The Photography Tip of the Week #071

Print Big, Print Often

That’s the tip, I suppose that’s it….  I guess you want to know why you should even print your photos in the first place.  I know there are a lot of photographers that love the fact that you can display your work online and not ever have to print or handle another photo.  In some respect I’m one of those photographers when it comes to bulk printing of photos.  But one thing I do take pride in is large prints of my photography.  So why should you print your photos and especially why print them big?

1. The tiny LCD on the back of your camera makes every photo look good, so you can’t trust it for seeing what you need to do to better yourself.  I know it’s a bit silly thinking that you may only look at your photos on the back of the LCD screen, but I’ve known a number of people to do this.  At the very least your photos need to get on a larger screen, but that really isn’t enough.
2. You love to share your photos with family and friends and there are many ways of displaying your work online for all to see.  Nowadays you cannot not display your work online.  If you are a pro or semi-pro, displaying your work online is a big part of your social marketing.  If you are just an enthusiastic amateur, you can’t hide your photography.  The joy of photography is getting other people to enjoy it as well.  But displaying them online is like showing someone a little 4×6 print.  (My apologies to readers outside the United States, I’m used to the American print sizing.)  That’s not large enough to show any detail.  Even though it’s better than the back of your camera, it’s still small.
3. Probably the most important reason is that printing is your ROI or Return On Investment.  That large print says a lot about you as a photographer.  When you display large photos for all to see, you are showing what’s important to you.  People see big beautiful photos and want to know more because they see that it’s your passion.  They are great conversation starters and even better at getting you business, if you’re into that sort of thing.

So print photos big.  I don’t print anything under 8×10.  A 4×6 isn’t adequate to appreciate the detail of what I do.  That’s one of the reasons I have large photos on my site, I want you to see detail even if it’s to show you blurriness or problems for photography tips.  The photo I have with this tip is one I made this weekend during a photowalk.  It may not be the best of the set, but it’s a great example of detail and sharpness with nothing more than a little color correction and export to jpg.  These photos deserve to be printed large. (My apologies for the audio quality of this and the past few posts.  I’ve been working on better audio capture and it’s not going as well as I had hoped.)