Printers, Paper, and Ink

     So you have decided that you want to make a living selling your photographs, well I can't think of a better occupation to apply your efforts too.  I too made that same decision about ten years ago and have had some modest success in selling the photo-video products that I produce.  Therefore I wholeheartedly encourage you to follow your chosen pursuit of career field.  I think that every photographer dreams of taking that fantastic shot that rewards them with fame and fortune, and while may never get the opportunity to take that once in a lifetime photo it doesn't mean you can't find success at commercial photograph. Now days high speed computers coupled with powerful software, and state of the art printers can create works of art from images taken with a hundred dollar camera or even a cell phone, which is good right?  Well sort of, you see back when photographers like Ansel Adams treated the world to their amazing photographs they had to be part photographer, part chemist, part engineer, part adventurer, and part businessman.  These requirements severely limited the numbers of people willing to embark on a photographic career since the learning process was long, discouraging, and expensive which cut down the field and made your chances of success much greater than today when things have been made so much more simplified.  You also have to remember that Adams took photos during a time when nothing was automatic, or self adjusting, and unlike today where you can just keep on snapping photos forever, he was limited to the number of photos he could take at one time by film roll size or the number of plates he had with him.

     I know a great many of you won't be familiar with the term Collodion process which refers to using plates of glass that have been specially treated to create a negative image on the plates surface.  The plate system of capturing an image made it possible for photographers to carry their trade into the outside world in search of images.  Perhaps the most famous of these photographers was Mathew Brady whose iconic images of the American Civil War brought home to average citizens the true carnage created by modern weaponized warfare.  These images were created using the wet plate system which requires a great many factors such as exposure time and amount of light available to be spot on in order to produce a good negative. It is a tricky process to work with at best, but when the conditions are all met it can produce images of stunning quality and detail.  A good example would be Brady's so called cracked plate photo of Abraham Lincoln.  It was taken shortly before Lincoln's assassination and I am not sure today's cameras would be able to capture the emotional complexities contained in Lincoln's face as recorded by Brady's camera.

     The process used by photographers like Mathew Brady and Ansel Adams to make prints from their wet plate negatives was time consuming, complicated, and at best hit or miss.  Such variables as contaminated or old emulsion, developing time and even weather conditions could effect the quality of the plates and prints made from them.  Thanks to today's technology the pitfalls that complicated the early photographic process have been eliminated for the most part, but that doesn't mean that there are not choices to be made if you are seriously considering selling your works.  So which type of printer is right for the budding young (or in my case old) photographer seeking to create salable prints.  We have several different types of printers to choose from these include inkjet, laser, and digital.  I'll save you the time and long winded explanation of the highlights and shortcomings of each type and tell you right off the bat that inkjet is the logical choice.  First of all the other two are fine printing mediums but they are primarily business oriented, and secondly when it comes to choosing the varieties of paper and ink used, they quickly fall out of contention.
     Now that we have our printer type selected the remaining choices should be easy right?  Oh if it were only that simple, you see there are at least ten million makers of inkjet printers, okay so maybe not ten million, but there is a lot of them.  Secondly inkjets are separated into several different categories which include, office jet, photo jet, and Giclee printers.  Right off the bat we are obviously going to throw out the office jet. that leaves us with the choice between the photo or image inkjet printers and the difficult to pronounce (zhee-clay) Giclee printers.  I will now attempt to make the differences between these two types of printers as easy to understand as I can, one is very expensive to use and the other isn't, there that wasn't so hard was it?  Not enough information?  Okay lets see if I really can explain this simply, there are set parameters that define what can be called a Giclee print and therefore defining what a Giclee printer is.  The printer must be able to print at least 300 dots per inch, it must be able to use pigment based rather than dye based ink, the paper must archival rated with a matte finish, and finally the printer will generally utilize between 8 to 12 ink cartridges.  The photo inkjet does not have to meet any of this criteria, and therefore is much less expensive to operate.

     Who uses the Giclee process and printers?  Well quite a lot of people actually, you see a properly printed Giclee print can carry a color life of up to 300 years, and their color reproduction is touted to be identical to the original digital image.  That makes it the choice of museums, college archives, print galleries, graphic artists, high end photographers and anyone else who demands the absolute best reproduction of images that money can buy.  So is it right for you, that depends on what your goals are, who you are selling to, and what price range you are demanding for your work.  If you intend to create a portfolio of high end photos or graphic art intended for galleries and wealthy clients then the Giclee process is a natural choice.  On the other hand if you are going to be taking photos of grandma's little darling or processing other peoples images for framing and your price structure can't be so high as to discourage potential clients, then the photo inkjet is the way to go.  It's only a seat of the pants guess at the cost difference between the two processes but I would venture to say that Giclee is about five time as expensive as the photo inkjet.  One more piece of advise, a bare minimum in printer size would be the wide format 13X19 models, after that output size is a matter of project need.
     Now that we've covered printers lets move on to something straightforward like inkjet paper!  I moved out of my chair for a moment after that statement just in case a lightning bolt came down through the roof and hit that spot seeing as I had just told a real whopper.  The world of inkjet paper is so complex and diverse that I couldn't possibly cover all the options and alternatives in a post of ten thousand words so I will try and boil it down to a few basics.  First of all glossy prints are fine if you are looking for nothing more than a stack of 3X5 prints to show off to the office acquaintances or your are paying a visit to your grandparents who don't own one of those new-fangled computers, in other words don't use it.  Matt paper of varying degree of thickness, opacity, and texture is probably the most popular choice for prints intended for wall display.  Luster finished paper is also widely used by many wedding photographers as it shows well in the classic wedding album plastic sleeves. That being said this time I am not kidding when I say that there are literally thousands of paper finishes and textures to choose from, my advice is it to check out the examples paper companies have on the internet or request samples from them.  What do I use for the vast majority of my work? The answer is Epson Premium Matte Presentation Paper, but that is just what I like and certainly not an advertisement for Epson, just my opinion of what works best for me.
     That leaves us with what inkjet ink printer is right for you.  As I said, if you want to create prints that will outlive you then the only choice is pigment based ink, but if not then there are a lot of options available to you.  Printer manufacturers all make proprietary inks for their machines to use and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.  But they are always expensive and sometimes hard to get.  So many photographers resort to using third party knockoff inks.  Needless to say the companies making the printers want you to buy their inks and some manufacturers go so far as to make it impossible to use third party cartridges.  A quick search on the internet should let you know who does and who doesn't allow the use of third party inks.  As to what the difference is in a manufacturers cartridges and the third party replacement cartridges there have been numerous comparisons that have been done on the internet for you to look at.  Personally, if there is a difference in color or quality I can't see it, but that can only be said for the standard ink cartridges.  I use Epson printers and their cartridges are all (according to Epson) supposed to last in excess of 200 years, whether that is true of course can't be verified since inkjet printers have only been around for about 30 years.  I can tell you this, that using third party cartridges is about one third the cost of buying OEM ink and some of the third party companies will even give you specs on their ink attesting to how long it will last.  All of this of course depends on the paper you print on, in order to achieve these remarkable times of longevity the paper must be of archival quality.  The last thing I will impart to you is that all of this is subject to where the printed photo is to be kept or displayed, if it is not in a climate controlled setting it drastically effect its life span.  Lastly, and I can't stress this too much, direct sunlight will kill the most sophisticated ink and paper.  So in conclusion what kind of printer, what kind of ink, and what kind of paper you use it still dependent on who you are selling to, and what price you are selling you product for.  Good luck and remember as Dr. Albert Schweitzer once said, "success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be a success."