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Printing Digital Photography

For the avid shutterbug, printing digital photography is the next step!

Taking photographs is exiciting but it is even more exciting to show your work.

If you had a printer, you'd probably print out your photos on your printer at home, right?

That or find your local photo printing lab and send all your digital files there. Sounds simple, right?

It does but there is a bit more work you should do before going out to the final step.

Type of printer
Home-printing or lab-printing
Online services

Before you get right on to printing your photos, you may want to consider some of the above.

Printers

There are a variety of printers that will print images for you. Some are laser printers, inkjet printers, dye-sublimation printers and so on.

Among these categories are printers for home use or professional use. Naturally, the price point varies greatly depending on your choices.

Printing costs for laser printers have gone down significantly and inkjets can be had for less than $100! So which printers to choose from?!

Traditional advantages of dye-sublimation (dye-sub) printers is that they produce a continuous tone of colour. This is similar to a photograph developed using chemicals. They are also likely to reproduce a larger gamut than most consumer-type inkjet printers.

Inkjet printers use ink to spray little droplets onto your photo paper. Depending on how fine the ink heads are and how many varieties of colour you are using, prints can be very well done.

Laser printers are probably best left for proofing copies or for other documents. I would not recommend laser printers for photo printing.

If you are considering printing digital photography regularly, you may want to consider purchasing a printer for yourself. If you do this occassionally, perhaps you may want to consider sending your photos to a lab.

Photo Labs / Online Printing

Most large photo labs can easily take your digital photographs and turn them into nice 4x6 or 5x7 prints for very little cost per photo. This is an excellent way to ensure a physical record of your digital memories.

Most photo labs also allow you to upload your photos to their lab and pick up the finished product a few hours or a few days later. These types of labs typically offer one kind of photo paper and a couple of finishes.

Some photo labs also offer you a selection of papers and finishes. If you are particular about the way you want your final product to look like, this is the way to go!

Love your camera. Love yourself. Love your photos.