In the first of our community polls we asked you how you printed your photographs. It was interesting to see the responses coming and and the end result was much tighter than I expected.
We gave you three options for printing, online, at home, or local print shop, we also included the ability to opt for not printing your photos at all. The results are below.
Printing online and printing at home were actually much closer than I expected. The costs associated with printing photographs at home can be particularly confusing. There is the initial cost of the printer, the photo paper and then the cost of the ink, low cost photo printers can often end up a false economy.
The manufacturers do publish suggested (approximate) number of prints for a cartridge but the reality can very different. I personally run the Canon Pro 9500 Mark II, the photos are stunning and I made a considerable effort to calculate the approximate cost per print before I leapt to a purchase. What I didn’t predict that as much of my work is monotone the printer drinks the grey cartridge leaving the others more or less untouched. That said the resultant monotone prints are worth it !
Printing with an online service although slower and more expensive it is reliable, predictable and offers a greater simplicity in calculating costs. As well as offering printing online services generally have the benefit of allowing you to share images with your family allowing them to also order prints and other products.
21% of responses indicated they didn’t actually print their work. Although many people display their photos online on the likes of Flickr or MobileMe gallery there are still a few photographers who don’t exhibit their work at all.
I think the most disappointing result was for the local print shops. Only 15 % of those who responded still use a local reprographics service. This most likely due to the fact online services offer exceptional ease of use, the ability to store and share photos online and also a large range of print products.
The facts acknowledged I still thoroughly recommend you get to know your local printer, not only can you negotiate on the price of printing but many small printers produce leaflets, calendars and prints and they just might be interested in your photography work.
Over the last year I have I managed to sell a number of images for use in calendars and I even found this relationship has led to a discounted price on future runs.
We are going to keep the polls running and if you have any comments on this poll or want to suggest a topic for a future poll please post a comment below. We would really appreciate you taking part in future polls.
I’m sure the printing options are more complex. Most of the time I don’t print anything, I upload to RedBubble in the hope someone will come along and buy something. On the rare occasions when I want a print, either I crank out the cheapo HP all-in-one inkjet or (very rarely indeed) for portfolio work for myself, I upload it to @theprintspace.
In short, maybe per-person the options are a spectrum to be used in a given frequency profile, so asking “which do you use?” is likely to have a high error-margin.
Yes, I am hoping people responded as the main route to print. I think we all dabble in all the camps. It was the first poll to kick things off, hopefully we can get a bit more community input into future polls, really make things interesting ?
One problem with printing locally, is that fewer and fewer places offer any photo
printing options at all, or are careless and unprofessional.
Online is reasonable, reliable and easy.
Thanks
Suzie
Funny you mention that Suzie. Maybe the reason why in the first place so few local printing options remain is because most costumers start to print their stuff via online ways, or don’t even print at all as they’ve had their kicks from seeing the images on their computer screen and the instant satisfaction keeps the urge away to actually print the images, leaving local stores to suffer until it comes to the point of having to give up their services as it’s no longer profitable.
Myself, I print my photos at home in the traditional darkroom.
You are right, mostly. My place is too small and isolated (North BC), so my own darkroom isn’t viable. However, I only started sending back and forth online after the locals had closed down a lot of their photo options. Predictably, as digital grew more and more popular, actual film printing wasn’t profitable any more.
Walmart is here but no thanks. Nothing but grief the one time I used it.
Nice talking to you,
Thank you for your reply Suzie. Small places are the first to get hit by this. Or get overrun by large companies like Walmart. I don’t know about their “quality” (I live in the Netherlands) but I bet it is less than mediocre. Too bad you were forced to go online, 1 person can’t keep a business alive. Maybe in the future will get to a turning point where service and local becomes important again… 😉
I print at home up to A4 size but use a local pro photographic shop for anything bigger. They understand colour spaces and dpi (and everything else) and are only too pleased to work with me to get the result I want. Although they are busy they are a dying breed.
It was a tough one to answer because I also have a suite of approaches per specific project. And I restricted it for output from a digital file. I doubt I’ll set up my own darkroom again, but I definitely have cultivated a personal relationship with my local camera shops and B&W film processors. Worth its (and their collective) weight in gold!