Getting Your Photos Ready For Print

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Note: I work in the colour space 'P3' and most labs I use work with Adobe RBG, which I have found to have very similar results to P3. The labs convert the file to Adobe RGB prior to print and the results to my eye are more than fine. Some labs and papers may require specific colour profiles though. I've never had an issue with needing to adjust or change profiles, but it is something you can keep in mind if your colours are quite off in the print. You can discuss this with the lab prior.

[@kasiasiwek8301]

Thank you William for all your valuable advice! A question regarding paper prints. When would you print in gloss, if any?

[@elliotfletcher8842]

I just wanted you to know that you helped me avoid printing roughly 1500 dollars worth of underexposed calendars for 2024. I *hugely* appreciate the timing of your video, and the education you provided in it. As always, a huge inspiration. Thanks, Will 🤘🏼

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Glad I could help! Thanks man 👊🏻

[@ddki9094]

I like how you take the time to explain why you do what you do. You have a style of teaching that is very relaxed and not forced and I appreciate that.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thank you so much 🙏🏻

[@patrickshepherd3262]

A trick I learned to review the photo for dust spots and other distractions is to zoom in 100%-200%, press the Home key to review the top left corner of photo. Then press the Down key, review, and repeat pressing the Down key and reviewing until you have landed at the bottom right corner. That way, you don’t miss any parts of the photo. Thanks for another very informative video.

[@joanhuggett5164]

Lovely to see you surrounded with your beautiful prints, William. When we see you in the field and the hard work that goes into getting just one of these images, you truly deserve the highest praise and success. You are very generous in sharing your years of knowledge and know-how. Happy New Year to you and your family.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Very kind, thanks for the ongoing support of the channel Joan 🙏🏻

[@johnthomasdoyle1964]

Firstly, happy new year William. Thanks for covering this, printing can be a nightmare, I’ve tried some ICC profiles downloaded from some companies to try get close as possible to what I see on the screen. Like you said price and reflections can also be an issue. Looking forward to following you in 2024 to continue my learning and getting to view your great photos. Thanks.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thank you John! 🙏🏻

[@paulstott5616]

Brilliant mate thanks. Sent a few files off to a lab and been generally unhappy with the results, in terms of shadows being too dark. Great explanation thanks.

[@donnakeeley4531]

Very helpful thanks William

[@johnchambers6272]

Lots of great advice on printing your images. Thank you for sharing all the great videos throughout 2023 and all the very best for 2024 Will.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thank you John!

[@ShannanCrow]

Thanks for sharing your printing work flow. That was super helpful and I learned a bunch there to apply to my prints.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Glad it was helpful mate. Thank you, as always 👊🏻

[@AnthonyJGianotti]

Great tips, learned this the hard way. I had taken a pretty long break from photography for 6ish years and when I came back 2 years ago I did not account for how much black level performance had improved on monitors and ruined $300+ worth of large prints.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Yikes. So what went wrong? You processed them too dark?

[@AnthonyJGianotti]

@@WilliamPatinoPhotography yup sent them off for printing way too dark (still kind of irked prodpi didn’t say anything haha). It didn’t even cross my mind to brighten them as I had ICP profiles loaded and exposed to my eye like I had always done. For reference went from a 2008 MacBook to a late teens benq monitor & iPad Pro.

[@markledbury3666]

Excellent video Will! Thanks for sharing this awesome information. Beautiful images too!😊😍

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

My pleasure thanks mate!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

My pleasure thanks mate!

[@shupingyin8082]

Great advice ❤

[@kcunning111]

Brilliant!!

[@zhouzhang9102]

Sound and valuable advice as always, thank you!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

My pleasure!

[@timmcneillyphotography]

Appreciate the simplicity of your process mate, thanks 👌

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks brother

[@johncameron6853]

Thank you for that William, it's always been a bugbear of mine when printing my own photos how much paper I went through before I found the right settings. Wonderful prints you had, canvas makes so much sense. Looking forward to more vids in 2024 and on that note here's wishing you and yours a happy and prosperous new year. 👍😎

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Really appreciate that John, thank you mate! 🙏🏻👊🏻

[@DoubleB13]

Another very useful video. Thank you so much William.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@galacticnemesis366]

Thanks for those insights mate. Inspirational content.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks for the support 🙏🏻👊🏻

[@colinstalker]

Great tips on your printing workflow, Will. I will be following your steps as some of my previous prints have had those issues in the darks and shadows. Your final prints look amazing!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks mate! Let me know how you go next time 👊🏻

[@vhobus]

Thank a lot for this vídeo! Very hepfull!

