Just had somebody order two prints, how to get the best quality for B&W?

[fjrabon]

You need to ask the customer if they want gloss or matte finish.

he wants a recommendation from me based on what I think would be best. Of course I wasn't going to say "I have no f'ing clue." I just emailed him asking him about the lighting where he'll hang it and the overall atmosphere of the room they'll be in. He's having his secretary photograph the room with her iphone and then give me all the brands of bulbs, lol.

 

[fjrabon]

If he is paying for printing, and you are worried about quality and longevity, I suggest you try Digital Silver and get them printed on traditional fibre-based silver gelatin photo paper.

ha, while he agreed to pay for printing, I don't think he wants to pay $250 each just for the printing, though I'll run it by him as an option.

 

[MTVision]

So I just had my first paying 'client'. He wants two very large prints 20X30 or 16X20, he said whatever I thought worked best for the pictures, both are in B&W. What service gives the best quality B&W prints? Can I just take them to walmart? Should I order from shutterfly? Do I need to go to a dedicated camera store like a wolf/ritz photo?

Also, I had no idea what to charge, he just offered $100 each, I countered with $100 each plus printing costs, which he accepted. LOL. I have no idea if that was way too much, too little, etc. He saw them on my facebook account (he's friends with my parents) and said he had to have them in his office in higher quality. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared to death over this, but $100 is chump change for this guy. Still, somebody's paying $250 or so for my 'art', which seems like a big deal to me at this stage. LOL, all I can think is him getting them, blown up way giant and thinking "God, this sucks!" At the very least I can comfort myself that he actually saw them and wanted them, but I'm freaking out over the GD paper and ink it's printed on. haha.

Also, what style should I get, glossy, matte? He's going to frame them without glass.

Here are the two, by the way (I've done CC on both before here, but I've fixed both up a little bit since in photoshop):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinrabon/6331735443/
DSC_0262 by franklinrabon, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinrabon/6331737403/
millfix3 by franklinrabon, on Flickr

Somebody in my photography class just printed a photo like your first one on our Epson printer and it came out pretty good even dark like it is.

I don't know how great Ritz is but I do know that they check all their prints and they will work with you to get it right

 

[fjrabon]

Somebody in my photography class just printed a photo like your first one on our Epson printer and it came out pretty good even dark like it is.

I don't know how great Ritz is but I do know that they check all their prints and they will work with you to get it right

Yeah, I called the local wolf/ritz and they say they have the top of the line epsons and that I can look at any of the images without buying, so I think that's what I'll do. I kind of feel like I don't have enough experience to do that with an mpix sales rep over the phone. They said we can print as many 6X9 prints as I want to test out the best combos of paper and settings, then they'll print out one large version that I can either buy or not buy (they said for obvious reasons, they couldn't print out like 10 16X20's for me to pick from)

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[Fowler]

I sold my first (and only) print about 2 years ago, which was in color and a bit larger then yours (aprox 36"). I charged $100 and it turned out that printing costs almost added up to that.
I think you were very smart to do it as 100 + printing costs.

 

[KmH]

16x20 and 20x30 are different aspect ratios - 5:4 and 3:2 respectively.

Both of the photos you posted have a 3:2 aspect ratio, so to print 16x20 (or any other 5:4 or other aspect ratio print size) you're going to have to crop some of each photo away.

Mpix prints 20x30 for $24.99 plus shipping, and they offer Kodak True B&W Paper (Matte Finish) chromogenic prints which is the traditional fibre-based silver gelatin type photo paper Helen B suggested. If you want a biy more sheen, and some extra UV and fingerprint protection you can add Lustre coating for $3.04 more per print. Prints : Mpix.Com

 

[Helen B]

Mpix prints 20x30 for $24.99 plus shipping, and they offer Kodak True B&W Paper (Matte Finish) chromogenic prints which is the traditional fibre-based silver gelatin type photo paper Helen B suggested.

I'm not sure that it is the same. I believe that MPix offer Ilford resin-coated silver image paper as their 'True B&W' paper. They call it 'silver emulsion' which could be chromogenic (chromogenic paper has a silver-based emulsion but the image silver is bleached out to leave a dye image) but the full description sounds more like silver image than chromogenic (ie dye image, not silver image) paper. Digital Silver offer a similar service for much less than the fibre-based paper option. It's a matter of personal taste whether you like RC or fibre-based silver gelatin paper. Kodak discontinued their chromogenic B&W paper (along with all their silver image B&W paper) at the end of 2005 and I don't think they have reintroduced it.

If anyone has better information I'd be very happy to hear it.

Best,
Helen