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Quality Printing...how?  Rate Topic 
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Posted by Eric: Sat Jun 6th, 2015 07:38 1st Post
Graham's thread on selling fine art photos has put a burr under my saddle and set me soul searching.

Despite being a professional photographer for 20+ years I have rarely printed my photos. Mostly, they have been sent digitally to be used in commercially published literature. I have always avoided general public photography ..like the plague! So never had to print portraits etc. I have on occasions printed some hotel interior photos, but they have always been in colour.

So despite being nearly retirement age, I am completely ignorant with regard to quality black and white digital printing. How to achieve it...what materials...what 'is' fine art quality.....etc etc.

It's this ignorance that I now realise is the main obstacle to pursuing in house printing of my work. Sure I could subcontract it, but in this nasty world releasing original high res work to a third party is a recipe for abuse.

I may have to go back to 'printing school' but in the mean time...what do you good people do to achieve saleable quality photo Art? What papers, printers, inks do you use?



____________________
Eric


Posted by Ralph G Speer: Sat Jun 6th, 2015 09:19 2nd Post
Eric,

I have been on this site for many tears. Your work is externally great. I retired in 1995 and wanted something to keep me busy and got involved.

Prints to sell -- GREAT -- The prints led to framing witch led to matting - glass cutting - rush dates - pick ups and book keeping for taxes. Yes all of a sudden it was not retirement any more.

Once again I retired for good and now it's just the prints on my web site. Yes, I print my own prints on an Epson printer and sell at shows.



____________________
Ralph G Speer



________________________
RGSpeer


Posted by amazing50: Sat Jun 6th, 2015 11:55 3rd Post
I print with a Canon IPF6100 (older) 24inch, about 62cm roll printer that has 12 ink carts that hold about 120ml each.
Mostly I print 13 inch roll proofing paper for my use. My canvas size is set to 12x12 and mostly print uncropped and trim the paper to 12x12.
These prints are put in plastic sleves and binders that are easly available in N. America for the "Scrapbooking" hobby from Walmart, Michaels etc.
Only thing about almost all inkjet printers is that they have to be used on a regular , semi weekly, basis or they clog up and burn up tons of ink headcleaning.



____________________
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept ;~) Mike Grace


Posted by Judith: Sun Jun 7th, 2015 21:28 4th Post
If you got good enough results from sending out to a pro printing company and aren't looking for volume printing, you could save yourself a lot of money buying all the equipment. I've been investigating prices and it's not really that expensive to get the fine art quality prints done at a lab. I saw sample prints at a tradeshow recently and they looked good to me. :)

Here are a few prices from a list I was looking at earlier (2nd price incudes VAT):

14x10" Fine Art Print(6.18) 7.42
10x14" Fine Art Print (6.18) 7.42
14x11" Fine Art print (6.80) 8.16
11x14" Fine Art print (6.80) 8.16
14x14" Fine Art Print (8.61) 10.33
15x10" Fine Art print (6.59) 7.91
10x15" Fine Art print (6.59) 7.91
15x12" Fine Art Print (7.91) 9.49
12x15" Fine Art Print (7.91) 9.49
15x15" Fine Art Print (9.89) 11.87
16x11" Fine Art Print (7.75) 9.30
11x16" Fine Art Print (7.75) 9.30
16x12" Fine Art print (8.45) 10.14
12x16" Fine Art print (8.45) 10.14
16x16" Fine Art Print (11.29) 13.55

I hated printing my own stuff. Could never get the colours right, even with a profile. I've seen good reviews of the Canon Pro printer which has 12 ink tanks incl various black and grey tones (if I remember rightly), and people rave about Hannemuhle fine art paper if you fancy the DIY challenge. :-)



Posted by Eric: Mon Jun 8th, 2015 07:07 5th Post
Judith wrote:
If you got good enough results from sending out to a pro printing company and aren't looking for volume printing, you could save yourself a lot of money buying all the equipment. I've been investigating prices and it's not really that expensive to get the fine art quality prints done at a lab. I saw sample prints at a tradeshow recently and they looked good to me. :)

Here are a few prices from a list I was looking at earlier (2nd price incudes VAT):

14x10" Fine Art Print(6.18) 7.42
10x14" Fine Art Print (6.18) 7.42
14x11" Fine Art print (6.80) 8.16
11x14" Fine Art print (6.80) 8.16
14x14" Fine Art Print (8.61) 10.33
15x10" Fine Art print (6.59) 7.91
10x15" Fine Art print (6.59) 7.91
15x12" Fine Art Print (7.91) 9.49
12x15" Fine Art Print (7.91) 9.49
15x15" Fine Art Print (9.89) 11.87
16x11" Fine Art Print (7.75) 9.30
11x16" Fine Art Print (7.75) 9.30
16x12" Fine Art print (8.45) 10.14
12x16" Fine Art print (8.45) 10.14
16x16" Fine Art Print (11.29) 13.55

I hated printing my own stuff. Could never get the colours right, even with a profile. I've seen good reviews of the Canon Pro printer which has 12 ink tanks incl various black and grey tones (if I remember rightly), and people rave about Hannemuhle fine art paper if you fancy the DIY challenge. :-)


I totally empathise with your abhorance of printing, Judith. I would get halfway through a print to discover a colour blob.....start again. :whip:
I used a local lab to do the few prints I needed...let him have the blobs and reprints. I also noticed, as has been mentioned, that if you didn't do it regularly the jets could dry up..with more priming expense.

When my A2 printer died ( probably from lack of use!) I never got another.

For me the only reason to do it 'in house' is retention of the artwork files. Unless you know the person doing the printing and trust them there is always a risk of copyright breach.



____________________
Eric

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