The importance of art - part two

Last time I posted about the importance of art, I kinda got off topic with what I really wanted to write about.

I'm doing something completely different:

I will no longer be offering digital negatives.

I have learned in the last few months the importance of good quality products and prints. Especially when it comes to displaying my art properly. I hate to say it, but Costco's printing lab just won't cut it for me. My prints are to be cherished, special, art-worthy, wall-worthy, and above all my prints are to be printed correctly. I have software that I use that calibrates my computer monitor SPECIFICALLY for printing through my professional photo lab. It is fine tuned to reflect the correct colors and edits that I create the photo to be.

I know that it is scary and different (especially in St George, Utah). Almost every photographer that I know offers digital negatives. I just don't trust other printing labs to create the high quality image that I strive for. I know that I would cringe if I saw a print that someone made that didn't reflect the image I created because of the not-so-good, consumer level printer.

Please trust me that I am doing this for the good of my client and my artwork.

I am currently setting up a proofing site that will allow you to view your images and make purchases of those images easily and effectively. I want the pricing of the prints to be affordable and worth it to you. I will offer a CD of all the images in low-resolution and watermarked for your use to post on facebook, your blog, and to email to family and friends.

So let's be honest here: you want prints of your images. You will get them printed anyway. You may as well get them perfectly printed with high quality photo paper. Leave all the work to me :)

Aside from prints, I will also be offering some other options. These options include Canvas Gallery Wraps and neat print mounting options! I'm so excited!!!

Thanks for your support!

To demonstrate the difference in consumer printers and paper vs professional printers and paper:

Digital image:

Printed Images:

There will be some differences in the digital image and prints. Printed images are comprised of CMYK coloring, whereas the digital images are comprised of RGB. The digital images are also being lit by a computer screen, so they will seem slightly brighter than a printed photograph. So taking a look at the above photos, the first thing I noticed when I examined the prints was the coloring. If you look at the color of the tree trunks, it looks nice and pleasant in the professional lab print. All of the other labs printed the images with more blacks and contrast. Not something that I'm loving. I noticed that Costco increased the brightness, blacks, and saturation of their images. If you look at the little girl's hair in the image, it is much more bright in the Costco print. Walgreen and Walmart's images look almost identical, but I can tell that Walgreens image has slighlty more contrast and blacks than Walmart. But WOW they really messed up the original edit, didn't they. The grass looks more dead than alive.

Okay, here is another example. I wanted to do a closeup of a face to see the differences in color and wow was I amazed at the differences in all labs!

I'm sure that first off you are wondering about Walgreens and if you will ever get prints there again. Doesn't that look absolutely atrocious?! I promise I did not enhance or change these images when I scanned them in.  I used to think Walgreens was a decent photo lab. Not anymore. Walmart has a lovely pink/redish tint that is applied. Not only can you see the overuse of pink/red saturation in his face, but also in the backdrop behind him. Costco kind of did what Walmart did but instead of pink, it's orange/brown tints.

I'm not a perfect expert at printing and labs and color, but I will tell you that the results speak for themselves.  

Thanks for your support in this new fun change of Teria Photography!