How Augmented Reality Can Bring Printed Photographs to Life
By Ian Hatch
Photography has always been very good at preserving a moment.
But what if a printed photograph could give you something more?
Imagine holding a photograph of a child and, using your phone, watching that photograph come to life with a short video of the same moment. The printed image remains exactly that — a physical photograph — but suddenly it becomes a gateway to something else.
This is one of the ways augmented reality can be used in photography.
Rather than replacing the printed photograph, AR can add another layer to it, creating a product that combines the emotional appeal of a physical print with digital content.
For photographers looking for new ways to add value to their products, it’s an idea worth exploring.
What is augmented reality photography?
Augmented reality, or AR, is technology that adds digital information or content to the physical world.
In photography, that could mean using a printed photograph as the starting point for a digital experience.
A client might scan a QR code printed alongside an image, for example, and then use their phone to access a video associated with that photograph. Depending on the system being used, the photograph can then become the trigger for displaying or playing that additional content.
The result is a physical photograph with a digital element attached to it.
This is particularly interesting because the photograph itself doesn’t disappear.
You still have something tangible to put in a frame, place in an album or keep in a memory box. The technology simply adds another dimension.
Why would a photographer want to do this?
New technology is easy to get excited about.
But technology for technology’s sake isn’t necessarily going to improve your photography business.
The important question is:
Does it make your product more valuable or memorable to your client?
That is where AR becomes interesting.
A traditional photograph records what something looked like.
A photograph combined with video can preserve more of the experience.
A school photograph could be accompanied by a short video of the child waving, laughing or saying something to their parents.
A wedding photograph could link to a short piece of video from the day.
A family portrait could become part of a wider collection of memories.
A commercial photograph could link to a product demonstration.
The possibilities depend largely on the photographer, the client and the way the product is presented.
A photograph can become a doorway to a memory
One of the most compelling applications is family and school photography.
Children grow up incredibly quickly, and a photograph is already a powerful way of preserving those memories.
Adding a short video creates something different.
The photograph might show a child as they looked on a particular day. The digital content can preserve their voice, movement and personality at that same point in their life.
That changes the experience from simply looking at a photograph to revisiting a memory.
And this is where the technology has a genuine purpose.
It isn’t simply a gimmick.
It can add something that a conventional photograph cannot provide on its own.
Ian Hatch and Moving Memories
One photographer who explored this idea was Ian Hatch, owner of HatchBox Photography in Cornwall.
Ian had spent many years working in the school and nursery photography industry before setting up his own business. His experience gave him a detailed understanding of the market and, importantly, the products that photographers were already selling to parents.
He had been interested in augmented reality for several years and began looking for a practical way to introduce it into school photography.
The result was Moving Memories.
The concept was straightforward.
A child would be photographed as normal, but a short video would also be recorded. When a parent purchased the resulting photograph or package, the printed image could be connected to the video.
The parent could then scan the associated code and use their phone to experience the photograph in a completely different way.
The important part of Ian’s idea wasn’t simply the technology.
It was the way he incorporated it into an existing photography product.
The photographer was still selling a physical photograph.
AR simply gave the customer another reason to value it.
Don’t replace the print — enhance it
This is perhaps the most interesting lesson for photographers considering AR.
There is often a tendency to think that digital technology is going to replace physical products.
But it doesn’t have to.
A printed photograph has qualities that a digital image doesn’t.
You can hold it.
Frame it.
Put it in an album.
Give it to somebody.
Keep it for decades.
The digital element can sit alongside all of those things rather than replacing them.
That creates an interesting opportunity for photographers who have traditionally relied on prints, albums and other physical products.
Instead of asking:
“How can I replace this product with something digital?”
ask:
“How can I make this product even more valuable by adding digital content?”
AR doesn’t have to be limited to school photography
School photography is an obvious application, but the same principle can be used elsewhere.
Weddings
A wedding album could contain selected photographs linked to short video clips from the day.
A photograph of the first dance could lead to a short piece of footage from that moment.
A photograph of a speech could connect to part of the speech itself.
The physical album remains the main product, but the digital content gives the couple another way to revisit the day.
Family photography
Family portraits could be combined with short video messages or clips recorded during the session.
For families with young children, this could become particularly meaningful as the years pass.
The photograph preserves how they looked.
The video preserves how they sounded and behaved.
Commercial photography
AR can also be used for business.
A printed product photograph could link to a demonstration video.
A promotional image could connect to additional information.