[@1_Tim]

Thanks for the inspiration! Time to get started. All the Best in 2024 Your photographs look brilliant printed up

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks a lot mate!

[@kevinmallory5237]

Bringing out the shadows and knocking down the blacks clearly yields nice results along with a boost in exposure. Question: would you not accomplish the same through soft proofing with the ICC profile for the media you will print on?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Yep, I've personally never had to do that but it makes sense and realistically a better approach if you haven't used a specifically lab/paper before.

[@michaelbierbaum-z5x]

Thank you William, great tips, love your vids.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

That means a lot, thank you 🙏🏻

[@kiwi2xs]

Another great easy follow vid Will. I got one of mine printed in Aus for my sis, the canvas looks brilliant but i did notice that it was darker... So good know it is a common thing. Hope you had a good Christmas

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks brother. Currently enjoying some family time 👊🏻🙏🏻

[@gordonsimpson1020]

I print at home and your tips are probably the best advice for getting as close to what you see on the screen that I’ve tried. Thank you

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Great to hear! Thanks mate.

[@petecarpenter1068]

Hi William, love this sort of informative video content and the lovely artwork you demonstrated it on, we surely live in one of the most beautiful countries. With your Mac what colour profile do you use for the display ? I’ve just got a new iMac with the 4.5 k screen and am wondering what the best choice might be. Many thanks. 🇳🇿

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks so much Pete. Appreciate it mate. I’m using the P3 profile.

[@whorldwide]

Cheers for your tips! I'm personally considering moving to NZ later this year to go full out on the photography and enjoy your home country. Would love to connect!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks a lot man 👊🏻

[@owendavies6575]

All the best for the holidays and the coming New Years!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks 😀 Same to you!

[@carbybirett]

Hi William, another very interesting video with good advice. Just wondering ...... what are your thoughts of getting your own LFP printer like an EPSON for example. Is the ink and media cost to high ? Would it make sense like let's say up to A2 ? Carl 🇦🇺

[@leewolfe]

Thanks William, as always, for an informative video. Given that an external monitor is not in my budget at the moment, is it possible (meaning realistic in terms of improving the print results) to calibrate a laptop monitor? Or should I just hold off on printing projects until I can get the external monitor? What are your thoughts? Many thanks, again.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

My pleasure. Depends on your monitor. I find MacBooks are exceptional by default. What do you have? Realistically you should just do some small test prints to find out :)

[@leewolfe]

@@WilliamPatinoPhotography Thanks for engaging on this so many months after the video came out. I really appreciate it! I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad E590. Similar to the budget restraint for an external monitor, a Macbook won't be on my desk anytime soon. The test prints are a great idea locally, but I'd also like to print things for family/friends in various locations around the world. Did you get distant printshops to send you small test prints before working with them? (Again, many thanks!)

[@evodmtshizz]

Hey Will great video mate! Have you got some recommendations for canvis printers in Australia? Wouldn't mind printing some of my own work. Cheers 👌

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Cheers mate! Give Photomart a try. They’re based in Shellharbour but can ship anywhere. I’ve used them for over ten years. They have a website you can order through.

[@dawnj1305]

Hi William, thanks for the great tips. Quick question, do you adjust your monitor’s brightness on your laptop to say 50% and then bring up your shadows and black point?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks! I set the monitor around 70-80%. I think I mention this at the start of the video somewhere. Cheers!

[@shupingyin8082]

Great video

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks!

[@vhobus]

This video is very enlightening. I just had one question: If I increase the image size, won't I lose quality? Increasing inches increases pixels too... do I need to reset pixels? Thank you one more time!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks mate. An image can only be expanded so big, certainly. That’s where higher resolution cameras come in handy. The more pixels you begin with, the more you can upsize. It’s subjective on how much you want to upsize and how large you can print. Totally subjective.

