Printing and presentation

In the past I have entrusted my printing to Loxley Colour Labs but since 2006 I have been sending my shots to PhotoBox for printing. The quality was equally as good as Loxley and a bit cheaper too. The service is easy to use via an online ordering system and the photos are printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper using proper equipment.

Following on from the Farnell's lecture I decided to give them a try so I made an appointment with them to get my images printed and to see what paper would make the images really stand out.

After following their guidelines, I saved the images as sRGB and took them to Lancaster to be printed. After looking at my images they advised that I use gloss for my assignment 2 images but also did versions on lustre paper and also some with a border. I really liked the lustre paper but when I compared it with the gloss print the colours .were so much better on glossy however, this was probably due to the subject which was latex fashion as some beauty shots I had done looked far better on lustre. I was surprised to see that the images with a border were the most effective. I usually had my images printed without a border but the border had the effect on adding more impact to the images.

The service at Farnell's was excellent and they turned my prints around in under an hour. It was useful to be able to check the images as they were printed and also to be able to see how different paper and the use of borders could impact on the final print.

Amberly mentioned the importance of good quality A4 portfolios to promote your fashion work. So, in order to give my images a professional presentation I have purchased a  Black Prat Pampa Spiralbook Presentation Book from the Portfolio Store. After looking at the folder sleeve options I have chosen the more expensive polyester ones as they as really clear and should make my images stand out. The sleeves are open on both sides but they recommend that you mount the prints to ensure that they are held in securely although it does take ages to get the prints in the sleeves! However they do look great as the polyester sheets are amazingly clear and bright.