Other Presentation Methods

Although I have chosen to present my images as A3 prints, a requirement of module 310, there are alternative methods of presenting photographs.

One of the most common is the Internet, which has a far larger audience than any exhibition could achieve.  There are various ways to upload images to the internet:

• Photograph sites like Flickr
• Blogs, such as this one
• Websites (club or personal sites)

Photographs can be as separate images, as slide shows or even background images, all complete with music.  I have uploaded some images to Flickr whilst studying a previous course.

Other methods for more localised viewing include:

• Photo books are another option, which is becoming very popular as people are going back to wanting to see photographs away from the computer.  These are available in a number of styles and sizes ranging from small softback books right up to wedding albums.

• Digital Photograph Frames are also becoming more popular as someone can select a range of photographs to be displayed on their photograph frame, which changes every so often.
• Cake Designs – yes Asda (there’s a bit of advertising) do their own photo cakes, where you provide a photograph, which they scan and print on icing sugar paper and then put this on top of their sponge cakes.  It is very effective, but bear in mind that the icing paper is slightly smaller than A4 (allow about 25mm all round to get the image on the paper), the colours always seem faint and contrast is lacking but then again you cannot have your cake and eat it !

Some people even have photographic digital key ring fobs !

At the end of the day, it is up to you how you want your photographs to be displayed.

I am a member of the Burton Photographic Society, who hold a number of photographic competitions and exhibitions.  Entries for these can either be as prints (mounted or not), usually around A3 in size, or as PDI or Projected Digital Images.

Evaluation: Print Run 2 - College

Initially, there were problems producing the print, with printer errors.  After these few problems were taken care of the image was printed.

There were clear signs of banding on the image, mainly on areas where there was darker colours.  On green areas there was no sign of banding at all, which suggests it involved the magenta print head may have a blockage.

 

The finish on the paper was matt like, which I felt suited the image nicely, because sometimes using gloss finished papers the sheen can detract from the image, and even show up any problems at the mounting stage, in the form of lines across, or down, the print.

 

The colours that were printed were an accurate reproduction of what was on the computer screen, with the obvious exception of the banding.

Other than that I was happy with the print quality, and would like to thank all those concerned with their efforts in solving these issues enabling me to print this image.

Evaluation: Print Run 1 - D S Colour Labs

Collected the prints today from the Burton Sorting Office.  I was working outside in the garden for about half an hour, after waiting in for them to arrive, only to find that they had been and left a card for me to take to the sorting office to collect it.

In evaluating the the prints, I will also look at the condition of them from the point of packaging because this is important as it protects the prints from damage during transit from the printers to me.

Packaging

When D S Colour Labs send out prints they take great care in packing them between two plastic / cardboard sheets taped together to form an envelope, with the invoice attached, to keep them flat and protect them from creases and folds.  This is inside a strong corrugated cardboard box, clearly labelled with the addressee’s name and address with a return address in case it could not be delivered.

The box was in good condition when I collected it, with the prints safely inside, protected by the plastic / cardboard, with the tape in tacked.

Print Quality

The print quality is very good, with no signs of banding, or any other printer faults, and by selecting the auto corrected option, where the image is lightened slightly, (especially after finding some previous prints seemed to come out darker than what I expected), the prints matched the images on the computer screen.  So obviously D S Colour Labs have responded to peoples comments about the darkened prints, and provided an option where this is automatically corrected.

Finish

The finish was very good, with a matt like finish which seems to provide a more clear and defined edge to lines which gloss finishes can sometimes lose. 

Colour Management

The colours were faithfully reproduced, but without too much saturation, which I have heard some companies do to emphasise the images too much.  The whites were white without any colour cast and details remained sharp.

Crop

The images were as I uploaded them without any form of crop, with a narrow band along one edge.

Overall Evaluation

Another case of a fast turn around from uploading the images to receiving the finished prints, with a very high quality print quality, good finish and accurate colour management.  D S Colour Labs have obviously listened to peoples concerns over darker prints and provided an option on the print size and finish menu to correct any problems.

 

My only comment, which has nothing to do with D S Colour Labs, but an evaluation of one of the prints is that on 'Cooper's Square' the image is a little pixelated, but this is more due to the camera I used, on a mobile phone, which would never deliver the quality of a SLR.  But this shows what a mobile phone camera can deliver, and it's limits.

 

No prizes for guessing where my next set of A3 prints will be printed !

Macro Photography Techniques

Having covered product photography during the last course, I learnt a few valuable techniques for this assignment.  But this time, I wanted to photograph the subjects using the Pentax DSLR and not rely so much on the Fujifilm S7000.  This combined with the subjects being natural and situated outside in the garden.

The first consideration was the light, which was not as controlled as when I was taking the product shots, because now I was photographing the subject outside the house, where I wanted to use the natural light, only using a reflector when necessary to illuminate any dark areas that I wanted lighter to show the detail, as opposed to using the studio lights in the Burton College photographic studio.

The next consideration was focusing.  The S7000 has a macro mode and a super macro mode, the latter of which can focus down to 25mm.  Although I do not own a proper macro lens, some of my lenses can focus down to 450mm.

So this meant that that I could not get as close to the subject, as I could with the S7000.  This meant zooming in closer.  With the Tamron 18 - 200 mm lens this zoom range was the whole 18 - 200 mm, where as with the Sigma 75 - 300 mm lens only the focal range of 200 - 300 mm was available for macro use.

Next, I chose a large aperture to concentrate the viewer on the subject, rather than the background.  Working at larger apertures kept the depth of field shallow, blurring out the background.

 

Proper macro lenses have a reproduction factor of 1:1, life size, other lenses which can be used for macro work sometimes do not offer this.  But to me if the image is to be printed so people can see it clearly I will accept this and not buy proper macro lenses which cost more and, like the tilt and shift lenses used for architectural photography, have their own specific uses.

Printing Decision

After evaluating the two printing options: in house (at the college) at £3.50 each, total cost £70.00, and via online printing services (at D S Colout Labs) at £1.05 each, total cost £21.00, I have decided to opt for the online printing services, which I feel would be the option selected by many businesses, based on the cost factor.

Although I do intend to print some in house, at the college, partly for comparison between the two options to compare the print quality and the likeless to the original image, the latter being the only draw back to having them printed via a third party, because the photographer has limited control over the final printing.

This decision was not easy to make, but I have to look at the final output of the process in an objective way. This is therefore my justification of my decision for the output method. One important factor, to me, is the cost but at the same time the quality and accuracy of the colour reproduction, but under the circumstances the cost factor must over rule the latter, and given the high standard from D S Colour Labs that I and friends have received, I feel confident that they will provide an equally high standard when producing these images.