Recently I have been working through my photography catalog for the purposes of overhauling my website. At the same time, I’ve been recognizing that some images can be repurposed for graphic t-shirts and coffee mugs. My latest design is shown here; the left version is intended to be printed on light backgrounds and the right version is intended to be printed on dark backgrounds.
For this particular work, I used Adobe Photoshop and multiple plugins by Topaz Labs. To adjust the color palette and to enhance the details, I commonly use Topaz Adjust and Topaz Detail.
Here’s the original digital photo from ten years ago. This was probably the first time I had ever taken a digital SLR on a backpacking trip. Because I had not yet learned the features of this camera, I neglected one of the most remarkable features of the Canon 5D mark II … the first DSLR camera capable of 1080p high-def video. To this day, I regret that I did not capture any video in this remote unique landscape.
If you look closely (click on the image to see a larger view) toward the top right of the image, you will see blue blazes painted on the rocks; these blazes mark the hiking trail … a very narrow trail with a potentially nasty drop-off.
Here’s one of my favorite photographs (from the coast of Maine) printed on canvas and mounted in a custom frame that I designed and constructed. As the print is on canvas rather than paper, there is no glass in front of the print.
As there are many options available for displaying photograph prints, here is a video to share some methods that I have used:
Paper
Traditionally, photographs are printed on paper, either a light-sensitive paper or an inkjet paper. Because such a print is typically not durable, the displayed print is protected behind a sheet of glass or acrylic (a.k.a. plexiglass). Furthermore, the print should not be placed directly against the glass/acrylic and the common separator is matboard, with an opening cut in the middle to show the print. The mat also provides visual space around the print, separating it from the frame; consequently, the outermost frame has larger dimension of height and width.
Note: Alternatively, you can use small spacer (instead of matboard) and the frame is then sized to exactly fit the dimensions of the print.
A print on paper is either adhered to a backer board or possibly suspended using an archival hinge. Collectively, the backer board, print, matboard, and glazing (glass or acrylic) are commonly inserted into the frame in one of two ways. If using a sectional aluminum frame, assemble three sides, slide the materials into the frame, and then attach the fourth piece of the frame. Any other frame is typically fully assembled first and the materials then inserted from the back side.
Canvas
The print shown here was printed by by Artistic Photo Canvas (APC). Having experienced their very good service and products, I recommend APC.
Canvas prints are commonly stretched around a wood stretcher frame. The result has a thickness unlike paper prints and that calls for a different type of framing. One common method is called a floating frame. Though this is “L” shaped like a regular picture frame (for paper prints), the foot of the L is behind the print rather than in front. The canvas print is inserted from the front and secured with screws from behind.
The floating frame allows for a gap around the perimeter of the canvas such that the print seems to float within the frame, without touching the frame. Depending upon the width of the gap, the edges of the canvas may be visible. For the particular print shown at the beginning of this article, I darkened the white sides of the canvas using an oil paint pen, shown here in the photo below.
Use an oil paint pen to darken the edges of a stretched canvas
Aluminum
Unlike a print on paper, which needs to be protected behind glazing, a print on aluminum provides a flat print that is inherently durable and does not need to be protected.
Typically, the cost of an aluminum print is 2.5x to 3.5x the cost of an inket print on paper. I checked ten vendors; the cost of a 20×30 aluminum print ranged from $22 to $140. I see no reason why some vendors charged more than $100. Before ordering a print on aluminum, I recommend that you shop around.
Custom Picture Frames
If you’ve ever taken a photo, drawing, or painting to a frame shop, you probably know that framing can be very expensive. I have sometimes invented my own frames; here’s more information:
You can create your own custom books and wall calendars by uploading your photos to an on-line Print On Demand (POD) service, which prints the product and ships it to you. Order as few or as many copies as you like. This is in contrast to traditional offset printing which is used for print runs over 200 copies.
More than a year ago, I printed my calendar in two separate print runs, each with a different provider, VistaPrint and Photobook America. As the calendar was essentially identical, I can offer you an apples-to-apples comparison.
First off, I have to say that both calendars provided very good image quality. One was a touch better than the other – the color on the cover image is not perfect. But nobody would know without placing the two side by side.
The Photobook calendar includes 15 images, including front cover, rear cover, and a page (following December) which shows 12 months of the subsequent year. The VistaPrint calendar includes 13 images, including the front cover. Score one point for Photobook.
