so recently I've been revamping my
online print store I've got myself a new
printer some lovely new papers that have
new images for sale on my website today
I'm sending some prints off to some
clients and I thought it'd be a really
interesting video for you to see my
print workflow from the very start to
the very end so from loading paper
profiles all the way through to
packaging signing and shipping the
images like to thank Squarespace for
their continued support of this channel
so if you need a website go to
Squarespace comm forward slash heated I
should also mention that this video is
not sponsored by any other brand so if
you see any brand names or logos in this
video it's not because I've been paid to
make this video it's because I bought
that stuff with my own money because
it's the best tool for the job so the
first and most important step when it
comes to printing your work is going out
and getting a photograph that you deem
worthy enough of printing f/11 iso:116
mil perfect so I went out and got this
photograph in Death Valley and I
absolutely loved it and I definitely
deem it worthy of print in fact I can't
wait to print it so the first thing that
I'm going to do is make sure that my
monitor is calibrated the reason I
calibrate my monitor is to make sure
that what is on the screen is going to
come out of the printer I use a spider v
Pro to calibrate my monitor it's really
simple takes about five minutes and you
just follow the instructions on the
screen there really is nothing to it it
makes a difference with the iMac because
the iMac is very cool and what the
calibration software does is it just
warms things up slightly and they're
just a brightness so now that I've got
an image that I'm happy with my monitor
is calibrated I need to make a choice
about paper and I think this is quite an
important decision I like to think about
how the image is going to look on
different papers and and basically I
have three main paper choices one is
like a matte finish fine art matte paper
one is a burrito which is like a fine
art semi-gloss and the other one is a
super high gloss paper so this image
for example is going to work very well
on the WETA paper and to be honest most
of my images will be on this paper
because it's just still really good on
this paper this suits that kind of high
contrast nice detail lots of saturation
type pictures you know something similar
to this one another paper that I like to
use is this smooth cotton this is 300
GSM it's a hundred percent cotton paper
it has a nice smooth matte finish and
this works really well with images that
are like have a softer color palette and
for example yes for example something
like this this is my goons of swakopmund
image and this is you know it's very
painterly and so I think it works really
well and a lovely smooth cotton fine art
paper another one that I use from time
to time is canons Pro platinum paper and
this is like super high gloss I worked
particularly well with my star of the
show image so I have my image my monitor
is calibrated and I have chosen what I
think is the best paper for this
photograph now the next stage can tend
to throw people off and but it's very
important and I'll try my best to
explain it as easily and as simply as
possible and I should also say at this
stage that I print everything directly
from Lightroom so you buy a paper from a
manufacturer now that manufacturer will
give you the option to download a paper
profile now every paper that you buy
should come with its own profile let me
let me try and explain so here I've got
two different papers we've got a nice
smooth matte cotton paper and I have a
semi-gloss burrito paper if I was to
print the same image with the same
settings on these papers they would look
wildly different the burrito paper holds
blacks better the image looks richer
more contrasting the smooth cotton the
blacks will appear washed out and the
colors will be slightly D saturated
now what you can do is you can download
a profile for each paper you load the
profile into Lightroom and it gives you
like a preview it gives you a preview of
how that image will look when printed on
that paper and then you re edit the
image so that it matches the image on
your screen that doesn't have the
profile assigned to it so what you're
trying to achieve is when you assign the
profile to the image and it changes the
image you want to bring back the image
to as close as possible to how it looked
before you assign the paper profile to
it it's it's easier than it sounds
and then you know it gives you a very
good accurate representation of what's
going to come out of your printer now I
would also like to say at this stage you
can download a generic profile from your
manufacturers website and these are ok
but what you can also do is you can
print your own color chart and you can
send that off to the paper manufacturer
they'll take that color chart and
they'll scan it and they will send you a
personalized profile now this takes a
lot of time you've got to print it
you've got a package it you've got to
ship it to you can take any from some
three to four to five days so I did a
test I printed this image one with a
generic profile for that paper and one
with a custom profile for that paper and
I was actually amazed at the difference
so the custom profile is calibrated
exactly for my printer and and my whole
setup here my whole system whereas the
generic one they're just kind of
guessing so yeah you can see here the
image on the left is the generic profile
the image on the right is the custom
profile and the image on the right has
better color at it there's more contrast
my advice is print off a color chart
ship it to your paper manufacturer
they'll do your custom profile usually
for free of charge
so once I've assigned a paper profile to
the image it does change I need to bring
that back to how it was originally
before the paper profile changed it and
