Tag: Photography

fine art photo printing, archival photo paper, museum-quality prints, professional photo labs, photography for galleries, limited edition prints, photography collectors

Elevate Your Art: Expert Tips for Print Quality

Posted on by bfrankphoto in Uncategorized
fine art photo printing, archival photo paper, museum-quality prints, professional photo labs, photography for galleries, limited edition prints, photography collectors

When you’re presenting work to gallery curators or preparing prints for collectors, every detail matters—especially the quality of your prints. Whether you’re exhibiting in New York or shipping to a client in Berlin, your choice of print vendor can elevate your photography from digital file to museum-worthy artwork.

So, how do you choose the right print lab when the stakes are this high?

Why Not Print It Yourself?

Let’s be real: the romantic notion of a photographer making every print by hand is beautiful. But in practice, it’s often unsustainable for those producing gallery-quality work at a professional level.

Here’s why many pros outsource their printing:

  • Time and bandwidth: Mastering the technical demands of fine art printing—color calibration, ICC profiles, printer maintenance—requires a whole other skillset and countless hours.
  • Cost of equipment: Top-tier pigment printers and archival papers come with high startup costs, not to mention ongoing expenses for inks and maintenance.
  • Consistency: For limited editions, especially ones sold internationally, consistency is king. High-end labs offer calibrated, repeatable results—every print from edition 1 to 10 looks identical.

Letting go of printing doesn’t mean letting go of control. It means choosing collaborators who elevate your work.

1. Print Quality That Honors the Image

Your print vendor should specialize in fine art reproduction. That means calibrated printers, true-to-color output, and a deep understanding of tonal subtleties. High-end labs often work closely with professional photographers and artists, ensuring your blacks are rich, your highlights are clean, and your colors remain faithful across different lighting conditions.

Look for labs that use archival pigment-based inks and have experience producing gallery exhibitions. It’s not just about printing—it’s about translating your vision into a tangible, lasting experience.

2. Paper Choices That Reflect Your Aesthetic

Collectors and curators pay attention to more than just composition—they examine the texture, weight, and finish of your prints. Paper choice becomes a key part of your visual language.

A trusted vendor should offer a curated range of museum-grade papers:

  • Matte rag papers for soft tonal range and a painterly, classic feel
  • Baryta and luster papers for rich blacks and subtle gloss, echoing traditional darkroom prints
  • Cotton-based archival papers that resist fading and add depth to the print surface

Being able to choose between these options—and receive expert advice on which suits your body of work—is a sign that you’re working with a print partner, not just a provider.

3. International Reach with Local Sensitivity

If your audience is global, your print solution should be too. Some of the finest vendors operate regionally but maintain gallery-level standards, offering seamless service whether you’re printing in the U.S. or Europe.

Turnaround times, customer service, and shipping integrity become even more critical when sending prints for exhibitions or collectors overseas. You want consistency and care across borders.

4. Tailored Services for Fine Art Professionals

Some vendors go beyond printing. They’ll help with custom proofing, offer framing options, and even drop-ship directly to clients using neutral packaging. These are invaluable when managing limited edition releases or preparing for a solo show.

Ask yourself: Can this lab grow with my career?

Final Thoughts

Your prints are an extension of your voice as a photographer. Choosing a print vendor isn’t just about convenience—it’s about trust, quality, and professionalism. Whether you’re sending work to a gallery director or fulfilling a collector’s order, your reputation is in every detail.

Curators recognize craftsmanship. Collectors feel it. Make sure your prints speak that language.

Posted on by bfrankphoto in Photography

Future proofing my career learning UX design

Posted on by bfrankphoto in UX

After more than 20 years as a photo retoucher and photographer, I’ve started to see that my skills are starting to be devalued. Retouching is increasingly getting outsourced overseas or replaced with AI for things like skin smoothening. Photography has been going through rapid changes for several years. The push towards AI-generated model shoots and CGI products is only going to accelerate as the technology improves.

With that in mind, I’ve been looking for a way to help future-proof my career. Some time ago, a friend recommended UX Design as a possibility. I started to look into the career, and I think it looks promising. Upon researching the attributes and skillsets one would need to succeed, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of my previous experiences would translate.

At the core of UX Design, is understanding what the customer wants and problem-solving a solution while remaining within the realm of what is possible. For years, I have been describing photo retouching with those exact same terms. For example, Better Homes and Gardens always wanted the white walls of an interior photo to be neutral, bright white with a touch of yellow to add some warmth. Of course, my managers didn’t want me to spend hours masking out the walls for every interior image in the entire magazine. So I needed to solve the problem of how to give the magazine the look they wanted while also figuring out how to do it quickly. I loved that part of the job.

Of course, there is a lot of learning in front of me. It’s going to be a long road. Thankfully there are a number of resources available online to help me on my way. I’m always open to hearing feedback and recommendations from others. Anyone reading this in the UX field, I’d love to hear from you!

I’ll continue to post updates as I go.

FIFA World Cup Image Retouching Project

Coca-Cola and FIFA World Cup 3D Photo Retouching Project

Posted on by bfrankphoto in Photoshop

Now that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is over, I can share part of an incredible retouching project I was fortunate enough to have been involved.

For the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola wanted to create an advertising campaign around people around the world watching the matches while drinking Cokes from specially-produced cans and bottles. Because of the production timeline, it was impossible to have the bottles and cans produced in time for the photo shoots. The answer was to replace the existing products with 3D CGI renders.

The process involved taking the 3D renders, scaling to the proper size, adjusting the lighting to match the scene, and blending it into the photograph; this meant adding color casts, blurring to match the depth-of-field, adding condensation and bubbles as needed, and shadows. It simply was one of the most challenging retouching efforts I’ve done. Luckily, I worked with wonderful retouchers and project managers at INDG. I learned so much during that time and continue to learn more as I do additional freelance retouching with the company.

Below are some completed images and some before and after sliders.

Coca-Cola image as part of FIFA World Cup retouching project.
Final completed image where four glass bottles were replaced with cans.
Zoomed in section of the final completed image showing before and after. Because the can is smaller than the original bottle, the arm needed to be moved and hand reshaped to accommodate.
Coca-Cola image as part of FIFA World Cup retouching project.
Final completed image where the 2-liter bottle was replaced with a glass bottle.
Zoomed in section of the final completed image showing before and after. Because the glass bottle is smaller than the original, the table and the glass needed to be rebuilt.

Murphy’s Law: Self-Publishing Edition

Posted on by bfrankphoto in Photography
Layout showing my need to find and update images
Layout showing my need to find and update images

A couple of years ago, I self-published a photography book about small-time mixed martial arts in Iowa. The process of getting there was fraught with unseen issues. One of which was achieving deep blacks while keeping the greys neutral (See: 50 Unwanted Shades of Grey).

Once it was ready to be released and shared with the world, I was ecstatic. More than five years of photography, editing, worrying about layout, and sequencing was over. I had created something substantial, and that would never change. Over the past year, the full understanding of what that meant became a bit more clear.

The forward was written by National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey. Harvey also runs a photography blog called Burn Magazine, and he was the first to publish selections from early on in my project. In April, I pulled Fight Night off Amazon and removed references from my website after disturbing allegations against Harvey forced him to resign from Magnum photo agency.

I decided to re-release the book without the Harvey forward. I would simply replace the page of text with an additional photo. Unfortunately, the drive that stored the final edited photos and the book layout died. For the last several months, I have been searching for the original versions of the images, re-toning them, running the photoshop action to neutralise the greys, and re-linking the image into the layout. The process is almost complete, and it cannot come soon enough.