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6 Reasons Why You Should Be Printing Your Photography

1. To improve your photography

Printing your work can be a great way to improve your skills. Seeing your images as a physical print instead of on a backlit screen will help flaws stand out that you may not have otherwise noticed, such as poor exposure or weak composition. Learning to spot these things will help you to improve when taking photos in the future, making you more aware of what to look out for.

2. To bring your photos to life

With the booming popularity of social media, smart phones and tablets, we’re now viewing photos on a much smaller scale and for a much smaller time frame. But what’s the point in taking a beautiful 20 megapixel photo, just to have it viewed on a 6″ screen for a fleeting moment?

When an image is printed, especially at a large scale, it can make a lasting impact and bring atmosphere to a room. Any photographer that has printed their work will understand the joy of seeing an image come to life on paper, a feeling which beats seeing it on a screen every time. The subject in your photo was a physical object, so why not complete the circle by turning it into a tangible piece of art instead of a set of pixels.

3. To create income

Printing your photos can be an excellent way to make some extra money. Whether it be selling limited edition fine art pieces, or offering your clients a print package alongside their digital files, it can be this personal touch that makes you stand out. There are many fantastic print labs out there today that offer speedy, high quality results. Alternatively, doing it yourself is a great investment as it gives you full control over the final output, ensuring your photos look exactly as you envisaged.

4. To improve your editing and retouching skills

After a photoshoot, it’s common practise to narrow down the best images for editing. Producing prints of your work will force you to narrow down your choices even further, selecting only the strongest images that are worth turning into prints. Recognising which of your photos are the best, and which are not, is a really important skill to have. It’ll aid you in producing the best possible portfolio and improve your work in the long run.

Printing can also help you pick up on areas that need more or less post-processing. After staring at one photo for hours, it can be very easy to overlook details and even overdo the editing. Seeing a print will help you spot things you may have missed, such as colour casts, softness, poor retouching, and distracting details – such as a stray hair or an object in the background – which could easily be removed.

5. To create something physical in a digital world

It was estimated by Keypoint Intelligence that 1.44 trillion photos will be taken in 2021. How many of those do you think will be printed, and how many will be lost in a huge backlog of photos?

Whether it be a shot of your family or a carefully composed landscape, many of us are in the habit of taking a photo, sharing it on social media, then leaving it to sit on a hard drive or mobile phone. In the era of the digital camera where we can take 1000’s of images in one sitting as opposed to a limited amount of exposures, it would certainly be impractical to print every image. But if you don’t print anything, who knows what there will be to look back on in the future. In the event of a hard drive failure, will you have any evidence of the time and effort you poured into creating your photographs?

Using archival inks and paper, like the one’s in PermaJet’s Fine Art range, you can create prints that will last 80+ years.

6. To be proud of yourself & inspire others

The amount of time, effort and thought that can go into one photo often goes unappreciated. Hours, even days, can be spent creating an image when you take into consideration the whole process from concept, to shoot, to edit. So why not show the world what you created? Print it and place it around your house, gift it to a family member, or put together an exhibition or book so that others will have the chance to admire your work and be inspired.

If you’d like to learn how to create your own beautiful prints at home, our sister company, The Photographic Academy, offers courses on Digital Printing. Find out more on their website www.thephotographicacademy.co.uk

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