Five top tips for Professional Photography printing with Giclee
When you’re looking to use professional photography printing services, there are are few things to consider before moving ahead and producing stunning Giclee prints. These guidelines might help you make better choices to achieve beautiful results.
Giclee printing
With the fast pace of technology one of the most popular photography printing techniques is Giclee printing. With Giclee printing you’re using pigment archival inks with heavy weight archival papers, which offer fine art prints with a depth of vibrant colour that is unrivalled. Giclee papers and canvasses are coated with a membrane that allows the pigment inks to sit on the substrate. Fine art photo printing with Giclee means photography prints can retain their colours between 100–200 years (depending on how they’re stored).
1. Using fine art Giclee printing services
If you’re looking for reliable professional photo printing, then you need to consider a fine art printing company who understands the complexities involved with colour space and calibration. With their knowledge they should be able to produce fine art photo prints that are consistently the same, whenever you order Giclee photo prints. By using the services of a professional photography printing company, who specialise in creating fine art prints, you’ll get the best advice on the layout of your photos, technical aspects involved in creating your photographs and the best type of paper to suit your image. They are an invaluable resource and can also offer advice about the market place and how best to prepare your fine art photo prints for exhibitions and the retail market.
2. Preparing your photographs for Giclee printing
To prepare your image for fine art photo printing, it’s wise to use editing software such as Adobe Photoshop and to use adjustment layers and smart objects. This means you’re preserving the original data in the image (also known as non-destructive editing). With layers you can adjust the hues and saturations of colour and even mask areas.
Before even editing your images it makes sense to calibrate your monitor, as this will help with balancing the colour you see within your images. Colour is important when it comes to fine art photo printing, without calibration the colour on your monitor may be different to the actual fine art photo prints. You only have to look at the same image on your mobile phone, your iPad and your desktop monitor to see how the colour is different on each.
It is also worth considering the contrast in the image, does it appear too stark or are the tones too subtle to have impact. Also does the image need sharpening to bring clarity to the detail.
Finally you need to decide on the overall size of the image and this can be affected by the resolution of the image. If the resolution is low, then the larger you print the more detail (pixels) will be missing in the Giclee print and can look blurred. Therefore the larger the photo print the higher the resolution, to guarantee a high quality Giclee print. Generally professional photography printing companies need a resolution of 300ppi (pixels per inch).
3. Choice of paper or canvas finish
There are a range of Giclee papers and canvases you can choose from and a fine art photo printing company should be able to offer you samples of their range. All papers and canvasses can work with fine art photo prints, it comes down to personal choice and which substrate you think enriches your image. Giclee papers can have a high gloss finish, a mid sheen or a textured matt finish and their weight can vary between 120–450 gsm. For professional photo prints that are considered fine artworks, heavy weight papers over 250gsm are ideal and have longevity.
When you’re choosing your paper, it’s worth checking what brand it is, as branded papers are usually laboratory tested to meet archival specifications. Also check if a fine art printing company has a clause saying third party papers will be used when they are out of stock of a said brand of paper. Your customers need to know you are reliable and consistent in the quality of photography prints you sell, so always ensure that the branded papers you request are always being used.
Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs)
To improve the whiteness of a paper, paper manufacturers add optical brighteners and these OBAs affect the paper. The more OBAs means over time the artificial whiteness will be lost and the paper will revert back to its natural colour prior to OBA’s being added. This in turn will affect the appearance of the colours in your fine art photo print over time. Therefore when you’re considering the needs of your customers, collectors and investors its wise to look at papers with limited OBAs.
4. Online ordering and one to one service
With Giclee printing you don’t have to order several prints at once, you can order fine art prints ‘on-demand’, this means you can order one at a time. This saves you money as you only need to order once your customer has ordered and paid.
Generally there are many fine art Giclee printing companies now offering online ordering, where you can choose borders, size and paper for your photo print and where you have to upload your image. These sites can be quick and simple to use for popular sizes, but they are limited on what size and border size you can order. Also bear in mind the print price may actually include a border, so your image on the print will actually be smaller.
A fine art Giclee printing company that offers one to one service are great when you’re looking for more information and help with producing professional photo prints. They can offer help with technical support in preparing your images for printing, offer advice on the best size to consider, what paper to choose, print the image while you’re there so you can assess as you go along. Also they can provide information on mounting and framing of your fine art photo print. You can build a great relationship with a fine art printer, who will be there to offer advice as your photography skills and career develop and as technologies advance.
5. Proof prints
Once you have prepared your image for Giclee printing and decided on which professional photo printing company to use and what paper to print on, you’re ready to place an order. Before going ahead and ordering a full size Giclee print, it might be a good idea to order a proof print.
A proof print is a smaller version or a section of the image you want to print. With a proof print you’re able to check the quality, the colours and whether you think the paper suits the image. At this stage the Giclee printing company can make any adjustments you request and you can order another proof print and continue doing this until you’re happy with the proof print. Proof prints can save you from a costly mistake, especially if you’re ordering a large fine art photo print.
Final word on Giclee printing for professional photography
Finally you’re ready to order fine art Giclee photo prints of your images and you’re wondering who to order them from. If you’re looking to build a long term relationship with a fine art printing company then choose one that seems to offer a lot of advice, seems knowledgeable and are willing to talk to you and meet you.
It may even be worth ordering proof prints from more than one professional photo printing company and see how the experience feels, were there any issues and how did the company handle them.
Overall you have to consider the quality you desire and the budget you have, but when creating fine art prints of your images, it should always be a pleasant experience.
For more info: Giclee Printing UK