Printing of Photos

[dugster]

Just really curious how many people do anything more with their shots then post them or actually print them?Up until now I personally would print a few but after seeing how easy and inexpensive printing one's photos has become I am now printing shots out as quick as the printer will run. So really asking how many print the photos they have taken with their dig cams or do they keep them in electronic state such as websites or emailing.So will be interesting to see how the rest of the world thinks?

[Bagsfan5]

Yes, I do alot of Portrait photography, so I get prints made of those at the local photo store. The qualitly there is wonderful and the price is good.
No, I do not print my other digital shots, unless they are needed for scrapebooking. I also take alot of digital pictures for my website, but the pictures are strictly for the site and most are NOT printed...
WHAT TYPE OF PRINTER DO YOU HAVE ???? ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE QUALITLY ??? CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU PRINT AT HOME AND WHAT A PHOTO SHOP CAN PRINT ????

[SBrasure]

I print out what I consider to be my best or most interesting photos using a HP 2210 multifunction printer. I keep my photos backed up on cd's....and my only concern is that as technology changes, I will be able to transfer them to whatever comes next in terms of information storeage. If you print....use good paper. The results between lower grade papers and premium papers is significant!

One of my next goals is to organize my strored photos into albums. Any suggestions on the best way to do this that isn't overly time consuming?

Steve

[Bagsfan5]

I have my eye on the Epson 900 Photo Printer. It has a 5760 x 5760 dpi. From what I have been told, that is the highest quality to date. I was also told about the paper quality LIKE STEVE mentioned.... You have to buy just as good of quality paper as your printer. Papers also have dpi quality. So the quality of paper plays a major role in the quality of print.

Steve, I organize my digital photos as I take them. I also frequently burn them on CD. What i do is have different folders in the main folder MY PICTURES..... You can have folders names such as Landscape, portrait, family, wife, ect...... Then as you save your photos in the computer, put them in the folder that it belongs. You can even make folders called VACATION 2002, or FLORIDA TRIP..... This way, when you put a CD in the drive and look what is on it, you can go straight to the photos that you need..... Works great for me.....

[swishman]

I send a lot of my work out for print. My wifey sells a lot of my Gettysburg Battlefield work. I do some portraits for people so those get sent out for print also. I far from send out all my prints..lol. When I go out on a shot I will take 100+ pics and I will usually only "use" 1-5 of those pics for something other then burning to a CD.

[dugster]

I use the epson R300 which can print without a computer and also print directly onto a cdr or a dvd...the quality far surpasses what I imagined and would say I like the prints as well or better then the local photo shop..it uses 6 ink tanks so very inexpensive to replace 1 at a time and monitors them well...thus far I have printed 21 4X6 and 12 8X10 and still have not made a dent in any of cartridges..the resolution it prints at is 5760 X 1440...so with a nice photo paper it truly amazes me..hope this helps bagsfan..also was looking at canon printers but the longevity of the prints fell very short in comparison to how long the the prints last with epson...30 years plus is what I am told.

[me_wrestler]

I use a number of differnt printers here at home and by far the best output is by my Dye Sublimation printer (Kodak 8500). They are not cheap but the prices are dropping fast and you can easily pick one up for well under $1000. The cost per print is the same or less that most inkjets and they are faster in most cases. I'm not an expert in this field but the pictures look better than any of my inkjets and as good as the commercial labs I use.
Colin

[Tara]

I only have a 2.1 mp camera so the photos print ok at a normal photo size but I can't increase the size too much without losing quality. For this reason most of my photos are either just on my computer/uploaded to webpages. Can't wait until I have enough money for a better camera....

I am extremely lucky though, I work at a copyshop type store and we have a Xerox 1250 colour photocopier. It is a laser printer and prints at I believe 400dpi. I print all my photos to this and they come out great And better yet its free

[Bagsfan5]

I went on out and bought the Epson 900.... WOW, I am sure happy that I made that move. The picture quality is WONDERFUL to say the least. This photo printer has a 5760 x 5760 dpi. I know that sounds unreal, but when you start printing the pictures, but will believe it. I am getting much better prints from my printer than I did downtown at the photo shop. And the AMAZING thing, I only paid 229 Euro ( that is 180 dollars at todays exchange rate ). The color ink cost me 30 Euros..... This is one of the Best buys that I have made !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANYONE ELSE HAVE A EPSON 900 ??????????

[JCW3]

Well I have been printing and storing electronicly from day one. I have to admit sometimes a image will look much nicer on paper than it does on the screen, but I have seen it the other way aslo.

I use to mostly only print wall hangers, but since I have moved about 4+ hours alway from my family, I often print 4x6 photos and send to them. 4X6 also allow me to show them to local friends and fellow photographers.

As for printing its not dirt cheap yet, but I have to admit its alot cheaper than it was 4-5 years ago. The biggest thing I like is with a computer, photo editor, and a good printer. You more or less have your own mini lab at home. It allows you to do custom work and quickly at that.

I would say I only print 5-10% of my photos, but even at that that averages out to what would be a role of 35mm a week. So for me its alot cheaper to store digitally, than to develop chemically with the 35mm.

[JCW3]

Well I have played around with and used many printers over the last few years. I use to use alot of HP printers since I found there over all quality to be very pleaseing. But over all there ink is overpriced and I was not happy with remanufactured cartrages from them. To there over all speed was not what I was looking for.

I recently (about 1.5 years ago) switch over to Canon printers. I find the over all quality to be very nice, but its not the easiest printer to master. Canon printers are very picky with the type of paper used due to there micro droplet design.

They biggest things to change in printers over the last few years are indiviual tanks. Thats a big pro for canon since if the cyan runs out you can replace only that, were some manufactures force you to replace the whole tri-cartrage.

Over all I have yet to find the perfect printer, but they are getting very close.

I know HP has a few high end models out now that area very close, but the face texture is still not perfect, you can see droplets when looking closely. Another problem with HP's high end printers is they use metal teeth to feed the paper. This ofter leaves dotted lines, which looks bad.

There are alot of printers out there and I find most people use a printer for everything, which makes it even harder to get the perfect printer. The prime goal is to have to, one for home use, and one for photo use. This helps alot on close and quality. But upfront cost is more.

Originally posted by Bagsfan5

WHAT TYPE OF PRINTER DO YOU HAVE ???? ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE QUALITLY ??? CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU PRINT AT HOME AND WHAT A PHOTO SHOP CAN PRINT ????

I print a lot of my shots for sale at race tracks and on the web. Currently I am using a Canon S9000 with a special adapter that allows use of 500ml bottles of ink. Cuts overall costs a ton and I can print any size from 4x6 to 13x19. I also shoot a lot of high school sports during the winter and print some of those shots as well.
Camera is a Canon 1D