SO what do you do with your photos after

[Kathy Rappaport]

So, today I spent the day learning to use some album and collage software and it got me thinking about finished products. Since I am mostly doing people photography - kids, brides, boudior, events, family portraits but also fine art and in particular a bit of street documentary and travel/architectural.

Here at OPF we have a variety of styles of photographers here I thought I would ask, so after you capture, what do you do with your images? Albums, books, framing, advertising, stock? Do you sell images or are they just to work on for your own joy (or pain in some people's case)? Or do they just get filed away and looked at later. I'd love to hear about your finished/unfinished as the case may be images.

 

[Charles L Webster]

I tend to make large prints of the landscape and travel stuff I like most from each expedition and hang it on my walls at home. It's kind of a rotating exhibition, with more recent work replacing earlier stuff.

Once pictures are off my walls, I often give them as gifts to friends or family. My friends get a nice matted and framed print, and I get my wall space back for something new.

My commercial stuff gets 8-1/2 X 11 prints that go into sample books, and those are updated after every assignment. When those prints are replaced, they just go in the trash.

The files, they just keep accumulating. Since I have been using LightRoom, I have fewer copies of individual picture files, but I seldom actually delete something.

 

[Daniel Buck]

For 99% of my photos (the ones that I like I mean) they get printed 8x10, and just stuffed into a box. Most of my 4x5 and 8x10 film gets printed, and a much smaller portion of my digital shots get printed. But I don't keep them separate in my boxes.

Periodically I browse through the box, it's a very inspirational time when you're looking through a good chunk of your old work! If anyone here does not do this, I highly reccomend you do so! There is something much more enjoyable when looking at old photos as a print rather than digital files. The box is also convenient to grab and share with others (friends and family, usually). I tried putting the 8x10 prints into portfolio booklets, but I never liked viewing the photos through a clear sleeves, the shine on the sleeves seemed to make it more difficult to view the images. And, if there are more than one person around, having the prints loose makes it easy to share them And I'm just lazy too, it's easy to just toss the print into an 8x10 film/paper box.

The scanned files (film) and Raw Files (digital) are archived onto a drive, and my 'selects' (the ones I print) get archived duplicate (though not as often as I probably should!), as well as a print-ready file that gets archived on multiple drives, and periodically uploaded to my web-server for secure (hopfully, haha) online storage. I put the print size in the file name of each file, so that I know what size it's setup to be printed. I used to do alot of 11x14, but found 8x10 was easier to bring around and look at, even though 11x14 is more impressive. I still print 11x14 (and some 16x20 from my 4x5 and 8x10 negatives) but I don't do that as often, and I'm more selective with those prints.

People keep telling me I should be doing more with my photos, but I'm enjoying it the way it is. For now anyway.

I'm curious to hear what others do!

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

My answer...

I guess I should answer my own question too....

I have some images at home printed 5x7 and framed on a ledge in the office/den. Those are personal travel and then I have a snapshot shelf of family shots - mostly tabletop framed. When we're not at the computers, we have slideshows of all the images taking up hard drive space. My husband shoots mostly street and travel. I shoot mostly people but also street and travel. I have a number of albums from when I was snapshooting family stuff.

I make greeting cards and calendars(press printed) as gifts but I am thinking of printing more of them and selling them as gifts.

And I've made a bunch of books of various kinds I am going to make some of my travels for me and I am currently sorting through a ton of images to make prints to frame and mount and mat and mostly display. And I am not ready to print them myself - yet.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Good questions Kathy.

I think that Daniel has nailed it. He does what I plan to do. I do not print enough ATM. The only pictures that are shared on the web are here in OPF and at the web site of my local photography club. I do not have any web galleries worth visiting. I do have some showing some school reunion or travel pics but not my better ones.

Cheers,

 

[Marian Howell]

what i love most to do with my macro/landscape images is to print them myself (large!) and frame them, for display/sale. my smaller test prints go into a small sampler portfolio. many also go to web useage of various types (websites, email blasts, etc.) as the clients need, as well as posters, brochures, and various other forms of paperwork. recently though my sports clients have been loving the book concept, and i've sold several packages of that this fall. i'm thinking of trying to expand my other images into that area as well...

