Finding a Fine Art Printing Company

In this day and age of social / multimedia platforms for sharing images I discovered that getting images ready for photographic exhibitions, photographic competitions & for selling through Galleries was a whole different ball game.

The first step for me was to sort out a printer.  With so many companies advertising on the web and via email with “special” deals I tried a few out.  Unfortunately even with a couple reprinting my work 2-3 times, the neither the quality nor consistency was up to the standard I required for my photographic images.  So I made a list of what I needed in a print company:

• Easy to communicate with 
• New Zealand based
• Quality fine art papers & canvas
• High standard of print ink
• Add on services such as mounting
• Their own high standards
• Helpful & professional advice

I looked on the web for companies that appeared to fit my list, then I made contact with them, visited them to see printed product, feel the papers & Canvases available, talk about who their clients were etc.

I managed to find a company that fitted all this pretty well and the added bonus was that he is also a photographer. This was highly beneficial when I sent through an image for printing that I had thought was fine but John came back to me saying he had noticed some “banding” in the top corner.  It took me a while to find, but yes, there it was.  Most companies would have just printed what was sent through without inspection or thought.  So I realised then how lucky I was to have found John at Print Art.

It is always harrowing to send your images through to another photographer for printing (well for me it was) but comments like “loving your work” really helped my confidence.  For my first exhibition I was producing photographic images for 2 categories “People” and “Other”.  The amount of time taken on creating the right image, editing and selecting was considerable so I wanted them printed on high quality papers that suited the images and mounted for display.  Once they had all been sent off and confirmation received that they were on the courier I felt like a little kid waiting for Christmas to arrive and was completely excited when they did!  Well wrapped and boxed I was overjoyed when I unwrapped them.  There is something to be said about seeing images printed with care and quality that you can stand back and admire.  A feeling I had lost with so much time spent in the digital world.

So get out there and give it a try yourself, you might be surprised by the new or added enthusiasm it gives you and the difference it makes to how you capture an image or even what you capture.

Karen McLeod