5 Photography Tips For Printing Photos

The progress made in recent years by the printer manufactures allows professional photographers and amateur photographers alike to print high quality photos. Other than the savings to be made by printing your own photos, perhaps the biggest attraction is the endless possibilities to tweak and try different photo reproduction methods from black and white prints to advance superimposing, all from the comfort of your own home and all at your pace. Heavy weight professional photo paper such as A3 would of course cost more than your normal run-of-the-mill printer paper, therefore to get the best out of the paper follow out tips below.

5 Photography Tips For Printing Photos:

1. Profile Match - Quality paper should be offered with a settings profile file to match your specific printer model. Normally the profile file could be downloaded from the photo paper vendor website or from the retailer who sold you the paper. In rare cases where a profile isn't available set your printer to the highest image quality settings.

2. Paper Match - Other than ensuring that the paper type such as Inkjet or Laser is the right paper, look the paper weight to ensure it will match your preferred reproduction work. Paper weight of 300gsm and above will normally be used for artistic prints and portraits, while the less heavy 250gsm to 300gsm paper will be used for enhancing image definition for photo prints. The paper should be compatible with your ink type be it UltraChrome, K1,DuraBrite, Lyson inks or any other pigment or dye based inks.

3. Page Setup - Before clicking 'Print' and sending your work down the printer on the professional paper, take the time to setup the page. In particular look to setup the page properties in terms of paper orientation and paper size. Once completed, head to 'page preview' option to see a visual representation of the image prior to printing.

4. Photo Handling - If the type of paper bought will not instantly dry, meaning the paper cannot instantly absorb the ink, safely place it aside to dry before storing the photo. When an image has been printed remove it from the printer's tray so the next photo won't stack on-top of it. Let the paper dry for a period of up to 24hrs before storing it. Of course if the paper you bought instantly dries up, you can skip this tip.

5. Photo Limits - Printing your own professionally looking photos must also be practical. If you will require a large amount of photo reproduction prints consider using a photo-kiosk or an online service. Start by naming your files, optimizing their size and finally saving the new files in another folder. Until you get the prints back, save the originals just in case.

Enjoy your project.

Joseph is the founder of Photo Paper Direct, an inkjet consumables store selling photo paper and Inkjet Ink Cartridges.