Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: Rdmax on August 04, 2017, 10:19:05 pm
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Anyone make prints to make the most out of medium format? Any good experiences or places to avoid?
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Anyone make prints to make the most out of medium format? Any good experiences or places to avoid?
I go to my studio. I've had good experiences there. I would avoid the shower. :)
It's analogous to the old wet darkroom days. Then, either you made the prints yourself or you found a master printer and either bought into his vision or crossed your fingers and hoped for the best. Now, you can do at your computer a lot of what needed to be done in the darkroom then, but a soft proof is not a substitute for a hard one if you're picky.
Jim
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I have never had any issues printing to my 9900. Only issue is I can't get past 44" and the cost to get to 60" along with the necessary handling of that size print makes it not worth the effort for me.
Really any print that takes you to oversize framing considerations is most times not worth the extra cost unless it's ordered in advance. Canvas is much easier to work with in the larger sizes at least for me.
Paul Caldwell
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Lots of options - it's just a matter of what size and what medium you want. Here's a database of places that have ICC profiles.
https://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/
Proximity to you really is important, as you'll want to build a relationship with whom ever you select to do printing.
For off the cuff test prints, Costco does well enough with the 20x30 to 24x72 sizes.
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Costco does a shit job. Please lets keep it to a professional discussion. I help invent the inkjet printing along with the first papers and coatings. Most labs do a fair job at best. If your shooting then you should learn how to print. If you don't know how to print then you can't shoot at the highest level. I've made my living selling and exhibiting my images since I was 17, where has the pride and integrity gone?
No amount of wanting will make it happen. I liked it a lot more when you weren't considered a photographer unless you MADE YOUR OWN PRINTS.
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Apart from that which my printer can handle, I outsource to either The Printspace (https://www.theprintspace.co.uk) or Whitewall for canvases (https://uk.whitewall.com)
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Apart from that which my printer can handle, I outsource to either The Printspace (https://www.theprintspace.co.uk) or Whitewall for canvases (https://uk.whitewall.com)
I've always been pleased with Whitewall's quality. A2 and smaller, I print myself - mainly on Moab papers and sometimes Hahnemühle.
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I'm with Tim - I don't know how you can be a good photographer without making your own prints. For me, printing is an iterative process and requires evaluating a print over time to learn to bring the best out of the image. That being said, there are reasons to outsource - larger prints and specialty prints (Lightjet print with a acrylic front and aluminum back) . On the rare occasion I outsource, I always provide an example print that I made as a guide and then I evaluate a sample. I should mention many great photographers used an assistant to make their prints but almost all of them worked side by side with their printer. My view is that you first need to learn to print before you can provide the kind of feedback to a printer if you outsource.
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Costco does a shit job.
All generalizations are false, including this one.-Mark Twain
SOME Costco's implementing full color management as outlined below (from Drycreek) in my experience, produce very good output to the same printers, many of us here are using (Epson's), with custom ICC profiles supplied by a company that builds good ones. Unlike so many lab's that force sRGB to be sent, these Costco labs provide a fully color managed path allowing customers to use any RGB working space (sRGB is suboptimal for this work), allowing them to soft proof, pick a rendering intent that is honored when printed and even convert to the output color space with supplied profiles!
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I use White House (https://www.whcc.com/) for producing many of my prints. Great service and really good quality.
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I love printing. I don't really get the smile on my face with a good image until I see it in print. That completes it. Of course, really, really large printing can be daunting. But so rewarding. Some of our clients offer very high end, low volume, fine art printing. If you'd like a recommendation, PM me.
Steve Hendrix/CI