then when I print the image it's gonna
be pretty accurate to how that looks but
not always what I find is some images
you can knock them out first time
without any issues other images such as
this one yeah that can take five or six
test prints just I mean this image in
particular the trees of deadly I just
couldn't get the orange to look right I
couldn't get it looking natural it was
it was very difficult to work with and I
went through many many test prints
before getting one that I was happy with
and that accurately represented my
original image it can just be trial and
error and I would always recommend doing
test prints it's expensive and it's
annoying so you have to use ink and
paper but you know you only have to get
it right once and then you're pretty
much set so I think it's well worth it
so now I've got a print that I'm happy
with I always like to do several checks
I like to hold it up against the window
I like to look at it just in the ambient
room light and I also like to inspect it
looking at it through my ring lights
because the ring light it's almost like
looking at through a magnifying glass
you can see any imperfections in the
print or in the paper in this instance
you can see here there's a very faint
strip along the side of the paper this
is actually a fault
with the paper itself where there
appears to be some coating missing
that's difficult to spot but when I hold
it under the ring light and inspect it
then yeah you can see and that's no good
I should say that the manufacturer did
send me some more paper and that was
just a bad batch which does happen from
time to time but I don't think I would
have spied that unless I'd inspected it
up close with the ring light so now I
have prints and I'm completely satisfied
with it there's there's nothing wrong in
the paper nothing wrong with the image I
leave it to dry for 24 hours now they
are dry to touch out of the printer but
I like to give them give the ink time to
really settle into the paper before
disturbing it too much so once this time
has passed I need to trim the paper
because most of my images are a 4 by 5
ratio and my papers don't come in this
ratio they only come in a 4 a 3 a 2
that kind of thing so there is a bit of
wastage but that's fine absolutely fine
so when it comes to cutting the prints I
use an Avery a2 precision cutter this
thing is awesome it's self sharpening it
gives a lovely cut it's very accurate
and yeah it's just it's expensive for
what it is it's not a cheap cutter but
for me it was just the best most
efficient option out there and I prefer
this to using a knife because I'm a bit
clumsy and I can't tell you if I was to
do ten cuts with a knife at least two of
them I will end up slipping and you know
cutting the paper at a wonky angle or
something like that so for me this
precision cutter has been a really good
investment I always make sure to place a
sheet of tracing paper over the image
when cutting just to ensure that the
plastic strip on the cutter which holds
the print in place doesn't leave any
kind of marking or scarring on the print
itself the next thing I'll do with my
print is sign number and emboss it the
embossing is optional and if you've gone
to my website you'll see that you do
have the option as well to for me to
sign and number the back of the print
some people don't want the front signing
and numbering because it can be
distracting some people do so it's
entirely up to whoever orders the print
signing a print is is a funny one and
for me when when I've sold prints now
for a couple of years and the most
challenging thing isn't choosing the
paper and printing the image in them
getting your paper profile and all that
sort of stuff the most challenging thing
is is signing it and it sounds stupid
but it's it's not a lot of papers don't
a lot of well a lot of photographic
papers don't take a pencil so in an
ideal world I think everything should be
signed with a pencil and actually the
smooth cotton does take a pencil so not
an issue but the burrito and the canon
pro platinum they don't take pencil so
you have to use a pen you I'm not
comfortable using something like a
Sharpie because it can be quite
destructive to the paper so I use what
do I use where's my pens sorry guys
so these are the pens that I use to sign
my paper or any paper that won't take a
pencil
these are acid-free which means they're
basically they're water-based and
they're non-destructive so they're not
going to damage the paper and as well as
that like this these ones in particular
that I got off Amazon I will stick a
link below it's an affiliate link just
saying these yeah these pens are
brilliant and they come in shades from
black all the way to very very light
gray and what that means is I'm able to
sign a print in a shade similar to a
pencil so it's not too distracting and
it's quite subtle and it doesn't take
away from the image these yeah these
pens are fantastic they come with two
tips so a fine tip similar to that of a
marker pen and also a brush tip which is
great if you want to do a really fancy
signature but I haven't got the success
rate to use the brush so I don't bother
but maybe maybe one day maybe one day
all of my prints come with a
certificates of authenticity that you
can see here the certificate is embossed
it's signed it has lots of information
on it like the title the date of
photograph has taken the date the
photograph was printed who printed it
the print size all that kind of good
stuff
these these certificates are made here
by myself and I print them on canons
museum edging which is a very very
heavyweight matte card kind of fine art
photo paper so my prints they're not
cheap by any stretch of the imagination
so I really like to add as much value as
possible so one way of doing that is
them being limited-edition usually
they're limited to over 50 or 30 and
this straight away hopefully adds a bit
of value but I don't just want to send
