Helpful Advice on Getting Your Photos Printed Professionally

Have you ever had your photos professionally printed? It’s one thing to have your images stored away on a computer or SD card somewhere, but taking that final step and having them printed out for you to display gives them a new life. Photographer Sean Tucker visited his local print house and returned with some advice on printing your photos, which he shares in this 10 minute video.

As Tucker says, taking one of your shots and printing it immortalises it in a way – laying bare all of the mistakes and imperfections in an irreversible way. But it’s surprising how forgiving printed photographs can be, especially compared to viewing them on a desktop at 400% zoom.

Tucker decided to take three of his images from a recent trip to Namibia and have them printed. This was the first time he’d had his photographs printed professionally, and while he was there he asked the creative director of Genesis Imaging – Mark Foxwell – for some advice for those printing for the first time.

The video is broken down in to these sections:

0:00 – Intro
2:31 – What formats and export settings should you use for printing?
4:12 – How to choose what sort of paper and printing process to use
5:25 – What are you getting when you print with a professional lab vs printing online?
6:46 – Results

Tucker ends the video with a challenge to the viewer:

Take your favorite photograph that you’ve ever shot, take it down to your local professional printing house and get them to bring that photograph in to the physical world for you. Hang it in your home, and see if it makes you feel differently about the photographs you take.

Like Tucker, you may feel that you’re not ready to commit to finalising your images in this way. But there’s something about printing that solidifies all of the work you’ve done to create the image, and we really recommend taking Tucker’s advice.

(via Sean Tucker via ISO 1200)