Fine Art Printing

For regular printing, Paul stresses the importance of choosing a good paper. For his own standard prints, he uses Fotospeed papers, but any quality manufacturer would work. He chooses a pearl or lustre paper because it holds the ink and shows a sheen. However, for fine art printing, he prefers a rougher texture for thickness and ink retention. For forest scenes with leaves and foliage, a textured paper draws out the detail and translates your image into the realm of fine art printing.

In Paul’s own fine art printing, he uses two different papers, one, a platinum etching paper with a rough texture for woodland scenes, and two, NST Bright White with a gentle texture for wide landscape scenes. In fine art printing, you need to experiment in order to get your print to look the same as the image on your computer screen. Once you’ve achieved a proper comparison, you can pick a fine arts paper, depending on colors of the image you captured. Paul shows you samples of his own fine art printing. Besides printing on paper, you can get cardstock prints if you display your work at art fairs or in galleries.

Why fine art printing papers? Quality, detail and color. When you are producing products for sale, you need to feature your best. In this free video lesson, Outdoor Photography Guide’s professional photographer Paul Thomson shows you the advantages of using top quality papers for your favorite images.