[biz-engineer]

How often do you print?

Once or twice a year when the price is good. Over 120 prints from the last 13 years from A3 to A0. Unlike digital displaying, prints do cost money, which forces to think twice before pressing that shutter button.

[w2ck]

Hi,

Weekly. I print then sell. Mostly quilt blocks, that is photos on fabric. That's with a specialty printer. Some paper prints as well, and again printing weekly. As stock sells, I have to replenish.

Here is such an image:




On the textile inkjet printer:




Stan

[Eric Auer]

think twice before pressing that shutter button.

Good advice regardless of final display method!

[Bluefin]

Great thread! I think printing images that move you is very important. I print all my favorite images, mat them and keep them in portfolio boxes. I don't sell or exhibit my images but I love sharing them with family and friends. Seeing an image on social media is fine but when you hold a matted image in your hands it's magical! And my prints are relatively small, 9 x6.

Recently I needed to print the attached two images for a special friend so I sent an email to a bunch of friends and said I was firing up the printer and would anyone like a print? Giving art to friends and family is a wonderful gift.

Is it expensive? Depends. I buy my mats in bulk. I buy museum quality rag mats. I just bought 50 mats with a custom window size and 50 blanks for backing and it cost me $400. That's $8 in mats for each image. Is that expensive? Not for me to say but I know lunch at McDonalds cost more!

I use an Epson 1400 printer that cost me less than $250. You can't buy them anymore because they were discontinued many years ago which goes to show you my printer cost per image is negligible.

Print, print and then print some more!

Attached Images

   

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Last edited by Bluefin; 12-10-2021 at 05:54 PM. Reason: Images are way too large .

[Foamberg]

one or two prints a week! printing is the essence of photography - to work with different fineart paper is machless...! ;-)

So, since this is the MF forum and we have lots o large pixels and spiffy large negatives, how often do you guys make prints?

I mean honestly, thats where most of the advantage of MF is.

I make 'bout three dozen a year or so. (have them made rather, my home darkroom is undergoing renovations and I dont have a pro level inkjet/piezo machine).

[DamienW]

Event with my K-1, I rarely print (keep saying I'm going to though).

Me too.

I have shots I would like to put on the wall. Currently we only have a few prints we bought from a service.

If you build it they will come? If I buy a printer, will I make prints?

---------- Post added 12-10-21 at 07:40 PM ----------

On the textile inkjet printer:

That is quite a serious looking machine.

[biz-engineer]

Think about all those photographs of ordinary things from 50+ years ago, how good of nostalgia look, the memory of how things were for our ancestors, have value today.

Will ordinary posts on facebook still be looked at 50 years, 100 years from now? Unlikely.

Chances are current digital image formats will have died, even 20 years from now, no one will be able to read a proprietary raw file format from a specific camera model.
Prints sealed into a box will be discovered by kids not even born now, they'll open the box and say "wow" realizing how things were in a distant past.
Not saying people using iPhones and social media are wrong, but....

[DamienW]

Think about all those photographs of ordinary things from 50+ years ago, how good of nostalgia look, the memory of how things were for our ancestors, have value today.

Part way through converting family slides to digital at the moment. Most of the shots are pretty poorly composed actually (by my father in the 60's an beyond) - but they are so cool! Just photos of ordinary things.

Chances are current digital image formats will have died, even 20 years from now, no one will be able to read a proprietary raw file format from a specific camera model.
Prints sealed into a box will be discovered by kids not even born now, they'll open the box and say "wow" realizing how things were in a distant past.
Not saying people using iPhones and social media are wrong, but....

Need some decent archival paper, and a printer capable of printing something that won't fade.



Actually...for those who are printing at home...what are you using?

[TDvN57]

Part way through converting family slides to digital at the moment. Most of the shots are pretty poorly composed actually (by my father in the 60's an beyond) - but they are so cool! Just photos of ordinary things.



Need some decent archival paper, and a printer capable of printing something that won't fade.



Actually...for those who are printing at home...what are you using?

I use an Epson P9000 printer on Hahnemule paper. They have complete specs and most papers or canvas are archival. The P9000 ink is also archival, supposedly 400 years.

