Printing Digital photos for Sale.

[Matt H]

Gudday all.


Just wondering as im starting out in photography, majority of it being of motorsport, is what type of printer you guys use to print the images out on, especially prints that youll sell to drivers, public etc etc.

Thanks for your advice in advance.

[vwpilot]

Anything that I sell is printed at a professional lab on a Fuji Frontier printer. These are true light exposed, wet prints even from digital. They are by far the highest quality you can get from digital and that is all that I will sell to a customer.

When it comes to large format printing like poster sized, I use an Epson 7600 with archival inks. These have a projected 85 year life expectancy.

If you are going to use inkjet, you want to use something with archival inks, like an Epson. The 2200 is a great printer and they should last a long time as well. You could use one of these and when done right will look almost as good as a true photo print from a Frontier, but not quite.

I recommend a real lab for best results.

[PaulSands]

Would I be right to assume that by using a lab the additional cost would be reflected in the price of the print?

[Matt H]

vwpilot.

How much would it cost, is the lab just the local photo processing place where people take their holiday snaps ???

thanks


Matthew

[vwpilot]

Not sure of how it works on your side of the pond, so things might be slightly different, but here is how I do it.

I just have a local processing lab that does all kinds of processing. The same place that does the family photos for the neighbor also does my prints. Most of these labs around here are using the latest Fuji Fronteir or Noritsu printers. Here is some info on the Fuji. http://bermangraphics.com/press/frontier.htm

But they are reasonably priced in most places with an 8x10 running between 3-6 dollars depending on where you get it done.

I just price my prints accordingly knowing that I will get them printed in a place such as this.

YOu could use something like an Epson 2200 and print at home because they have a good life expactancy, but the time is also important. I can drop off a bunch of shots and have them back in an hour from the local lab, or I could spend hours printing them myself at home.

Check with some of you local film processing labs and see if they are using equipment such as the Fuji or the Noritsu equivalent. I think you will be very pleased with the prints.

[andy_b]

Although I dont sell any images, I have printed off some onto HP photo paper using a HP 950 Printer/Scanner with really impressive results.

Also, as mentioned many photo shops will now print your digital images from a Memory Card, which is cool, as you can then correct them (if there as bad as mine) as logos etc before getting them printed


Hadnt heard of Archieval inks, need to have a look into that for HP printers

[Aysedasi]

I must confess, I'm not running in vwpilot's league (then again, I'm not selling anything either), but I recently bought my first digital SLR and had a go at prnting on decent photo paper for the first time. I've only got an HP 960c but I was amazed at the quality of the results. Good enough to frame a shot of my lad as a Christmas pressie for Granny, anyway......