p.7 #1 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
anthonygh wrote:
As someone who grew up in the analogue era (film and music) who always did contact sheets then some prints if any images were suitable….I can’t imagine not wanting prints of my best work. Even seeing images on my 27’ iMac is no substitute for a decent print…anymore than a decent LP is a substitute for the concert hall.
I remember taking my daughter to an Ansel Adams exhibition in London some years ago. She had looked through my photo books and seen some of his work on line…but viewing the actual prints amazed her. She was stunned.
I still do a lot of portrait work and again…the sitters love the prints. Large prints…A3 minimum….no point in going small.
Being a photographer and not wanting to see one’s work as tangible artefacts must be a bit like an artist who wants to paint in oils but instead used software like Painter to create something on a tablet and then always views it in Instagram…or maybe has an inkjet made. Just not the same by any stretch of the imagination.
Snaps of ones kids or pets at Christmas…maybe no need for prints ever. But that isn’t really photography in my mind. It is visual record making. useful, but not photography....Show more →
Thanks for your detailed summary of print photography mate!
I am not so sure I , personally,would lessen the impact of "printing your own" for any reason.
Some of us are just not so lucky to have an "audience" for our prints.
p.7 #2 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
anthonygh wrote:
I remember taking my daughter to an Ansel Adams exhibition in London some years ago. She had looked through my photo books and seen some of his work on line…but viewing the actual prints amazed her. She was stunned..
First of all, I’m with you on the value of prints and the differences between seeing photographs as prints and on screens.
I’ve had a few experiences like your daughter had over the years.
I had heard of the photographer Jeff Wall (probably known more in the “art” world than among photographers, oddly) in books, so I was aware of some of his work. It left me somewhat mystified. Then I saw a wonderful exhibition of his (monumental) prints at SF MoMA many years ago, and I was knocked out by them. I recall spending a half hour with one of them, thinking about how it was constructed and what it contained.
I had a similar experience the first time I saw Avedon’s “American West” photographs — a completely different experience than seeing them in books, much less online. (They are also huge.)
Another benefit of seeing prints is that you may see different versions of a photographer’s work, where we quite often only see one version in books and online. Adams is a fine example here. His interpretations of his prints were not static — they changed significantly over his career. Two examples… More than two decades ago I saw an exhibit (I believe it was in Anchorage) that showed the transition in how he printed his famous Denali photograph, gradually moving towards higher contrast tand a more graphical interpretation. A different exhibit (in the SF Bay Area) focused on his very earliest prints, and they also look quite different from the versions that we are familiar with.
One more: Years ago I saw a large exhibit of Irving Penn photographs, I think in New York. Again, I already knew about him and his work from reading… but the experience of actually seeing the prints went way beyond that.
If the photographer regards or regarded his/her work to exist in prints, then it is prints we should see in order to understand the photographer’s vision.
p.7 #4 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
I had a darkroom set up in my bathroom for a while but the last couple years have been slow picture taking for whatever reason so I finally took down the light sealing and packed the enlarger in the closet. I'll pull it out again someday but just doing digital prints for now... I do miss it from time to time though to be real
p.7 #5 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Mujabad123 wrote:
You can be your own “audience” and enjoy your prints even more than anything on a screen/monitor.
You are 100% correct! My eyes are tired at 79.
Thanks!
Dan
Feb 10, 2026 at 03:03 PM
AmbientMike Offline • • • • • • [X]
p.7 #6 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Fuji Instax cameras are so popular, Fuji passed Sony market share in Japan at one point. So I don't think prints are going away anytime soon
p.7 #7 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
AmbientMike wrote:
Fuji Instax cameras are so popular, Fuji passed Sony market share in Japan at one point. So I don't think prints are going away anytime soon
p.7 #12 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Since posting on this thread, I picked up an Epson ET-8550. After using a Canon Pro-1000 for a number of years, I really didn’t expect to be satisfied with a relatively inexpensive ink-tank printer. Now that I’m using Keith Coopers ICC profiles, I’ve been quite pleased with the print quality. In fact, I have the ability to profile these papers myself, but see little reason to do so. I only print for myself, so I don’t worry about an audience. My taste in color prints runs contrary to that of many of you. That said, my kids have left the nest and I have years of images without print albums, so I’ve spent the last two months recovering all the images taken by all family members and all videos. I’m in stage two of finalizing a new set of NAS. My intention was to print and bind my own photo books, but the binding part seems to be too complicated, so I’m resorting to printing 81/2x11” and placing all prints in a print box labeled by year. The 4000+ family videos (720P-1080i) will reside on a fast NAS running Jellifin with transcoding. This will allow family members to view full bandwidth video from anywhere. My interest in travelling and creating new images is on hold while I care 24/7 for a very sick dog..so this is a perfect time to get things in order. I would encourage those who want to avoid the wasted ink resulting from infrequent printing with a pigment based printer, to try the 8550. It really makes printing a joy. I send out to MPIX for the occasional large print.
p.7 #13 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Mujabad123 wrote:
Seems right to me as well, but at the same time a print is nothing more than (ink)dots on paper 😉
True enough, but a tangible print can hang on a wall or be given to others, possibly even sold in some cases. A little trickier when the dots exist only on a screen.
p.7 #14 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Even a quick scan of some of the DPR gear forums amazes me. There seems to be a lot of time, effort and expensive going into selecting, buying and using high end photography gear.
I would like to believe that a similar amount of effort goes into learning and developing technical skills and artistic skills, goals and vision. But I doubt that.
With all that expense and effort, it seems a shame that the final use is viewing on a home monitor or TV screen and perhaps sending downsized, sRGB files to social media or perhaps FlickR or the equivalent. I greatly prefer to print my work, as large as feasible, and to view it on my walls or in a gallery where others can see it.
p.7 #16 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Camperjim wrote:
I would like to believe that a similar amount of effort goes into learning and developing technical skills and artistic skills, goals and vision. But I doubt that.
I doubt it, too.
I’ve long said that if people invested the same levels of time and effort into developing their ability to see photographically that they devote to buying stuff that the quality of their photography (and their satisfaction with it) would be off the charts.
p.7 #17 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
gdanmitchell wrote:
I doubt it, too.
I’ve long said that if people invested the same levels of time and effort into developing their ability to see photographically that they devote to buying stuff that the quality of their photography (and their satisfaction with it) would be off the charts.
Who are you to tell someone else about their satisfaction with photography?
p.7 #20 · How Many Members Still Print Their Own Photography?
Camperjim wrote:
I would like to believe that a similar amount of effort goes into learning and developing technical skills and artistic skills, goals and vision. But I doubt that.
I think that a part of the problem is that this is more of a gear forum than an artistic forum. Many photographers think that to be artistic they only need to read the rule of thirds and they are an artist. Another problem is someone seeking advise does not know who is giving the best advise, and choose the most popular choice, which may not be the best advice. The outcome is that many of the photos all look alike with no individualism.
