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Printing is not the final purpose of
every photo; that said, sometimes you may
want to print some of your best photos to
enjoy the color and the detail on paper. Of
course, it is a subjective matters - I know
some photographers that make hundreds of
prints every month, and other photographers
that never print their images. The purpose of
this article is to describe in a concise and
easy to understand way the steps of the
printing process, that allow to make a great
print from your digital files.
As you
may already know, I save all my
post-processed photos as uncompressed TIFF,
in 16 bit, Adobe RGB format. I never apply
sharpening during post-processing, and I am
very light-handed with noise reduction. When
I decide to print a photo, I apply
sharpening and NR depending by print size.
If the photo has been taken at ISO
100 or 200, usually I don't need any noise
reduction at all; for photos taken at ISO
400 or higher, I apply some noise reduction on
the out of focus areas (more info in the
noise reduction article). If the photo has
been taken at more than 800 ISO I apply a
small amount of noise reduction on the
entire photo, other than the strong NR on
the out of focus areas.
The
sharpening for print is
quite easy. I always use the "Smart Sharpen"
tool of Photoshop CS3 - in my opinion it is
the finest sharpening tool currently
available, both for full size and web sized
photos. Depending by the photo, I set an
amount between 120 and 200%, and radius between 0.3
and 0.5 (the values that I use most often
are amount 150%, radius 0.4). If the photo
has been taken at high ISO, usually I try to
apply a minimum amount of sharpening, to
avoid emphasizing the noise, while with
photos taken at low ISO it is possible to
use more sharpening. Remember that when you
apply sharpening you must always look at the
photo at 100% magnification, and you should
not exceed with sharpening, otherwise you
get halos and other artifacts.
The
third step is to convert the photo in
8 bit,
sRGB mode - the majority of printers is not
able to print in Adobe RGB and 16 bit, so
you have to convert the photo before
printing, otherwise you get "washed out"
colors (unless the printer recognize and
automatically converts Adobe RGB images).
Another issue that you must not forgot
is the exact sides ratio of the paper that
you are going to use. The majority of photos
have a 3:2 ratio, but sometimes the photo
paper has a slightly different ratio. For
example, an A4 print measures 210x297
millimeters - that is a 2.83:2 ratio instead
of the traditional 3:2. So, if I want to
make an A4 print, I have to crop the photo
to 2.83:2 ratio: I select the Crop Tool and
I set Width on 210 and Height on 297 (or
vise versa); I leave the "Resolution" field
blank, because I don't want to modify the
resolution of the photo in this step. For
other sizes instead, as 10x15cm, it is not
necessary to crop the photo.
Now, you
have to choose in which format you want to
print your photo. The majority of consumer
and mid-range printers is able to make
prints up to A4 (about 20x30 centimeters) or
A3 (about 30x45 centimeters). Resizing the
photo is necessary to fit the paper format
that you have chosen; depending the file
size and the paper size, you will either
upsize or downsize the image. To resize the
photo, click on Image>Image Size; be sure
that all the three checkbox are selected,
and set the combo box on "Bicubic". Set the
"Resolution" box on 300 pixels/inch, if it
is not already set on this value; this is
the standard resolution from the majority of
photo printers.
The intro photo of
this article is a 3888x2592 pixels file
taken with my 40D (10 mp), that allows to
make a 33x22 centimeters print at 300 dpi.
If you want, for example, to make a 12x18
centimeters print, set Width on 12 cm,
Height on 18 cm and click on "OK" - the
photo will be resized to the desired
resolution. In this case, the photo has been
downsized; sometimes if you downsize a lot
the photo you can apply for a second time a
little of sharpening, to improve the look of
the detail.
What does it happen if
you want to make a print larger than 33x22
centimeters, the maximum size allowed by the
native resolution of the camera in this
example? Very simple - follow the same
Image>Image Size procedure, and put the
desired print size into the Width and Height
fields. For example, if you want to make a
30x45cm print, the photo will be resized to
5315x3543 pixel - in this case, you have
upsized the photo. Don't worry if the photo
looks soft at 100% magnification - in print
it will be much sharper! The upresizing does
not add any detail to the photo, but it
allows to make large prints without
"pixelization".
The printing
process
Now that your file is ready to print, you
have to complete the latest steps through
Photoshop and the printer's software. Rotate
the photo in the same orientation of the
paper - usually the paper is placed in
vertical orientation, so if your photo is in
horizontal you have to rotate it 90 degrees
to make the print (Image>Rotate Canvas>90
CW).
Click on File>Print to open the
print window, and click on "Page Setup" to
open the printer settings window. This
window varies depending by the printer
model; but the basic settings are always the
same: select professional photo paper as
support and set the print quality on the
highest value. Select "borderless printing"
and, if necessary, a moderate amount of
extension, to avoid 2-3 millimeters of white
border.
That's all! :-) If you have
post-processed well your photo and if your
screen is correctly calibrated you shall get
a sharp, colorful print, that matches the
photo you see on your screen.
Calibration and
Photo Paper
Sometimes, the colors and the brightness of
the print are very different from the colors
that you see on your screen. There may be
two reasons: either you have a crappy screen
or you have a good screen, but it is badly
calibrated. Some cheap LCD screens are
almost unusable for post-processing, because
they have a very narrow angle of view - it
is enough to move by few centimeters to see
different colors and contrast. Other than
that, the majority of laptops does not have
"photo quality" screens; if you want to get
good and consistent results, I'd recommend
to get at least a mid-range screen, as the
Eizo S2433w ($ 700).
Even if you have a good screen, sometimes
what you see may be different from the
prints: in this case, you need to calibrate
the screen, that means adjusting color
temperature and brightness. You can do an
extremely precise calibration with tools as
the Pantone Huey or the professional
ColorVision Spider, otherwise you can simply
compare a print with the image on you
screen, and adjust the color and the
brightness until the image on the screen
roughly matches the print.
Which
photo paper? Usually, it is better to use
inks and paper produced by the same
manufacturer of the printer - I have a Canon
IP8500 so I use Canon paper. There are
mainly two kinds of photo paper: glossy and
matte; usually I prefer glossy paper, it
gives more vivid colors and deeper blacks.
Other than that, the paper is classified
according to its weight; the highest quality
papers weight 220-240 g/m2 or more.
I use either the Photo Paper Pro or the
slightly cheaper Photo Paper Plus Glossy for
the majority of my prints; these papers are
quite expensive, but for me it is not a
problem since I make very few prints every
month. If are not extremely picky about
image quality and you print a lot, instead,
I'd recommend the Glossy Photo Paper - it is
not as good as the Photo Paper Pro, but the
difference is not huge, and it is much
cheaper.
Do you have
comments or questions?
If you have comments or questions about
this article, feel free to ask in the
Juza
Nature Photography Discussion Forum!
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