About halfway through last year I declared here in a fit of optimism that I was considering printing Serial Music myself. I bought 5 or 6 different types of paper and set about making print tests of the images.
Very interesting thanks for this, I’m still to explore printing fully and there’s so much to learn. I’ve never calibrated a screen but I shoot mostly tungsten balanced film (even outside) so I’m always fiddling the while balance in neg lab pro and I never seem to get exactly what I’m looking for - could be the screen
To be honest I’ve never seen a major change after calibrating, but I’ve seen a few horrendous screens in the wild in desperate need of calibration. What is it that feels not quite right when balancing in NLP?
NLP mostly does a good job with its auto white balancing feature. But it also has an option for tungsten balanced film and the two are option quiet far apart. To be fair the tungsten balanced option is a locked setting we’re the auto white balance is dynamic but the whole thing just throws me off a bit. I usually manually tweak white balance to try and achieve what the scene was actually like but find myself spending too long adding +1 or -1 and driving myself mad
I see! Nailing white balance can be pretty tricky, and I’m sure I don’t get it spot on every time. I usually aim for a colour that feels right, even if it might technically be off a touch.
I’ll make a newsletter at some point about my NLP process if that’d be useful~
I can absolutely relate to your printing journey! The turnaround time, troubleshooting printing issues, and the overwhelming number of paper options felt incredibly daunting, especially when working with A3+ and smaller formats.
I ate the costs and just bought myself a pro300. For more intricate projects like zines or A2 and larger I revert back to a local printing house however I always experiment in-house first with sample papers and different photo edits.
I'm curious about the software you used for your printing workflow. I noticed own a Canon Pro-500? Have you considered using Canon's professional print and layout software? I found myself wrestling with Lightroom and InDesign (particularly for zine projects), and Canon's dedicated software seemed much less stressful in comparison.
I'm eager to hear more about your zine experiments!
Glad to hear it connects with you! Printing’s a challenge, but it’s fun~
Yes, I’m working with a Pro-500 and an iP8770. For the most part I print out of Lightroom, occasionally out of Photoshop. I used Canon’s print studio when I was first starting out but migrated over to Adobe. I’ll give it a look though, cheers!
I find Indesign to be great for making PDFs I can send off to print shops. It’s a little more confusing using it for my own printing.
Very interesting thanks for this, I’m still to explore printing fully and there’s so much to learn. I’ve never calibrated a screen but I shoot mostly tungsten balanced film (even outside) so I’m always fiddling the while balance in neg lab pro and I never seem to get exactly what I’m looking for - could be the screen
To be honest I’ve never seen a major change after calibrating, but I’ve seen a few horrendous screens in the wild in desperate need of calibration. What is it that feels not quite right when balancing in NLP?
NLP mostly does a good job with its auto white balancing feature. But it also has an option for tungsten balanced film and the two are option quiet far apart. To be fair the tungsten balanced option is a locked setting we’re the auto white balance is dynamic but the whole thing just throws me off a bit. I usually manually tweak white balance to try and achieve what the scene was actually like but find myself spending too long adding +1 or -1 and driving myself mad
I see! Nailing white balance can be pretty tricky, and I’m sure I don’t get it spot on every time. I usually aim for a colour that feels right, even if it might technically be off a touch.
I’ll make a newsletter at some point about my NLP process if that’d be useful~
It would yes appreciate that
I can absolutely relate to your printing journey! The turnaround time, troubleshooting printing issues, and the overwhelming number of paper options felt incredibly daunting, especially when working with A3+ and smaller formats.
I ate the costs and just bought myself a pro300. For more intricate projects like zines or A2 and larger I revert back to a local printing house however I always experiment in-house first with sample papers and different photo edits.
I'm curious about the software you used for your printing workflow. I noticed own a Canon Pro-500? Have you considered using Canon's professional print and layout software? I found myself wrestling with Lightroom and InDesign (particularly for zine projects), and Canon's dedicated software seemed much less stressful in comparison.
I'm eager to hear more about your zine experiments!
Glad to hear it connects with you! Printing’s a challenge, but it’s fun~
Yes, I’m working with a Pro-500 and an iP8770. For the most part I print out of Lightroom, occasionally out of Photoshop. I used Canon’s print studio when I was first starting out but migrated over to Adobe. I’ll give it a look though, cheers!
I find Indesign to be great for making PDFs I can send off to print shops. It’s a little more confusing using it for my own printing.
Always down to chat about DIY projects!
Interesting, helpful read… Thank you for sharing.
Glad to hear it!
Fantastic article on your process Chris. I’m looking at printing my own work and will be following you for advice and tips on how, what, and where.
Happy to help if I can~
Very nice summary of your workflow. That double sided Ilford paper looks promising! Cheers.
Thanks Alon! I hope it was useful~ The Ilford is the best I've found yet, looking forward to making a book dummy with it.
I'd like to try the Ilford paper soon. Making a double sided accordion could be a great stress test for it.