Do you print your photos?

~pyonkotchi96 Aug 4, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

I'm not talking about selling prints of your photos. I want to know if you make prints of your photos for safe keeping or a personal portfolio / album.

If so, how big do you normally make them? What kind of paper do you print on? How do you keep them - folder, binder, other?

I'm just wondering because I want to start making prints of my photos for my own personal keeping, but I'm not exactly sure how I want to do it yet to get the best quality and such.

Thanks for responding! c:

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Devious Comments

=DuncanJBerry Aug 6, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

My show files are TIFF 350 dpi. I usually do custom prints with a tech at Blick. My show images are usually large format images. 18X 24 +) My portfolio images are jpg, 350 dpi, printed on my Epson printer on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Otherwise, I keep a jpg portfolio online...

My commercial images are all sizes. I find that my 11X 14 images sell the best at craft or art shows...

~pyonkotchi96 Aug 6, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Thanks for your response!

=ChristophMaier Aug 6, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

I don't print myself but use a specialized online service to print photographs for me. I have some large ones for display either at 100x70cm (~39x27 inches) or 60x40cm (~15x23 inches). Those are hanging on the wall and I only have few of my photographs printed this large. (Maybe around 10 in total) Besides that I tend to print out a selection of my best photographs at 20x30cm (8x12 inches) to show people that are interested. Those are stored in a protected box. I find this size to be a nice compromise between the ability to still handle them hand hold while still getting a lot of viewable detail. It's simply much nicer to hold a photograph in your hand for viewing than just looking at it on a monitor. (At least that's how I feel)

~pyonkotchi96 Aug 6, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

I agree, that's why I'm asking around. I plan on printing mine out myself when I get some colored ink for my printer, but unfortunately I won't be able to get a lot of them on a full page because I resized them for display on the internet and didn't keep the original size. x.x

Thanks for your response!

!OldaGardner Aug 5, 2012

I'm old school so printing is part of the photographic process for me. I use an Epson 3880, but you won't want to start with anything remotely like that.
Epson and Canon are generally the best choice in printers, but they come much smaller.

Normal printing I do at 8.5x11, but keepers I will print at 13x19 or even 17x22. To start with 5x7 to 8.5x11 would be a good working range. In the US, Red River paper
is the best bang for the buck. I sometimes use the more expensive Ilford or Hahnemuhle, but I am very happy with the quality of Red River for most everything. I use a variety of paper types
from 100% natural cotton rag to glossy metallic paper.

The best way to keep them I have found is with Itoya Art Portfolios which are widely available in a lot of sizes. This is excellent storage.
For display, I use frames that make it easy to switch out photos. They don't protect the photos well for long term, but since they are my photos, I can always make another print.

As you are learning, if you want quality prints you need to keep high quality versions of your photographs at the highest resolution possible. Printing is much more demanding of resolution that posting on-line.
I photograph and process with the print in mind. What goes on line is just a jpeg conversion.

~pyonkotchi96 Aug 5, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Thanks very much for the information! c:

~eyeballman Aug 5, 2012

Not everything mind you, but I do print a good number of shots for display. I only have so much wall space however, so prints tend to get "rotated" in and out of display.

I print at 300ppi on an 8-color Epson inkjet. What-ever size that produces (based on sensor size, crop, etc), is the size I print.

I am a big fan of Crane/Museo papers. Max and Silver Rag are particular favorites.

For dark (non-display) storage, I use archival storage boxes. The prints (in their window mounts) are seperated with sheets of archival tissue between them. I then store the boxes - lying flat - in a cool, dry place.

~pyonkotchi96 Aug 5, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Thanks for your response!

=RavenDarke Aug 5, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

yep, 40x60cm mostly

~pyonkotchi96 Aug 5, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Very nice. c:

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