Do You Ever Print your Digital Photos?

[PhotoHobbyist]

Do you ever print your digital photos? Did a picture ever exist if it is never printed?
I printed a few ten years ago, but have never felt the need to print digital photos since.

 

[greybeard]

Every once in a while if it is something really special, usually 11x14 or 16x20

 

[Jeff15]

I print sometimes ...

 

[21limited]

Ours are all over our house. We tend to print 2 or 3 a year, but some years none at all.. We also have some work from local artists on display. Some images are just too good to leave on the hard drive, where they will be ignored and forgotten.

We often run a slide show of our recent images on our 4k TV. After a period of time, some just stand out. Some one will say something like “I look forward to seeing that one.” or even “we should really print that one.” Some you get tired of seeing some of them. (Don’t print those.)

Starting with say 15,000 images some years, that gets narrowed down to between 80 and 200 for the year. Those go on TV display, and of those, as many as 3 might get printed.

The factors are, the more images I’ve taken that year, the more likely to have one I want on the wall. The more interesting the destinations I’ve gone to and the amount of time we spend there is also a factor. But bottom line, it takes time. I find it takes putting some time between when I took the image, and when I’m evaluating it is beneficial. It helps with objectivity. I need to decide, is it producing a slight endorphin rush because of the quality of the image, or is it doing so because of memory of the experience.

But in our world, if it doesn’t do anything, it’s not getting printed. It has to stand out and get our attention, and maybe the attention of the people who visit us. If people who weren’t there with us like it, that’s a sign it stands on it’s own, because they don’t have memories of the place to inspire them.

 

[DanOstergren]

I do frequently. I make print orders at least 5 to 6 times a year (with multiple different images from different sessions in each order), and have several framed prints and canvas prints of my work on my walls and shelves ranging from 4x6' to 18x24', adding more to my walls pretty consistently, and a large collection of prints kept safe in my closet. My goal with most of my work is to create an art piece, and oftentimes that leads to those photos being printed by my clients or by me for personal use.

I don't think a photo doesn't "exist" if it hasn't been printed. Social media and forums like this prove how photos in digital media form have value.

 

[Rickbb]

Yep, I like to make poster size prints and hang them on the walls, give as gifts, etc.

 

[Thiophilos]

Back in the film days, I was a printer. I had a fully-equipped color darkroom with a 4x5 Super Chromega enlarger and drum processors. Photos were printed and mounted on card stock.

Those prints take up space! I built a special cabinet to store them. I rarely hung them on the wall because I like to see new ideas, not my own.

With the coming of digital, I abandoned printing because the bin for the prints was full, and digital was an ideal medium for displaying on a monitor.

Sometimes I think I should resume printing. I have a studio where I could hang them. I have a few that would look good there. What is holding me back is the hassles of finding a reliable printer and dealing with mounting, etc. Maybe one day...

 

[AliDee]

Do the photo calendars count? Every Mid-December I make a wall calendar with pictures I've taken throughout the year, sometimes it's a one month one picture, sometimes I make collages of 4 photos per month. It also works just fine as Christmas gifts, but you don't want to overdo it, because giving out one and the same thing over and over isn't a nice look. Thankfully, almost everyone in my family who's older than 60 actually likes printed calendars.

If we're talking about normal printing, in a blue moon I might, but I have a digital photo frame with a slideshow of some pictures I really like and I change it every once in a while. I just know if I start printing the pictures out separately I will be unstoppable, because I seem to love almost every photo I take (talk about self-esteem, duh). Besides, I don't have enough space to store all the printed photos.

 

[Digger...]

Did a few times when learning on the old FujiFilm Super Zoom camera a decade ago, I've improved since then and i think i have a few that are worthy of putting on the wall now.

Got some old wooden frames id like to use.

 

[zombiesniper]

Jr and I both have multiple prints hung up in the house as well as I print calendars every year.

