Joining the photography club NDPS has led to me recently submitting four images for consideration in the 105th annual NDPS exhibition. Today was a proud moment as I found out at the private viewing that all four of my images were scored such that they made the exhibition with two of them achieving a higher score and a commended rating. It goes without saying that I’m delighted to have received this feedback and have my images on display.
Looking back, I have learnt a lot more than I expected by entering images for judging. Digital copies and mounted prints were needed in order to enter. Digital images of course are not a problem as I have learnt most of the methods to export into suitable format for sharing. Prints are a whole different ball game!
At the time, I did not own a photo printer (I do now and will share my experiences soon in other blog posts). Therefore I had to use a print lab. I was aware from what I had read that it was best to pick a lab that will do colour matching, in other words, they do something at their end to try and ensure the colours in your image are well represented by their printers. Because of the strict specifications for the exhibition, I decided to contact two labs and ask if they could do the prints and mounts as well. Both got back to me and I picked one, had a phone call to discuss it a little more, got a quote and then proceeded to order.
While I didn’t think it would be cheap, I was surprised it worked out to about £44 per mounted print. Given the size of the prints and quality in materials, VAT and all that, this is probably reasonable. At this stage, I wanted to just get it done so pulled the trigger on ordering. In hindsight I rushed this and declined the offer of test prints. When my mounted prints turned up, as pleased as I was with them and the fantastic mounts, the prints were noticeably darker than I would prefer.
I was reminded of what I had read months earlier about the importance of calibrating your monitor and lifting the brightness for print. Subsequently to this, I have purchased a monitor calibration tool and printer. In calibrating my monitor, I could see immediately the device increased the brightness of my monitor which of course depends on the ambient light in the room you are editing. This means my editing will be far more in tune with the print process. I have removed all images from my website and begun re-editing to ensure brightness is suitable for lab prints.
In printing myself, I have begun learning how different paper types can impact the editing process and will post more about this soon.
Once again, like many experiences in life, hard work brings rewards.