Both calendars are spiral-bound. When opened, a photo appears on the upper page and a one-month calendar on the lower page. The Photobook calendar pages are 8×11” and each one-month grid is 5” high by 9.75” wide. The VistaPrint pages are 8.5×11” and each one-month grid is 6” high by 9.25” wide. As this grid offers more space for writing, score one point for VistaPrint.
VistaPrint includes an easy to use interface for assigning holidays and other special days. Photobook does not. Score one point for VistaPrint.
In the October-November time frame, both companies offer promotional discounts that brought the price per calendar to less than $9 each. Don’t pay full price; discounts of 40% or more are quite common.
You have three primary options for printing digital photographs on paper; I will offer a bit of insight to each of these.
Have a photo lab print it onto photographic paper
Have a photo lab print it via inkjet printing
Print it yourself via inkjet printing
Photo lab – print on traditional photographic paper
Traditional photographic paper has been used since before digital photography existed. Embedded within the paper, a chemical process reacts to light. With the advent of digital photography, the method of projecting the image onto the paper has changed, but the paper itself is basically the same technology as was used forty years ago. Once the paper has been exposed to light, it must be processed through several chemicals, washed, and dried. Though it may seem to be a complex process, the process is typically done by machines and is inexpensive. Because a the image is formed by a chemical change within the paper, no ink or dye is applied to the paper surface.
The light sensitive paper (produced by Kodak, Fujifilm, Ilford, and others) is available with a glossy surface, matte surface, of something in between, typically referred to as semi-gloss or luster. Some paper produces black & white (a.k.a. grey-tone) image, while other papers produce a color image. Metallic color paper is a widely available option that has reflective specs embedded in the paper; an image on metallic paper can be quite stunning, but should be displayed under very good light to achieve the best effect.
Photo lab – print via inkjet printing
Inkjet paper is a far more simple material compared to light-sensitive paper. There is no chemical process built into the paper; it is basically just paper, made from wood fiber, cotton fiber, etc. However there are many options available with varying characteristics of surface sheen, surface texture, tonality, brightness, and contrast. Each photo printing lab will offer a limited range of paper options, papers with which they have experience and of which they understand the characteristics. If you are uncertain which paper to choose, you can discuss this with the lab, particularly considering the specific image(s) you want to print.
Though I can print images on my own inkjet printer, I have sometimes chosen to use a professional print lab for a few different reasons.
Printing can be a pain. For example, when printing on thick paper, I have to feed paper into my printer one sheet at a time.
To print on a paper size larger than my own printer capability.
To experiment with some different papers, without buying a full package of that paper.
Just because you send your images to a professional print lab, doesn’t guarantee that what the print will look like the image on your display screen … what you see is what you get (wysiwyg). You still need to do some work BEFORE you send your image to the lab. The necessary preparation is the same as printing it yourself, so jump ahead to Print it yourself.
Photo lab – print via dye sublimation
Dye sub printing is far less common than other methods. I have not used it and we’ll just leave it at that.
Print it yourself
As inkjet printers are widely available for personal and business use, making photo prints is entirely within your grasp. If you are unsatisfied with prints made by photo labs, you can take matters into your own hands.
Manufacturers of inkjet paper may offer a sample pack containing a variety of different papers. See the image at top of this post.
Most digital photographs are represented via RGB color space … red, green, blue. In general, inkjet printers do Not use RGB inks. This implies that a conversion is necessary. Your printer likely will attempt this conversion. Your computer software may also attempt this conversion. Very possibly, the resulting print will not be quite as you hoped.
How can we best insure that the print will be as we expect? Achieving a good print requires a few steps BEFORE sending the digital image to print.
Color-manage your computer display
In general, most computer displays do not render colors accurately. What you see on your display screen can be very different to what comes out of your printer. To insure that your display is accurate, use a device called a colorimeter. This device measures the actual colors coming out of your display screen and then places a correction table into your computer so that colors are corrected. The two most popular brands are ColorMunki (by Xrite) and Spyder (by DataColor).
Who you gonna trust?
You can either trust your printer to manage color properly, or trust your computer application to manage color properly. If both are trying to manage colors, then that’s going to be a problem. Pick one or the other.
If you choose to trust your printer, then be certain that your computer application (that which is sending the image to the printer) is Not managing color. Then, depending upon the ink and paper you choose to use, you may need to update the RIP firmware of your printer, if that is even possible.
