Do You print? I do.

adamz

We talk a lot about lenses, bodies, tripods but we very rarely discuss the presentation topic. Don't know like You gals'n guys but I really love to see the pictures printed out. This brings another life to the photographs. So not hesitating any second more, do You print Yours pictures?

scoobysmak

When I am home I do. I am rather new to it so I have not even come close to perfecting it yet. That simple calibaration between my monitor and my printer somehow has not worked like I planned, usually takes a few 4x6 prints to really see how a 13X19 might look on paper compaired to my screen. After I perfect the printing process I might start to look at building my own frames but I will work on that later.

MikeGunter

Hi all,

Yes. I shoot a lot, mostly for a local educational theater company that does about 8-10 shows a year, with some other smaller (micro size) events such as one-acts or dance shows, reader's theaters, or auditions.

We've done 20x30 inch displays for the shows, about 120 prints per year, but this year we are going to do 11x14 inch prints in matted 16x20 frames mixed with framed 16x20 prints in 20x22 matted frames. These framed prints will stay up from show to show (the displays have gone up a week before / and removed after the show).

The prints will rotate in the lobby hall, as the students graduate, too. Some are on Broadway right now or in Hollywood or are successful teachers or working in Las Vegas as technical workers (and some are happily working as ranchers in Montana ;-) ).

I do like prints, too.

My best,

Mike

Elvishefer

I print (and by that I mean 'have printed at a shop'; I can't afford the printer I'd want to do it myself), and do my own hand-made frames. I'm currently working on a new floating frame design, having evolved through three iterations of frames to date. I typically print 20x30.

One thing I've learned from printing is that (as I recently read in another thread), some prints I found appealing on screen are less so hanging on my wall. Maybe there's more time to critique if you walk by a print every day on the way to the bathroom.

Symphotic

I have a Canon printer capable of up to 13 x 19. Not only do I print my photos, but I get handed SD cards from the family for post and print. I'm always off to the arts store for frames.

It is one bit of gear I don't use for work, but wouldn't be without.

I fully agree that monitor calibration is a must. Without it, you'll waste a lot of time, ink, and paper.

adamz

I'm not a huge printing guy myself, as for most of the time I had only a color laser printer. Only recently, I've got a 2nd hand epson 3880 and I love the results. So far, I've printed on some sample A4 (little bit larger than letter size paper) hot and cold pressed papers. I agree that monitor calibration is a must, and considering the price of colormunki (more expensive) or spyder (cheaper) it should be done by any serious photographer.

MikeGunter

Hi all,

@Symphotic and Adamz I agree. Monitor calibration is key to good photos. I use the cheap spyder and it seems 'okay'.

I don't 'print' my own photos and prefer to send them out for printing. Here in the US, the cost of printing at several outlets can be much more efficient and the quality quite good for color. Service bureaus aren't outrageous, either.

If I were in business, I might think about investing in a printer, but I'd think long and hard about it. While it might not seem like a lot of money for the up front cost, and it seems awfully handy having a printer to test the quality of that exposure firsthand, those ink costs, along with those paper costs run up quickly.

Costco (a big box store here in the US) prints an 11x14 inch print for $2.99, and other equally valued prints. They have ICC profiles, too.

In the long run, having a printer doesn't pay, although having instant gratification means something.

My best,

Mike

haroldp

Monitor Calibration is the first part, Profiling paper and printer is the second. Neither works without the
other. You can use manufacturers profiles for the specific combination of paper and printer or generate your own.

I use Costco paper for letter size and neither they, nor HP nor Epson have profiles so I had to generate my own. Ilford profiles for many popular printers, but HP and Epson only do so for their own paper printer combo's.
Since I like Epson prem luster on my HP Z3100, I again had to gen profiles.

You will not get a color managed, profiled print at your big box or pharmacy. Unfortunatetely the best print shops at least in my area do not want to work with amateurs, as some of us can be a pain the the ***.

For best quality, I print my own work.