A brochure or printed marketing piece could provide access to video content without having to reproduce everything on the page.
Yearbooks and graduation photography
Printed yearbooks are another natural fit.
A photograph on a page could connect to video from a performance, graduation ceremony, sporting event or school activity.
The printed book becomes an archive, while the digital content provides additional context.
AR and QR-enabled digital content are already being explored in modern yearbook design, demonstrating that the idea has applications beyond individual photographs.
QR codes are part of the experience — not the product
It is worth making a distinction here.
A QR code isn’t the same thing as augmented reality.
A QR code is simply a convenient way of connecting a physical object with digital content.
The interesting part is what happens after the scan.
If all a customer gets is a QR code that takes them to a generic webpage, there may be little reason for them to use it.
But if scanning the code reveals something that adds meaning to the photograph, the experience becomes much more interesting.
The technology should therefore remain in the background.
The customer doesn’t really care about QR codes, servers or AR platforms.
They care about the experience.
Think about the workflow before selling it
There is another important lesson from Ian’s approach.
An innovative product has to work commercially.
It’s no use creating something amazing if it takes hours of additional work for every customer.
Before introducing AR into your photography business, think through the entire workflow.
For example:
- How will the video be recorded?
- How long does it need to be?
- How will it be associated with the correct photograph?
- Where will the digital content be stored?
- How will the QR code be generated?
- How will it be incorporated into the printed product?
- What does the customer need to do?
- How long will the digital content remain available?
- What happens if the customer changes phone?
- How much additional work does each order create?
The technology is only useful if the workflow makes sense.
Modern school photography platforms already use QR codes for other parts of the workflow, such as matching photographs to individual pupils, showing how useful these codes can be when they are integrated properly into the business process.
Make the experience simple
If you introduce any technology into a photography product, make it as easy as possible for your customer.
Don’t expect them to read a complicated instruction manual.
Ideally, they should be able to understand what to do immediately.
A small instruction beside the code can be enough:
Scan to bring your photograph to life
Then provide simple instructions if an app or particular process is required.
The fewer barriers there are between receiving the photograph and experiencing the additional content, the better.
It’s also worth testing the complete process on different phones before launching the product.
The customer shouldn’t be your beta tester.
Consider privacy and security
When you’re working with photographs and video of people — particularly children — privacy needs to be taken seriously.
Think carefully about where the video is stored, who can access it, how long it remains available and what happens if a parent no longer wants the content online.
Don’t assume that because something is accessible through a QR code it is automatically private.
Your AR provider and workflow should have appropriate safeguards, and your customers should be given clear information about how their photographs and videos are handled.
This is especially important in school photography, where you’re dealing with images of children and potentially large amounts of personal data.
Innovation doesn’t have to mean abandoning traditional photography
One of the most encouraging things about this type of technology is that it doesn’t require photographers to completely reinvent their businesses.
You don’t necessarily need to stop selling prints.
You don’t need to turn every photograph into a complicated digital experience.
And you certainly don’t need to use AR simply because it is fashionable.
Instead, look at the products you already sell and ask:
Could I add something that makes this product more memorable?
That could be video.
It could be audio.
It could be additional photographs.
It could be behind-the-scenes content.
It could be an interactive experience.
The technology will continue to change, but the principle remains the same: find something that genuinely benefits the customer.
Give people a reason to buy the print
For photographers selling physical products, this is perhaps the biggest opportunity.
Digital photography has made it incredibly easy for people to take thousands of photographs and leave them sitting on a phone or hard drive.
A physical product gives those photographs permanence.
Adding digital content can make that product even more engaging without taking away its physical value.
Ian Hatch’s Moving Memories project is a good example of thinking about photography from the customer’s perspective rather than simply from the photographer’s.
The question isn’t:
“What new technology can I sell?”
It’s:
“What can I give my client that they couldn’t get from a standard photograph?”
That is a much more useful question.
The future of photography may be both physical and digital
Photography has always evolved alongside technology.
Film became digital.
Prints were joined by online galleries.
Albums became increasingly sophisticated.
Now physical photographs can be connected to video, audio and other digital experiences.
That doesn’t mean the traditional photograph has become obsolete.
Quite the opposite.
Technology can give photographers new ways to make the physical products they already sell more personal, memorable and valuable.
For photographers willing to experiment, augmented reality is one more tool in the box.
The trick is to make sure the technology serves the photograph — and, most importantly, the client.
