Seeing a picture printing on screen is one thing, but holding and hanging a physical print brings a whole new level of satisfaction. But it’s not as easy as you might think to get a good print – the truth is that most prints don’t come close to looking like they do on your computer screen.
To make the best prints, you have to consider your printing medium – which is to say, the material that the print is made from. Paper is the most common printing medium, and offers a traditional and classic look that you can frame or mount to any number of surfaces. Metal and acrylic offer a fresher, more modern style, while canvas offers a truer painting-like quality (though you’ll need to be ready to spend a lot of money).
Capturing Memories: The Journey from Lens to Print
There are also a range of other printing options. For example, the cyanotype printing process is based on the light sensitivity of iron salts. A sheet of paper is brushed with these salts and dried in the dark, then placed over an object such as a plant or drawing and exposed to sunlight. The resulting image is a brilliant blue, and the name of the process comes from the fact that the original paper used for this kind of print was usually a cyanotype – a type of archival ink.
Other printing methods include lithography (any method of printing that uses an even surface and does not involve relief or intaglio). Photogravure is another form of lithography which involves engraving a picture into a metal plate then using acid to bring up the raised parts, while etching is a similar technique, but on an ink-based surface.