Printmaking 1.0: Printers

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From the course by Michigan State University

Photography Techniques: Light, Content, and Sharing

362 ratings

Michigan State University

Photography Techniques: Light, Content, and Sharing

362 ratings

Course 4 of 5 in the Specialization Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR

Welcome to Course FOUR! In Modules 1-4 you will cover the final elements of the Specialization necessary to round out this introduction to the fundamentals of Photography, and prepare you for creating your own exciting project in the Capstone! You have come a long way since the beginning of this journey from Smartphone Basics to DSLR and Beyond. Just think of all the information you have absorbed and put to use in your assignments and quizzes, and the confidence you have gained that you CAN control the camera to make pictures you are proud to share. Here in Course Four you will start by gaining knowledge related to content in photography, from fact to fiction, documentary to purely expressive. Next you will learn principles, tips, and techniques for using the essential element of Light in Ambient/Natural settings. The flash/strobe unit, whether it is built-in to your camera or an add-on "hotshoe" model, will finally be something you, not the camera, controls! You will prove to yourself that those former mysteries of Controlled Continuous and Strobe lighting will no longer be mysterious, as you apply your knowledge to creation of assignment photographs in various situations. Sharing those pictures in Peer Review will give you the opportunity to learn from your fellow photographers' solutions to lighting challenges, and to gain insight into your own work and creative approaches too. There is an important word to share about Peer Review assignments for this course. As photographers who have accomplished the quiz and photography requirements of Courses One through Three, you have the knowledge and capability to create quality photographs at a much higher rate of success, and in a much shorter time, than when you began. You have also proven that you are a dedicated Learner, someone who has a passion for photography and is willing to put forth the extra effort necessary to accomplish your goals. This Course is the last before the Capstone Course, in which you will be tasked with creating a project over a 2-month period of dedicated photography. The Peer Review photography assignments have been structured with both your advanced capabilities and dedication in mind...in other words, they will require both! Be prepared to allocate more time than you have in previous Courses for the assignments, because they will take more time and because you will really enjoy them! Course Four ends with an overview of methods for finalizing your pictures in print form, including simple but effective matting techniques, and in web page designs as well. The pleasures and perils of sharing in social media sites are also yours to discover. Protecting your copyrights by understanding that concept and the ways that you can assert them, being careful about blogs and other outlets, and recognizing you are part of a community that respects the individual's creative effort, well that is important knowledge to have in preparation for the Capstone too! Let's get started with Module One!

From the lesson

Finishing Pictures: Options for Showing and Sharing

In this Module you will survey the ways that you can bring your digital images out of the world of zeros and ones that are stored in your computer, and bring them into the world through various means of sharing. Whether your interests are in producing prints of your photographs or quality web-based displays, you will have the knowledge to control their appearance through calibration that is essential for a professional presentation. You will also learn about the pitfalls and dangers of sharing in social media and other sites, and how to take precautions to protect yourself, your family and friends, and your photographs. You will also gain an understanding of standard options for dissemination of your photos in print form, on sharing sites, and even in your very own website.

ICC Profiles and Color Management12:37

Calibrating for consistency: theory and monitor11:50

OUTSOURCING to Learn About Printing Basics14:12

Calibrating for consistency: the printer11:05

Printmaking 1.0: Printers14:06

Printmaking 2.0: Inks, Papers, and other materials19:19

Kitchen Table Studio: dry-mounting a print Part 16:03

Kitchen Table Studio: dry-mounting a print Part 27:30

Meet the Instructors

Peter Glendinning
Professor
Art, Art History, & Design
Mark Valentine Sullivan
Associate Professor
Music / Innovation Hub

[MUSIC]

Printmaking 1.0: Inkjet Printers.

Let's get going with that topic.

Well, the great Frank Sinatra made a great tune famous in 1955,

the Sammy Cahn authored, Love and Marriage.

And it's still a classic standard.

I will restrain myself and not sing it for you.

That song contained a great line about love and

marriage that goes, you can't have one without the other.

Well, the same is true for printers and inks, and papers too.

