"Fine-art" printing? What's that all about?
“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” – Ansel Adams
As photographers, artists, and creatives - we seek to create incredible works that satisfy the senses and conjure emotional feelings in ourselves and other. No greater is the reward when you take a step back and enjoy your work in all of its splendor.
However - as any filmmaker or musician will swiftly tell you, the work itself is one part of the creative process. The other half is how it is enjoyed by the audience. A small screen and tinny speaker won't do justice for the epic Hollywood blockbuster or an electrifying musical performance; and neither does a photo deserve the same treatment.
Photographic printmaking has existed long before these technologies - after all, the smartphone is quite the recent invention, relatively speaking. In the days of old, you had your darkroom and silver halide prints from film, and these days, a modern inkjet printing system on photo paper.
As with nearly everything, not all things are created equal. These days there are countless big box/online stores that will happily sell you a print for pennies on the dollar (and sometimes within the hour!) - but as you know with your own creations, quality and excellence is in the careful details.
Fine art (also known as "giclée") printing takes the concept of printmaking to the highest possible standards. Where photographic printmaking can be as simple as some basic photo paper sent through an everyday consumer printer, there are several things that differentiate what I call a "consumer" print versus a "fine art" print:
- Lighting
- Equipment
- Paper composition
Lighting
An often forgotten element of printmaking, but crucially important nonetheless. A photographer knows how different types of lighting (sunlight versus artificial) or the temperature (white balance) can drastically affect a photo - this also rings true for printmaking. Every step of the printmaking process - viewing the file on a computer, soft proofing, print checking - is all for naught if the lighting doesn't represent reality.
To simplify, artificial lights are typically rated by their Color Rendering Index, or CRI. This is a value from 0-100 which represents how accurately the light will illuminate something and faithfully reproduce colors to our eyes. Good print shops may use 90 CRI LED bulbs. The best use 95+ CRI.
Equipment
A good photo printer is not only a high-resolution printer, but also the ink type, and color range of said inks. Typical consumer printers use what is known as dye ink - good on color, but fade quickly and don't play nicely with certain papers. Professional printers use pigment inks - where colored pigment particles are suspended in solution and then bind to the surface of the paper. These inks last decades/centuries longer and are heat/humidity resistant.
Color range is also important. While consumer printers have 4 to 6 ink colors, professional printers use 11 or more colors. This allows much finer nuances between smooth gradients and also better dynamic range from dark to light.
The computer monitor is also important. Monitors are typically graded in terms of how much color range they can display, an can be adjusted to change color balance and temperature. A good print shop will have not only high color-range monitors, but also professionally calibrated monitors (using a colorimeter device).
Paper composition
Many print shops may list papers generically like "glossy, satin, or matte," but there is a whole world of paper types and compositions that suit different colors/subjects better; and importantly for artists - some papers meet archival/museum standards for colorfastness and longevity.
While most typical photo paper is made with alpha-cellulose (wood pulp) with resin coatings, fine art papers are made of more organic materials like 100% cotton or coated with special sulphates to exhibit incredible color depth, accuracy, and longevity. Most museums or galleries require this type of paper to be shown.
From start to finish, every material and step of this process has to be meticulously controlled to produce the best quality prints. If you're looking to get prints made in this manner (for any purpose), I proudly offer printing services following all of these steps here in my personal studio! Click here to get started.