Printing Our Results

In this issue we are taking a look at some of the aspects of printing.  Once we've taken our photos and edited them, we then want to print them out.

There is a large amount on offer for us to be able to print our work ourselves, we don't have to be reliant on using the photo processing house anymore, in fact in a lot of high streets the age of digital photography has seen a decline in these specialist shops. However it is now possible to get photos printed in your local supermarket, chemist and other outlets. But nothing can really beat printing it out yourself and seeing what you  have been able to produce, the colours that you get in some supermarket like outlets leave a lot to be desired.

Many, but not all photographers will have a computer and being able to connect a printer to this will allow you to load, edit and print your masterpiece. But which printer should you get, there are so many available going into your local high street photo shop or computer store will give a vast array of models across a whole spectrum of manufacturers. Within a group of articles this week we have not tried to preview all printer models available, but give you some idea of what is available and what to consider and look out for when looking at getting a printer for your needs, starting with our article,  taking a Look at Printers for the Photographer . We then follow this up with other articles looking at aspects of it in more detail. We have concentrated on those printers suitable for printing photos and take a look at the Economy/Small Printers which includes low cost, less than £200, A4 inkjet printers as well as the dedicated photo printers which you can use without the need of a computer or are portable enough that you can take with you, to print on demand for family, friends, colleagues or just your enjoyment when out and about. We had previously looked at Printing on a Budget, while we don't use if for production work we do have an A4 printer that produces quality photographs, fully colour managed that we bought for under £30, so anybody can afford to print their own work. From experimenting with this low cost printer we found that the secret to getting good images was in getting the profile right, more on this below.

Continuing with the out and about theme and being able to print away from your base, we take a quick look at, Event Printers those used by the growing Event Photographer industry. These printers aren't inkjet but use another ink laying method called dye-sublimation, and the paper and ink comes in the same pack, so no mess and they are really fast good quality printers. The quality of the prints encourage those attending the event, to part with their cash, to take away a momentum of their experience.

For those who like to print from the comfort of our desk in our home/office then our Print On Demand Desktop Printers article will be of interest to you. Here we take a look at the inkjet printers which use multiple ink cartridges to give better quality, publishable photos but we do limit it to those that you can fit on a desk top, so printing up to A2+. We will take a look at wide format printers at a later date.

Our final new article this week, Ink in Printers, explains the different inks used by photo printers, how they work, manufacturers originals over the cheaper compatibles and continuous ink systems (CIS) that are available for some Epson, and Canon printers.

So you have your printer and ink and now what about the media, this takes various forms from paper, card, CD's, transfers to get prints on t-shirts, mugs, mouse mats, jigsaws and more. We will come back and look at this in more detail in the future.  There is a large amount of different papers available and choosing which is right for you can be just as challenging as getting the right printer, but for now you could take a look at No Cost or Low Cost Media, to find out ways of getting hold of paper to experiment with for very little if no cost.

Whichever printer, ink system or media you choose to use to get the best quality images possible it is always a good idea to profile your printer and Printer Profiling explains what needs to be done to achieve this and links to further articles on colour management.

Focus on Imaging Show

We did visit the Focus show this week, but with training and other commitments we haven't had time to write it up yet. There was lots to see and of interest, although we didn't feel there was much new and it felt like the visitor numbers were down slightly - not as many people crowding the alleyways except where presentations or models were available to be photographed. We will have a full write up on our experience at the show and some of the stuff we saw next week.

Photographers Diary Update

Tomorrow is the last day of February and apparently the first day of spring. So we have taken the opportunity to put together the April diary and move the pointers of the  This Month, Next Month buttons. We are now entering the busy season of the year, with April having this years Easter Break and the start of many of our UK attractions starting to open their doors again for the summer season. We have also updated the Nature and Wildlife calendar for the next quarter (April-June), take a look for something different to do.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival, a hearty winter warming pud. Sunday is the 1st of March and a special day for those in Wales as it's St David's day. In Cardiff there will be the annual St Davids' Day Parade and celebrations and many people in Wales will be donning their leak or welsh daffodil to mark the occasion.

On the subject of Daffodils, the Daffodil Walk at Kew Gardens, on either side of the Broad Walk should be starting to show their heads, they are usually out from February, through March and into April for some of the species. March the 22nd sees the start of the Kempley, in Gloucestershire, Daffodil Weekend where you can take a 10 mile walk along a footpath, the Daffodils Way  , to see all native wild daffodils on display. We also have a list of other locations throughout the UK which have good displays of daffodils - see Where to Photograph Daffodils

Taking a Look at Printers for the Photographer

Economy/Small Printers

Print On Demand Desktop Printers

Event Printers

Ink in Printers

Printing on a Budget

No Cost or Low Cost Media

Printer Profiling