10 tips to help you dramatically improve your color inkjet
output
Text And Photography By Rob Sheppard
Getting a good print
today has become the norm with the latest digital cameras and
printers. While you still may have some challenges, printer
manufacturers, in particular, have worked hard to give users
the ability to create outstanding prints. Now it’s time
to move beyond simply outputting a good print. I want to help
you find ways to make your prints better express what you saw
when you took the picture and how you felt about the subject.
There’s no
question that having a properly calibrated monitor is critical
to getting a good print, but to make a better print, you have
to go beyond the monitor. A print is a different thing than
an image on a monitor. A monitor gives a feeling of looking
into an image, while a print has more of a feeling of looking
at an image. Those are psychologically quite different impressions.
We also tend to look at both from different distances. Keep
this in mind when you work to make your print more expressive
or even more accurate. So how do you make a better print?
Make A Work Print. Make a
proof or work print as you make adjustments, as Ansel Adams
did, even before you think you’re “finished”
with the image. In The Print, Adams writes, “Arriving at
a ‘fine print’ involves proceeding through various
stages of ‘work prints’ until you arrive at a rendering
that looks and feels right in all ways.”
See The Print. You need to
have a print in hand while the image is a work in progress and
examine it for its own sake, not compared to the image on the
monitor. Is it a good reflection of your original intent?
Evaluate Overall Contrast. Does
the work print look right in terms of contrast? Often, an image
will look fine on the monitor, but lose something in contrast
as a print because the media are different. In addition, for
critical work, you need to let the print “dry down”
(even if it comes out of the printer dry) for at least an hour,
as this affects blacks.
Craft The Image. To get the
most from your printing and to get a better print, we need to
go back to the true craftsmen of photographic printing, like
Ansel Adams and W. Eugene Smith. A good print comes from examining
that work print and then crafting its enhancements, mastering
the technology for your use, not letting technology master you.
This means keeping the photo as most important, not Photoshop
technique.
Check Your Size. The size
of an image tremendously affects how you react to it. While
you can print a test image at 4x6 inches for a quick color check,
you can’t totally judge it at that size if you’re
planning on an 11x14-inch print of the same subject. This is
another reason why the monitor can be misleading, simply because
it can’t display really big images. Make a print at the
size of your final intended print for critical evaluation.
Examine Local Tonalities And Color.
Local refers to small areas of the photo. You can have the whole
photo looking great, but when it’s printed big, you see
problems with details of the image being too dark or off-color.
Check Overall Balance. Many
scenes have brightnesses or tonalities out of balance for the
print. One side may be too bright or dark, for example, and
needs to be balanced to the rest of the image.
Watch For Color Casts. When that work print is in hand, you
may discover that it seems a little out of tune for color.
Look For Noise. Noise is a
stubborn and stealthy problem. It can hide on the monitor, then
appear all too well in the print. You go back to the screen,
and sure enough, there it is, but it took the print for you
to really see it.
Look For Distractions. It’s
amazing how some distractions (such as dust on the sensor) can
hide on the image displayed on the monitor, but show up all
too well on the print.
Final Thoughts
You may have to make several work prints until your image looks
its best. The hype of digital printing and color management
implies perfect prints from the start. You can get good prints
quickly, but better and best prints come from making multiple
test prints. It’s actually far faster and cheaper to do
several work prints with the digital darkroom than in the traditional
wet darkroom, especially concerning color prints.
Sometimes, it takes a print to help you see an image for what
it really is. Consider that for all the hype of e-books, people
still like to read the physical book. A book in the hand is
a very different experience than a book on a monitor. The same
goes for photographs.
