I came across that pithy piece of advice the other day – the idea being that as a photographer, if you want to sell large prints as part of your portrait or wedding business, then you should only have large prints on display in your studio.
It’s not directly relevant to me (no studio, no portrait or wedding business), but I got the idea when I opened a flat box today from Mpix.
I’d had a bunch of shots printed at 12″ x 8″, and while that’s far from huge, it was the largest I’d seen most of these images.
Laid on the dining room table (helps that it’s white), they looked great.
And I could see some patterns and connections I’d not seen before between the different photos, even though I’d pored through them in deciding which ones to print up.
Quality printing
The quality of the printing (If not the photography) was excellent, and I was pleased to see that the color was pretty close to what I’d expected – I’d soft-proofed in Aperture using the ICC profiles Mpix had sent me, and then chosen the ‘Do not color correct’ option with the order.
It was the first time I’d tried this, but it seemed to work well.
The aim is to stick the images in a portfolio book and shop them round the cafes in town (and other places that hang exhibits), and try and get a slot to show some work.
It was one of my resolutions at the start of the year (I know it’s May now), so I’ll let you know how I get on.
If anyone has some recommendations on where to get a good (but not too expensive) portfolio case (with plastic sleeves for the photos), drop me a line.