Pro-100 Print Performance Anxiety

[PalaDolphin]

Viewing photos on the web at Facebook resolution, most of your work looks great. It's when you print that art where the rubber meets the road. Before I bought this Pro-100 printer I had many photos in mind I wanted to print, some 8x10, but only a handful at 13x19. Now I have doubts. The perfectionist in me is finding flaws in everything I want to print. Even the ones I've printed aren't completely flawless. The really awesome photos have already been professionally printed and framed, so no use in duplicating those, unless, of course, I sell some.
I may have to buckle down and create new art that's Pro-100 worthy (13x19, of course). Time to prep the DSLR.
See, I want to turn my apartment into a gallery. I'm going to use neodymium magnets to mount photos on my wall without framing so that I can easily take them down and pack them in a to-go portfolio. And also so I can change the art out from time to time.
My latest work has been with models which can cause a problem mounting them in my apartment; it looks kind of creepy. Like Liz,

which I'm sure will look great printed, but where am I going to hang her? (BTW, I know I over did the skin tone treatment. There were a lot of blemishes to deal with. I need to tone it down before printing.)
The hard truth is I need to create more art, print-worthy art.

 

[The Hat]

@PalaDolphin, just looking at your handy work, I don’t reckon your Pro 100 will cut it, you’re going to need a bigger boat...

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Now I have doubts. The perfectionist in me is finding flaws in everything I want to print. Even the ones I've printed aren't completely flawless. The really awesome photos have already been professionally printed and framed, so no use in duplicating those, unless, of course, I sell some.
I may have to buckle down and create new art that's Pro-100 worthy (13x19, of course). Time to prep the DSLR.

Welcome to the compulsive obsessive world of printing. Remember optimal viewing distance is given as approximately the image diagonal x1.5. Or there-abouts. Not the length of your nose plus 3mm. Puts some of the perceived faults in perspective.

Liked you image of the female model, but could not see the faults you mentioned as viewing on an abominable TN screen on a very old laptop.

I get a lot of satisfaction printing and displaying as you suggest. recycling my prints every few months or so.

By the way, for a cheapskate like me, I use excellent frames from Ikea - RIBBO I think is the brand name. Get a 16 x 20 frame for under CAD$20 and works well with a 12x18 print plus matte. Not high-end but visually pleasing and practical.

Have fun. Look forward to hearing your progress.

Final comment - For display don't skimp by using cheap paper. If it is on display it will irk you every day!

rs

 

[PalaDolphin]

@PalaDolphin, just looking at your handy work, I don’t reckon your Pro 100 will cut it, you’re going to need a bigger boat...

LOL! Thank you, Chief Brody.

 

[PalaDolphin]

A lot of valuable information here...thanks...

Welcome to the compulsive obsessive world of printing. Remember optimal viewing distance is given as approximately the image diagonal x1.5. Or there-abouts. Not the length of your nose plus 3mm. Puts some of the perceived faults in perspective.

I must remember that. When you look closely at a print you can really tell how truly sharp it is. I used Lightroom's sharpening when printing and it looked great. It has the option of Matt or Glossy. I'm not normally a fan of sharpening in post but for the print end product it might be appropriate.

By the way, for a cheapskate like me, I use excellent frames from Ikea - RIBBO I think is the brand name. Get a 16 x 20 frame for under CAD$20 and works well with a 12x18 print plus matte. Not high-end but visually pleasing and practical.

Thanks for the Ikea Ribba frames suggestion. They look simple and contemporary, and very affordable. One of the things I'm looking for in frames is nice matting. Of course, it must fit the size and aspect ratio for the given subject matter. The Liz photo above would not work at 8x10, for instance, because it would cut off her cleavage; it must be 8x12. A lot of my work is 2:3, the natural aspect ratio for DSLR and other serious cameras. The Pro-100 lends to 2:3 with it's 13x19 size which fits into the 12x18 end product well.
I work part-time at a thrift store so I shop frames there a lot too. But, the Ikea prices compete with that.
With nice matting, I'll be able to remove the frame and use the matting to submit prints to the Saint Paul Camera Club salon next Fall.

Final comment - For display don't skimp by using cheap paper. If it is on display it will irk you every day!

I have a lot of 8.5x11 photo paper; I've had it for a while. How do you know if it's cheap? I have paper brands: OfficeMax, HP, Canon, Greenbrier, and some Red River samples. They all say, "Premium" or "Pro", so I don't know which is best.
Red River Paper is serious medium. They come with instructions on printer ICC profiles that can be downloaded from their website. Again, these are just samples; I'll have to buy a box of what I like of theirs.

It's raining heavily outside. A perfect day for printing.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Photopapers - 'cheap' or not ? Please let me give you a few criteria,
there is the weight, that's about the easiest one, there is the surface - from super photo glossy to silk, semi matte, lustre etc to matte - with a wide range of different looks , even just glossy papers - the evenness of the surface - look different on photo papers by different companies, there are specialty papers like fibre based material, baryt type papers, metallic and a lot more. And lots of papers come with some optical brightener in the coating to make them look whiter under particular light conditions, please see my comments on the optical brighteners
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/optical-brighteners-and-their-fading.11650/#post-98254
And there is a another basic difference between photo papers, like the common glossy ones - the cc - castcoated papers and the RC - resin coated papers, the cc-papers are easy to recognize by their paperlike, fibrous backside, the RC papers come with the paper base sandwiched between very thin PE films, and the backside feels more plasticy and you cannot write on it easily with the ballpoint pen.
The brand name papers, Canon, Epson, Hahnemuehle, Canson, Tecco , HP and a lot more are all typically PE type papers and suppliers have specs of their papers available for lookup.
It is getting more difficult to identify the paper type when it comes to trade name papers without knowing the actual manufacturer, you may find both types of papers for similar prices, you cannot identify them by the price. Just to give you an example - the German discounter Aldi is selling very good Sihl PE photo glossy papers at 10cts/sheet (but only twice a year) , other companies are selling similar papers at 30-70cts, and a 'cheap' cc-paper is typically sold between 5 - 20cts/sheet , so don't go by the price for budget papers. These cc-papers have one disadvantage - they let your prints, let the inks fade significantly faster than the PE type papers, it's both the inks and the paper together to define the fading performance. So you have a wide selection of papers to choose from which may make it difficult to pick the 'right' one, but your motives should be printed on the best papers available.

 

[PalaDolphin]

Ink stained Fingers,
Thanks. I'll have to re-read that again. I'm just walking out the door to work.

 

[PalaDolphin]

B&H bundled the Pro-100 with free 50 sheets of Canon Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss SG-201. That's a lot of photographs and phrames! No pressure. I'm going to have to visit some parks and shoot wildlife.

 

[stratman]

I'm going to have to visit some parks and shoot wildlife.

It's wild turkey season hereabouts till the 28th of May. One bearded turkey per day with a two bag limit.

 

[Slagathor]

My latest work has been with models which can cause a problem mounting them in my apartment.

Ummmmm, specially if the wife is home...