We have a threesome here, a love triangle that is only going to

work if each party gets along with the others.

Maybe that is an unfortunate analogy, so let's move on to a lighter subject and

let's talk about printers.

The well respected magazine,

PC World, annually selects its top five inkjet printers.

And three names are consistently in that group, Canon,

Hewlett-Packard, also know as HP, and Epson.

I consider all three with the same level of admiration and indeed,

have used products by all of them, and other brands.

And I continue to do so, actually on a daily basis.

Are there other printer brands?

Sure, for your first serious photo printer however,

I recommend that you go with one of the leaders.

We'll look at printers in this lesson and move on to inks, papers,

and other materials afterwards.

The best way for you to determine necessary printer capabilities for

you is to start with you.

Not in the self-centered sense of this old school selfie,

Narcissus staring at himself in the stream.

We'll use a checklist of questions for you to consider seriously,

because the answers will determine which features

are most important to you as you consider printer options.

I encourage you to take it seriously,

because I want you to write down your answers.

And think about what needs you have now and what you might have in the future.

So you can make a solid decision when it comes time to add your first, or maybe,

your second printer.

And I've just said the word you and yours 13 times.

Will you make mainly black and white or color prints, or a mix of both?

If black and white mainly, you may want to look for a printer that has

individual tanks for each color, rather than all the colors in one.

And also, look for one that has cartridges for different shades of gray.

Okay, get out those pencils and

paper because you're going to want these questions down.

Ready?

Okay.

Are you planning to use paper sheets up to 13 x 19 inches?

Or, do you need capabilities for larger formats?

Maybe larger sheets or longer rolls of paper?

If individual sheets, how many will you need to be able to load at one time?

With larger paper formats, especially rolls, you'll

want to look at the durability factor in the structure of the printer carefully.

Because they tend to get beaten up by all those heavy rolls of paper or

stacks of large or heavy sheets of paper that you'll subject them to.

With sheets of paper, the quantity options range from 20 sheets

to hundreds of sheets before having to refill.

And if you're fulfilling needs in a quick turnaround environment,

then the larger the capacity, the better.

So many questions.

Well, here's eight more.

These are going to help you understand your basic selfie printer questionnaire

to help you understand the features that you may want to look for

as you try to match your printing needs.

How many prints a minute do you need?

If you're creating photographs for

a company, maybe you have some events that have to be photographed, and

people are very excited, and they want the prints right away.

You better get a fast printer.

With inkjet printers, this can range from 20 pages per minute for

monochrome printing, that's just black ink,

to as low as 9 pages, or even less perhaps, for color.

Do you need borderless capabilities to bleed the image from

edge to edge on the paper?

How about duplex printing?

Meaning printing on both sides of the paper.

Can your printer can double as a scanner and

print directly from the scan it makes, or generate a PDF or a JPEG file?

Is that important to you?

For production printing, the more sheets or the longer the roll of paper,

the better to achieve less down time for changing your supplies.

And some that hold a roll can only hold a very small roll, so

you want to look especially at that factor.

How many prints can you make in color or black and

white before having to shut down the printer to change inks?

Are those ink jet cartridges refillable?

You can save a substantial amount of money and

time if you can do this job for yourself, as well.

Finally, is there a memory card slot for

direct input of the photographs to the printer?

And if so, where and how large is the LCD screen necessary for

you to view and evaluate the image.

Let's take a quick look at some price ranges, like we did with cameras, and

compare capabilities in relation to all of these questions.

When you look at the prices for printers and the list of features

at those price points, you may well ask yourself, what kind of an idiot

would give such sophisticated devices away for practically nothing?

One of the great bargains in digital photography is the inkjet printer, for

it truly is a loss leader in every sense of the word.

Here for example, is my wife's HP Deskjet All-in-One printer.

It does double duty as a printer of schedules for

her business, printer of photographs for customers,

printer of fliers in black and white and color for marketing purposes.

Then she just opens up the lid on top and it's ready to double as a scanner and

a printer and a copier, and make copies of invoices, scan for

creation of PDFs and JPEGs.

