Printing to sell online

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Adam
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Hi there

Wondered if anyone knowledgeable could help on the following. I am soon hoping to take the plunge and begin selling my photos online. I am currently leaning towards a site such as Etsy. Having taken photos at amateur level, I am now hoping to start printing having had some very positive feedback about my images.

In terms of printing my concern is as to whether to attempt to print at home or look into using a professional printers. What do most people tend use for this, my own printer is of good quality but is not a dedicated photography printer so id imagine it would most likely consume a lot of ink. Would using a professional printer service be cost effective.

I have considered offering frames combined with my prints but struggling to find frames I can offer while making a good return on my prints. Maybe it would be best to just offering prints alone.

Would greatly appreciate any advice as would love to start selling prints online.
 
If you are selling images, unless you have a dedicated printer, I doubt you will be able to match the quality that you can get from some online printers.
There is a range of threads about online printers (no just photobox) so you may get the information you require using the search function.

As for Frames - not sure how much profit you will make on selling them, so perhaps just a print and allow the purchaser to decide how to display?
Have you considered canvas ? (or other materials / finishes)
 
Adam,

I have a Canon photo printer at home, one with the expensive separate inks :( so I guess it's reasonable quality, and recently printed an image in the max size of A4 for my printer, which I wished to frame . I also decided to try out an online service for the first time (DS Colour Labs in this case), and ordered the exact same print, but in A3.

Well, I was very happy with the print from my home printer, until I got the larger print through the post and compared the two. The fine detail in the print from the professional lab is clearly better than my home print. The home printer has it's place, but I think I will always now use a professional lab for when quality printing really matters.

Perhaps you should try out a couple of labs using the same image on a variety of papers and compare the quality and pricing to your home prints to see which you are happy with?

I ordered a couple of frames from the Frame Company, which were very reasonably priced but possibly not if you need to make profit from them.

Ken
 
Thanks for the tips. Ill give DS colour labs a go....unfortunately my printer is in no way a professional dedicated photo printer. i have considered canvass but after looking at the cost to get these created there doesnt seem to be much return on them
 
Has anyone requested samples from DS colour labs. Also interested to hear what quality paper people have used. Ive heard positive things elsewhere. They seem to have a good selection of paper available.
 
Not requested samples, but I've used their normal paper and it's nice for cheap prints, but not fine art quality.

They fine art papers are Permajet (which I really don't like - too plasticky) and Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (website doesn't say which one, and has a strange 308gsm). I'd call these "ok" papers. Nothing special.

All this really depends entirely on your pricing though. If you're charging in the low-med £tens for small prints, DSCL paper is probably fine, but if you're doing large ltd edition fine art at the upper £tens to £hundreds you might want to rethink. Ultimately though - it'll all be about marketing.
 
Has anyone requested samples from DS colour labs. Also interested to hear what quality paper people have used. Ive heard positive things elsewhere. They seem to have a good selection of paper available.

I get a lot of prints through DSCL and tend to go for the Lustre finish which is a Fujifilm paper. I’ve never really experienced any other types of posh paper.
 
Has anyone requested samples from DS colour labs. Also interested to hear what quality paper people have used. Ive heard positive things elsewhere. They seem to have a good selection of paper available.

All are reasonable but only if you submit sRGB profiles (otherwise expect errors to happen on EITHER side). Personal favourite is Baryta fine art papers.

I get a lot of prints through DSCL and tend to go for the Lustre finish which is a Fujifilm paper. I’ve never really experienced any other types of posh paper.

You are missing out then. Personally I try to avoid thin Fuji lab stuff, but problem is selling posher stuff to the general public. They have no idea what it is and you just end up calling it archival grade lustre / matt or gloss.

If you are framing yourself thicker fine art papers make life a lot easier and colour reproduction is much more truthful.
 
I ordered some recently and im quite happy with quality. For selling at least I think they're good quality, I like the Lustre but find it a bit reflective of light whereas the gloss I thought was definitely suitable for smaller prints. They did come out slightly darker than hoped so may have to compensate on LR for that, this was only from sRGB profiles.
 
It's not just about how a paper looks, and its weight. If you're selling prints that people are going to hang on the wall (what else might they do with them?), a pigment inkjet print is going to last a lot longer without fading than a C-type (Fuji gloss or lustre).

There are plenty of labs offering what they tend to term 'fine art papers' - inkjets. And yes there's an attendant price.
 
I am trying to do so too! I've decided to go with a printing site though, I wouldn't know how to go about printing in good quality myself... plus I don't budget well enough to make buying a printer or anything worth it :p
 
That may be the case but if the image is coming out too dark you need to compensate for it. How else do you suggest it’s done?
Reduce the brightness of the monitor, if prints are too dark then the monitor brightness is too high.... It will also depend on the viewing conditions for the print.
 
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Reduce the brightness of the monitor, if prints are too dark then the monitor brightness is too high.... It will also depend on the viewing conditions for the print.

Reducing the monitor alone isn’t going to make the print brighter. Regardless, the image will need to be adjusted.

Whilst I agree, a bright monitor is the most likely cause of a dark image, reducing the brightness is not the solution for an image that is already too dark.
 
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Reducing the monitor alone isn’t going to make the print brighter. Regardless, the image will need to be adjusted.

Whilst I agree, a bright monitor is the most likely cause of a dark, red icing the brightness is not the solution for an 8mage that is already too dark.
Monitor too bright = the processed image will be too dark = a dark print
Monitor brightness correct for the ambient light and the viewing conditions of the print = a correct print

Get the monitor brightness correct then you will have to increase the 'exposure' of your too dark image for it to view and print correctly, you should not have any images that are too dark.

You are right in that once the monitor is calibrated correctly you will have to re-adjust your too dark images.
 
Monitor too bright = the processed image will be too dark = a dark print
Monitor brightness correct for the ambient light and the viewing conditions of the print = a correct print

Get the monitor brightness correct then you will have to increase the 'exposure' of your too dark image for it to view and print correctly, you should not have any images that are too dark.

You are right in that once the monitor is calibrated correctly you will have to re-adjust your too dark images.

o_O That’s what I said
 
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