Fine Art Printing Fun

We just finished another hands-on fine art printing workshop and we are humbled by the anonymous written evaluations, which were raves; everyone learned a lot, we all had lots of fun, and the resulting fine art prints were amazingly good.

We were so impressed with the wide range of experience, the dedication and the passion of the participants. Aside from a short lunch break everyone was totally focused on getting their images from laptop to print.

Since we limit our print workshops to only five people, everyone gets one-on-one attention from Bob, our Master Printer at Les Picker Fine Art Photography, and me (Master Cook and Bottle Washer). We started at 9:00 AM and the last person left at 5:45 PM.

Along the way, Bob gave a fantastic lecture on color management, evaluating color and calibration. One participant claimed that as a result of Bob’s talk, he probably saved $3,000 on a monitor purchase! As a photographer for more than 40 years I can honestly say that I have never met anyone as attuned to color, color management and printmaking as Bob.

I then gave a demo on post-processing in Lightroom as one prepares to send their images to the Print module. Then we looked at the Print module in detail.

But the real fun began once people went hands-on, actually sending their images to the printer. Bob and I helped with the final touches of post-processing. Everyone first ran a hard proof print through our amazing Canon Pro-1 printer. If ever there was a workhorse printer, that is it. We have literally run hundreds of prints through that machine without a hint of a problem. The colors are true and with the right fine art papers images sing. In fact some of the workshop attendees elected to print some 13 x 19" prints on the Canon Pro-1.

We offered two excellent fine art papers in our workshop, both by Museo. Once a person analyzed their proof print and made corrections in their file, they printed the image on either Museo Silver Rag or Museo Max on our Canon 6450 printer (or our Epson 9900). Both are terrific printers, but the 6450 is more economical and takes up far less room. The 6450 can print sheets or rolls up to 24" wide, while the 9900 prints up to 44" wide. For this intro workshop participants printed as many 17" x 22" large format prints as they wanted.

Bob and I enjoy teaching this workshop because we love the reaction of our students when they see their image coming out in large format.

In the end, participants walked out smiling, with luscious prints and two free sample packets of the Museo papers we used in the workshop.

Our next printing workshop is on September 26. We only have one spot left, so if you are interested in learning more about printing in Lightroom and walking home with some fantastic large format prints, please visit our workshop description site.