Self printing or using a service

[ecphoto]

So I have a few questions in one. Do most of you print your own pictures or do you go through a service, or just for enlargements.

If you do make your own prints at home, what kind of printer do you use or how good of a printer do you need?

Sorry if these sound like overly redundant questions. I'm trying to slowly become more professional so I can eventually go into photography as a business. I've always gone through services like mpix or adoramapix for my prints and I know a lot of photographers print most their pictures them selves and go elsewhere just for enlargements, wraps and framing ect.

 

[bhop]

I have a Canon pixma printer. I print my own stuff unless I want to go over 8x10

 

[KmH]

Are you familiar with the information in this group of tutorials? - Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

Printers capable of printing professional quality wall size prints can be pretty expensive.

If you were to opt to do inkjet printing instead of chromogenic printing, the inks/dyes also get pretty expensive. Which brings up the issue of paper, ink, dye, longevity.

Essentially, printing is an entirely different field from doing photography, and for a business it is often better, from a money making perspective, to use your time for business/marketing/promotion tasks or shooting, than making prints.

 

[ecphoto]

Are you familiar with the information in this group of tutorials? - Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

Printers capable of printing professional quality wall size prints can be pretty expensive.

If you were to opt to do inkjet printing instead of chromogenic printing, the inks/dyes also get pretty expensive. Which brings up the issue of paper, ink, dye, longevity.

Essentially, printing is an entirely different field from doing photography, and for a business it is often better, from a money making perspective, to use your time for business/marketing/promotion tasks or shooting, than making prints.

That makes a lot of sense KMH, how do you do it in your personal workflow?

 

[epatsellis]

I use a Canon ipf8300 here as well as a Fuji Frontier 370 (and an Epson 7600 that keeps the floor from floating upward, it's the only useful aspect to it...).

If you're not intimately familiar with color management issues and optimized workflows, or want to be, then printing with anything bigger than a desktop printer is a losing proposition. Like anything else, if you're committed to it, have the ability and resources to execute well, then you'll find it extremely rewarding.

 

[morganza]

I've used a local service here every time..

 

[KmH]

Are you familiar with the information in this group of tutorials? - Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

Printers capable of printing professional quality wall size prints can be pretty expensive.

If you were to opt to do inkjet printing instead of chromogenic printing, the inks/dyes also get pretty expensive. Which brings up the issue of paper, ink, dye, longevity.

Essentially, printing is an entirely different field from doing photography, and for a business it is often better, from a money making perspective, to use your time for business/marketing/promotion tasks or shooting, than making prints.

That makes a lot of sense KMH, how do you do it in your personal workflow?

I have pro labs make my prints.

I have a color managed work flow. I do all of my editing in the ProPhoto RGB color space, I usually do sharpening in 2 or 3 stages - capture, local, output. As a last editing step I assign an output color profile appropriate for how the image will be used. I soft-proof to verify what my prints should look like when I receive them.

 

[WilliamDSLR]

I use services as my printer is limited to the end print results I may want to achieve. Hence why a service, has more printing options depending on my desired effect.

 

[BlairWright]

I normally use a service (WHCC) but do have an Epson R3000 which I use when I need to get something out to a client quickly. It does really well up to 13x19 and the color management is quite good but it will run you a bit more than a normal service will in cost per print.

 

[spacefuzz]

I use a canon pixma for anything up to 13x19 and I really like the job it does. Its nice to be able to get instant feed back and tweak my image till its exactly the color balance I want. Since no matter how much you proof on the screen, its still emitting light instead of reflecting.

For larger stuff I have used mpix, bay photo, and others. But have recently started working with a local lab who gives me so much input over the final print its crazy. Its interesting to see the changes to the images with fuji flex vs fuji pearl vs inkjet and other printing methods.

 

[epatsellis]

It's surprising how good higher end inkjets have become, costs have plummeted, both for consumables and the printers themselves. Given that we regularly gave WHCC or H&H around $2-3K per month, it's easy to justify the acquisition and operating costs. From a quality standpoint, going to Adobe RGB from sRGB is an eyeopener, both good and bad. Some of our shooters "get it", other's not so much. If you shoot and post mired in an sRGB/jpg SOOC mindset then you'll likely see much difference. If, however, you shoot raw, in a wide gamut colorspace and give thought to your post processing, the results can be stunning.