Enjoying quality prints - a missing experience?

By Bruce Cairns

One consequence of the internet age is that photographs are everywhere. Social networking sites are full of photos. Smartphones can produce photos and upload them to the web with incredible ease and speed. Old photos are scanned and uploaded to be enjoyed by many people online, rather than left hidden in an old album.

This is all wonderful. However, there is a downside. People who have grown up in this digital age, or have become used to it, often have no idea what a good photographic print looks like. They are used to low resolution web images at 72 ppi (pixels per inch). When images are printed, they are often sent to mass market labs, and printed at a lowest common denominator (LCD) level of quality, with detail, colour, tone and contrast all fatally compromised. These labs can produce small (6x4", 7x5") prints in a way that look superficially reasonable, but compare a larger machine made print to a hand made one and you will immediately see that it is like comparing instant coffee to real - in that case, one is coffee, the other isn't!

Many people would be astonished at the detail and beauty that a good, expertly made print can achieve. There is also a huge satisfaction in having a large print and exhibiting it (rather than buying a small, cheap one and putting it in a drawer). The quality of a large canvas print can also be stunning - but again they have to be printed and finished expertly, and not by an "LCD" mass market lab.

Of course we would like you to ask Norfolk Art Place to do your high quality printing for you; but even if you don't, please do yourself a favour - make a decision to wean yourself off the 72 ppi web image, and discover the beauty of a good print!