PoppyRow

Everyone seems to go about this process differently though, and has their own nuggets of information to pass on. One lady I know shoots her work herself, and prints it out on a fancy printer capable of making 14×17 prints. Another friend simply scans her work using her flatbed scanner, and prints it out on a variety of papers. Others send their work out to get giclees printed, which generally cost at least $30 a piece, and often there is a minimum order. None of these options seemed reasonable for my work due to size and financial restrictions, so I began the journey through mere trial and error.

The first thing I did was to take the money from the sale of a painting, and buy a really nice used Nikon Coolpix 5700 digital camera. I couldn’t afford the brand new model, and a photographer friend sold me his for $400. Before buying, I went online and determined whether this model would work for taking close-up shots, and how high of a resolution I could get with each image, since I would be making enlargements. I decided to get a digital instead of a traditional 35mm because I would be emailing my files to online photo-processing companies (I love Shutterfly for their products and service), as well as ordering slides online (check out www.slides.com - they are awesome!). It’s also become more common for art organizations to accept digital images as opposed to slides for competitions, memberships, and the like.

When I began shooting my work, I had a terrible time getting used to lighting and camera settings so I did not get grainy or fuzzy images. It took quite a number of trial runs, where I would have a notebook, shoot each piece 16 times, jotting down each variation of lighting and camera settings. This was actually a major pain and time-consuming, but it paid off in the end. I would order 4×6 prints of each shot, and then compare them to the original for color likeness, etc. Next I would order an 8×10 print to be sure.

 

Now came the real fun! (And you thought we were having fun already!) With photo-editing software, I would prepare the file so that when emailed, all that was needed was to print my file. My software is called PhotoStudio and came with my camera, but PhotoShop or anything like that would work. I would crop the image, straighten it out if it wasn’t perfectly straight, and work on making it into a file that would print a standard size, like 8×10 or 16×20. Not every piece of art is a 4-to-5 ratio though, so I would add white borders, and put the title and my name underneath, just like you see in posters in the store a lot of the time.

 

Now, my first few runs on a 16×20 were not great. Initially, I could see the tooth of my watercolor paper, which is okay in the original, but looks really distracting on a print! That was due to light shining down, and not enough shining up. Lighting has to come from everywhere to take off shadows the paper may cast on itself. Sometimes the 8×10 would look great, and the 16×20 would be slightly fuzzy, and I had to take the time to read my entire camera manual (which I am not a manual kind of girl!) and go online and do some research.

 

Eventually, I got the hang of it, and got very nice reproductions on photo-type paper than I felt comfortable selling in the $40-ish range. Not as costly as a giclees, but not as cheap as a poster in the store. I got proficient at putting the print on a piece of foam core, using a clear polypropylene envelope to encase it, Then I’ll put a little sticker on the back I had printed which had my name, website and other helpful info. I usually throw in a copy of my artist’s statement that has a picture of me on it. People love that; it lets them get in touch with whoever created what they bought.

 

There are days when I feel like making prints myself is too much work, and I should outsource to a professional. But I can’t afford it yet, and I love the look I get from someone who loves my work, and can take it home with him or her.