The choice also very much depends on how you are going to produce your prints, and this should be considered prior to your your shoot, and to fit in with your client brief should you have one.
The variety of printing methods today is vast (for digital printing) as is the surfaces to which you can print. These vary from your cheap supermarket papers to archival papers, to aluminium and acrylic, from photographic papers to canvas. Your image can look very different depending on the surface it is printed on. There is also the choice of Matt, semi matt and Gloss for instance,and some in between.
I tend however to send my printing requirements away to an on-line printer as the results are so much better.
The major consideration today is the cost of the inks. When I visited the professional studio of Paulo Loroso the main consideration in the final print was the cost of the inks, and this was the most expensive part of his (or any other photographers business) business. Some businesses offer only CD's/DVDs for the client to take away, and let them print the ones that they require. However there are other mediums to consider, such as the web, and maybe the reuirment to print from this.
My home printer is an A4 Epson stylus PHOTO 220R printer. It uses Epson's unique Micro Piezo print head and 6-colour inks. The prints can also be made borderless on formats from 10 x 15cm to A4. With a resolution up to 5760dpi on suitable media. It has the ability to print on CD/DVDs. You can also apply effects, change layouts and add frames to the photos, with the included range of easy to use software. It is PC and MAC compatible, and has the Epson Print Image Matching III for faithful photo reproduction. The printer produces acceptable prints using the Epson Inks, which tend to be expensive. I have also used Epson papers previously to produce my prints, as the inks are matched for this make of paper.
The technical specification follows:-
Epson Stylus Photo R220 6 colour inkjet photo printer, Epson Micro Piezo™ Up to 5760* x 1440dpi, *optimised dpi on suitable media *1 15ppm*2 15ppm*3 120 A4 sheets plain paper, 100 A4 Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper,2 (Plain Paper). Up to 300g/m2
(Ultra Glossy Photo Paper)
Envelope C6 (162 x 114mm), No 10 (241.3 x 104.8mm),
DL (220 x 110mm & 220 x 132mm)
Envelope Weight From 45 to 75g/m
2 Maximum Printable Area (mm)
Print Margin 0mm top, left, right and bottom*
*Via custom setting in printer driver.
Consumables
Black T0481
Capacity Black 450 A4 pages (at 360dpi, 5% duty)
Colour T0482 (Cyan), T0483 (Magenta), T0484 (Yellow), T0485 (Light Cyan),
T0486 (Light Magenta)
Capacity Colour 430 A4 pages (at 360 dpi, 5% duty per colour)
Dimensions
Standard (wxdxh) 462 x 263 x 196 mm
Operational (wxdxh) 462 x 474 x 297 mm
Weight
5.2Kg Noise Level
Approx 45dB(A) (ISO 7779) Power Consumption
Approx 12W (per ISO 10561 Letter Pattern) Regulations
ENERGY STAR Compliant EMC Directive 89/336/EEC Warranty
Standard 1 Year Standard Warranty
Optional Extension to 3 years
Print Technology
print head
Epson Variable-sized Droplet Technology with
minimum 3pl droplets
Print head of 540 nozzles (6 x 90 per Black, Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta)
Print Quality
using RPM (Resolution Performance Management)
Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® 98 / Me / 2000 / XP and Macintosh® 
Below is one aspect that needs to be checked with any printer, and that is a nozzle check.
I do not generally use this printer for producing photographs as the quality is inconsistant, and generally not up to gallery standard, and only being A4 and I have not been able to calibrate this printer due to the software being expensive.
Generally I use an online printing outfit for my larger prints. This is a company called D S Colour Labs Ltd, working in association with Fujifilm. They offer the full range of services from Prints through to photobooks to acrylic panels and photoflyers, and a whole range of gift ideas.
They use Fuji Frontier 570 printers, and all images sent to them are using their printer profile that they have sent. Images can also be supplied as sRGB. Below is the monitor calibration chart that they supply. This is also a crucial part of the printing process, as you want to get a print that replicates what you see on the computer screen. details for this are noted elsewhere on the blog.
The printer is Fujifilms most popular high volume digital lab system,and with high processing capacities can produce prints in minutes. I have them delivered next day by post. Below is an illustration of the printer.
The specification for this printer is very technical and is not included here, but I have a copy as a PDF on my laptop.
There are many alternative suppliers of this facility, and at varying prices. I have chosen this lab as to date it has produced the best value prints, which is very important in todays economic world. I would add however that I will investigate other sources of printing depending on the final destination of the images.
The other current option is to use the printers at college. This printer is an HP Photosmart B9180 and is aim ed at the professional and creative market, launched Feb 2002..
Below are the sheets that were printed from the printer I used to submit my final images from.
this is the printer calibration sheet
this is the print quality diagnostics page
The paper used is HP Advanced injet paper (satin-matt) at A3+ 250g/m2, and is top gallery standard.
The paper used is HP Advanced injet paper (satin-matt) at A3+ 250g/m2, and is top gallery standard.
Black Text, A4 (Economy Mode)
Colour Text, A4 (Economy Mode)
Photo Bike Image, 10x15cm, 13x18cm, 57 seconds, 88 seconds, 163 seconds
A4 (Photo Mode)
Paper Handling
20 sheets of Premium or Semi Gloss Photo Paper; 15 envelopes
Paper Size A4, 9 x 13cm, 10 x 15cm, 13 x 18cm, 20 x 30cm, 3.5 x 5", 4 x 6",
5 x 8", 8 x 10", A5, A6, B5, Legal, Letter, Half Letter
Paper Weight From 64 to 90g/m
Hi
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned last week you need to expand your digital workflow and how its set up to meet macbeth chart standards with Pantone references.
See me about this to clarify.
Steve