She can send those out in emails or store them in memory.

At just $49 US,

could there be a more amazing piece of machinery in that price point?

I don't think so.

Let's take a look at some other options and price points for printers.

Do you need to provide customers with prints in locations where there's

no electricity?

Or would you just like to make your own fine art work when you're camping out or

maybe riding a train somewhere?

Would something like this Canon Pixma iP110 wireless printer,

weighing in at just 4.4 lbs, including a 16 volt battery,

measuring about 13 inches by 7 inches by just 2.5 high.

You think that might work for you?

It can do about 9 prints a minute and hold 50 sheets of legal sized paper.

I've taken one of its predecessors, a Canon i90,

to Singapore and 20 other countries on photography assignments.

And the ability for me to make great color prints, and

updated daily black and white schedule sheets for

my photography staff, added tremendous efficiency to my business.

Think about what you might be able to do if you could print anywhere,

all at about $150 US.

That's amazing.

For just about $150 more, about $300 US,

Epson's All-in-One offers an upgrade of the LCD screen and

an SD card slot so that you can print without a computer.

And a little bump on the right side of the printer,

which is a game-changing factor for Epson.

That bump holds a set of giant refillable ink containers.

And comes loaded with enough ink to make 4,500 black and

white prints, and 6,500 color prints.

Refillable ink tanks are a feature that makes extended printing times,

filling orders throughout the night of a wedding party, for example, or

just having the convenience of not changing ink

cartridges on a short-term schedule, a reality.

While this printer doesn't have a battery,

it's gotta get plugged in, those extra features are really phenomenal.

If your goal is to making your own fine art photography prints,

the Epson Artisan 1430 printer, at about that same $300 US price point,

has the kind of characteristics that you would probably look for.

This printer has six different ink tanks, giving you more distinct color

choices in larger qualities than standard inkjet cartridges.

Such cartridge systems also allow you to replace only the colors that are running

out, rather than a suite of colors at one time when only one might be low.

In addition, this printer will print up to 13 by 19 prints.

Even borderless if needed.

And with a new formula dye-based set of inks that's really quite archival.

Moving on to the next level requires a more substantial jump in price.

With printers such as the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 model at $1,299 US.

But the advantages are certainly more at the professional level.

Accepting up to 17 by 22 inch paper with 12 individual ink tanks,

5 of them shades of gray, this printer will give you nuances and

color that are just not possible with single or lower quantity tank systems.

The inks are also pigment-based for up to 200 years of archival quality.

If you're looking in this price range and large print size,

you'll want to decide whether having a sheet fed system is right for you.

Or whether it makes sense to go with a printer that accepts rolls of paper for

even more size options, including large panoramics.

Speaking of such devices, [LAUGH] and

doubling your investment to about $2,500 US,

the HP Z2199 roll paper printer, at 24 inches wide,

is a good example of the capabilities available in this general price range.

Like others, it has multiple individual color tanks,

including a wide range of gray values.

And the inks are pigmented, rather than just dye-based, for

that same archival longevity.

It also has a built in colorimeter,

a calibration device that can generate custom ICC color profiles for

great accuracy, no matter what paper you load it with.

At 24 inches wide a panoramic print of 2 feet by 6 feet, or

even 20 feet, is just a mouse click and jaw dropping client amazement away.

Growing up in photography in a dark room environment,

as I did, not quite as old [LAUGH] as this one, but close.

The notion that I could have the tools at my fingertips, literally on a keyboard,

to be able to make a 24 inch by 240 inch photograph without

darkroom chemicals, processing the prints and

negatives in a dark environment, and all the hours involved.

Well, it was just something that nobody really thought about doing

because technology was just not available to anybody at that point,

much less the common person like me.

You're truly blessed to be learning the ropes of photography

in a world where the photographer's idea for a print can be realized

at such economical costs and such astronomical sizes.

You're really only limited by your imagination.

In our next lesson, we'll address the inks and

papers and other materials that match up with printers to make the magic,

the love, that marrying those elements together makes possible.

[MUSIC]

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