Printing Your Photos -- Where To Start
You’ve gone through the online gallery countless times. You shed the tears. You just LOVE that photo of your cousin on the dance floor (because he always makes that face when he’s trying to dance.) You’ve looked at the photos of your first look so many times you remember things that you didn’t even know happened. And you think to yourself “We should really print these.”
But then you realize you have no idea where to start. So you don’t.
That’s what I want to avoid.
Let’s talk about printing photos — where to start, what’s available, and what will serve you best. Right now I’m focusing this blog on individual prints, not albums. But more on that later ;)
**all of the photos in this post were photographed in the exact same lighting situation to help you compare them best**
I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PRINT LABS — CAN’T I JUST GO TO WALGREENS?
Printing a photo seems like it should be the easiest step in the whole process. You’ve invested so much time and money into choosing a photographer whose work you really connected with, someone that put thought and care into selecting and editing each photo individually and now you want to fill the surfaces of your home with them. You expect that printing the photos will mean exact replicas of what you’ve been seeing on the screen for the past months, but the reality is that paper, ink, and process determines how close that print is to the original file. The reality is that when you get your prints back from a place like Walgreens or Walmart, the photo just doesn’t seem to “punch” like it did on the screen. It doesn’t seem to speak the way it used to. So you assume that printed photos just can’t do that like the screen can.
But you’re wrong.
I want to help you print like a photographer. So step #1? Don’t print at Walgreens.
PRINTING THROUGH YOUR ONLINE GALLERY
Recently, I changed photo-sharing platforms; I saw a lack in the previous platform’s ability to provide a quality, user-friendly print shop. Because if all an online gallery can do is show you your photos, it’s not doing enough.
I’ve chosen Richard Photo Labs to fulfill the print jobs because of their amazing reputation in the photography world and when I got my hands on the prints I was sold. The shop attached to your online gallery offers prints at a variety of sizes and three options for paper type — matte, semi gloss and fine art.
Semi Gloss
Fine Art
Matte
The differences between semi gloss, matte, and fine art papers are the most obvious in these black and white prints. Notice the darkest part of the image, the groom’s coat, and the lightest part of the image, the bride’s dress. When compared, the fine art print shows much more range than the semi gloss print, and especially more than the matte print. The fine art paper itself is a more rich white, lacking the blueish hue of the other prints. It might be a matter of opinion, but I recognize a depth in the fine art paper that isn’t present in the other two prints. (If you can’t tell, I’m a huge fan of the fine art paper!!!)
Some people might not love the texture of the fine art paper compared to the smoothness of the matte paper, but you can really only see it up close.
Semi Gloss
Fine Art
Matte
Semi Gloss
Fine Art
Matte
In these colored prints, I notice truer colors in the fine art prints. It seems like the semi gloss and matte prints turn a little red in the warmer areas instead of keeping the vibrant yellow (notice the candlelight in the fist print and the colored shadows of the second print.) The fine art prints offers greater depth and clarity, literally and metaphorically; it makes me feel like I’m actually in the moment again.
Semi Gloss
Matte
Semi Gloss
Matte
There are some scenarios that lend themselves to a matte look, maybe one of these scenes on film. These are stylistic preferences that change depending on the viewer. Which look do you prefer?
BORDER OR NO BORDER?
Richard Photo Lab offers the option of bordered or borderless prints. When you put a photo in a frame it typically has a matte (that thick, white board that goes around the photo), which creates breathing room for the artwork, conveys significance, and directs your eyes to the art. The matte covers the outside edge of the photo, keeping it in place but also effectively cropping the framed photo. A bordered photo can be tricky to fit perfectly without showing the border, but done well it keeps the photo from being cropped inside the frame. Standing alone without a frame, a bordered print serves as a miniature matte for the photo, this look is perfect for a box of loose photos.
Ultimately, each of these bullet points is just a matter of opinion. But I hope those opinions are more informed now. If you have any questions or want my opinion about a print, send me an email! I’d love to help.
Cheers!
Chloe