12 Best Reasons to Print Your Images
Nowadays, most photographers don’t print their photos. All the images which they have captured will end up on the hard disk. Some of these images do make it to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. But, if you are really serious about photography, then you must print your pictures.
There is a famous photography quote by Tillman Crane which tells about the importance of printing your photos, “The print is an idea made visible. For my process, a photograph isn’t a photograph until it’s a print. I love the physical presence of a print, from beginning to end. For me, it’s a tactile, sensual experience. I want it to be an object of beauty, whether the subject moves you or not.”
I will give you the 12 best reasons to print your images.
1. Décor your Walls 🖼
As a photographer, you will definitely have a few images that are very close to your heart. If you keep them on your hard disk, you can view them only when you open your computer.
If you print it and convert it into a framed picture, you can hang it on your wall. Thus, you can see all your favorite pictures daily. It will also make your wall look really beautiful.
2. To Sell Photo prints 🏞
If you are a photographer looking to generate some income from photography, then selling prints is a good option. To sell photo prints, you need to print and see which all images of yours look good when printed.
You can even consider transforming your image into digital art for printing. It will really look good when you transform images of birds, wild animals, and nature into digital art. This peacock wall art collection will give you a better idea of how the final digital art will look on your wall. So, consider giving it a try.
You can easily set up an online photo store on your website and list your photo prints for sale.
👉🏻 📖 READ MORE: How to increase Photo Print Sales?
3. It Takes you to Places & Memories
When you look at the photo prints, hung on the wall or in your hand, it will definitely take you back to your old memories of where you have taken the picture.
It will also take you to those places where you have spent time in the past. All those pleasant memories will come back to you.
4. Get a Feel of your Image 🌆
You cannot feel the beauty of an image in digital format. You need to print the picture and see it to get a good feel of the image. It is one of the best reasons to print your pictures.
5. To Create your Portfolio Album 🎑 🌅
If you are a professional photographer, it is essential to have a portfolio album in printed format. You can always have an online portfolio of pictures on your website.
But, when the client visits you and when you show your portfolio album with high-definition photo prints, then it will really help to impress the client. It is a good idea to get more business. So, don’t miss it. When you print pictures for your portfolio, it is always a good idea to take some test prints first, These test prints will ensure that the color and the exposure of the image are proper. Then, you can go for the final print only when you are satisfied with the test prints. Thus, you don’t have to waste photo paper and ink unnecessarily.
6. Gift your Friends & Family 👬
Everyone loves gifts. If you can give your photo prints as gifts to your families, friends, and relatives, then you are doing something meaningful with your images.
If you present them as a framed picture rather than a normal photo print, they will definitely hang it on their wall. So, whoever visits their house will notice your photo. Thus, your pictures will gain more exposure.
7. To Get an Idea About Photo Printing 🖨
With the rapid improvement in camera technology, anyone can take good pictures nowadays and upload them to social media sites. You will realize the mistakes you have committed while post-processing the image or while capturing, only when you print it.
There are different types of photo papers available for you to print your photos. They are available in different sizes. There are some standard photo sizes that are commonly used for printing images.
You need to ensure that the monitor that you use to print photos is capable of producing accurate color values. Only then, you will get the final print in the desired quality. So, there are lots of things to learn when it comes to photo printing. You will learn many things during this whole process.
8. To Preserve your Images for a Long Time 😇
When you dump your images in your hard disk drives, there is a chance of losing the images due to hard disk drive failures. It has happened to me many times.
If you print your pictures on the right type of photo paper then you can preserve the picture for a very long time. You can use archival paper along with long-lasting inks to print your pictures.
👉🏻 📖 READ MORE: Canvas Vs Paper Prints
9. Source of Inspiration 😊
When you print your photos and hang them on your wall, it will be a great source of inspiration for you to capture more beautiful images.
As a photographer, it is essential to have some good inspiration to create stunning images.
You don’t have to print really big to hang it on the wall to get inspired. Even small 3×3 prints are good enough. You can even stick these square prints on your wall in the form of a collage. Otherwise, you can also stick these prints in a strong thread and hang them in different patterns. These are some of the best creative photo display ideas that you can give a try.
10. To Ensure your final image is Good 😎
You will be retouching the image after capturing it. This process will happen on your computer. Sometimes, when you view the same image on multiple monitors, for example, on your smartphone and laptop, you can see a difference in color and sharpness.
When you print such images, you will not get the actual details and colors on the prints. So, you need to print and ensure that you can print your final image with the same quality as you see on your computer monitor.
Many photo processing software will allow you to soft proof the image to see how it will look when printed. You can also make use of this feature to ensure that the colors and exposure are more accurate on the final print. You can see the “Soft proofing” option in the top panel if you are an Adobe Lightroom user. Before starting the photo editing process, you must also ensure that your monitor is calibrated.
11. To Improve your Photography & Editing Skills 📷
A typical photography process consists of three processes: Capture, Edit & Print. Only when you have completed this process to create a beautiful image, you can tell you have captured a wonderful picture. If your image looks great on your computer, but bad when you print, then your photo is incomplete.
So, when you get a bad print, you need to check and see if anything has gone wrong in the previous processes like editing and capturing. If there are issues in any of these processes, then you need to fix them before the next shoot. Thus, the photo prints will help you to get feedback on your image and give you a chance to improve your photography and editing skills.
12. To Bring the Picture to Life 🌉
In the early days of film photography, one can see the actual picture only in printed form. In the digital age, you can see pictures on your computer monitor or smartphone. So, only a very few people print images.
But you can bring these pictures to life if you print them. You can touch and feel these photo prints.