Tag: Printing
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In the extraordinary transition that has taken place as we evolve from
film to digital, the lab, the mainstay of the photo community, is in
the midst of a quiet revolution. While many businesses struggle to find
their way, the leaders in the industry are interpreting the technology,
advancing along with it, and staking out a clear path as they innovate
services vital to the photographer in the digital era. It may be a
quiet revolution, but that doesn’t make it any less momentous.
With the exception of Epson, many of these improvements have been slow
to arrive in the large-format printers that are preferred by many pros
and studios. For the purposes of this article, large format is defined
as printers capable of 17-inch and wider prints on either sheet or roll
media.
For the past few years, we’ve been operating under a sort of ad-hoc
series of image-delivery options. Falling back on the usual way of
doing business, professional photographers have sent digital files to
clients on CD or DVD or, more recently, have used the Internet and FTP
technology. Image management, storage and delivery will become a more
streamlined and standardized process in the future. Some of the leading
companies are already moving to act like a hub in a wheel, interfacing
between the photographer at one end and the client at the other.
There’s something magical about watching an image develop on a piece of
photo paper in the developer tray…to see it go from just a blank white
piece of paper to becoming a photograph is what many photographers
think of when they think of black-and-white photography. That process
of watching the image develop is what got me hooked on photography over
30 years ago, and black-and-white is where my heart really lives, even
though I’ve done more color work professionally.
There’s much more to a successful photography business than taking a
pretty picture. It’s a business where there’s no shortage of shooters
who produce consistently excellent work. In this competitive
environment, you need to step from behind the camera and market
yourself to create an awareness of you and your work. For some, this
takes the form of a promotional card that’s sent out to thousands of
current and hopefully future clients. For others, it involves the
production of short-run bound books designed to serve as an
introduction or a refresher of a photographer’s work to a client.
You may have been told that you have to use a high image resolution
(most commonly given as 360 ppi or pixels per inch) in order to get the
best inkjet prints. Or perhaps someone has instructed you to use
something much lower, maybe even 200 or 180 ppi. Who’s right? Is anyone
absolutely right?
Imagine the increased profit of selling images you make during an
event—a portrait, a wedding, a large corporate function—to hundreds of
potential buyers instead of the small circle of people who originally
set up the shoot. By uploading your images to a Website, anyone to whom
you give access can view and purchase these images. If your portrait
studio is in Denver, for example, a family member living in New York
City can easily order an 11x14-inch print. Beyond the obvious advantage
of making the extra sale, there’s also the plus of providing an
important service for your clients—you take care of their worries about
getting a print out to everyone who wants one.
Black-and-white used to be the core of the photographer’s darkroom.
Now, ironically, as companies concentrate heavily on moving the
darkroom onto the desktop, black-and-white photography has been slowly
relegated to the sidelines of fine art and portraiture. New advances in
technology, however, have given black-and-white printing a little more,
pardon the pun, exposure. 
Professional printers are getting even better, giving us amazing
picture quality with exceptional printer drivers. Usually printing with
the manufacturer’s media guarantees the best print with its printer
drivers, but when using a third-party paper or any other sort of
substrate medium, it becomes harder to get the best and most
predictable results. For those of us who want the highest-quality
photos and the most control over our output, there are reliable options
that ensure what we have on the screen will be yielded when we queue
our print jobs.
Contrast is critical to a properly printed black-and-white image.
There’s no color to define and structure a photograph. It all must be
done in the monochrome tonalities from black to white.
