Digital Printing Question

[Gesso&Bole]

I,m not clued up on digital printing, and would appreciate some advice.

I have a photographer who wants to print some of his work to display in my gallery for sale. There will be an initial order of approx half a dozen, but would then want to call off more copies when (and if) images sell.

He has approached a local well respected company who have quoted what appears to be rather a high price - perhaps you could tell me whether this seems reasonable or not

Print size A2. File size 6048x4032 pixels

Cheap and cheerful (sample was not impressive) £5 set up per run (each time) + £10 +VAT - this was only just a step up from photocopying paper

or, for top quality

It will be £36 + VAT for each print

This seems to be a huge difference between the two even though it is the same company, but using a different machine

How much should an A2 print be - and do any of you guys offer this sort of service? Obviously this company is local, so no carriage costs.

Any help or advice gratefully received!

[Roboframer]

This is a company local to me that a lot of photographers speak highly of - there's a comprehensive PDF price list there but that size, for a one-off, would be £18 'lustre' £24 'fine art' and £36 canvas.

http://www.vpsimaging.com/Home.html

[stcstc]

i charge 16.90 for a decent photo paper
and 30.34 for a high end fine art paper something like hanemuhle photorag pearl

prices plus vat

but if there was 6-10 prints would normally give around 10% disc on those

[WelshFramer]

This is my price list.

Price list.pdf

(101.59 KiB) Downloaded 226 times

[marct]

Seems amazingly expensive to me. We have a lab printer but our max paper size is only 12" wide so couldnt do to a2, But as he is a photographer tell him it may be worth him getting an account setup with loxley colour they will print a 24x16 (as close to a2 as u will get) for £9.56 + VAT. I think its free first class delivery and recorded/special del done at cost.

This will get him a print on professional Lab paper. No setup fees etc. They will also colour correct if you wish plus they do a range of other products that may suit him.

[stcstc]

there are some issues with with lab prints

1. the colour gamunt is generally not as wide as a good quality inkjet print
2. longevity is generally less

the other thing is lab prints just dont cut it when compared with the art papers for both apaerance and touch and feel

so really your not comparing like with like

generally lab prints are cheap, but more custom or bespoke inkjet prints are gonna cost more

its a bit like comparing readymades with custom frames

[marct]

i cant really agree with you on that. Although I guess it all depends on which lab you are using. Loxleys main print area is in wedding and photographic studios. I have had hundreds of prints from them which are of a much better quality than you can get with any inkjet printer on the market. Our own lab can also produce prints of a much higher standard than any inkjet, just not up to the sizes provided by loxleys. Loxley also offers fine art prints, canvases etc which i have had a few of and again a much higher standard than an inkjet. As for longetivity of the print a decent lab that isnt using s***y paper will last for 60-70 years an inkjet of good standard around 25-30.

Also the OP didnt state of it was a fine art print or photographic print that was required. either way £36 + vat is way too much to pay imo.

[marct]

although I guess it is all down to personal opinion quality wise and as I work all day with lab prints and you work all day with inkjet prints there is some form of biasness on both our behalfs.

[stcstc]

actually the longevity figures are the other way round

fuji crystal archive is good for about 50 years

epson premium lustre for example is good for 75 or 100 for B&W

oh B&W is another issue too as lab prints are generally done of colour chemistry paper, fuji crystal archive and kodak endura. this generally causes issue with the neutrality of the prints.

go have a look at wilhelm research

as for the quality, i guess its a perception thing

but technically the latest inkjets are a good deal wider colour gamut than either fuji crystal archive or kodak endura

in terms of the op my assumption of fine art was based on selling editions of prints etc. serious photographers dont generally sell editions of lab quality prints. they will generally sell bespoke fine art prints.

[Gesso&Bole]

Thanks for your help guys!

Still confused about one thing though . . . . is there a finite rule as to what is a photographic print, as opposed to a fine art print? Is it paper type, method, ink type, or is it just a description of quality?

[stcstc]

its generally about the paper, ink, and style

the term used quite often is giclee, which is french for to spray i believe

its generally, pigment based print on a cotton fibre type paper

a really helpful site would be the hanemuhle website, which has lots of good info and paper types

these paper are really not cheap, but depending on the image well worth it