.. H

flight3

I'm just getting into printing my photos as well. So far I've printed about 20 or so (mostly 4x6 and a few 9x11 I believe), but I have a couple 16x20 frames that I plan on filling. Mainly print at a local print shop and the quality is pretty good. Been thinking about getting my own printer, but I don't think I print enough to make it worth it.

warprints

I have a few color printers, and select photos do get printed. Some that i want to do large on canvas (for gallery wraps) get sent to my sister who has large format printers. Currently I'm trying to troubleshoot why my Canon Pro9000 mkII is printing wit a purple cast.

kyoshinikon

50% of Photography is presentation... Yes I do print. Either at home with hanamule/ilford paper on my canon i9900, off a pro Glicee printer, or off a solvent HP Scitex FB500. I have printed stuff for me up to 40x60in

spraynpray

For me, the extra steps towards complete colour management are a few steps too far towards geekiness so I have a trusted friend in my club print them out for me. He does a good job (my last has just got 'highly commended' in the regional exhibition) and only charges £4.00 for a 16x12.

I have enough on my plate calibrating the twin monitors, getting out to take the shots and PP-ing them. Maybe later but I doubt it.

adamz

@spraynpray - what kind of paper You get for 4 quids?

Gitzo

About 8 or 10 years ago, we used to go to a place every Sat. night where they played live music; first thing you know, we became friends with a lot of people who play music; about this time, I was burning a lot of CD's and doing a lot of graphic design; because I knew everyone, I knew what music they liked, so I made dozens of CD's then made all sorts of designs for the labels and jewel case inserts; at the time I had a fairly decent Epson photo printer which did a pretty good job, but after a while, I got tired of making CD's, then the people who owned the place sold out, and we quit going there; meantime, I was doing more and more design work, and was starting to look at getting a better photo printer. About that time, I had this other friend who owned a sign shop; he bought a 48 inch Mutoh commercial printer, mainly to make banners with; the thing only has 6 ink tanks, but they each hold about a quart of ink; one day while I was watching him make a big banner, I noticed how sharp everything looked, so I told him I would bring a CD with some of my stuff on it, and we'd see how well it did with photographs; It did GREAT ! The only problem was, all he printed on at the time was vinyl film, which is then applied to an aluminum / vinyl "sandwich" material ( for outdoor signs ), and real heavy vinyl (that's reinforced with fabric) for great big banners, so he had never ordered any photo paper; I ended up buying a 36" wide X 50ft long roll of semi-gloss photo paper, and my picture looked "fabulous" on that. I should mention, the software that runs Rob's printer is called "Flexi Sign Pro" and goes for about $3,500, but it does a lot more than just print; you can completely design a sign with it in nothing flat.

About that time, the county covered bridge association wanted Rob to completely "re-do" a 8 ft X 16 ft billboard that had a hand painted picture of our local covered bridge on it; the picture was getting pretty faded, and the 1/2 plywood it was on was badly needing to be replaced; so, we removed all the plywood, then I took a similar picture of the bridge, and we were going to use 4 sections of 4 X 8 "alumalite" vertical on each side, and print the picture in four sections; this is exactly how big outdoor advertising outfits do it, but getting all the sections matched up is a "tricky business"; after thinking about it for a day or two, my friend Rob decides to call this big printing company in Indianapolis up; we sent them the file from the sd card by email, and they said it would be ready in a few days; when we went to Indy to pick it up, it's all wrapped up, and banded on a big 4 X 8 pallet; while we were there, the guy says he'd "show us around" you want to see inkjet printers, this is THE place to go! The smallest printer in the whole place was 12 ft wide, and about 5 or 6 were 24 ft wide ! (the ink tanks all held 5 gallons of ink.)