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Marian

Nice to see you post. Good ideas...I am making some books for portfolio use to show people my work

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

I have decided to print a portfolio of my work. So I have just bought this photo album from Hahnemuehle. It has a black cover (but one can order some other colors as well) and it is A3 size. Overall, it looks very classy. I will see how the pages will look like when printed. It is the Natural Art Duo 256 paper of Hahnemuehle, which needs the matt balck (MK) on my Epson 3800.

Cheers,

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Mine gets printed at between 7 by 5 inches and bigger depending on what it is and what for. I like making big prints of landscape and other work for the walls, but keep running out of spcae and then they take a lot of storage. Some prints get sold, but usually to order, and when I've shot weddings I tend to print the album myself on innova cotton paper at A3 and then get it craftsman bound by a bookbinder (now friend).

I've just (today) got my first Alamy submission accepted, so hopefully that will help fund the vice.

Finally, Cem, I used the Hahne albums in A4 size once for a wedding clinet to give copies to the parents. I found them fine, but I much prefer a book binding to the post binding used in the various album kits. You might like to investigate - I intend to follow suit one day, but need to work out whether Ilford Gold Fibre Silk will make a suitable book paper first, as I am increasingly preferring to print on that compared to matte paper.

I also have boxes and piles of various prints - matted and otherwise - scattered around!

Cem, again, I will drop you a note about the print exchange idea later today and then we should have another use!

Cheers

Mike

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

.... I've just (today) got my first Alamy submission accepted, so hopefully that will help fund the vice.

.....I intend to follow suit one day, but need to work out whether Ilford Gold Fibre Silk will make a suitable book paper first, as I am increasingly preferring to print on that compared to matte paper.

Hi Mike,

Congrats with the Alamy acceptance, good news!

I have now tried these three baryta papers:
- Ilford Gold Fibre Silk
- Innova Fibaprint White Gloss
- Hahnemuehle FineArt Baryta

I am not sure which one I like the most, but I have a slight preference for the Ilford due to smoother print surface. What do you think, did you try different brands yourself?

What I was going to say is that I, like you, find myself printing almost exclusively using Baryta papers nowadays. It produces excellent results .

Cheers,

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Cem

Of the Baryta papers I've tried the Ilford, Hahnemuhle and Harman, but not the Innova. Of the three I've tried I found the Harman too blue-white and the images appeared quite 'brittle' - probably due to the interaction of sharpening and contrast I supect.

The Hahne seems a little bit bluer than the Ilford and is a nice paper.

The Ilford seems to me to offer an excellent combination of base colour (my eyeone reports it as almost neutral - but I find it perceptually slightly warm in comparison to the others of course) and excellent reproduction of colour or black and white images.

I also prefer the feel of the paper in the hand to the Harman offering, but it's not up to the cotton papers there imho.

Finally, in the UK, the Ilford has been the most affordable of the three I've tried.

When I first tried the Ilford with the HP printer it marked the surface (the others haven't been used on this machine), but HP fitted the new wheel and roller unit and it's been fine since. I'll write more on this when I get chance to start my Z3100 diary!

The next baryta paper I try will be the new HP paper, assuming that it costs no more than the Ilford, but I'm currently facing 600 ft (180m) of paper in various types that HP provided with the printer....

Thanks for the Alamy congrats - I was pleased as they rejected a film image in my first submission, so I replaced it with a digital image that I had print ready (bar output sharpening) and they accepted the submission immediately. It's good motivation to go back through the processing backlog over the next couple of months.

Mike

 

[Marian Howell]

like mike and cem i am a bit of a paper freak and that has been one of my book issues. i love printing my stuff and am particular about paper. like mike i've been using ilford gfs and like the way it's warm tone flatters my warm tones. in this country it was half the price of the harmon ai too. and while outsourcing my book printing for business clients is fine, for my high end stuff i didn't like the paper choices that came with the print-your-own...so mike i hadn't thought about binding my own paper so that i could print on what i preferred...certainly worth exploring with a bookbinder.
i am eager to try the hahn photo rag baryta this winter.