How do you physically show off your shots?

I"m back into the photography gig with the purchase of a new lens (Oly 40-150mm) and new u4/3 camera (OLY EPL-1 -> OMD EM-10). I have a ton of great shots stored on my computer, but nothing printed. I want to change that.

So I have a few questions and am looking for tips to getting great prints and suggestions on how to display.

Display ideas

1) Framed images. Standard black frames from Walmart. Either 4x6 or 8x10. I'll probably do this in the near future.

2) A nice photo book. Now I have no idea what kind of book I should get or if I should stick with some standard 3 ring binder and buy laminated pockets. Any ideas?

Printing?

1) Where should I get these printed? I'm in college so price is an issue but arguably something better than Walgreens (unless they're actually decent for 4x6/8x10.

Thanks in advance

FlacVest said:

I"m back into the photography gig with the purchase of a new lens (Oly 40-150mm) and new u4/3 camera (OLY EPL-1 -> OMD EM-10). I have a ton of great shots stored on my computer, but nothing printed. I want to change that.

So I have a few questions and am looking for tips to getting great prints and suggestions on how to display.

Display ideas

1) Framed images. Standard black frames from Walmart. Either 4x6 or 8x10. I'll probably do this in the near future.

Click to expand...

4X6? That's pathetic. That's like looking at your phone. Even 8X10 is unimpressive. I only printed 8X10 when I was shooting 35mm film; you can't get a decent enlargement from 35mm film so I had to settle for 8X10. I like prints that are at least 11X14; 16X20 is quite nice. You can generate images that look good at that size from your cameras.

I don't know what Walmart frames look like but I use cheap black frames from Aaron Brothers that are probably similar. They're fine for photos.

FlacVest said:

2) A nice photo book. Now I have no idea what kind of book I should get or if I should stick with some standard 3 ring binder and buy laminated pockets. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

I don't know from photo books.

FlacVest said:

Printing?

1) Where should I get these printed? I'm in college so price is an issue but arguably something better than Walgreens (unless they're actually decent for 4x6/8x10.

Click to expand...

I was just in Walgreens getting tranquilizers but I didn't look at their photo area. I send my print files to mPix:


Good prices, fast delivery, excellent quality.

There are probably other services that are as good but I get what I want from mPix so I haven't bothered to investigate them.

As an aside, you may want to process your images to get the best results when they're printed. The first thing is you need to crop to the print size. The next thing is you want to calibrate your monitor so the colors you see are something like the colors that get printed. I use an xRite i1 Display Pro and get really good agreement between my monitor and the print.

FlacVest said:

I"m back into the photography gig with the purchase of a new lens (Oly 40-150mm) and new u4/3 camera (OLY EPL-1 -> OMD EM-10). I have a ton of great shots stored on my computer, but nothing printed. I want to change that.

So I have a few questions and am looking for tips to getting great prints and suggestions on how to display.

Display ideas

1) Framed images. Standard black frames from Walmart. Either 4x6 or 8x10. I'll probably do this in the near future.

2) A nice photo book. Now I have no idea what kind of book I should get or if I should stick with some standard 3 ring binder and buy laminated pockets. Any ideas?

Printing?

1) Where should I get these printed? I'm in college so price is an issue but arguably something better than Walgreens (unless they're actually decent for 4x6/8x10.

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

I do nothing less than 20"x30".

Costco will do canvas for $49. ($59 - $10)

Since we now live and travel in a large motorhome, our display options are limited. We tend to produce about one photo book per year using Blurb. At least with these we don't worry about losing those images in one of the possible digital information losses. Some images get posted to a blog for friends and family to share our travel experiences. Occasionally we'll do a slide show on a large flat screen TV. Many of the images randomly come up as our computer "wallpapers".

When we still lived in a traditional house, I would print up to 13"x19" prints and bought custom frames from an online custom frame vendor. With those we selected matting colors to compliment the specific images. We also had a couple of wrapped stretched canvas prints made using an online company.

Art

I'd suggest CostCo for prints; cheap and decent quality. You can even get color profiles from Dry Creek. There's a bunch of info in their website: https://www.drycreekphoto.com

I get frames from Ikea, the Ribba's. Inexpensive and decent.

