Printing From Home

I print my photos using a Canon 7550 that I have had for a few years. It will print up to A4, I really couldn't justify the cost of an A3 printer for the few times I would print that big.

My advice is get to know your printer and find the settings that suit the paper you are using, adjusting brightness and colours, so that the print matches what you see on your monitor. This really does take time and patience. I bought a pack of 6x4 paper for this process as you do waste a few sheets.

After much experimenting I now process my image in Adobe Camera Raw and then resize and crop in Photoshop to suit my printer paper. I then print from Photoshop, using the profile I found that suits the Canon inks and Canon paper I have found to give the best results.

I got around the lack of a calibrated screen by downloading a JPEG image of the garden taken on a sunny day and straight out of the camera. I then set up the monitor so the image looked right in Photoshop and then adjusted the printer settings to match the brightness and colours of the JPEG. I didn't worry about ICC profiles as I now only use the one type of paper and ink combination so found the settings that suited me.

The only issue I get is some images are slightly darker when printed so I always adjust the Photoshop image to be just on the bright side.

The main thing is find a paper that you like and then set the printer settings accordingly.

Generally, at least in North America, photographers are going for Canon printers, while commercial printers (like in printing presses, not commercial photo printers) are going mainly for Epson printers. Not that there is anything wrong with your choice, it's just that Epson is good at marketing it's wares to the printers.

Actually, you won't save money doing your own prints, BUT you will have the convenience of having your prints whenever and however you want them.

When it comes to calibrating, you can ask a commercial printing company of your area if they have an out of date PANTONE color book they can sell to you at a good discount price. You just fan the catalog (uncoated sectio to avoid reflection) and take a picture of it in daylight with no processing, and you can see how far the colors are. Note that what you see on your monitor is not likely what you'll get on your printer. When you start the "calibrating game", you have to calibrate ALL the material you use. Even changing paper make or finish will cause color shift.

If you really want to be "dead on", you could try to borrow a Sekonic light meter with the accompanying software. It will allow you to get a profile of your camera(s) sensor(s) to actually know the exact dynamic range of your camera(s), so you can expose your picture with as little clipping as possible on the shadows and highlights side of the spectrum. From there, using a color chart to calibrate your monitor and printer will give you really accurate results.

If money is not an object, you can also get an X-Rite Eye 1 color profiler, or you could also look for a used commercial printer spectro-densitometer with the "LaB" reading capability. With such an instrument, you can calibrate any printers on the market. Sometime, they do pop-up on ebay at stupidly low prices. Just make sure if you go for one of these to get all the documentation and the densitometer calibration chart, as well as the charger. Gretag, X-Rite and Ihara are well known and very reliable machines.

I print on a Canon Pro10S and can confirm it's not a cheap option but you do have control over your work. A calibrated screen is essential but even then prints are not an exact match so trial and error is still needed. I strongly recommend Octoink third party inks. They are mu7ch cheaper and do a good job. Also remember that you cannot leave your printer idle - you will need to make a test print at least twice or three times a week. I use Qimage for this as recommended by Jose Rodriguez. I have settled on a few Fotospeed papers form most jobs though I will explore their range further. I use a Spyder Elite colorimeter for my screen.

Good luck and don't forget to do those nozzle check prints every few days

I use an Epson SCP400 A3+ size, I chose it rather than a Canon because it’s smaller size fitted into the space! I am very pleased with the quality of prints and although third party inks are tempting I have never used them. As for papers, I tend to collect sample packs when I visit the Photography Show from different manufacturers and then order full packs from those I like best. Papers do vary in tone, for instance a Permajet lustre paper has a distinct bluish tone which doesn’t suit some pictures whereas others can be a warmer white. At present I print a lot on matt papers although they can be more challenging to get bright colours and contrast; as well as bright white I have experimented with Hahnemuhle’s Rice Paper, and Natural Line which is a very warm white, and St. Cuthbert Mill’s Bockingford paper which is a well-known watercolour paper but treated for photo printing. None of these options are available at commercial printers. Some papers are more suited to certain subjects than others which is why it’s worth experimenting, as the results can be very different.

One tip: dust is your enemy and regularly use a blower into the printer feed, and I use a blower on both sides of every sheet I load. Matt papers are worst for shedding minute bits of fibre but it is worth doing on all papers as fibres from the backs of coated papers can transfer onto the rollers. There is nothing more frustrating than looking at a print and seeing tiny white specks where the dust has fallen off and taken the pigment with it, this can happen right away or days and even weeks later and is especially important if you plan to sell prints.

Finally printing for me is the completion of the photographic process and gives me far more satisfaction than a digital screen image. Good luck and enjoy!

I home print here. I have an Epson R3000 A3+ photo printer with a Permajet continuous ink flow system in it. The monitor is calibrated using a X-rite and the prints use a custom ICC profile that Permajet supplied using a print sheet of colours they make you print off and send to them so they can calibrate the colours to how they should be using their calibration scanners there. Permajet follow Epson or OEM so their inks are also pigment based. When you look at the cost of the printer and the ink flow system the cost adds up super fast but the cost per print thereafter for what I sell them for means it'll pay for itself before long and then become cheaper than sending away as for anything larger than A3+ then I only use a local pro lab that are not cheap and are soon to be putting their prices up. I have been debating upgrading at some point to the Canon image PROGRAF PRO-1000 A2 printer so I can move from using 13" roll paper to 17" and allow printing here of 16x24 etc.

I also spray my prints with this spray to further protect them from UV light, fingerprints etc.

Take a look at Permajets Baryta papers. They do a sample pack you can try. Print paper that very closely resembles old darkroom paper. They're expensive but dang they feel so good in the hand!