Do You Ever Print your Digital Photos?

[Thiophilos]

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

LOL. It's a color pic, because it has color.

 

[SunriseAvenue]

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.

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

Would you calendar folks be so kind to share which service you use for your calendars? It sounds like a pretty solid gift.

 

[SunriseAvenue]

Also to answer the question, nope, I almost never print my pictures, but I go through folders with them regularly and I post lots of smartshow 3d videos on my social media and I go through them often (I'm probably the only one interested but this is another thing to talk about).

 

[AlanKlein]

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.

When I retired and moved 12 years ago, I found my slide projector broken. I decided to scan all of the slides and make digital slide shows that I put on DVD's then but now are on memory cards. These are inserted in my smart TV for showing at an instant. I converted the stills and added any associated video clips to make a video slide shows with background music, title,s and credits, ready to be shown to any poor visitor who mistakenly sits down in the family room. Some are on Youtube (see links below) which allows me to show people remotely the same shows. It's really a creative way of dealing with all the stills and videos from vacation, affairs, birthday parties, etc. I use Lightroom to edit the still and Photoshop Premiere AElements to create the video shows. MY wife also doens;lt let me hang any more photos. So there's really no point in making prints today.

 

[AlanKlein]

Oh, another thing. Youtube allows you to download free, 4K video downloads privately so your family or others would need a password to see them. Other videos you can download are available to be seen by the general public as the ones in my links below.

 

[Don Fischer]

geeze I print a lot. Just not as many small photo's as large. I like to print what I like because I also like to make my own frames with wood from scrap piles and old buildings and fences. Recently started doing 12"x24" photos, gonna run myself out of the house before much longer. Been thinking about getting a 17" printer to get bigger, Fortunately I don't have room for a 24" printer.

 

[zombiesniper]

Would you calendar folks be so kind to share which service you use for your calendars? It sounds like a pretty solid gift.

Walmart does a pretty good job with calendars.

 

[PhotoHobbyist]

Walmart does a pretty good job with calendars.

Does Walmart still print photos? I remember back when they had a large area for developing photos, but that seems to have disappeared long ago.

 

[smoke665]

I still print occasionally, usually in 8x10 or 11x14, as that's the standard for my frames. Other than a few decorative frames most are standard black gallery frames that work with everything, they're easy to change out pictures, without rearranging groups or rehanging. Those seem to work well when matted, large enough to view from a slight distance, not so large as to be overbearing in a residential setting.

 

[zombiesniper]

Does Walmart still print photos? I remember back when they had a large area for developing photos, but that seems to have disappeared long ago.

Not sure about photos at walmart.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I used to print some out and hung a couple on the wall. I used a Canon Bubblejet printer and made 8" x 10"'s I bought a Canon scanner too. I have a big HP scanner/printer, but I stopped after a while. I also have a Brother scanner/LASER printer. I think I still have B&W toner in that, but I haven't printed anything for years. I found I'm happy enough looking at my pics on a 15" monitor. And eventually, I moved more into video. NOTE: I don't like quality of the color prints out of the Brother LASER printer. Really, I only use it to print B&W text. Color inkjet printers look good, but the ink is pretty expensive per print, and the inks fade over time.

 

[KJ_North]

Color inkjet printers look good, but the ink is pretty expensive per print, and the inks fade over time.

Canon claims 100+ years on their Chromalife Ink for the inkjet printers. Not that I would bet a 100 years on it, but I doubt you will see much fading.

 

[AlanKlein]

Does Walmart still print photos? I remember back when they had a large area for developing photos, but that seems to have disappeared long ago.

Walgreen Drugs does photos, posters, mugs, etc. They always have discounts and sales. You can email it to them, and they will mail the prints back, or you can pick them up. They also have booths where you can edit your pictures in their stores and then print them there as well.

Photo Prints, Custom Cards, and Posters | Walgreens Photo

Visit Walgreens Photo Center to shop for personalized photo prints, books, cards, posters, and other photo services. Get same day photo printing.

photo.walgreens.com

 

[Don Fischer]

I have a few prints I did over 20 yrs ago that still look fine. I would not worry about fading although people talk about it a lot. how long you really gonna hang that picture on the wall anyway. I think the printer company's start that idea to justify their longer lasting inks. And how long do they need to last in the first place? I swear by Canon printer's but don't buy Cannon ink. For my pixma 9000 MKII ink ran about $18 a tank. where I get my ink now it seems to last more than long enough and cost's $5 a tank. how long do you really plan on hanging a photo on the wall?

 

[KJ_North]

Well I took a big upgrade today in printing and ordered a Canon Prograf-1100 printer to replace my Canon Pro-200. I decided I wanted the ability to print up to A2 size. Sure expensive for my own personal use but I am invested in the hobby so for me it is worth it.