[MUSIC] We're going to talk about outsourcing our printing as a way to learn about printing basics. So let's get going. Look at the anticipation on the faces of these United States Marines. While their expressions relate to the outcome of the 2012 American football Super Bowl game, believe it or not, that same sense of anticipation. Or at least something close to it, was the way I and many other photographers used to feel, as we waited for our film to be developed and printed. In today's world of sharing digital image files, some if not all of the magic of anticipation has disappeared from the experience of photography. These members of the Canadian Airforce, being assisted by a WAFF flight officer photographic interpreter, were looking at negatives with the final print still minutes, if not hours, away from production. Not to get too nostalgic on you here, but there was something wonderful about the delay between the press of the shutter and the time when the film was finally developed. And after that, when the prints were finally delivered. The fact that every release of the shutter would result in a print was in and of itself something that made the photographer consider the value of each decision to make a picture in a more serious way. Well, at least that's my old school attitude. Some of you youngsters out there may have never actually seen one of these envelopes, which were so familiar to anyone who ever dropped their film off at the local drugstore, supermarket, or camera shop. The excitement of returning to the shop, opening that envelope and discovering what was inside, well, that was something that every photographer looked forward to. And it probably seems quite weird to some people today. One of the things that surprises me when I talk to my current students about their past experiences in photography is how few of them in recent years had made a regular habit of making prints. It also surprises me that they not only don't generally think of prints as a necessary part of the process of photography. And that for some, the lack of interest in images outside of digital screen display, keeps them from even knowing what options and print terms are available to them. Making prints of photographs is, for some people, becoming something they only do related to an event. And, frankly, it becomes an event itself. A wedding, 50th anniversary or 50th birthday or new baby, or some other major life event often means it's time for prints. But no longer is the ordinary activity of life, generally deemed worthy of being formed into that real object that can be held, passed around the dinner table, or pasted into a scrapbook, maybe that a child might fill with memories. I do have to admit that I don't have a print made of every photograph that I create as once was the norm. And I have been known to pass the smartphone around the kitchen table with a photo displayed. But I also do make dark room and digital prints on a very regular basis. Ansel Adams, the great American landscape photographer and highly skilled concert pianist too, was famous for saying many things. Among them, his statement about the print as the final outcome of the creative process. Putting it in musical terms, he put it this way. The negative is the score, and the print is the performance. We'll update that to say that the digital image file is the score, and the print is the performance. What we need to do is start performing more. So, let's look at some basics. Here's where I go when I need to have my prints made in the traditional small standard sizes, either in quantity or to get them quickly, or maybe for both reasons. I go to the photo counter at my local Michigan based super store, part of a chain of stores named Meijer. A place that sells everything from clothing to groceries, garden supplies to cameras. I'm sure you can find a camera shop or some place similar to Meijer in your part of the world, where you can bring your digital negative files for onsite one hour or less printing. A place like this will be your new classroom for learning a few of the fundamentals in printing. You'll have access to thousands of dollars worth of equipment for a rental fee of pennies, and learn to look at prints in a more discerning way. So, consider it your private photo lab. Take your place at one of the computer stations, and, after plugging in your memory card, upload a photograph that has a very familiar subject, such as maybe your daughter, your aunt, and a nice big lobster. The monitors are generally well calibrated to give you confidence that what you see on the screen will be well formed in the prints. But we're going to be primarily concerned in this exercise with noticing the differences between what we see and what we get. And in getting to used to looking for subtle changes. I want you to make your first print without any adjustments at all. Just print it out as it first appears on the monitor using glossy surface paper if it's available. If not, just choose another surface. In just a few minutes, you'll have that magic envelope in your hands. Be aware that the color of the light source that you're viewing the prints under will have an important impact on your valuation. I recommend bringing the prints outside to look at them in an area of open shade where the light will probably be around 5,000 degrees Kelvin in color balance. And that is actually a standard for the printing industry. Make some notes on whether the print's color balance, contrast and lightness and darkness and framing seem satisfactory. Once you've evaluated the print outside