In determining size you need to determine where they'll be. A 4x6 is pretty worthless unless it's in your hand or a book-size album. Or maybe in a collage where you can view it closely. 8x10s can work in small spaces, but again you'd wanna be viewing 'em pretty close for detail. But they can also work if they have very basic forms as subject, with little detail and a lot of contrast. You need to think about how the subject plays, and how it looks from the intended viewing distance. Some landscapes can be pointless without detail; some benefit.

And as you get larger you need to see if you can print without getting all pixellated and awful. You can get fine stuff at 300dpi for most stuff, and even 150 for big prints like 20x30 depending on how they're viewed (usually above the sofa or something from several feet away, but it would be different in a gallery). So you do some math, dividing the photo's pixel size (3000x2000 say) on longest edge by 300 to get photo in inches, so 10x6.7".

FlacVest said:

I"m back into the photography gig with the purchase of a new lens (Oly 40-150mm) and new u4/3 camera (OLY EPL-1 -> OMD EM-10). I have a ton of great shots stored on my computer, but nothing printed. I want to change that.

So I have a few questions and am looking for tips to getting great prints and suggestions on how to display.

Display ideas

1) Framed images. Standard black frames from Walmart. Either 4x6 or 8x10. I'll probably do this in the near future.

Click to expand...

Mostly I print them an display them at home on various walls and rotate them. Frames at a second hand stores, e.g. Good Will are usually one or two dollars. Once you have 30 or 40 of them, in various sizes that is enough.

I also mount prints on 8.5" x 11" cardboard with spray adhesive if I really like them and will not be rotating them.

FlacVest said:

2) A nice photo book. Now I have no idea what kind of book I should get or if I should stick with some standard 3 ring binder and buy laminated pockets. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

I usually use photo books as gifts for others if I have attended a wedding, a reception or party.

FlacVest said:

Printing?

1) Where should I get these printed?

Click to expand...

Buy a $99.00 ink jet printer and print up to 8.5 x 11". If you know that is as large as you are going to print, set your camera to record in an intermediate size with RAW as a second file.

FlacVest said:

I'm in college so price is an issue but arguably something better than Walgreens (unless they're actually decent for 4x6/8x10.

Click to expand...

Also, I have a Kodak 5 x 7 electronic picture frame. It puts on a constant slide show of everything on a thumb drive. Might work for you if you don't have much space.

FlacVest said:

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Tedolph

I send my images to Bumblejax for 24" x 30" surface mounted prints on metalic paper. They do a great job and recommend them.

I print at costco and usually at 11x14. Frames are from Michaels using their 1 item 40% off weekly sale. I get the thin frame decor ones for maybe 8$/per. But, thrift stores great option also. Originally I mounted them on whiteboard but now just put them in frames.

I size the image to what I want then enlarge the canvas to one of costco standard print sizes and fill that with solid color to make " mat". Work flows all differ I guess.

the majority of my stuff gets sent email at 1200x800 or so. If people want prints I go back to the saved/ edited tiff and size them.

For mobility, this past fall I purchased a Tab S2 to take my photos on the " road ". S2 has a ridiculously wonderful screen.

GC

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I usually print 8x10's and poster strip them to my dorm room wall. I've got about 12 up right now and they look pretty nice. If you are commuting to campus and have a big space you could do 11x14 for display purposes, but in a dorm room with less space I find the 8x10's allow me to have lots of prints without taking up too much space.

As for printing I have used mpix, Costco, and adorama in the past. Adorama was nice but I only printed from them once a few years ago. I have ordered from mpix the most and the quality ha been great, but I would wait until you have a good number of prints to order because the shipping adds seven dollars to your order, which can sometimes end up doubling your order. Costco was okay but the two prints I got from them had a white line running across the top of the image, so I don't think I'll be getting from them again. Their shipping and pricing is very good though.

I order costco online sent to my store 10 miles away. Done in few hours. Prints, obviously other mediums must be sent out.

never had any bad ones at costco. And if I did they will gladly redo them no charge. Differences do exist I guess in the employee manning the printers.

GC

I'd suggest a dedicated electronic photo display or even move your favorites onto a thumb drive and use a modern flat screen TV to rotate though the images. Even a Roku puck allows you to feed in and do a slideshow on just about any TV.

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And how do you do that?

tEdolph