 

[gk fotografie]

Admittedly, I print a lot less photos than I used to in the analogue era, but that makes sense because I'm now retired and no longer commercially active as a professional photographer. I'm not really into hanging my photos on the wall, we've a total of 5 photos (of which 2 very large ones) as real atmospheric wall decorations in the interior and that is enough.
My wife is quite old-fashioned and hates looking at photos on a screen, so in 2015 I started having a few thousand photos printed every few years (postcard size and occasional 5x7"), the last time during Covid, roughly 4000 photo prints in one order which makes this rather cheap.
I've to say it's very nice when family etc. come over, you can pass these prints on to each other more easily than showing all kinds of photos on a mobile phone; people who are constantly scrolling because they can't find an image, that's exactly what I really hate.

What I do increasingly is use my photos via the printer as 'intermediate stages' - I usually use transparencies - for graphic work, cyanotype and screen printing with enamel paint on glass, which is still really in the trial and error phase for me (quite a difficult process and very expensive, because each step has to be fired into the glass via an oven). In addition, a few months ago I discovered printing on tarpaulin, mainly large format images, completely new to me and a nice way to use my photos in all kinds of mixed media projects.

I consider digital images a bit like the slides/transparencies from the analogue era, most people had a (slide)projector back then and often looked at the new holiday photos with family and friends on a large projection screen. I think billions of those slides/transparencies were never printed as photos and ultimately that was not a requirement for the existence of those images. The digital slideshows that are still made by thousands of people worldwide can ultimately be seen as the cosy 'slide projection evenings' with family from the analogue era, not much has changed if you look at it that way.

 

[21limited]

I don't think a photo doesn't "exist" if it hasn't been printed. Social media and forums like this prove how photos in digital media form have value.

If I can retrieve it from a hard drive, it exists.
If it’s film and I still have the negative, it exists.

They just exist in different forms.

 

[fish323]

Do you ever print your digital photos? Did a picture ever exist if it is never printed?
I printed a few ten years ago, but have never felt the need to print digital photos since.

Mine are all over the house. The Pro10s gets a once a year workout, often after the holidays. If I need bigger they have a monster printer in college that is really cheap.

 

[Don Fischer]

I print a lot of mine. Why take a photo if you don't want a print of it. Got my first computer and printer when I bought my first DSLR. Liking certain photo's blown up to 12"x24" and could print up to 13"x38". I seldom print 4x6 photo's or even 5x7 for that matter. Haven't had a print printed in a shop in close to 20 yrs now. Make my own frames out of scrap wood also! Haven't been doing much matting lately, matt board is hard to find for a reasonable price around here. Reasonable price, read cheap!

 

[Don Fischer]

Ours are all over our house. We tend to print 2 or 3 a year, but some years none at all.. We also have some work from local artists on display. Some images are just too good to leave on the hard drive, where they will be ignored and forgotten.

We often run a slide show of our recent images on our 4k TV. After a period of time, some just stand out. Some one will say something like “I look forward to seeing that one.” or even “we should really print that one.” Some you get tired of seeing some of them. (Don’t print those.)

Starting with say 15,000 images some years, that gets narrowed down to between 80 and 200 for the year. Those go on TV display, and of those, as many as 3 might get printed.

The factors are, the more images I’ve taken that year, the more likely to have one I want on the wall. The more interesting the destinations I’ve gone to and the amount of time we spend there is also a factor. But bottom line, it takes time. I find it takes putting some time between when I took the image, and when I’m evaluating it is beneficial. It helps with objectivity. I need to decide, is it producing a slight endorphin rush because of the quality of the image, or is it doing so because of memory of the experience.

But in our world, if it doesn’t do anything, it’s not getting printed. It has to stand out and get our attention, and maybe the attention of the people who visit us. If people who weren’t there with us like it, that’s a sign it stands on it’s own, because they don’t have memories of the place to inspire them.

This is something I found also. Some different people just like this photo or that even if I don't. Doesn't make it a good photo or bad one depending on who your talking to. I've found criticism is worst coming from people that think they are really good at photography! God forbid someone likes a picture they don't and they will tell you why your photo is no good. I had a guy tear down a B&W of mine telling me it wasn't B&W but rather actually color as he could see the color in it! This is what he called a color photo! click on the red x