At this meeting we were very pleased to welcome Tim Jones, Technical Manager of Fotospeed. The title of his talk was "Demystifying Printing". The overall objective of the talk was to provide an understanding of what is needed to produce a good print of your photos, whether you are printing for yourself, or you are using an external printer.
There are three main foundations on which to build:
- Knowing your printer whether this is your own physical printer, or you are outsourcing your printing
- Calibration of your screen - particularly important if you are sending your pictures out for printing
- Using the ICC profile for the specific paper that you are using
Then, on to printers. there are two principal types of printers, either those using pigment ink, or the dye printers.Pigment ink printers
- These are considered the gold standard for "Fine Art" prints, which are of archival quality, if printed on Fine Art paper - these might be expected to last for more than 200 years.
- They will have more inks with a wider range of colours, maybe 10-12 colours, including greys
- Black and white printing will be much better, because of the grey inks, particularly if printed on paper designed for black and white
Dye ink printers
- May have only 4-6 inks, which may include only 1 grey colour
- Prints are not seen as archival, although the "life" of a print is increasing and may be up to 100 years
- It is harder to produce a natural black and white
- they are cheaper to run than pigment ink printers
The next topic was colour management, and this encompasses both the screen and the printer. Tim reminded us that we all see colour differently, so what is most important in printing is that there is colour accuracy and consistency of colour.
The ICC profile is a data file standardised by the International Colour Consortium, and is used throughout the technology industry, and applies to the widest range of applications, including televisions, computers, scanners, monitors, phones etc. So screen calibration is carried out according to this profile.
Devices are available to assist in the calibration of computer screens several are available including Calibrite and Datacolour Spyder.
One point to note is that often our computer screens are too bright, and looking at pictures on the screen is akin to having a backlight, whereas the print, which might look dark, is using only reflected light. Dark prints is a frequent complaint when printing one's own pictures.
Profiles also apply to the paper that is used, and if using Fotospeed papers you can use the pre-prepared profiles to ensure that you use the right profile, for the paper. And then once you have printed the picture might appear completely different from what you see on the screen - you may notice things that you didn't on the screen. This may also be influenced by the choice of paper, whether it is matt, smooth, gloss, or textured.
In general a good photo would look good on any paper, but a different paper may elevate the picture a little, for example, a textured paper can add some sharpness to a leafy forest picture, or could distract on a more flat picture (e.g. a calm seascape).
It is important to feel the papers, and if experimenting - try the same picture on different papers. The quality of the black may influence the appearance of the final print, and can completely change the mood. And not all whites are the same, with some papers being brighter than others.
A final piece of advice is to let a picture sit for a little while, and come back to it, maybe days or weeks later and see if your feelings about it have changed.
One final thought is that there is no need to become frustrated if your printing is not going as you wanted - Fotospeed (www.fotospeed.com) is always willing to offer advice on all aspects of printing. And they provide a wide range of papers as well!