The more common approach is to control color within the computer application. In the printer settings, disable the printer’s own color processing. With this feature disabled, the job of insuring correct color is entirely in the realm of the computer software application. Not all applications have this ability. (I generally print from Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop.)
Three things can impact print color: the specific printer are you using, the specific ink, and the specific paper. For example, you might be using a warm-tone paper or a bright-white paper. A “color profile” includes everything your computer application needs to make a print using the specific combination of printer + ink + paper. For example, if I am printing with an Epson 3880 printer, with Epson ink, printing on Canson Infinity Photo Satin paper, the paper manufacturer provides a “color profile” absolutely free. After downloading the color profile from the paper manufacturer, I can specify this color profile when sending an image to my printer; this insures that the colors are rendered accurately for that specific combination of printer, ink, and paper.
Color profile selection in Lightroom
In the screen snapshot here (Lightroom), notice that the first option is “Managed by Printer”; the remaining options are all different color profiles, meaning the printer is Not managing color.
If the paper manufacturer does not have a color profile for your specific printer+ink combination, then you have a problem. You might experiment with some available profiles and find one that that seems to produce good results. Else, you have to make your own color profile. This requires the use of a colorimeter. This may or may not be the same device you used to profile your display screen. The difference here is that the device must measure light reflecting off printed paper rather than measure light emanating from a display screen. If you want to, you could print on a white paper shopping bag – there is no color profile for that, but you could potentially make your own using a colorimeter.
A year ago, I almost bought an Epson 3880. Last week, I did buy an Epson printer, but opted for the 3000 instead of the 3880. Here is are a few reasons:
(1) the 3880 will print 17×22 paper, which is one size larger than the 3000
(2) the 3000 will feed both sheet paper and rolls
(3) the 3000 has built-in wi-fi
(4) the 3000 costs $300 less than the 3880 (after mail-in rebate)
(5) both the 3000 and 3880 use medium-size ink cartridges
specifically, 80ml volume (compared to 59ml for the R2000)
Between the years 2000 – 2010, Epson has been the standard bearer among semi-pro inkjet printers. Canon has since taken some of that market share from Epson. The Canon Pixma Pro-10 competes directly with the Epson 3000 and is comparably priced. The Canon may print a bit faster and includes 50 sheets of paper with the printer (worth $45).
Epson also offers larger printers (for 17″ wide and 24″ wide paper); Canon does not.
The real cost of a printer is not the printer itself, but the cost printing. The per-sheet cost is primarily a combination of paper and ink. For more info regarding per-sheet cost: http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing.html
(The cost of paper can vary widely as there are many choices today for paper.)
Having a need to get some prints done quickly, I employed a print lab that offered the paper I wanted at a good price. Unfortunately, they overcharge for 2-day shipping and also charge a $25 fee for a rush order. Really? $70 for rush processing + shipping? One of these cost penalties is understandable, but the sum of these two penalties was disturbing. Maybe a different lab would do the job without one of these two penalties?
I returned to a lab that I had used a month ago. Speaking with the lab via telephone, they told me I must upload the file within 60 minutes to get it into the processing queue. After consulting the shipper’s web site (UPS), they quoted me only $20 for 2-day shipping and no apparent surcharge for rush processing! But the paper choices are different and the print cost is significantly higher, compared to lab#1. In the end the total cost would be just a bit less, not much. I did login and upload the file, but then I could not seem to place an order. Their website allowed me to upload the file, but then the site navigation was confusing and I could not figure it out. (Which is odd because I had used this site just one month ago.) At this point, I was experiencing a lot of anxiety because of the time pressure.
Returning to lab#1, I completed the ordering process. Then sent a courtesy email to lab#2 because they were watching to receive my rush order (which I abandoned). Ten minutes later, someone from lab#2 telephoned me because he saw the upload and called to help. Sorry, but it was too late.
Lesson 1: When push comes to shove, never ever underestimate website ease-of-use.
Lesson 2: For rush jobs like this, I need to print myself rather than outsource to a print lab (incurring shipping delays, shipping costs, and rush processing fees).
Having sent out two sets of images, each to a different lab for printing, I have received both sets of prints. They all look great. Both sets were printed on archival inkjet paper, but two different brands … Epson Premium Luster for the sports images and Museo Silver Rag for nature/landscape. Premium luster is a lightly coated paper with a very slight pearl texture. Although I have seen Museo Silver Rag referred to as luster, I am inclined to say that it is semi-matte (one notch below luster), with a subtle sheen and subtle paper texture. The density of black color is not as good on Silver Rag (compared to the Epson Premium Luster), but is quite good considering this is an uncoated paper. In retrospect, I am very happy with both choices.