Alumalite is a sign industry product that comes in 4 x 8 sheets; it's two pieces of thin aluminum, bonded to a 3/16" core of corrugated vinyl; the stuff is impervious to weather, and is four time easier to put up than plywood, and lasts way longer than the vinyl film with the ink on it; when the ink fades out, you unscrew the panels, take then down and peel the old vinyl off and put new on; The first time I have a chance, I'm going to run up and take a picture of that sign and post it on PAD. Get this; I took the picture with a Fuji S 1000 Finepix 10MP Camera (from Wal Mart) that cost me all of $189, and has a sensor roughly the size of a pencil eraser; If you're wondering what the printing bill and the 8 sheets of alumalite was, it was $1,750; we had to buy a couple gallons of paint for the posts, and a 5 lb box of drywall screws to fasten the panels to the existing frame; overall, we had about 2 days of work involved for the two of us, plus a day to run the 135 round trip to Indianapolis to go get it. The people who ordered it are extremely happy with it.

Being somewhat of a "cheap skate'", I tried to talk Rob out of having it printed, and doing it with his printer; it would look just as good, but he was thinking ahead, worrying that we might waste a bunch of vinyl trying to get the sections matched up. Having plenty of budget, he decided to play it safe. The people who ordered it are extremely happy with it

So far, that's the biggest printing job I've been "involved", and it's by far the biggest I've ever blown anything up; I think if we were going to be doing very many jobs like this, I would suggest to Rob that he needs a D 800.

Msmoto

I guess all this means I need to calibrate my monitor with the Huey thing I have hanging around. Then set it up so I can get the Costco about five minutes away to do my prints.

I was fortunate to see some 30" x 40" prints made on a printer owned by a private individual. They were shot with an 80MP back and Rodenstock lenses... And, they were stunning....

Incidentally, Rodenstock MTF charts show 80, 40, 20, and 10 lp/mm. Most of the ones we see show 30 and 10.

So, prints can be a real "hands-on" way to view photos....

framer

I currently use a Epson 4900. IMHO a photographer needs to be able to print his own images or have it printed under his direct supervision.

framer

Rx4Photo

I usually print a 4x6 or 5x7 of what I consider my best images to keep in photo albums. I do load them onto an iPad but it's not the same as flipping the pages of printed images. A future plan of mine is to put together a photo wall whereby all of the images will be the same size (maybe 8x10) and have the same matting. Perhaps one wall for all B & W's and another wall for color images.

spraynpray

@Adam: The paper used for my entry was Tecco PL285 which is pearl/semi-gloss paper similar to Ilford ‘Galerie Smooth Pearl’ but he also uses Epson Traditional (American name: Epson Exhibition Fiber).

Comments?

adamz

@spraynpray - can You please ask them how much they charge for a print on Epson Exhibition Fiber - A2 format? does they use original epson inks or 3rd party CISS solutions, any idea?

spraynpray

@Adam: 'They' is a 'he' - the chairman of my photo club. He uses an Epson 3880 printer and Epson inks - I doubt that it goes to A2 though...

adamz

ok spraynpray - 3880 goes to A2, have the same printer and just waiting for my paper to arrive

spraynpray

Wow - I didn't know that. I'll ask him what he would charge me when I next see him after his hols. Maybe I will get a couple BIG images off him.

pigshark

I frequently get large scale prints made for gallery display (24" x 36") and from my experimentation with online printers. I have found www.winkflash.com to provide nice quality for the $. Walgreens was the next best quality with better prices, followed by vistaprint.com to be dead last in quality. I will never use vistaprint again when i need any sort of "quality".

Beso

I print what I want to frame and keep, or what I want to frame for friends. I don't print anything smaller than 8X10 and I use very high quality paper. I also batch print because I print fairly infrequently and cleaning the print heads prior to each run wastes ink. I use an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 which can handle paper up to 24" wide and as long as is needed. It is an expensive process but I like vertical integration - controlling quality from image to print.

NSXTypeR

I really don't print, but I got a couple good deals off of Shutterfly. Does anyone print off of that?

I basically got 50 free prints and an extra $10 to spend on anything.

I'm looking to do an 11x14 print or perhaps a 16x20 print of a picture I took in Hong Kong. Nothing crazy, just a snapshot.

I also need to figure out a way to mount the photo in a picture frame too. No wonder people print infrequently!

spraynpray

Matting or mounting the print in a card border is done quite cheaply by most picture framing shops.