One of the things I’ve been working on over the last few years is the printing and mounting of my own photographs. In part this stems from experience many years ago when I was shooting film and joined the Queen’s Photo Club. This was long after graduation but I joined the club so that I could get access to the darkroom. I never attended a meeting but did spend a good deal of time in that darkroom up to my eyeballs in various chemicals. It was all very tedious, smelly and at the end of the day not the most rewarding experience. I did learn a bit about developing and things like dodging and burning but I only had one photo that I ever thought was a nice print.
So today my darkroom is on the laptop and the only smell is coming from the coffee cup cooling beside me. Since I spend a good bit of time carefully editing my shots it only makes sense to try to maintain some control over the finished printed product. I have experimented with numerous printing services but none have provided me with a satisfactory print.
Another concern is the size of the printed image…actually the dimensions…but…as we all know size is important too.
The dimension issue is simple…my camera take images that have dimesions of 1:1.5…which translate as 4 X 6; 8 X 12; 10 X 15…you get the idea. There’s not a lot of quality paper out there that comes in the 8 X 12 dimension…lots of quality paper in 8.5 X 11 but if I use that paper I have to make an 8 X 10 print which means I have to crop my image. And for some of my images, especially the landscapes, if I crop I end up with crap. I’m not against cropping per se but I usually like to keep the same dimensions that I saw through the lens.
For some time I used 8.5 X 11 paper but I used a printed dimension of 7.25 X 10.825, which gave dimensionally pleasing printed images but made matting and mounting a pain. So…while I was doing this I also started cutting my own mats to fit the images. Having moved to somewhat smaller accommodations I don’t have room for my mat cutter etc so image dimension has once again reared it’s ugly head.
I have discovered a few mats at Michaels that are 11 X 14 overall matted for 8 X 12 and that work just fine. I simply take a large 13 X 19 sheet and cut it in half…the 19 not the 13…and I end up with a 9.5 X 13 sheet that can easily take an 8 X 12 print and still fit the 11 X 14 mat.
I have discovered that some images lend themselves very well to a 1:1 ratio (see…I’m not against cropping), but finding a mat at 1:1 is also a bit difficult. I have purchased mats cut to a specific size from MatShop on the “inter-web” and I may have to go back to them and try again with their speicialized service.
There’s a downside to all of this perfection seeking and that’s the fact that you have to do a lot of experimenting to get close to what you want. I’m not there yet but I am getting a bit closer.
There’s also a cost involved that initially can be daunting as you go through reams of various types of photo paper and gallons of printer ink…not to mention the ruined mats when you use the right handed mat cutter with your left hand.
I was reminded of some of this wastage recently as I fired up the old Epson Stylus Photo R2000 after a rather lengthy hiatus from printing. The reason for not printing (aside from the Italy trip) was the fact that one of the 8 ink cartridges this thing uses (the Cyan T1592) was empty. When this happens with the R2000 you can’t print anything…which I guess does help with all that experimentation as at least the ink colour variable stays the same.
I had been getting ink from Henry’s but they moved out of town. I’ve also gone to my very trusty friends at Camera Kingston for ink but decided, since I only needed one cartridge, to buy direct from Epson using the “inter-web”. It was reasonably priced and very quick as it was delivered right to the door…well actually the mailbox in the lobby.
Sooo….all systems good to go…Right? Wrong! It seems that leaving your printer all by itself for a few months really pisses it off…so much so that it clogs it’s own nozzles without any help from you. To add to this wee issue my wireless connection seemed to have developed a glitch and only part of the image I was testing was getting through. So the first test print, an absolutely magnificent monochrome production of mine (he said with a smirk), came out in a lovely robin’s egg blue…well half of the image came out in that colour.
Unclogging the nozzles is done automatically by the printer but had to be done several times before they actually got unclogged. This uses ink. Solving the wireless glitch never really happended. After making several adjustments and running off a few prints in various stages of development from half way there to nearly there except for the last quarter inch…and of course chewing up some nice photo paper in the process…I resorted to hardwiring the damn thing into the router. Works fine now.
This wireless problem is a mystery to me as the laptop is 5 feet from the router, which is 2 feet from the printer. Perhaps we’re all just too close together. I should also point out that at this stage of the process I’m starting to run out of the other inks as well and I haven’t yet decided which way to go with the next purchase, although I’d better not delay too long in getting more ink…I think the printer can read this now that it’s hardwired in.
The good news is that after all the fuss I managed to print 4 reasonable offerings for the Kingston Photographic Club 2nd Round Competition which is due today. I did compromise by going the 8 X 10 route as I had a few mats of that type lying around. They won’t win any prizes but I am happy with the results using 3 different types of photo paper for the 4 images.
Next photo blog I’ll chat a bit about the things I’ve discovered about photo paper and those wonderful things called ICC profiles.
In the meantime if you have any comments or suggestions or advice please fee to send it along to furrasan@gmail.com.
Ciao