Acadia National Park
For sports images, I mounted each to a pure black presentation board. The presentation boards were pre-cut to size and are solid black through the core. From the print lab, each print had a broad white border; I trimmed down the borders to maybe 1/16 inch before mounting to boards.
For nature images, I did not want black or white, so I selected an off-white color mat board. General-purpose mat board can be inexpensive, but depends upon the particular board. Sheets 32×40” may cost less than $9. But this is only practical if you have the tools to easily and accurately cut the boards.
All said and done, including shipping, 32 prints cost me more than $400. Mounting boards cost an additional $1.20 – $2.00 per print. A spray-can of adhesive can cost as little as $10 for non-archival and as much as $20 for acid-free archival. Because a portfolio is not meant to last forever, there is no point in spending extra dollars for acid free adhesive or acid-free mounting boards.
If you have a set of images, is that a gallery or a portfolio? To my thinking a gallery can be any set of images, they need not even be related in any strong way. In contrast, a portfolio is a very closely edited collection of 20-30 images, your very best.
A portfolio can be presented in many ways, but foremost in my mind are these four: contained in a book, individual prints, digitally on a web site, or digitally on a tablet computer. Today, a professional photographer probably needs at least two of these four. Most recently, I have been working on a print portfolio. The last time I did this was years ago. (I should probably burn those old prints because they cannot hold a candle to my recent work.)
The last time I created a print portfolio, the prints were all made on chromogenic paper … chemically treated paper that is light-sensitive and processed with chemicals to permanently fix the image onto the paper. These types of prints are still very common, can be very inexpensive, and can create stunning images. The image can be projected onto the paper either using traditional film enlargers or digital enlargers, such as a LightJet. Chromogenic prints are continuous tone, unlike inkjet/giclée prints.
Bicycle race
For my new portfolio, I am employing only giclée (a.k.a. inkjet) prints. These types of prints offer far more options with regard to the paper. There are dozens of paper manufactures, each offering a variety of surfaces, textures, and contrast characteristics. It’s all very confusing. Photographers, who print often, have experience with several papers and have learned a few favorites for different types of images. But that’s not me.
After a ton of research, I selected a specific paper and a lab that offered this paper at a reasonable price. But before uploading my images to a print lab, I thought to check the image via soft proofing. Because printed images are dramatically different than images displayed on a computer monitor, soft proofing is a software feature that compensates for paper and ink, then shows on a computer monitor an approximation of what the print will look like. I downloaded a color profile specifically for the paper I had intended to use, then displayed the soft proof using Adobe Lightroom. The result was absolutely awful. My best efforts were not enough to make the image look good, and I ultimately abandoned the paper, did more research, and selected a different paper.
Very briefly, let me say that a single print 11×14” or 8×12” can cost anywhere from $13 to $60, depending upon the particular lab, how much personalized care they give to each print, and the particular paper you choose. (If you buy multiples of the same print, the additional copies typically cost less than the price for the first one.) Compare this to a print on chromogenic photo paper, which might cost only $4 to $15.
When I began to place my order for prints, they informed me that my preferred paper was no longer available. Again, I returned to research and selected a third paper. Because the lab offered a specific set of papers, I limited myself to just those papers that this lab supported. Having already uploaded my images to the lab, I spoke directly with someone at the lab, to confirm that my paper choice was right for these particular images. (Specifically, I did not want glossy or matte, but rather something in between that would provide very good color saturation and contrast.) Unfortunately, the lab also informed me that the prices advertised on their web site had all been changed recently (they had neglected to update the web site). Despite the paper changes and price increases, I chose to stick with this particular lab rather than go back to research and look for another lab that might possibly be less expensive.
The image of the Boston skyline was created with a full-frame DSLR, a 400mm lens, and a tripod. Twelve separate frames were stitched together (using Adobe Photoshop) into a single image.
The final result was a single image 16,000 x 8600 pixels (137 megapixels). Cropping this to fit my wall, the JPEG that I submitted for wallpaper was 12,320 x 8726 pixels. When printed to a size of 119.5” x 86.5”, that implies a resolution just above 100 dpi. But the wallpaper vendor will interpolate this higher, to the native resolution of the printer.
