Monday, October 13, 2008

Digital Printing

When it comes to printing your digital photographs there can be a tremendous amount of confusion. There are a number of different websites that offer many types of printing services. These sites offer low cost prints to consumers. Below are two sites that I have heard a lot of buzz about. I have seen some good quality prints come from both sites. They are low cost sites that offer print sizes from wallets all the way up to poster sizes. They also offer novelty gifts like mouse pads and mugs with your photos on them.
Before we move forward I would like to bring up a good point. Your camera makes a world of a difference when it comes to print sizes. The higher your mega pixels the larger your prints can be. A 7 mega pixel camera can produce a good quality print up to about 20 inches. 10 Mega pixels can reach a comfortable size of around 44 inches.

http://www.winkflash.com

http://www.snapfish.com

If you are looking for higher quality, professional quality printing company I recommend checking out Meridian Pro. They are a leading printing company that offers professional quality prints. They print using Kodak Endura Professional paper. I have used them for portraits and I have to say, they are an outstanding company to work with.

http://meridianpro.com/

Winkflash and snapfish are great sites to use when you want to print your snap shots and family pictures. Meridianpro is best used for professional portraits and wedding photographs. You can use Meridianpro for your Fine Arts Prints, however I recommend you use a giclee printer instead.

http://www.gicleeprint.net/abtGclee.shtm definition of giclee printing
Giclee prints are made by a process of archival ink being sprayed to the paper, or canvas. Prints are made using an 8 or 12 color ink jet printer. The most commonly used printers are by Epson. Epson has a great line of printers out. Below is a link to the Epson site that has six printers starting at $1299.00 for a 17" wide bed working their way up to a 64" wide printer for a hefty price tag of $28,995.00

Epson Printers http://www.epson.com/

If you are purchasing your own printer, the next and some what confusing step is to select what paper you would like to use. Paper of course depends on the photograph itself. This past year I have seen Harman introduce some amazing papers for digital photography. Here is the link to Harman Professional Inkjet papers.

http://www.harman-inkjet.com/home.asp

Epson also has their own line of papers compatible for their printers. To sum up, figure out what type of printing you need. If you have an outstanding photograph of a beautiful landscape you will want to print it using the latest in digital printing technology and go with a giclee printing service. If you have shot some amazing portraits of your friends, love ones, or that special someone who captures your heart, then I suggest using meridianpro or company that is comparable in quality. If you have some snap shots from a family cook out or a holiday like Christmas, then snapfish or winkflash are prefect for you.

For giclee prints I use Sky Lake Studios. Sky Lake is owned by Shelley Lake. Rob Caswell has always handled and printed my work for me. I strongly recommend using Sky Lake for your your giclee printing needs.

http://www.skylakestudios.com/

Owner and Photographer Shelley Lake

http://www.shelleylake.com/

2 comments:

Desktop Printed Biggersigns.com said...

www.rippedsheets.com just got a new 600X600 digital printer. They have over 400 substrates to print on, which make them different. If the file is good, you get better results. They are fast and low cost.

Mystical Photography said...

I also would like to reccomend www.mpix.com and www.whcc.com

Both are excellent printing companies!