Many, many wedding photographers either include or sell separately high resolution files of wedding photographs.  Its pretty much become the norm in the industry in Tampa Bay.  That's good news for brides and grooms and their families as you will have all the memories of your day as opposed to just the ones you chose to purchase.  Although, you did actually purchase all of them, but.... well, you get the point, I hope.

So what exactly is a high resolution file?

Well.... hmmm, that is subject to some debate.  The term "high resolution" has changed over the years.  What we now show on Facebook was considered near high resolution in the 80's, today its a "web size" or any of another million monikers we have for such things.

Simply stated, a high resolution file is one that allows you to make prints.  This is of course quite a simplified statement since you can technically print from any size file, some will look good, some won't.  A high resolution file is the one that should look good.

But wait!  There's more!

All high resolution files are not created the same.

Huh?

Yep.

If someone simply downloads files from their camera and drops them on a storage disk (ex.. CD or DVD), they very well may be high resolution files.  Now, what if that someone was to edit the images.... I mean cull or eliminate the blinks, doubles, mistakes, etc. AND they went through each individual image and adjusted color, cropping, exposure, etc to make them all look consistent and their best?  THEN they put them on a DVD.... These are also high resolution files.

See?  Lots of variation, same term.

I like to think of your files as a "finished product", therefore, they're been edited and processed (not to be confused with retouched, that's another post).  Also, our files are delivered in a size to as to allow our customers to print larger sizes than the typical 4x6 from Walgreens.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  On these high resolution files you may find a plethora of insignia and markings, everything from watermarks to logos, to website addresses.  We don't do this.  They're your files, if you want to display it somewhere, our phone number doesn't need to be on it.

Now.... sometimes there are marks and logos and other things to protect copyright.  Yes, your photographer OWNS your images, as per US Copyright law.  Now, today most of us share the copyright with you, which means you can do pretty much any non-commercial thing you want with your images.  If you see watermarks on a file, chances are you aren't supposed to print the file.  Hmmm, maybe this could be another post too.

Long story short!

Checklist for High Resolution files:

1. Make sure some amount of correction has been done just to make them all look pretty and elimate the "chaff" from the "wheat"
2. How large can you print from them?  a 4"x6" doesn't cut it as "High Resolution"
3. Are there marks or logos?
4. Can you ACTUALLY print them?  I mean do you have print rights to the file?  You'd be surprised how many give a disk, but you aren't legally allowed to print from it.....

Just to drive the point home, all of our files have been edited to show you the best files, you know, all the ones you actually want to see.  All of our files are processed for accurate color, exposure, and even some special effects.  Each file you receive from us is created at the proper size and dimension to give you the ability to have high quality wall portrait prints made from them.  And... we don't have any logos, addresses, phone numbers, etc on any of your high resolution files.

Hope this clears up at least some of the confusion around high resolution files!

-B