4/10/2008 - Printing

I must confess... I am now a "Do your own printing" convert. Until this point, my feeling was that the cost to buy a quality photo printer and keeping it supplied with ink and paper out-weighed the benefits of printing ones own work. The fact was that I had found a finishing lab that I was very happy with.

However, I've been reading a great deal of material on photographers who do their own printing and I found myself smittened by the idea. I did some research and decided that the HP9180 was within my budget. I spent much of last weekend calibrating my new purchase with my monitor and with Photoshop CS3. I had heard good things about Hahnemuhle Smooth Fine Art paper, so had included a couple of boxes with my printer order (at $80 per box of 25 the stuff ain't for snapshots). I was amazed at the quality of my prints... especially the B&W's. The blacks are very close to black and the tones of grey were extremely nice. More over, I found a greater sense of depth than even the prints from the lab (an outfit many pro's use).

I'm still testing papers and ICC profiles, but thus far I am very pleased.