Digital Negatives vs. Edited Photographs

We offer full resolution digital negatives with every wedding photography package. This guide will help you better understand the difference between digital negatives and edited photographs.

What are digital negatives?

Digital negatives are a digital photography equivalent to film negatives. They have minor tweaks if any applied to assure proper exposure and white balance. Files that you receive on a DVD are digital negatives at maximum resolution and without watermarks. They have lots of potential, if you know how to use them but they are not the photographs you see on our blog and our portfolio. These went through the process of editing that can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour per image.  Editing usually entails increasing contrast, changing color hues, adding special effects like vignettes or sepia. But it can also mean removing skin imperfections, slimming down body parts, opening closed eyes, erasing distracting backgrounds. The possibilities are truly endless, and every single image requires something different. To better illustrate the process below are several examples of photographs at different stages of processing: unedited, straight out of the camera (“original”), ”digital negative” in the middle, and “edited” photograph on the right.

Can I print images from your DVD?

Yes! You can take our high resolution files to your local lab and have as many copies printed as you like. Most of these photographs can be printed to up to 20″x30″ size. You can also make copies of the DVD for archival purposes, the disc is not copy-protected. Although we keep copies of all our clients’ photographs indefinitely, we don’t guarantee  that we can make a replacement DVD for you in the future. It’s better to make your own copy and store it at a different location than your original (your office, parents’ house or bank safe).

Does it mean I own the copyright to my photographs?

No. Although you are in possession of these photographs and can copy and print them without restrictions, we retain the copyright to every image we take. This means that you cannot sell the photos or the DVD to any person, website or magazine. You cannot claim them as your work and publish or enter the photos in any competition.

Why are your prints and albums so expensive?

Each image that we print for our clients, including album images of course, goes through the process of editing that is very time consuming and skilled work and we charge for this service accordingly. This is why there is such a big price difference between taking a digital negative and printing it at a local one-hour photo for $0.30 and purchasing one from us for $15. When you purchase your photograph from us, you are getting your image printed by a professional photo lab that services exclusively professional photographers. It is printed on a high-quality paper, on a machine that is calibrated several times a day. You also receive a photograph that has been edited and profiled for the specific printer our lab uses, as well as our unconditional guarantee that if something is wrong with the print you receive, we will replace it free of charge.