That must be a calculation, since testing would be a stretch, I think. Direct sunlight will also make a dent in that duration. For storage or transport I use an archival paper as a cover. Is almost like rice paper but less stiff.

Hope this helps you to find a solution.

Of course there are other solutions as well, I just don't have any experience with it.

[biz-engineer]

Direct sunlight will also make a dent in that duration.

Clear, I had a frame "temporarily" stored in a room where I put all my photography stuff, with the back of frame facing the edge of a window. I turned the frame after about 6 months later and I could see on the backing board (not the photo itself) the contrast showing where the window edge was. I haven't seen any effect of led projected light directly on prints even after two years of regular exposure.

The P9000 ink is also archival, supposedly 400 years.

400 years may sound a lot, but I've done some harsh experiments on Hahnemuehle P20000 test prints (from the lab), and this thing is incredibly robust to chemical attacks (isopropanol, dishwash soap, vinegar..). The ink and photo papers are really engineered for longevity. Maybe the 400 years prediction isn't very accurate, but I'd guess if the prints are stored in the dark, away from dust and moisture, they can last a very long time, a 100 years without much fading wouldn't surprise me.

[Bluefin]

I use a 6 ink Epson 1400 printer. When printing color I'm happy to use Epson inks. However, I rarely print color so for my B&W images I use Jon Cone's carbon inks on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag.

[kiwi_jono]

Me too.

I have shots I would like to put on the wall. Currently we only have a few prints we bought from a service.

If you build it they will come? If I buy a printer, will I make prints?

Same. I keep threatening to buy a decent photo printer with that same thought. Some day I probably will.

[DamienW]

Ahhh Epson. Last time I looked at this I seemed to keep coming back to the Surecolor range. Might need an extension on the house for a P9000 though.

That must be a calculation, since testing would be a stretch, I think. Direct sunlight will also make a dent in that duration. For storage or transport I use an archival paper as a cover. Is almost like rice paper but less stiff.

Maybe they use UV to test over a short period, and then make assumptions about average exposure in normal use and extrapolate. I imagine there would be quite a lot of variance in the mileage! Sounds like they should be around for at least a few generations anyway.

[w2ck]

Think about all those photographs of ordinary things from 50+ years ago, how good of nostalgia look, the memory of how things were for our ancestors, have value today.

Will ordinary posts on facebook still be looked at 50 years, 100 years from now? Unlikely.

Chances are current digital image formats will have died, even 20 years from now, no one will be able to read a proprietary raw file format from a specific camera model.
Prints sealed into a box will be discovered by kids not even born now, they'll open the box and say "wow" realizing how things were in a distant past.
Not saying people using iPhones and social media are wrong, but....

Hi,

I think the Raw formats will be readable in 20 years just fine. The current Raw processor I use still works on files from my Kodak DCS 460 cameras from 1995. Even knows there were both color and monochrome variants. Plus, it works on every other make and model camera I have had since the old 460 units.....

Stan

[TDvN57]

..... Might need an extension on the house for a P9000 though....

The P9000 is a beast and demands a lot of space, a bit bigger than a stand-up piano.

I started with the P800, not bad and with an accessory it can also take a roll holder, although I only printed sheets, 17 inch on the short dimension.

That lead me to the P7000 with 24inch width. Exactly the same printer as the P9000 (44 inch) but only smaller.

I did quite a lot of printing on the P7000 and got hooked onto the Hahnemühle Cezanne canvas. Printing on canvas with the P7000 means the largest final print was 20 inches because you need the 2 inches on each side for the stretching.

I sold the P7000 and bought the P9000. Luckily our walls are not big enough to hang prints bigger than 40inch (short dimension) otherwise it would have bugged me. :-)

Although we do have one large wall where my wife wanted one of her pictures of a lion in b&w to fill the wall, so we did a 2,100 x 2,100 enlargement in 3x3 panels of 700mm each with a total of 9 panels. I don't know the Latin word for nine in this context, but you could say it is three triptych panels on top of each other.

I like canvas because I can make the stretch frames myself which saves a lot on framing costs.

We still have the P800 printer, thought about selling it, but now we print xmas cards on it once a year.

I think there are many options out there and if you decide to stay with smaller paper sheets, then the options are even more.