How Big of a Border on a Photo Print for Entering Into an Art Exibit

Many photographers accept ambitions to impress and exhibit their work but are unsure of how to get about it. There's an affluence of choices to make, from paper type through to impress settings and frames, making it a challenging but exciting adventure.

Commercial lensman and filmmaker Clive Booth has put together multiple exhibitions in the UK and abroad, and is renowned for his atmospheric mode, dazzler and portrait imagery.

Cheryl Walsh started her photography business making and press loftier school portraits. She at present specialises in way and full-length portraits shot underwater. Cheryl has as well exhibited widely, generally in group shows, and too runs printing courses for Canon Usa.

To be certain of the quality of the final product, both photographers insist on maintaining command over the entire procedure, from capture to frame. They print on Canon imagePROGRAF PRO printers, from the A3+ PRO-300 to the 112cm PRO-4100. A primal reason for choosing an imagePROGRAF pro photo printer is the broader colour gamut (the range of colours that tin can be accurately represented) delivered by the LUCIA PRO pigment ink system. Naught ink switching, with separate channels for matte and photo-black inks, as well helps to proceed costs down.

Here, the two pros accept you through every step of the process of printing photos for an exhibition, from selecting newspaper to choosing mounts and frames, to demonstrate that printing your own images for an exhibition is not as complicated every bit you might call up.

A powerful portrait of fisherman John Baker from Clive's personal project, Ileachs, documenting the culture and people of the Scottish island of Islay. Taken on a Catechism EOS-1D X (at present succeeded by the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III) with a Canon EF 16-35mm f/ii.8L II USM lens (now succeeded by the Catechism EF xvi-35mm f/2.8L Iii USM) at 35mm, 1/800 sec, f/four.five and ISO160. © Clive Booth

1. Select the right paper

Photograph paper can be broadly grouped into three surface types: sleeky, semi-gloss or lustre, and matte. Many photographers favour a particular stop, only lustre tends to be pop because it features some surface texture, reducing reflective glare, and boasts first-class shadow detail, with deeper blacks than a matte paper.

When Clive, a former graphic designer, was commissioned by the Purple National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Scotland to photo the Islay RNLI crew, he designed the accompanying exhibition himself, combining typography and photography, and press information technology all on Canon imagePROGRAF PRO printers.

One of the about important things Clive had to make up one's mind was the kind of paper he wanted to employ. "The paper changes the look and feel of a picture," he explains. "My Scottish work had a gritty, earthy feel, and then it was all lustre and matte paper, rather than high gloss. Canon produces a whole series of beautiful archival papers."

It's a sentiment echoed by Cheryl. "The paper choice for my images is role of what I consider to be my unique artistic signature," she says. Cheryl considers which paper characteristics will conform the subject matter before she even takes a shot. "If I'm shooting on a black background then I'thousand going to get with a lustre newspaper, as the depths of the blacks aren't the same on a matte newspaper."

Cheryl also relies on the Blush Optimizer characteristic in Canon's imagePROGRAF PRO printers. The clear surface coating non simply reduces the dulling or 'bronzing' outcome on glossy and lustre media when a print is viewed at acute angles, but also makes colours wait more natural, while improving the density of blacks. "The prints would not await the same without it," says Cheryl. "It plays a vital role when printing on lustre papers."

3. Colour management is key

Colour management is fundamental to successful press, and a properly calibrated and profiled broad-gamut monitor is essential. To become the impress colours equally close equally possible to what is seen on screen, Cheryl and Clive follow a D50 workflow: setting the monitor'southward white signal to 5000K, the effulgence or luminance to 120 cd/m2, and using a D50 fluorescent lamp to evaluate the prints.

Cheryl and Clive impress their photographs from PPL using ICC profiles. Each Canon paper has its own ICC profile – data that characterises a colour space and defines the colour functioning for a given printer and paper.

If you're using tertiary-party paper, you'll need ICC profiles for your specific paper and printer combination – they can usually exist downloaded and added to the app. Y'all can save the color management settings as PPL presets, forth with paper types, sizes, print quality settings and rendering intent. "With PPL, you have all your settings in one tab," explains Cheryl. "I make presets for each of my paper types and sizes, then information technology's easy."

You're well-nigh ready to print, but for best results, start produce a soft proof from PPL – a highly accurate on-screen preview to show how the epitome will look on paper. "It's of import to proof – ever," advises Cheryl.

After going to such efforts to get the shot, Cheryl maintains total command over all her images past printing them herself on her Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4100 printer. © Cheryl Walsh

Cheryl held a retrospective of her work last year, organising her fantastical portraits into nine categories and mounting the images in ornate frames to accentuate their fine art-style qualities. © Cheryl Walsh

four. Selection mounts and frames advisedly

Your mount and frame shouldn't backbite from the epitome itself, but Clive and Cheryl accept differing views on how they think their photographs are best displayed. "When y'all have a picture fighting for attending on a wall, putting a big border effectually information technology makes it look special, similar a piece of art," says Clive.

Cheryl prefers her gallery images to look more like a traditional painting and presents them without a mount, in large, ornate frames. "If I'm selling my images, it's up to the client," she adds. "I'd recommend a natural white mount, certainly for smaller images – I desire the focus to be on the image itself."

five. Choosing images to exhibit

Selecting the right images to showcase can be difficult. Practise you stick to a theme, focus on creating a narrative or simply select your best work? Cheryl held her start retrospective in 2019, featuring 10 years' worth of images. "It was huge," she says. "My images are all 'fantastical', so I broke it down into 9 dissimilar categories and picked the strongest image from each."

Both Cheryl and Clive agree that shapes, colours and textures are useful when grouping images, but Clive thinks it's more of import to choice the work that best demonstrates your abilities. "Should every picture work in its ain right, or do you have a series that forms a narrative? You're looking to bear witness the absolute best of the all-time – the best of what you have."

Clive also points out that the traditional gallery is merely 1 place to show your piece of work. "Sometimes I'll showroom my work at advertizing agencies," he says. "They all have their own exhibition infinite. In issue, we're all brands, so choosing the right location is really of import."

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Source: https://www.canon.co.uk/pro/stories/preparing-photo-prints-exhibition/

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