Essential steps for making a fine digital print

This is my process to produce beautiful inkjet prints. We will cover preparing the images on the computer, setting the parameters for printing, picking the best printer and the most appropriate paper types, and I’ll show how the images are matted ready for delivery.

If there’s anything you’d like me to cover in more detail leave a note in the comments below and I’ll try to put together a more detailed tutorial for you. There’s a video version of this blog post you can view at the bottom of this page.

I’m printing one of my open-edition images – this one is from near Halifax, my hometown in England. The Yorkshire landscape is stunning and I want people to feel the texture of the rock, the rugged terrain and the weight of the sky.

I’d like to print out an 8 x 10 to be installed in a 16 x 20 frame - it gives a lovely wide border separating the image from anything else that is close by on the wall that it will eventually hang on.

 
Fine print of sheep in field near Halifax, yorkshire, england

Fine print of Sheep near Top Withens, Halifax UK.

 

Here’s how the dimensions break down – I have an 8x10 piece of paper, but the mat window has to be smaller else the paper will fall through. So the window is 7.5x9.5 inches for a ¼” overlap. I also like to leave a small gap between the printed area of the image and the matte cutaway, just to make things look tidy. In this case the printed area is 7 x 9 inches to leave a quarter inch gap around the printed image.

Printing

There’s a whole bunch of parameters to set for the printing including the paper size the print area size and the printer profiles so that the program is aware of how my printer treats colors and also how the selected paper is going to affect the colors. I also like to leave a think black border on the prints so that any whites in the image remain separate from the white of the surrounding paper.

I use a color calibrated monitor so that the colors that I am looking at what will be printed and so I don’t have to do any second-guessing or run a large number of test prints because the colors will be pretty much what I see on the screen.

With prints that are for sale we can’t cut any corners when it comes to quality. The printer (canon pro-10) uses pigment inks which are the most archival inks available. I do not risk using lower quality third party inks – I use the manufacturer’s inks which are some of the most expensive liquids in the world.

I limit my paper choices to the most appropriate matte paper and semi-gloss paper. These are top-of-the-line acid free papers - resistant to possible to yellowing overtime.

Once the print is created, the date and the name of the print is written directly on the back of the paper with an archival quality pen and I’ll also write my name there. I’ll also sign the mat but the mat might be replaced one day so writing the information on the print is much more secure.

Matting

I go to the effort of cutting my own mats for a couple of reasons. The first of which is because I like an 8 x 10 to be framed in a 16 x 20 frame and that combination is not easily found in pre-cut mats. There’s also my preference for bottom waiting the mat. That means placing the window higher than center by having a wider bottom boarder than the top by a very specific amount. This is called the optical canter and is an illusion that human brain finds satisfying. Find out more on how I cut mats in this detailed blog post.

The image is attached to the mat using a single piece of acid-free tape at the top of the image. You’ll notice that it is not all the way around the image because the paper on the mat will expand and contract at different rates over time - if they were permanently attached the picture would buckle. Attaching the image with just one piece of tape allows the picture to move independently of the mat.

Framing

I found that people have very specific frame preferences depending on their own décor and tastes. Providing a frame that will be eventually discarded would be wasteful. So instead I deliver matted prints that are ready for framing and this has the added benefit of lower shipping costs.

When I do frame the prints I’m a huge fan of a thin simple black frame. It will never go out of style.

So there’s the final piece. From preparing the image to hanging it on the wall - This entire process is based on the principle of doing things simply and doing them right to make the best and longest lasting print possible.

Reality is distorted, and photographs correct it.

When you look up, the parallel sides of tall buildings seem to converge into the distance due to perspective.

A large format camera, as used to take this picture, can correct the verticals back to parallel for a more stable-looking architectural picture.

But in shots such as this, the camera is too close to the buildings to completely correct the lines. As a remedy, the image has been scanned and a second correction is made digitally to finish the effect.

Digital and film are working hand in hand here because the camera wasn’t able to complete the correction, and a digital correction alone would have degraded the image quality dramatically.

An interesting paradox of architecture photographs is now uncovered – what we call ‘corrected’ is actually a highly processed and distorted view that never existed in reality.

Below are a few examples from my series of Houston architecture images ‘Dueling Towers’. Fine-art pigment prints using high quality metallic paper are available for collectors - contact me for more information.

Fine art photos of Houston' s Skyscrapers

Is a picture of a building to the credit of the photographer, or the architect?

I’ve struggled with this question. It’s the same problem I have with taking pictures of a sculpture or fountain.Should I get the credit for a creative photo, , or should the creator of the photo’s subject be the hero? Can I claim credit for someone else’s art?

If someone took a picture of one of my pictures, is it my art or theirs?

There are ways to avoid this problem of pure documentation, all of which involve some added input from the photographer. Dramatic weather, unique light and shadows, creative composition or additional composition elements to name a few.

So during the winter of 2018/2019 I explored Houston’s architecture with an aim of avoiding pure documentation of any single structure. The images juxtapose two or more buildings while at the same time avoiding street-level noise of people, cars and lamp posts. I also tend to avoid the tops of buildings. This simplifies city-scapes into their simplest shaped and lines. Perspective becomes illusive as it is sometimes difficult to tell which building faces which direction. Sometimes the buildings are lined up in such a way that they almost look like a new single structure.

Even in a city as large as Houston, there are finite pairs of buildings that can be photographed in this way. Even so, I don’t think I am anywhere near a complete set.

Below are a few examples from this series of images ‘Dueling Towers’. Fine-art pigment prints using archival paper are available for collectors - please visit the Print Store for more information.