"Gallery Quality" Prints

Hi,

I was just offered a spot in a small gallery locally and I am very much in the dark about the printing

process.

The images I am showing will be available for purchase in the gallery.

With that said, I am trying to figure out where or how I could get my digital photographs printed at

"gallery quality".

I'm sure you've figured I have no idea what I'm talking about so any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Mitchell, is buying a printer and printing your own photos out of the question? There is something to be said for the control you have when you print your own. Good luck to you, that's a great opportunity!

Unless you already have a color managed workflow I suggest finding a reputabale lab near you and have them professionally printed. A Chromira printer loaded with Kodak Endura paper or Fuji Crystal Archive will last OK and looks quite good.

 

If you are willing to invest the time and money to produce your own prints then by all means look at the latest offerings from Epson or HP, calibrate your monitor, profile your ink/paper (or use canned profiles from the manufacturer in a pinch), find a good gallery who will give you a discout on framing, and never look back.

 

Generally, for printing keep your images around 300dpi. Try to avoid interpolation. If you are shooting a digicam, this will limit your print size. Realising good sharpening technique develops over time.

 

Cheers,

Aaron

West Coast Imaging or Calypso labs google. Many here are happy with them.

I guess I'd go with a lab product until I'd sourced and mastered an inkjet printer, calibration, treied and selected papers and learned the workflow and quality triggers. Its pretty unlikely that you can go right to saleable quality from scratch as soon as you open the box. I also recommend WCI, and the Chromira product- though if you want eventually to print at homeyou could but prints from them on the Epson 11000/9800 which will reduce the difference between lab prints and what you can eventually make yourself.

"Its pretty unlikely that you can go right to saleable quality from scratch as soon as you open the box."

 

i respectfully disagree, David. The University of Google is wonderful. If one is competent at installing software for the calibration and drivers for the printer, icc profile for the paper in use, an afternoon with a google connection would get most up and running on an inkjet, me thinks.

I would highly recommend printroom.com. Their 11x14 prints are $5 and look amazing. If you are set up for sRGB JPG output, your prints will look exactly the same way they look on your monitor.

You'll want to find a printer that deals in Rag prints for starters. I suggest you contact the gallery and ask them. If they do require it then ask them if they have any recommendations as to what Lab to use.

I'm not affiliated with this printer in any way... http://www.diallophotography.com/digitalprintmaking/index.html

 

They also handle color prints as well.

I've always done my own printing, for 10 years in a darkroom, about 5 digitally. However, that isn't everyone's cup of tea and I've seen some amazingly good prints from the local Costco store. If you're in the U.S. and there's one near you, pay them a visit or go to their web site, see the format and other things they want, and give them a try, if not for this show then later for your "everyday" prints.