The past two months I've been typing out this new blog about printing photos. It's a huge part of photography and such an enjoyable process. To have your own photographs on printed paper is something 'small and simple' but an amazing feeling.
Let's start this blog down memory lane... ahhhh, printing photos in a darkroom is the ultimate bliss point! haha If you were to print photographs from a film camera and chemicals, the process is very different and more time consuming to an ink-jet printer that is generally used these days.
Starting from scratch with a film camera, to using chemicals such as developer, fixer and an after-bath. The roll of film needs to be processed within a container of developing chemicals. From there, once it's ready to dry and develop, using an 'enlarger machine' you print those photos onto photographic paper and bathe the photographic paper with the developing chemicals.
(I hope I explained that properly haha) This process definitely takes a while to complete but it's certainly an amazing one to accomplish. Whilst you're in a darkroom to develop your negatives, you need chemicals such as 'developer', water and 'fixer' and then let it dry. Just like anything else, it gets more easier once you get the hang of it; practice makes improvement.
When I learnt the skills of printing my own photos within a darkroom, there were always good and bad challengers to overcome. Although I still believe that it's a fun, amazing process to use and would definitely recommend it to any photographer.
We also have the more advanced way of printing photos which is printing from a professional printing place. This is a great way to produce and share your photos more quickly and efficiently. Most of this process is 'behind the scenes' with a great quality printer and fresh ink. It's quite a fine art to print from a large photographic printer, getting a great quality photo printed is truly amazing.
The beautiful big printers that printing places use are incredible, to say the least. The bigger the better! haha I envy those large printing machines, I wish I could have one of my own.. Some great printing places that I've used before around Brisbane would be; RGB digital, Street's Imaging and Prolab or even Fotofast.
Years ago, I did some work experience with the large jet ink printers at a retailer store and it was really great to see see a high quality printer in action. I printed heaps of small 6x4" prints which was powered with instant ink jets and photographic paper. It was pretty cool to standby and print photos for customers.
Printing your own work feels like a freshly baked loaf of bread, you just want a slice of it's goodness! ahhhhh the smell of that loaf can keep ya going for days! ahaha I love printing my own photos, it's really great to have something printed that you've spent time planning, photographing and editing. It takes time to produce something to be proud of and spend ya pennies on a slice of art.
To be able to print various sizes of a small or large scale is also a great feeling; from large scale photos to small scale prints, it's quite precious to print something big and treasure it forever. Some of the best prints are printed on large scale to show to amazing work of the photographer. Large scale prints can leave you bewildered for hours, size definitely matters in the realm of "a work of art" or "a masterpiece", it can change your opinion in a spilt second. I've printed a few panorama prints sizing around 1metre in length, which have been amazing to say the least.
The photographic paper and materials also take into account while printing photos. There's a lot of different paper you can work with and print on for example, gloss, matte, metallic, coated paper and also keeping in mind the different brand and company of where you go can differ. It's always important to have some samples printed if you are very particular about how you want your photo to turn out in the end.
Talking about different printing sizes and formats is definitely another blog within its self haha. So I hope you've liked this one, I feel like I've rambled on a bit too much, you can always skim through my rambling words, none the less, I hope this one was still enjoyable
If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Have a great day! x
Ebony
