Printing Process
After deciding to print my images A3, I asked for help from the photography technicians so that I could make the most out of what I was printing, as everything I now print I want to be portfolio standard in case I want to include them within my portfolio box when I graduate. So the first step was to make print test strips in case the colouring on the screen was different to the printer. I created one test strip and realised that some of my portrait images are lit slightly differently and so therefore the background colours printed different tones. After talking this through with my tutor, I re-edited a few images so they all looked a bit more similar, but I had to remind myself that the colour difference didn't matter for this submission as I was trying to show the array of experimentation I had taken throughout the project process and so differently lit images needed to be shown in order to figure out which lighting style was the most successful for next shoots. When printing my test strips, I came across a few problems, which luckily were not to do with me, but to do with the printer itself. Unfortunately my work was printing with horizontal and vertical dark (but faint) lines through the images, and obviously as my images were very light and neutrally grey the lines were showing prominently, making the images look very unprofessional. The technicians began fixing this issue, having to print many test prints and deep clean the printer nozzles more than once. Due to this I luckily have many tester prints (some with lines and some without) which I could check the printing quality and colour tones though. Some images seemed as though they were more yellow toned than others, however we came to the conclusion that this was due to the light they were being viewed under, as the official printing light showed the skin tones and neutral and correct whereas the office lighting showed off the yellow tones. I added a border to my portrait images to give each person space to breathe on the page, and because I had a white border on the portraits I felt as though I had to for the still life images too, so that all the final submission prints visually fitted together. However, when printing them for my portfolio and in a book, they will definitely be full bleed prints so that the dark background fills the page.
After printing the images I decided to place them in a black A3 box, with a still life image on the front, in the middle and at the bottom, so that they were jumbled up within the portraits.
This printing process was a long process but I luckily decided to print days before the final submission deadline so I had enough time to fuss around perfecting the prints so that they were exactly as they should be, even when there was a printer error!
For the submission I am displaying my images in this black A3 portfolio box, however I would obviously like the images to be viewed on the wall, in an exhibition format with each print next to the other. To illustrate this, I put one of my tester prints onto the wall in photography and photographed it there, just so I could see what it would look like on the wall and illustrate this as supporting work in how I want my final pieces to be viewed.
After printing the images I decided to place them in a black A3 box, with a still life image on the front, in the middle and at the bottom, so that they were jumbled up within the portraits.
This printing process was a long process but I luckily decided to print days before the final submission deadline so I had enough time to fuss around perfecting the prints so that they were exactly as they should be, even when there was a printer error!
For the submission I am displaying my images in this black A3 portfolio box, however I would obviously like the images to be viewed on the wall, in an exhibition format with each print next to the other. To illustrate this, I put one of my tester prints onto the wall in photography and photographed it there, just so I could see what it would look like on the wall and illustrate this as supporting work in how I want my final pieces to be viewed.