The wallpaper
After a bit of research on the internet, I selected three possible vendors to print my wallpaper. My first vendor choice ended in a confusing experience with their website. I abandoned that vendor and then selected Blue River Digital (www.blueriverdigital.com). BRD offers several substrate choices; the choice depends largely upon two factors, (1) exposure to direct sunlight and (2) longevity of the intended display. I chose premium vinyl wallpaper and the cost was about $400. (This was a year ago; today’s options and prices have surely changed.) Depending upon the vendor and the material you choose, the cast generally ranges from $3 to $9 per square foot.
Sharpness, color, … the image quality of the final printed wallpaper is excellent.
In terms commonly used to describe photographic paper, this wallpaper has surface that is perhaps between matt and satin. Side light from a window causes a glare on the surface of the wallpaper.
For my wallpaper, the side-to-side ordering was obvious. However, depending upon the particular image, maybe with a repeating pattern, the sequence of the separate panels might not be obvious. Because of this, Blue River Digital includes a number on the back side of each panel.
The installation
You can hire a professional wallpaper installer or do it yourself. I have hung wallpaper myself on a few occasions (not recently), so opted to install the photo mural myself. A professional could have installed it in far less time than I … and with less cursing. (To install any wallpaper yourself and avoid the cursing, it’s a good idea to have help from a second person.)
As with any wallpaper installation, the wall does need to be properly prepared before installing the wallpaper.
After applying paste the back of a panel, the panel is folded in half and allowed to sit for a bit. (This is called Booking and is standard practice for wallpaper.) Blue River Digital provides a list of name brand wallpaper pastes that they have actually tested. I took that list to my local hardware store and found that they did carry one of those paste products. My local big-box home improvement warehouse stocked only a generic brand; I expect that would suffice, but I chose to use a paste that was Blue-River-tested.
My print consists of four panels, each 30” wide. At the edge of a panel, the image on a panel overlaps with the image on the adjacent panel, by about one inch. So, when applying each panel to the wall, the panels overlap by one inch.
Because my particular image has some strong vertical and horizontal lines, I was very particular about getting that first piece level and plumb. I removed that first panel from the wall and re-applied it probably three times before I was satisfied. Then I applied the remaining panels, which were easier to install than the first, but still can be difficult to get the two panels exactly aligned.
Typically, to create a print-on-demand custom photo-book, you download easy-to-use free software from the vendor/printer, layout your book pages, then upload the result for printing. But, alternatively, some vendors allow you to use other page-layout software. For my latest book, I used Adobe InDesign.
Having used the free software from three different vendors, I found them all quite similar and mostly intuitive to learn. On the other hand, Adobe InDesign is just a bit more complicated to learn, but much more flexible. If you can imagine it, you can do it. For example, a frame can be virtually any shape at all (a frame is a container for text or images). I used this flexibility several times throughout my book.
Adobe InDesign
There is one important difficulty to be aware of. The printing equipment used to print your book is almost certainly based upon CMYK inks, not RGB. All images must be converted to CMYK. When you use free software (downloaded from your PoD vendor), this conversion is done automatically for you. But when using other layout software, such as InDesign, you are responsible for doing conversion to CMYK.
Converting images from RGB to CMYK can be ugly. The conversion will necessarily shift some colors. And because CMYK is a smaller color space than RGB, some colors simply cannot be represented in CMYK.
In the case of my recent book, Wildflowers of RiverPark, I converted each image to CMYK using Adobe Photoshop. In general, rich green colors did not convert well to CMYK; no matter which conversion method I used, greens became horribly muted. With practice, I learned how to compensate for this. I was able to create a custom action to help this process, but it was still annoying and time consuming. Furthermore, one image in particular features vivid purple-magenta (flower is Deptford Pink) that could not be represented in CMYK.
In doing the conversions myself, and using the soft-proof feature in Photoshop, I gained one important benefit. The colors in the printed book are very accurate. If you rely upon your PoD vendor to automatically convert your images, you may get some unexpected color shift in your final printed book.
Specifically using InDesign provides another small benefit: InDesign works well with Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. From InDesign, create an emtpy frame, then hop over to Adobe Bridge, click on an image and choose: Place into InDesign. The image is inserted into the frame you created. After the image has been added to your book, making changes to the image is simple. Right click on the image and choose: “Edit Original” to edit the image in Photoshop. When you save your Photoshop changes, InDesign automatically picks up your changes and updates your InDesign document.
