Print disadvantages

Print Disadvantages

As any photographer knows there is nothing like seeing a really nice well printed photograph that can be displayed,mounted,handled,inserted into books and albums etc. This is a lovely way to show off your finished prints. I find this method also a great way to present and show of your images and is definitely one of my favourites. However there are a lot of disadvantages associated with this method of presentation compared to other methods of presentation

There are numerous print sizes available shown below are just a few of the popular sizes

Different print sizes example

Shown below are a selection of print sizes that I sometimes use. I photographed my model Hannah in the college studio in a variety of different poses. I printed these images at a rate of 300 DPI which enabled me to blow up my photographs to really large sizes without pix-elation

A4

A3

   

A2

Disadvantages of print

There are a vast amount of disadvantages associated with this method of display, I have outlined a number of them below:

Costs:

I did consider this method of image presentation but the cost was far to high compared to presenting images on CD and Dvd or other mediums. Print  prices can vary. For example an A3 print can range from £2 to £10 per image from a good printer on quality paper.

This method can be very expensive but the costs at commercial printers have come down a lot over the past couple of years. The costs can come down if you have your images printed in a large batch instead of one and two's

Damage:

Prints can be damaged easily. Just touching the surface with any object or your fingers will scratch the surface layer which can ruin the photograph forever. Any type of moisture coming into contact with your photo will damage it making the colours run causing inks to bleed into each other. Corners are easily bent over and cheap papers tend to roll up and produce creases on the surface

Fading and degradation

Most prints will fade and degrade in time due to exposure to daylight and the elements surrounding it. It is essential to print images on high quality printing paper to reduce the threat of fading and degradation. It is essential to protect images by mounting them in frames that are covered at the front with glass or perspex. It is essential not to hang or mount photographs near windows where they will come into contact with sunlight or direct light which will in time degrade them due to fading

I always use high quality papers for my printing and also the mounts that I use to mount them on.

I make sure these are acid free products and make sure that they have guarantees that they will not fade or deteriorate with age

Profiles and reproduction printing:

Print colours are not always true and do not always print out the same as seen on a monitor or camera.Colour casts are sometimes evident so printing would have to be set up by the use of a profile. Sometimes there are colour casts in the printing with different hues and tones ,shades and casts are sometimes evident. This can all vary by the type of profile setup and type of printing paper used. There are so many different types of printing paper available nowadays which does have a great impact on the finished print. Setting up a print profile to replicate a perfect print seen on screen can be a tedius affair because calibration of a PC,monitor and printer all have to link together with the correct profile and calibration


I use DC Colour labs an online printing lab for my printing which supply their own print profiles for you to download. Once downloaded I load these into my profile list in my printer software drivers which will list the new profile, enabling me to list the new profile ready for print