[@vhobus]

Thanks!!! @@WilliamPatinoPhotography

[@UbzUnclemax]

Thank you for the great information! I really love your relaxed, warm, professional but not overly technical approach to teaching and recording these videos! A quick question: why don't you use solar curves to easily spot those nasty dust spots?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thank you 🙏🏻 Yeah, you can certainly do that. I prefer to look manually though because you have the opportunity to find something other than a dust spot, which you may want to remove.

[@SaraWC72]

Hi Will, What type of paper & canvas do you get your photos printed on?

[@michaelmcphee2930]

I have a photo of a painting of an ancestor from the 1860s, which i will be printing on canvas to replicate the original. I'll be getting it framed in a similar style. Do you have any tips for framing canvas prints?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Not really sorry. Just speak with the printing lab but if they don’t do it just have a chat with your framer.

[@sharonhaasbroek7464]

Thanks for sharing.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks for watching!

[@TehGems1]

Hey William congrats, super useful video! What color profile do you use to print? sRGB still? Or Pro photo/Adobe?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

I actually process and save in P3 but the lab converts to Adobe RGB.

[@Kiwi_Bayer]

Hey mate which photolabs do you use? I want to send some photos to my parents back home (im in Germany) and have them printed to hang. Love the photos and thanks for the tip man.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Try Whitewall. They have labs all over the world including Europe and that’ll keep the shipping price down for you. I use them a lot and they do a good job. Cheers man!

[@Kiwi_Bayer]

@WilliamPatinoPhotography you don't use someone local in NZ? My parents are in Waikato. But will look into them, cheers man.

[@KGisWatching]

Thanks for the information. How do you prepare a file for print when the lab caps the file size to 60MB. Your files were 300MB, and it's easy to get up there when enlarging the photo? Also, what do you recommend for small test prints before going large? Do you enlarge, then crop a section to a small paper? I want to see how the detail will look after being enlarged, but not pay $300 for a test. Lastly, how do you know what your maximum print size should be for a given photo? I have people asking for large prints to go over a living room couch, for example.

[@SaraWC72]

Which is better to print from, Lightroom or Photoshop? What is the difference?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Either is fine :)

[@lphilpot01]

I'm in a place where there are no local labs at all so all is done online. Even with my (very) minimal experience I quickly learned that most labs are targeting phone / snapshot shooters and even if they offer soft-proofing profiles, there may still be a significant difference in the printed result. In my case, prints were darker, more saturated and colors were skewed a bit. I took a couple of sample files and made a series of (well-documented LOL) prints with various changes made to them. Then I tried to pick the best attributes from each and iterate again. I'm still far from getting prints that match my (calibrated) monitor though. I don't know any way to go about this any more quantitatively (without lots of $$$$ and / or equipment). Maybe I need to try another lab... Thanks for the info!

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Yeah you need to use a better place. Try WhiteWall labs, which are based all over.

[@lphilpot01]

@@WilliamPatinoPhotography I'll check them out, thanks. I've used Nations Photo Lab a few times and they were easy to work with but I never got matching results.

[@Mark-qn9xl]

There is no doubt that different labs will produce significantly different results. Although not always the case a lab that requires a greater level of file preparation for printing may result in a more consistent result. As mentioned, I have heard positive recommendations with WhiteWall. I have been printing my own work for 15 years, however, prior to that I had to try 2 to 3 different labs before I found one that produced consistent, accurate results. When sending in test prints you don't have to print the entire image. You can make up a composite image that targets an area of concern, e.g. shadow detail that will highlight what adjustments are needed. I would also just use one paper to start with as there can be a noticeable difference in how an image looks especially with dynamic range e.g. Lustre paper has darker blacks than a matt paper. As far as calibration goes one thing to bear in mind in monitor brightness. For my printing workflow I use a brightness of 80 cdn. Not great for most general viewing but works in getting my prints looking bright enough.

[@tgknits]

Great help! What would be the best editing software for a MacBook

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Personally I like using Adobe. Either Photoshop or Lightroom. They’re kinda the industry standards. I just use Photoshop and you can see plenty of tutorials on my channel or in my courses :)

[@tgknits]

@@WilliamPatinoPhotography thanks for the advice

[@stevemeier7876]

what nz labs do you use ?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Currently The Photo Gallery in Dunedin.

