As a photographer you probably hear over and over again about how you need to print your work. How there’s nothing like holding a print, etc… And I’ve heard people get very preachy about it. Don’t get me wrong. There is indeed nothing like holding a print. But my take is a little different. To me, it’s not just what holding a print does for you the photographer. It’s what the print does for everyone else who sees your work. A print makes you real. It doesn’t make you a real or a good photographer, but it does make your photography real. And it makes you memorable. In this digital age, we get so caught up in showing everything on our tablets and phones. There’s nothing wrong with that. In most cases, that may be the first and only place you can show your work. But you know what happens as soon as that person walks away? They forget about you because there’s nothing lasting and memorable about that digital tablet/phone image.
Say for example you don’t have prints in your house. Friends and visitors come over and every once in a while, and you show them your phone or tablet. I don’t know about you, but you know what happens to me when I do that? They say “Did you take that with your phone?”. NO!!!! But they don’t know that. So you have to convince them that you took it with a real camera. That there’s so much more detail and color than what they’re seeing. That this photo can actually be printed and seen larger than what they are seeing on that tiny screen. And what about the people that come over that you never get the chance to grab your tablet to show your work off? They never see your photos. But if they’re printed and hanging on your wall, they’re always there for people to see. Again, prints make your photography come to life. They give it a permanent quality.
I don’t know about you, but I plan to save my prints. Eventually I’ll hand them down to my kids. I hope my kids and my grandkids save them and always look back at them to say their dad took these photos. You can’t do that with digital files that sit on your computer though. In a way, a print makes them timeless.
It’s Kind Of Like Writing A Book
I can equate this to writing a book vs. making a DVD. Does writing a book pay more than making a DVD? In most cases no. Regardless of the industry, you can easily make more money (and spend less time producing) with a DVD than a book. But I bet if you asked 10 people what they considered more credit worthy, you know what they’d say? A book. The printed form of something immediately invokes a feeling of realness, quality and credibility. I’m not sure if it’ll always be that way, but regardless of how “digital” things have gone today, it’s still true.
I think the same goes for prints. They automatically feel more real than simply looking at a digital file. If some one saw one of your photos and said “Wow, I love it, I’d sure like a copy”, what do you think the impact would be if you send them a USB drive with the image on it. Pretty lame right? But if you sent them a print, now we’re talking.
This past Wednesday, RC and I did a show for The Grid called The Live Print Show (it’s free by the way). We talked a lot about the print, what it means, what paper we like, how to get a good print and what kinds of options you have if you’re not going to print yourself. The show is about an hour long, so if you’re looking to kill some time this weekend I hope you’ll stop by and watch it. Thanks and have a great weekend!
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
I totally agree with your philosophy for making prints Matt. I joined a local photo club last year and as a result made more prints (real prints, not 4×6’s lol) than I had in the previous 10 years combined. I have three frames with prints near the front door and almost all the people who visit end up looking at them and making comments. I’ve now done the same thing at my work office. I plan on rotating pictures through the frames as the year progresses. I need to research papers and print houses though. I’ve been getting everything done at Costco (with their ICC profile) and it’s certainly okay for the price, but it’s not great.
An excellent show, Matt. I really do need to print my stuff for my walls but the main problem are the million+ paper types and styles. It seems the only way to see and feel the differences are at trade shows, so now I promise to dedicate my time to printing options on the expo floor at PhotoPlus in October.
Dani, I’ve seen your work! You won’t go work with Red River Arctic Polar Luster. I use it all the time and people rave about the weight and beautiful colors. – Dennis
Thanks for the recommendation, Dennis, I’ll definitely check out that Red River Artic Polar.
Hi Matt, just watched the Grid Video and it was Great! Nice job on the paper and print ICC profiles. Question, I’m a Canon user (both camera and printer) do you guys plan on doing a Canon Printer show? I use Red River Arctic Polar Luster and Arctic Pearl Metalic … Great papers! Have a Great Weekend!
Dennis
Hey Dennis – I’m sure we’ll probably do something soon on Canon printers. I’ve never used Print Studio Pro though – my prints come out just fine from LR so I haven’t felt the need to switch to something else.
Hey Matt,
Do you print mainly out of LR?
Dennis
Aside from covering the walls of our Lakehouse with my prints I create a Blurb photo book of every major trip. Hopefully someday my kids will be impressed.
PS: what was the outcome on your LASIK decision, looked like you got lots of input?
Hi Glenn – I was going to write a LASIK update this week. Thanks for asking 🙂
The video is great.
Oh, forgot to tell you … excellent tip on the graduated filer and sliders in LR5. I stumbled upon that myself the other day … awesome stuff! – Dennis
Hey Matt, I agree with you on Printing Photos. When I was working (retired now) my office knew I loved photography, and had seen some of my photos hanging in my office. So, they asked me to submit some photos of just Colorado Landscapes. So I did, and they had me print them (13×19) out. They framed them and place them all over the office. Once they did that, I had all kinds of requests from fellow workers wanting copies of the photos for their house! I was surprised and thrilled at the same time. Haven’t seen the video yet, but will get after it this weekend. Great blog today!
Dennis
I missed this show due to training but I have a two-hour train ride ahead of me today so this is great! Now I have something fun to pass the time with!