Photographic Prints

Photographic Prints

by William Lulow

“Let me show you some pictures of my last vacation trip,” a friend says. She then proceeds to take out her iPhone with approximately 500 images of her last vacation. None of them have been edited, retouched or worked on in any way. They are simply the “raw materials” captured with an automatic device. Frankly, although I was interested in her travels, I didn’t have the time or inclination to wade through 500 images, the largest of which was the size of her phone (2.5″ x 5″) approximately. 

I do not denigrate images made with the camera phone. The problem I have is that each of the 500 photographs were just “captures.” Nothing more! They weren’t selected, rejected or inspected beyond the fact that they were there. She was there and captured something. That’s it. 

Just the act of editing your own work and selecting the best images makes your photographs special, more than just a “take” from a place you happened to visit. In the days of film, we made contact sheets to enable us to see what was on the rolls of film we shot on an assignment or just on a vacation trip. I do the same thing digitally. I like to use Adobe Bridge to make a digital contact sheet of everything I shoot whenever I go out with my camera. I can even print it as such, if I wished to. Usually, I go over each and every image and select ones that I think would make outstanding prints. I may even make 5×7″ prints just to enlarge them a bit. Most of the time, I will bring the better images into Adobe Photoshop and enlarge them there to 11×14″. If I think they look good enough at that point, I will print a few just to see how they stand up as prints.

Prints are the classical way to exhibit photographs. Before the invention of the camera phone, it was the only way to view photographs. There were also 35mm slides, often too small to be appreciated in small, cardboard mounts, but they were projectable on the wall or a screen. Even then, although they were big enough to inspect, they were enlarged sometimes too much to appreciate the photographic techniques. 

So prints are really the only way to showcase properly, one’s photographic efforts. These days, even a 5×7″ print is better than viewing an image on a screen. Depending on the quality of your screen (and I have a 27″ display which is a pretty good size), prints are usually clearer and sharper. With all this said, I will display here, digitally, some images that have made really awesome prints:

This picture of a wisteria plant made at Longwood Gardens, PA a few years ago actually won a prize in an international photo contest. 

This image, made on a recent trip to Italy, made a very good 16×20″ enlargement. 

This one was purchased by a client for display in her living room. I made a print that was 3 feet by four feet and became a visually exciting exhibition in her home. 

Prints, especially Black&White ones, need to meet a few tests to be considered printable in my estimation:

1. They must be critically sharp where intended. Blurry images, when made to showcase the blur itself or show speed, are acceptable.
2. There must be a spot of pure black.
3. There must be a spot of pure white. 
4. The tonal range in between both black & white needs to be represented unless the image is a silhouette. I usually follow the Zone System for these determinations. 
5. For me, the image needs to be large enough to see from a distance of around 8 feet. Prints can be small if they are mounted or framed accordingly. 

Meeting these standards most of the time, requires some digital post-production utilizing various tools in photo-editing software. Ansel Adams, the famous American landscape photographer, often worked on his images for weeks until he achieved the level of perfection he so fervently, cherished. Rarely is an image considered “finished” when made with a camera phone and not worked on in some way. The same holds true for any digital image made with a traditional DSLR. I think most digital images these days, require some form of modification to bring out the best from its millions of pixels. 

Also, it’s important to note that doing post-production work on an image does not, necessarily negate it’s authenticity. It is still a photograph which is defined as a “light-picture”. But, we all have gotten used to just scrolling through the thousands of pictures on our devices without really looking at them carefully. It pains me every time I do it as well. I have over 11,000 images on my device at the moment and it is annoying to try to find the one that I want to show. And, when and if I find it, it is only 2.5″x 5″ in size!