Project Printing

By Kieran Wilkinson

Picture the scene, I’ve just spent the day shooting at RAF Church Fenton and we’ve retired to the bar for some well-earned drinks and a de-brief.

Being in a room full of photographers, the conversation naturally turns to other shoots we’ve done. So here I am, sitting around the table, with only my tiny phone screen to show off the images I’m so proud of at my disposal.

Next thing, one of the other guys around the table disappears and comes back with a box of images. Instantly, the whole table huddles around this box of a4 prints. Conversations flow, and after a few “cor blimeys” from Rich I decided that I needed to print my images.

Simple enough you may say, but printing is a highly debated and sometimes complex area. There are so many options available to us. Do I send it to a lab? How about printing at home? What paper do I use? What printer do I get? I did a bit of research and settled on a solution that works for me (or at least I think!)

Firstly, let me start this by saying my priority for my photography has a budget. That covers everything from gear, to travel, to (clearly) my newfound interest in printing. Unfortunately, this budget doesn’t stretch to the latest and greatest from the likes of Epson or Canon. But after all, most of us didn’t start photography with the cameras we have now. So why is printing any different?

After some research, I found that the only options available to me for home printing were the various inkjet printers from the popular manufacturers. These inevitably only use the standard four cartridges (CMYK) rather than the up to 12 that some of the high-end printers use! I’ve always been a big fan of HP, and have used their OfficeJet Pro line for years, so I settled on a very low-priced HP Envy 6022e. There weren’t any standout features, other than it supported A4 borderless printing, was compatible with HP Instant Ink (6 months free) which I already used, and could print using a colour profile from the PC.

Paper is a discussion in itself and can range from 20p per sheet to over £1 per sheet. As is the common theme in this project, I was drawn to the lower end of the market. I settled on some Photo Paper Direct A4 as a good start. This paper had a Lustre finish, halfway between a gloss and matt, which I prefer as a starting point.

So, after all that, how have I found it? It’s not been all plain sailing; printers are notorious for hating everything and everybody. It took some strong discussion between it and my laptop to get them to play nice. From a technical perspective, the printer handles most images generally well. It does start to struggle and leaves some “banding” in images such as the one below where there’s a lot of black ink being used.

When printing borderless images, especially ones that include a lot of ink, it is very slow to print. So much so that I decide it is time to make a coffee. That said, it’s much quicker than the old days of darkrooms (or today’s days for certain members!)

Once I’d gotten past all of that, I’ve been loving printing because I feel so much more connected to my shots. I’m sure we’ve all been there showing shots to our family and friends. I’ve seen so much more interest from family when they have a print in front of them too. I’ve also found that I see my shots from a different perspective, seeing little details that I didn’t see on a backlit monitor.

In summary, my experience of printing has been to just give it a go! I’ve spent less than £100 on this project, it’s not perfect and it certainly won’t replace my trusted DS Colour Labs. But it’s allowed me to experiment and print more of my images to show off. Hopefully, I’ll have some prints to bring to the next beer fuelled de-brief!