If you think digital downloads are enough to supply clients with, think again. USB drives are still the standard, and here is why.
Wedding and portrait photography holds huge significance for clients and their families, as the creation of these images allows them to cherish and relive special moments in their lives. The value of capturing these moments cannot be overstated; key milestones in the family life cycle are documented generation after generation, creating a visual document of children growing up, getting married, and going on to have children of their own.
While we, as photographers, understand the significance of preserving these memories for our clients, our clients aren’t often too great at archiving and preserving their images long-term. Over the years that I operated a photography studio, I encountered many people who had lost important family images due to not taking care of their digital files. One client had lost their phone, and with it, all the images that they had ever taken of their then two-year-old child. Another client contacted me a while back to say that she had lost images that I had shot of her son during a messy divorce and had no digital backup. She was so grateful to learn that I still had the digital files from that photo session eight years before.
As photographers, we prioritize safeguarding our work against loss and should encourage clients to do the same. It is crucial to educate them on the importance of preserving their family archive to prevent image loss. When discussing products and packages with your clients, I believe it is our duty to help educate people about the importance of preserving the family archive to prevent image loss. With that in mind, clients should be encouraged to choose both print and digital copies of their images.
Tangibility Over Speed of Delivery
While digital downloads have become a common method of delivering images, they lack the personalized, boutique feel that physical products can offer. The most user-friendly method of supplying digital files is through a USB drive, which is a physical product of its own. Of all the products available on the market, my favorite is the custom-printed wooden USB drive from Zno. Made of solid maple wood, both sides can be printed with a full-color image across both the body and cap, which is a premium touch. The wooden USB drive is slightly larger than the standard in order to make sure that printed sides can hold appropriate detail. My advice would be to print a client image on one side and your company logo or website address on the reverse.
Ordering Is Easy Through Album Designer Software
Ordering the wooden USB drives is easy through the Zno's cloud-based album designer, known as Zno Designer. This user-friendly platform enables effortless design and customization on the USB drives to match your branding. And not to mention you can upload online gallery photos during the design process into Zno Designer directly from Zno Gallery.
Cool product. I also used to deliver weddings on custom USB drives back in the day but I will say that everyone should check their local sales tax laws. I learned that if I delivered my files digitally first then I didn't have to charge/pay sales tax at the time because it wasn't a "physical" product.
Thats interesting, unfortunately here in the UK we dont have such a tax work-around. I usually encouraged prints/albums, with a USB being a digital backup rather than the main product so wouldn't apply to my workflow anyway.
While I agree this is a great way for the client to have a physical archive of their photos, the number of people that no longer have a PC to plug the drive into is on the rise.
... that said, I've never given much thought as to what they actually do with the digital files once they've downloaded them from the cloud for long term storage. Point for USB delivery.
This is true, not everyone has a PC, however, access to one is usually pretty easy to come by if the need arises.
Some if not most of these long form sponsored ads are getting pretty ridiculous. Millions upon millions of weddings have done just fine without one of these must haves.
As a longterm customer of Zno, I jumped at the chance to write a sponsored post for them. In fact, I delivered a boxed album with USB to a client last week - albeit a crystal USB, not a wooden one as that's what they chose to match their acrylic fronted album. The review reflects my honest opinions of the product and the company.