When I first started taking photography seriously I scoured the internet for information and to be fair there are literally thousands of resources telling you everything from which camera to buy to how to make best use of it.
You can find out virtually any thing you want on photography but there is one area that doesn’t seem to have too much information, and that is printing.
So im going to tell you how I convert my images into stunning prints.
If you want to skip straight to my landscape photography you can
Firstly I use Adobe Lightroom 3 software and so will be describing my workflow based on that but it will apply equally to photoshop and others.
Ok before we even attempt to print we need to look at colour management.
This is not the place to go into colour managemnt in detail but there are certain things you need to do if you want your prints to look great.
1. Ensure your camera is using a profile such as SRGB or adobe 1998 (has a wider gammut ie more colours)this means that the camera is recording colours according to set parameters that can later be matched on other hardware.
2. Calibrate your monitor using hardware such as the Datacolour Spyder or the Colormunki
This ensures that your monitor is displaying colours correctly which means that you have a starting point to your workflow that is correct.
2. You need to start using printer profiles to make sure that the printer is talking the same language as your monitor. The most basic way to ensure your using a correct printer profile is to stick with your printer manufacturers papers and use the recommended settings. So if you have an Epson printer stick with epson paper. This usually results in accurate colours, particularly with the newer inksets
However there are a lot of very good and usually cheaper 3rd party papers out there, the good companies usually have profiles that you can use for the more popular paper/printer combinations. For home use these are usually good enough. Some such as Fotospeed even offer custom profiles when you buy their paper. This means they will match their paper to your actual printer to fine tune performance. All you have to do is print a couple of target pages and send it off to them. This can make all the difference between good prints and great prints as the profile is specifically created for your actual printer it can make sure that the full range of colours and tones on your particular machine are used.
Ok so if you have your camera, monitor and printer set up correctly they should all be talking the same language. Thats a good start point.
Now I use custom print profiles for my printer as I sell my work and need it to be absolutely the best quality it can be , however the method is the same if you are using manufacturers profiles.
Iv processed my image to how I want it to look in lightroom so now i go to the print module :
I wont go through all the settings here, only the ones that affect quality.
i’ll assume you know how to set the margins and layout of your print.
Ok so choose the print resolution, this is the PPI (Pixels per inch)I usually opt for 360 as this is my printers native resolution however you can stick to your cameras native resolution or the standard professional use resolution of 300. It shouldnt make a discernible difference to quality unless you drop under 200 and even then it depends on the size of print.
Next up is sharpening, now im talking about output sharpening here. you should have already sharpened your image file during the processing stage but we need a little bit of sharpening added to the output file depending upon use.
A tip I was once given is that for a print the image should be just slightly oversharpened so that sharpening halos just start to appear.
However with lightroom you can chooses output sharpening and it has algorithms that automatically sharpen for the output media and incorporate output size and type into its calculations. I use harman gloss baryta paper which produces very sharp images. If the image has lots of fine detail which most of my images do then I will choose “high” output sharpening and glossy for the paper surface. This is unfortunately another area where you will have to experiment with your paper and settings to see what you prefer.
Now here comes the colour management bit this is where your print colours are either going to come out perfectly or have you holding your head in your hands.
1. Choose the correct profile for your paper here.
2. I set the rendering intent to relative
3. Go in to your print driver properties settings and select the correct paper type, size and most importantly turn off colour management in the print driver.
The reason for this is that we want lightroom or photoshop to manage the colours using our profile. If the printer tries to manage the colours too then there will be a conflict and thinks will go pear shaped.
4. In the print driver properties settings page you should also be able to choose the DPI (dots per inch) usually 1440×720 or 2880×1440 the higher this figure the more droplets of ink your printer lays down on the page per inch. Meaning more finely detailed prints. The difference between the two highest settings on my epson is very subtle, if i were printing for myself id choose 1440×720 (superfine on epson).
However for professional use i choose 2880×1440 (superphoto on epson)on gloss/lustre surfaces where the extra detail shows up and 1440×720 on matte papers where the difference is not discerinible. Using the higher setting uses about 10% more ink and increase print times by about 40-50%
Ok you should be ready to print and hopefully the print you see should match the picture you see on screen.
Now its a question of fine tuning the prints through trial and error to see what works best for you.
Now remember this is just my method of print, others may vary and if you guys have any tips on methods or papers then I’d love to hear your comments below.
You also have to consider which paper your going to use. There are literally hundreds of different papers out there now and I have tried a lot of them. I have spent a lot of time and money testing different papers and you will probably do the same.
Here are the papers I use and a brief description
1. Harman by Hahnemuhle Gloss baryta 320- A smooth gloss finish, but not a plasticky looking gloss finish. Very slight stipple in the paper, nice and thick, feels nice in the hand. Produces very detailed prints with rich colours , a wide gammutt and very deep blacks. Beautiful for colour and black and white landscape images. My Favourite paper. Cons- the surface is very delicate, can flake and also scratch. Do not touch this paper until it has dried for 24 hours. I use cotton gloves to handle all papers but especially this one. Not for prints that will be passed around.
2. Ilford smooth gloss- A resin coated paper meaning it does have that plascticky look to it. However it produces very nice prints with good rich colours and very good levels of detail. Its quite thick and feels substantial in hand but not special. Very reasonable priced paper
3. Fotospeed Lustre- Is a very nice everyday paper. The lustre finish gives a more matt looking finish than that of the Ilford paper. colours are nice and rich, tones are smooth, images are sharp but not as detailed as the 2 gloss papers. Paper is thinner than the gloss papers and doesn’t feel as thick /luxurious. I use this paper for some smaller images I make for the local market
4. I am currently in the process of testing Matte papers for some limited edition shots that I have planned.
The two I have narrowed it down to are hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308 and Canson Rag Photographique. Both are luxurious papers with a beautiful surface and a luxurious feel in hand. You can’t go wrong with either paper but they are both expensive.
If your concerned about longevity of print then I suggest checking out Aardenburg imaging who carry out and publish tests on a huge variety of papers.
If you decide this sounds like a lot of work then Il be more than happy for you to leave the work to me and you can buy my landscape prints instead
Thanks x so much to learn !!!
Thanks for commenting. If you need any help with anything then feel free to ask on here.