I am wondering if anyone prints there own client prints at home/office? I was talking to a woman who said that home printers are under 1k and very high quality. She thought I should consider doing my standard printing at home. I was wondering if anyone did this, and if you do indeed save money on prints in the long run?
Preface: My personal photography is for purely artistic expression. I only rarely do any commercial work other than the in-house work that I do as part of my day job (graphics production for a sign company). Desktop printers are available in the $500-1000USD range that will do superb work. They are not hard to use and can deliver better quality final images than those available from most commercial labs. In this price range, the main printers to consider are the advanced models from EPSON (I'm afraid I'm not up to date on the current model numbers) and the HP B9180 (my personal choice) and 8850. For the commercial photographer who needs to deliver a volume of prints (e.g. weddings, ...) the time necessary to produce the prints is more of an issue than any cost differences. For the artist like me, its foolish to consider anything other than doing my own printing where I have complete control.
Prints are cheap. I'm time pressed enough as it is. I gladly pay a pro printer to do all that for me so I don't have to stock inks, various sizes of paper, packaging and finding and setting up a space to set the whole operation. Smart money says: you delegate as much as possible to give you more time to market and shoot clients. Besides, ultimately the client pays for the printing and shipping anyway.
I agree with Keith. You have enough to do without worrying about the printing as well! There are lots of pro-printing options (sometimes too many!) and they are great, and WELL worth the money. Additionally, they can do great things these days like white boxing (shipping straight to the client) and boutique packaging, and it's one less thing that you need to keep stock of. IMO, it just isn't worth it to print your own. I would, though, suggest that you order prints from a few different places to get a feel for a few different things: what the print paper feels like, how long it takes for standard delivery, what their boutique packaging looks like, the quality of their non-standard products, etc. I think you'd agree that you don't want to be testing this out on a client.
you all have very good points. I dont work full time now, just a few shoots a week. But in the future when I expand, printing just wouldnt be an option
Although the cost of a printer may look reasonable at first glance, don't forget to figure in the cost of ink (ouch!!!! Remember these printers may use 8 or more cartridges) and art-quality paper. I did this and decided not to buy.
Note: I actually recently started working in the printing business & I am simply giving my take on printing. One of the things that many photographers value is their time. Not only does printing take time, there are other factors that come into play that may make it take up even more of your time (shipping, packaging, etc.). Many of the photographers I deal with (that do online sales) use any one of the following (or all) to tackle this: Smugmug.com Imagekind.com Fotomoto.com (where I work) While buying a printer for a thousand dollars or so might seem like a great idea, the quality at a service providing professional grade printing is likely to be much better than what you could personally buy (machines are many thousands of dollars) & they also calibrate their machines all the time. I think it also comes down to how often you have to print (a few times a year, weekly, every few months, etc.).
I agree with the others here. While the cost of a high quality printer might look attractive there is a lot to think about. Yes, you can get great quality with a home printer, even with less expensive ones, but figure in the costs of high quality ink and paper and it's not much cheaper than using a lab. Then figure in the time it takes to calibrate and clean/maintain that printer etc. A pro lab makes it a priority to have their equipment clean and properly calibrated. So as long as you are consistent on your end, you should be able to get predictable, top quality results.
And then there's finishing services.... mounting, sprays... Printing is a whole other job. I do maintain a low-end printer for times when I need a quick proof and for passport photos. Also, I use it for proofing layouts. -Pete
Desktop printer refers to the actual piece of hardware including dot matrix printers, laser printers, and inkjet printers used in homes and businesses. These desktop printers are usually small enough to fit on a desk or table. This type of printers are available in very low price.they create better quality of images & not very hard to use. Laser Printers