under that 5,000 K light, go back into the store and examine the print under the store light now. Do you see any differences in color, contrast? You may need to focus hard on that. Your eye and mind may well make adjustments for the new light source. Actually, making it difficult to perceive any differences at all. But make note of any that you do see. Because I made this photograph with a digital camera with the white balance set to match the screen, not the fluorescent lights of the store, the colors of the print you see are really quite out of whack. That's a technical term for not looking very good. Make a picture just like this one yourself. Holding your own photo up to compare it to the screen image as a way of understanding how you see or do not see differences in the print and the screen image and the effects of the light in the room. Just to tune up your eyesight, your vision, and your sense of what that picture is as you go forward. If you're consciously forcing yourself to pay attention to these differences in color that result from the light source, especially the difference between what you perceive the colors to be when the print was viewed under daylight. And the interior fluorescence, in this case, then you're doing well in training your eye and mind together. If you saw differences that you think should be corrected, try using the controls to increase contrast. Change the color balance. Maybe lighten or darken the exposure, or make other available adjustments. When your envelope is handed back to you a few minutes later, examine both sets of prints and think about what differences resulted from the changes that you made in the screen images. And if they're what you expected. This testing of yourself is really critical to the process of training yourself to slow down and truly see. Next, you're going to do a modification of an exercise I had to do in my first dark room color printing class. This slide shows the woman that every young photo student in 1970s era courses, or an introduction to color, had nightmares about. It's a classic color chart from the period distributed by Eastman Kodak as an aid to those who toiled in dark rooms trying to create perfection in color printing. My class was given an assignment similar to this. To print a photograph with color and tones as normally as I could make them. Then print a ring around from one of our pictures that had a skin tone, or other familiar color, that we knew well. I'm going to give you the same assignment, except I want you to do this in the comfort of a chair at your local Mierer, or other one hour photo lab. You'll adjust your photograph, once you've printed it normally, to make a set of six new prints that will results in a color wheel of variations. With each one increased by the same percentage in excess in terms by red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, and cyan. Having a set of photographs like this and understanding what those color changes mean by seeing them in print form will add immeasurably to your ability to understand how color changes can affect the content of a picture. And also, how to tell when the color balance needs correcting. The more you train yourself to look for differences in color and to recognize when red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow are in exist. The better you'll be able to discern those color nuances in the prints you make and in the images on the monitor before you press the print button. You already know that every device that affects the color image file has a unique color profile that's understood and taken into account by your color management software. Often Photoshop or Lightroom or a similar product. What do you do when the printer is not part of a system that you control, or one that your image adjustment software cannot be applied to? Well the one hour photo lab is a good example of such a situation. Here's what you do. Talk to the lab manager and ask them if there's any color profile information you need to know in order to have your image files match up best for their system. They know that if you can apply that information when you manage your files on your own computer, you'll be more satisfied with the prints when you bring your memory card into the store. You might think this is unusual, but if you explore any of the many, many printing service providers you'll find that most successful ones will share that information with you. This is especially important if you're using your printer outside of the area where you live. Because you won't be able to clearly indicate the problems you see with your prints if you're not able to discuss that print with them in person. I use, for example, JD Labs here in Flint, Michigan for some of my printing needs. And one of the reasons is because I know that their system is setup for color correction and color profiles that work with the way that I process my photographs. Whenever you work with the new lab make your first order for standard test print. A photograph that you've printed successfully already, either on your own or elsewhere, and let the proof be in the pudding, or in the printing. I hope you enjoy practicing the art of seeing and becoming more discerning in seeing those differences between color and tones, imprints, and in images on monitors. And in how those two relate to one another, all by outsourcing your printing, so you don't have to get involved with the process at first. Other than the critically important process of using your eyes to determine that elusive thing that we call normal color. [MUSIC]
