Printing

To fully appreciate a custom print, we should look first at its opposite – a standard or on-line print. These prints are made in unattended, automated, serial operations. You upload your image to a server from your computer or drop it off to a photo service bureau on USB where the sales clerk adds it to the queue on the server with all of the other on-line orders. The server is connected to a series of large format printers each of which is loaded with one of the standard papers – usually gloss, lustre and matte. The idea is to herd everyone to those few common, inexpensive, resin coated papers to reap the benefits of volume processing and presumably to offer volume pricing. If better paper is also offered, there will often be just one or perhaps two smooth matte papers offered under the general moniker “Fine Art” or “Giclee.“

Once your images are added to the queue, they are pumped through to the series of printers where they are grouped together with hundreds of other images. There they are averaged and printed, as is, on large rolls of the aforementioned resin coated and matte papers. The file settings which are required for this type of print are the least acceptable for print – flattened 8 bit Jpeg, PNG, etc. in sRGB or sometimes AdobeRGB colour space, usually at or below 25mb in size. If you request a 20” x 30” print to be made from your Jpeg image which only has enough print resolution for a 5” x 7” print, the image may simply be enlarged on the fly without concern for the resulting quality loss. That’s your problem.

[Read more…] about What is a “Custom Print” anyway?

One thing that I find to be extremely baffling in the world of fine photography is the fact that many photographers invest huge sums of money to acquire the finest gear, go to great lengths to create the best possible image by spending hours in post processing, fussing over every minute nuance of image detail and tonality only to then bang off a “good enough” print with inadequate care or forethought, using OEM canned profiles, inadequate paper and inaccurate settings while under the influence of blind faith that somehow it will all turn out just fine. Of course, when the print is made,  without another superior print to compare it against they may well believe their print is indeed the very best it can be. Most of the time, this is not only untrue but it is a shame.

In fact, a couple of years ago one of my students, a photographer, showed me her portfolio of prints which she had been preparing to take to a local gallery. A couple of prints in, I noticed a poorly made print. The image was a colourful shot of a group of children on their way to participate in a parade and all the kids were well dressed in Polish ethnic attire which was quite detailed. The image was printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. A print on such fine paper would tend to lead one to believe that the print must be perfect and the printer must have been good. Not so!

[Read more…] about The “Good Enough” Print

For critical evaluation of an image in print against the same image displayed on a computer screen, the lighting that is used to illuminate the print must be in sync with the display, in terms of brightness and colour temperature, etc. You might say, “Wait a minute, when the print is hung in my home it won’t be illuminated by anything but my living room lights.” This may be true, but neither will your print be evaluated for accuracy in your living room. It is irrelevant to the process of critical evaluation of the print against the same image displayed on a colour critical monitor.

When an image is translated from an emissive medium (a screen display) to a reflective one (paper, for example), it’s success in print becomes entirely dependant upon ambient lighting. The luminance and purity of an RGB image can only be simulated on paper using relatively impure CMYK inks to create a print that is viewed under lighting which is usually far from ideal. The quality of the ambient light, its brightness and colour temperature have dramatic effects on the appearance of the print. Subdued lighting darkens tonality. Shadow detail may seem to be lost altogether. This is the primary reason for one to conclude that their print is too dark.

[Read more…] about The Importance of Viewing Environment

In my opinion, photographers who print are not pursuing photography simply to make visual records for posterity. Instead, our goal is to convey an emotional or aesthetic concept through our photographs. To do that, we need to look at images on paper or some other physical medium. Looking at an image on a computer screen doesn’t allow us to interact with it in a physical sense. When we see a print on a wall, we can step back to appreciate the entire image, then move closer to focus in on details. But, we still see those details in the context of the entire image –  unlike zooming in on a computer screen, which takes the details out of context to form an abstraction.

[Read more…] about The Importance of the Print