people a print by itself I like to just
include
a few more personal items so I'll show
you what I include in the in the
packaging with the prints so you get the
print itself obviously it comes in a
protective polythene wallet you know
that's just to protect the prints it
doesn't get dusty or scratched or
anything like that it comes with a
certificate of authenticity and as well
as that I like to include a small
information sheet now this is
information about the image this is
printed on a lovely tracing paper and
actually got this I stole this idea hold
my hands up I completely ripped this off
mr. Ben Horne because I bought one of
his portfolio box sets and it came with
this lovely tracing paper with
information about the prints and the
paper and I thought what a great idea
cuz what I used to do was I would if
you've ever ordered a print from me in
the past I will have written a very long
personal letter that was saying thank
you and telling you all about the image
and you know how I felt lost capturing
it and stuff like that but it took too
long you know if I if I was to get five
prints in a day I'd spend about you know
a couple of hours writing these letters
so this is a much better solution and
it's it's nice I think it's a personal
touch and I think it adds that little
something to the image so this one here
is from the dunes of swakopmund image
and it goes like this
climbing the coastal dunes of Scotland
in Namibia my heart was racing and my
legs were burning
I was desperate to explore and shoot the
expansive sand dunes but the relentless
trade winds blowing in off the Atlantic
made things very difficult
I found this composition amongst a vast
range of sweeping formations and I knew
I have to shoot it the Sun was just
starting to set to the west how to see
which meant that I had the very last of
the light illuminating the scene I
risked exposing my gears to the elements
as I change lenses before framing my
composition
I had trouble focusing my lens but soon
realized that in fact the landscape in
front of me was constantly shifting and
moving as the wind drove the sand
eastwards the windswept landscape
coupled with the diffused light resulted
in a delicate soft painterly image with
no hard lines or real points of interest
I finally calming and easy on the eye
and then at the bottom you've got the
exif data isn't that nice see it makes
all the difference so you get a
certificate of authenticity a nice
information sheet and then I pop them in
this lovely black envelope that I also
emboss I'll be honest I'm like a kid at
Christmas I emboss
whatever I can possibly emboss so as
nice as this is I still want to send a
note of thanks to whoever has bought a
print so I had these made up these are
just it's just a thank-you card and he
says thank you and then there's room for
me on the back there to write a small
message of thanks nothing crazy but you
know certainly showing my gratitude and
appreciation so this image for example
comes in two sizes it's 13 by 11 or
twenty by sixteen the 13 by 11s they get
sent flats their place in a black
presentation box I then include these
certificates the information sheets and
a little thank-you card and I wrap it
all in a book mailer I send everything
first-class recorded if it's in the UK
if it's overseas then it's signed and
tracked so every print
with a tracking number the larger prints
these come these have to go in a tube I
can't send the 20 by 16 is flat it's far
too expensive so I roll them and place
them in a 15 centimeter reinforced tube
this is basically a very wide very thick
tube prints are safe as houses in there
they really are so they're certainly
well protected I stuffed the inside of
the tube with tracing paper and then
place in the thank-you card and the
certificate and all of those bits and
pieces and the reason a place the
tracing paper is just to stop it shake
it around which potentially could cause
damage to the print even though it's in
a protective polythene bag and that's it
and then I also ship those signed and
recorded or tracked and signed so that
should give you an idea about my
workflow when it comes to prints with
regards to selling prints I'm certainly
not a businessman so I well I obviously
I put the prints on my website I like to
include a photograph an image of the
actual print itself so not just not just
an image of the image but an image of
the actual physical photograph I think
people appreciate this pricing comes
down to how much the image means to me
so it's been ambiguous although all of
the images you know I don't have many
images for sale that's because you know
it has to be quite a special image for
me to sell it as a print and some are
more special than others it's like kids
you always have a favorite kid right
well I have favorite prints and the more
favored ones are more expensive
maybe I worked really hard for it maybe
it's really rare conditions and I know
that it's not gonna happen again for
like 10 years or something like that
these are slightly more expensive and
have a slightly higher run usually 50
instead of 30 so yeah that's it I hope
that I really hope that you've taken
some value away from this video and of
course if you want to buy a print you
can go to my website you can see my
prints for sale
all of the items I've linked to below if
you're interested in any of those and
that just leaves me to thank Squarespace
once again for sponsoring my channel if
you need a website perhaps an online
store to sell prints maybe go to
Squarespace comm forward slash Heaton
and give it a go for free it's a free
free trial 30-day free trial or
something like that yet get free traffic
go for free basically and if you like it
and it's all going well for you you can
get 10% off your first purchase by using
off code Keeton so that's everything
thank you so much for watching and until
next time bye for now
[Music]
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