14 September 2010

actual vs virtual

i never print my photos. oh sure, i take my memory card to the drugstore and print off pictures of the little girl to send to the relatives down south. but, other than that, i just don't print my photographs. they're on the web. why bother?

but this summer, i tried my hand at notecard making at the urging of a friend. today my online order finally arrived. i am astonished at the difference between the printed photos and the computer ones. there's a depth and clarity on paper that i just don't see on the screen. i feel like i'm seeing them all over again for the first time and it's almost mesmerizing.

why are they so different, i wonder? perhaps i need to go purchase a printer!

10 comments:

Tabor said...

I have exactly the opposite feeling. My screen photos have luminescence that cannot be repeated on paper. I also find that getting the colors exactly the same is hard. I do have a good photo printer, so that is not the problem.

chris said...

Tabor: maybe that's where i'm missing something. i tend to not print anything, and transfer and save everything digitally. so maybe it's just a bit of a jolt to hold my photos in my hand!

middle child said...

I think the title of this post says it all,...an actual photo is so much better than a "virtual" one.

Jennifer Sue said...

I've found the same thing as you have Chris. I blew up a few of my prints to a 11 x 17 size and had them framed and was so happy with the results. I was even asked by a few people where I bought them! :)

I love your notecards by the way, what a great idea!

Anonymous said...

Here's to a new career!!
Nance

Fickle Cattle said...

I don't print my photos either. The few times I did, I felt they weren't as nice as they were on the screen. Maybe it was my printer?

ficklecattle.blogspot.com

Sweet Mess said...

So great you are doing notecards! They look great from the digital picture ;)

I love the one of the feather!

chris said...

Jennifer Sue : i have never framed any of my photos (except pictures of the little girl for my desk!), but i leave my current favorite photo on my computer desktop. even doing that, i tire of it after a while and have to change it!
Sweet Mess: the feather is my favorite one, too! love the serendipitous composition - and it's taken through water!

Cheyenne said...

Wow, I totally agree. I mean It's bad enough that books are now called e-books, though the publishers gain money, an e-book just doesn't compare with the real thing. So let us have our photographs on paper! Ra! Ra! Ra! And such.

Unknown said...

Physical objects has greater effect than the virtual ones,the feeling of touching the picture you took ;and looking it on a monitor is totally different.The printed picture stays longer in your mind than the virtual one.......