[@kcunning111]

For 13X19 prints and smaller (glossy or matte) what type of printer would you suggest?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Sorry I don’t print my own work and don’t own a printer. I outsource to various labs.

[@debbiewitt7028]

Hi Matt, I'm finding that when I have a paper print made the slightest touch of the paper will leave a finger crease which leaves the print useless. How do you handle the paper prints so that no damage occurs? Loving your channel.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

I’m not Matt, but that’s ok 😂 just use gloves when handling prints :)

[@debbiewitt7028]

​@@WilliamPatinoPhotography Hi William sorry I had just talked to my friend Matt 😆. Yes I will try the gloves, I'm pretty frustrated when handling the paper prints.

[@howies.chanel13]

I like the canvas now days too but I also like glass but its high cost and heavy

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Yeah when displayed in the right room with specific lighting it does look amazing for sure!

[@noraallen2610]

I got over 15k on a landscape pic two days ago and counting - with nearly 300 shares on Ireland from the roadside page on fb ! THANK YOU!!!

[@noraallen2610]

Over 2k !

[@sharonhaasbroek7464]

Who would you suggest for print work in Sydney?

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Photomart in Shellharbour is the closest I can personally recommend. You can order online.

[@alexven92]

Kinda struggling with this as well to have enough details in the shadows so it looks the same on print as on a screen. Would you say it’s possible to have a pre-set for this purpose or is it really adjusting case by case as you’re showing? I’m talking like a standard +0.2 exposure and +10 blacks kind of preset.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Really needs to be case by case, because every image will have a unique amount of blacks and shadows.

[@AlessioFurlan]

Why save files with the profile of a monitor (Display P3) instead of giving it the print profile suggested by the print studio or the manufacturer of the printer and paper (if you print at home)?

[@AlessioFurlan]

⁠@@WilliamPatinoPhotography Curious about your answer. Printing an image in Display P3 means going to sacrifice a considerable chunk of printable colors (green and blue) to have more reds, but printers are not able to print because they are out of range (gamut) of existing printers and photo paper.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Sorry mate, I read and I replied to your comment whilst out walking with the family and didn't quite read and respond well. Yes, totally makes sense to work in the profile required. I work in P3 and embed that profile, however the labs that I use (and just about all that I've tried over the years) are Adobe RGB and are making the conversion at the lab prior to print. I've never had any visible issues doing it this way and have been content with results. Depending on what people are initially starting out in and the lab/printer/paper they use, I can see this might be an issue. I have since pinned a comment about this. @@AlessioFurlan

[@howies.chanel13]

I thought u might had touched on soft proofing and applying the labs profile colour files for specific papers to check colour..

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

I made a pinned comment about the profiles but it's not something I've ever had the need to change. Adobe RGB seems to the default standard. I work in P3 which has a very similar result to ARGB.

[@jaxrcexplorer]

Just saw this... I need to keep checking back as they don't seem to notify me when you post, even though I have selected! Thanks again for sharing! You mentioned in one of your videos (FB?) you are planning some new Master Class series lessons... starting with B&W (Monochrome) (?) I think this could/would be an excellent topic! Following advice of someone I know I recently had some prints made with White Wall (on Hahnemühle William Turner matte paper) and was most pleased with the results! It was as nice as some of the Thomas Kinkade limited edition signed and numbered prints I have. You can actually feel the texture! Not bad pricing either! (framing costs as much or more than the prints! ;-). Previously I had used Printique (Adorama) and was please as well but they were not able to accomodate the file size (in TIFF format) I wanted to use for a Image dimension 21.3″ x 12″ (my "Field of Dreams"). I know this subject could be greatly expanded upon and I do feel it's most significant given it's timeless impact from a moment in time... captured and meant to be shared... Again, thanks for sharing! 🙏

[@barryashenhurst2071]

What paper do you use? Are you using an ICC profile? Like your comment about sharpening, by the way. There's more BS about sharpening on the web than BS about anything else.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thanks mate. I’m actually using profile P3 which is converted at the lab to Adobe RGB prior to print. Results are very similar to my eye, so I remain in P3. For paper I use Centurion Photo Silk or Lustre.

[@colinmelhuish1254]

Some great advice, Perfectly explained. Thanks for posting.

[@WilliamPatinoPhotography]

Thank you for the comment 🙏🏻