My name is Sal Cincotta. I am a professional wedding and portrait photographer and Canon Explorer of Light. And today, I’m going to talk to you about why I print. Are you a fine art photographer? Wedding or portrait photographer? Then you might want to consider self-printing. We do it in our studio and love it.
Why print?
If you are not printing your work, you are leaving a ton of money on the table. Look, don’t forget, we are creatives. We are artists. So printing gives us a lot of options when it comes to presenting our work to our clients.
1. Complete Control
Now, look, I’m not suggesting we sit there printing eight by tens for our clients. There are limitations. However, here’s the point. First of all, printing gives me complete control of the entire process. I want to inspect what I’m presenting to my client. I get to print it and in real time see black points, exposure, contrast, et cetera. I can now adjust and reprint as needed. Don’t forget, this is fine art. So I want to control the art that I’m putting in front of my clients. Labs are typically not balanced to your entire workflow. Printing, again, in real time, allows me to see what was on my screen and what comes out in that tangible product and present to my clients something I can stand behind.
2. It’s simpler than you think
Second, it’s beyond simple. People are typically overwhelmed at the thought of printing, it seems foreign, but think about something. Like anything else you do, once you do it and know how to do it, it’s easy. And best of all, printing, you’re using tools that you’re familiar with, like Lightroom. So right out of that tool, no complicated software, you’re able to see what you have color corrected, adjusted the tonal range, and created your piece of art digitally, of course. And now bring that to life in real time, right off that printer. Again, I’m seeing instant results and I have complete control of the final output.
3. The possibilities are endless
And finally, once you start printing, you will truly be addicted, because the applications are endless, as are the paper types. Personally, I love fine art paper with a matte finish, and the various ways you can use it. You can deckle it. You can matte it. You can mount it.
So what do I do with this? I deliver this to my clients. Is it cheaper? Does it even matter? I’m not doing this for the money. I’m doing this for the love of the craft. There’s something so powerful about knowing that from idea to creation, to printing, and delivering the final product to my client, that I’m controlling the entire process. And for my clients, they love knowing that this product is completely handmade. Now, they may not understand the entire process, but that’s fine. That’s what our job is. We explain that process to them so that they have an appreciation for what we did.
Imagine having something like this ready for when your clients come in to see their pictures. Because you have immediate access to a printer, to this technology, you can now blow them away when they walk in the room and see that print in real life, tangible, something they can see, touch, feel. It’s beyond digital. So now you can offer this as a free add on if they purchase a package, or just give it to them as a thank you gift. Again, the options are limitless. If you want to learn more about printing and some of the Canon printer options, click on some of the links below.
Printer used: Canon Pro-1000
