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| "Heroic" ©MarkJansen |
In a world that is trying to separate us from people and services, it can be difficult to bring your images to reality in the true light and color that you conceived them in. This blog posting is not about monitor calibration, which we can talk about at a latter time. Not to get off track, but if you're printing regularly, I suggest calibrating once a month.
This brings me to how I print all my images these days. Whether I'm offering anything from a 5" x 10" print to 15' x 20' wall mural, I insist on working with local vendors that are in my area. This is a wonderful way of connecting people personally and having complete creative control over your photography. I'm constantly blown away by how many fine photographers leave this process up to perfect strangers they never meet. Especially surprising is when they have big commercial clients or a private party trusting them to produce a quality product. This might work for some, but there's nothing like shaking hands and working with a local printer that you have trusted for years to produce the goods and place it directly in your hands. It's great to work with them personally and have your visions produced accurately. In addition, you'll have hands-on contact with materials from photographic papers to canvas.
After spending thousands of dollars on cameras, lenses, computers and software and long hours in the digital darkroom massaging your images to perfection, why would you send it off to some faceless company to interpret your vision to have it come back just passable?
work with them. There are thousands of them out there eager to work with you. Its also great having a perI know many of you out there have been photographing for sometime. I see many wonderful images scattered throughout the internet begging to be printed. I'm sure you've heard the saying, "It's really not a photograph unless it's actually printed". There is a plethora of online services seeking your business. I myself took advantage of a few of them early on in my career. The results would be questionable, but acceptable from these online services at the time. My eyes became adjusted to imperfections and slight variations in color tone once I received my prints. I would notice that the color would not quite be right. The greens slightly off, or some other color off balance. Definitely not the file I sent. This is a common occurrence with many of these services. I'm sure photographers, through trial and error have nailed perfection with some of these online color houses are quite happy with results. I myself have never really been satisfied with these products.
In a world that is trying to separate us from people and services, it can be difficult to bring your images to reality in the true light and color that you conceived them in. This blog posting is not about monitor calibration, which we can talk about at a latter time. Not to get off track, but if you're printing regularly, I suggest calibrating once a month.
This brings me to how I print all my images these days. Whether I'm offering anything from a 5" x 10" print to 15' x 20' wall mural, I insist on working with local vendors that are in my area. This is a wonderful way of connecting people personally and having complete creative control over your photography. I'm constantly blown away by how many fine photographers leave this process up to perfect strangers they never meet. Especially surprising is when they have big commercial clients or a private party trusting them to produce a quality product. This might work for some, but there's nothing like shaking hands and working with a local printer that you have trusted for years to produce the goods and place it directly in your hands. It's great to work with them personally and have your visions produced accurately. In addition, you'll have hands-on contact with materials from photographic papers to canvas.
After spending thousands of dollars on cameras, lenses, computers and software and long hours in the digital darkroom massaging your images to perfection, why would you send it off to some faceless company to interpret your vision to have it come back just passable?
I strongly suggest doing a little research in your local area. Contact some local printers and see if you can work with them. There are thousands of them out there eager to work with you. Its also great having a personal relationship with your printer who will allow you complete control of your art from conception to completion.
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©Mark Jansen
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