness of your special memories in order to obtain a CD, from which you may only print a handful of photographs?.
Although the digital medium allows the photographer greater flexibility and endless creativity, there are elements to this medium that only an experienced photography professional can properly manage.
Producing high quality archival prints is not as simple as just taking the CD to a local mini lab. Colour management, print quality and archival paper are all fundamental to ensuring your wedding memories are produced to the highest quality. Taking your CD to a mini lab will not get you the same results that your professional photographer will ensure. Like the old adage goes 'you get what you pay for'...
Film Photography
Similar to digital, if you take your film negatives to the local 60 minute photo lab instead of a professional lab, your negatives may get scratched or ruined by busy young operators (who blame the scratches on the photographer) . If you do want to take your photos to a lab, consider only taking some of your photos (instead of all of them at once), just in case. Many local photo labs do not have the facilities to process certain sizes of film and you can spend all day driving all over town searching for a lab that does. The photography studio that just completed shooting your magnificent wedding knows how to handle film properly and can print it themselves, on professional paper and in a more cost effective manner than what you can.
Some freelance photographers (who do not have the overheads of a studio) may shoot your wedding and give you the negatives as part of the contract. Some freelancers prefer a $500 job for a few hours work, without having the additional work of taking your film to get processed (they prefer to just take the photos and hand the film to you). They can only afford to do this because they do not have the studio overheads. An option is for you to get the photographer to print the initial photos for your album (to be safe) and then ask them for your negatives afterwards. It is still recommended however that you take your negatives to a lab that prints for professional studios and prints on professional paper.
It's great to save money where you can, but when it involves your precious wedding memories, cutting corners sometimes is not worth the risk. If your wedding negatives are damaged, there is no 'un-do' or 'fix' button.
