Derek Zeanah
Member
edited to simplify: as a noob to photo printing am I likely to regret buying an epson p700 to learn and grow on?
Does it make more sense to start smaller (like a Canon G620 knowing it won’t meet long term needs, but to use as a learning platform?
I hate how verbose I can be sometimes.
context follows:
Once upon a time printing was easy - I had a darkroom, and anything up to 20x24 could just be printed under the Beseler 45, but 30x40's needed to be projected against a far wall, and they were a real pain to get through the big chemical trays (and seeing the image to dodge and burn was its own issue).
But back then I understood how to get a print I liked. It's not like darkroom work was particularly easy, but I understood it and got the sorts of results I liked in a predictable way.
Now, the world is digital which is a good thing. But I don't know how to print any more. I'd like to start printing again as I pick photography back up as a hobby, but I'm starting from zero. And I don't have the benefit of having taken some photography courses in college which helped be before.
So the question to the experts: where do I start? The largest I see myself printing is 20"x24" and I don't see many of those being printed as we only have so much wall space. What I'll actually be printing regularly are 8x10 to 11x14 inch (or comparable size) prints of personal work that I'm just printing for fun, and to start exercising my creativity again. The actual wall prints come from vacations, and with Covid I don't know when the next real vacation will be. So buying a printer that accepts 17" or larger paper seems excessive, at least for now.
I'll guess that half of my prints will be black and white, for what that's worth.
In a perfect world I'd have a printer that I could learn on, that produces affordable output in the smaller sizes as I experiment, and I could perfect the process to the point where if I wanted a large print I could just send out for it and have it delivered, knowing that the colors/tones would be a match for what I printed locally, so the results I get are predictable.
Is that possible? And if so, what's the way to ease into this process? Is it possible to get reasonably neutral B&W from dye printers? If not, are there reasonably small pigment printers I should be looking at, and do they do well with color as well? The last time I looked into this years ago some of the most interesting work was coming from folks who were hot-rodding Epson printers to print with custom carbon-based inks and an incredible attention to profiles. Is that still the case, or have Canon and Epson pigments gotten to the point where one can get a great print using "standard" inksets from manufacturers?
And what hurdles exist that I'm probably not even seeing yet?
I'm sorry this is so vague - I feel like I'm so inexperienced here I don't really know where to even start asking questions. Worse: I tend to see in B&W, but my wife has an eye for color unmatched by anyone I've ever met or heard of, so I'll need to support both.
Does it make more sense to start smaller (like a Canon G620 knowing it won’t meet long term needs, but to use as a learning platform?
I hate how verbose I can be sometimes.
context follows:
Once upon a time printing was easy - I had a darkroom, and anything up to 20x24 could just be printed under the Beseler 45, but 30x40's needed to be projected against a far wall, and they were a real pain to get through the big chemical trays (and seeing the image to dodge and burn was its own issue).
But back then I understood how to get a print I liked. It's not like darkroom work was particularly easy, but I understood it and got the sorts of results I liked in a predictable way.
Now, the world is digital which is a good thing. But I don't know how to print any more. I'd like to start printing again as I pick photography back up as a hobby, but I'm starting from zero. And I don't have the benefit of having taken some photography courses in college which helped be before.
So the question to the experts: where do I start? The largest I see myself printing is 20"x24" and I don't see many of those being printed as we only have so much wall space. What I'll actually be printing regularly are 8x10 to 11x14 inch (or comparable size) prints of personal work that I'm just printing for fun, and to start exercising my creativity again. The actual wall prints come from vacations, and with Covid I don't know when the next real vacation will be. So buying a printer that accepts 17" or larger paper seems excessive, at least for now.
I'll guess that half of my prints will be black and white, for what that's worth.
In a perfect world I'd have a printer that I could learn on, that produces affordable output in the smaller sizes as I experiment, and I could perfect the process to the point where if I wanted a large print I could just send out for it and have it delivered, knowing that the colors/tones would be a match for what I printed locally, so the results I get are predictable.
Is that possible? And if so, what's the way to ease into this process? Is it possible to get reasonably neutral B&W from dye printers? If not, are there reasonably small pigment printers I should be looking at, and do they do well with color as well? The last time I looked into this years ago some of the most interesting work was coming from folks who were hot-rodding Epson printers to print with custom carbon-based inks and an incredible attention to profiles. Is that still the case, or have Canon and Epson pigments gotten to the point where one can get a great print using "standard" inksets from manufacturers?
And what hurdles exist that I'm probably not even seeing yet?
I'm sorry this is so vague - I feel like I'm so inexperienced here I don't really know where to even start asking questions. Worse: I tend to see in B&W, but my wife has an eye for color unmatched by anyone I've ever met or heard of, so I'll need to support both.
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