Michelle and I have chosen some professional commercial photo printers for you to send your work out to. These are printers that we have personally used in the past or have recommended for our former Souvenir Foto class students. Speaking of, we have had many, many former students go on to professional photography careers and selling their prints for profit so we hope that’s a good enough testimonial for you! We chose these printers based on quality, ease of use and of course price. Some of these printers offer the same thing but may be closer geographically to you which is a preference for me (even better if they are in the same city-go local!) Many of these printers offer book services as well, which is perfect if you are getting into shooting for weddings, newborns, etc. Most (if not all) work in something called a ROES system, something you will need to download to your computer, it’s a little bit of a hassle (at least for me) but it works out in the end. This is not an exhaustive list of course, but it should be a fairly good start!
Bay Photos offers full service (even framing!) One of the options they have is printing on metal! I never tried it, I don’t think it would work for my style of shooting, but I do think it would be a great substrate for someone shooting clean architectural type images or even industrial grunge. Speaking of style, what you print on I believe is every bit as important as your actual image, the end product should be a total vision of your work. I often choose to print giclee’s, I feel that the type of imagery I shoot works well with this fine art printing process. I love texture in design, the tactile to me is another sensory element that draws you in, it is absolutely more expensive than traditionally printing but if you are going high end + fine art, something to consider!
This is a wonderful resource to build your photo business with, a lot of unique offerings for your future clients. They have a pearl finish that I have tried before and was just gorgeous with the unusually colorful image I developed. A finish like that is very specific, but it’s always fun to get in samples of the same image with different finishes so you can choose the best fit for your photo.
When I was working in interior design we would use this tiny neighborhood photo printer to print our photo heavy look books, I had no idea that years later that this little operation would become the gold standard for all the major film photographers out there. Jose Villa, Elizabeth Messina, Jonathan Canlas, Jen Huang, you name a big time film photographer and chances are they get their film processed here.
I have not used them but I do have them book marked to use in the future. The have some excellent photo gifts, my fave is the playing cards.
I often recommend White House Custom Color, they have a great reputation and people love them. I like to print my black & whites on metallic paper (it adds an amazing depth) which they do offer.
For the reader that is looking for a non-photo specific printer, I urge you to go to your local print companies first; just go in have a talk tell them what you want to accomplish, I think you would be pleasantly surprised what they can offer. I know not all areas have a printer available (I did live in the woods once) so for those of you I would recommend:
They’ve grown substantially since I first started using them, but they have great customer service and are always adding new products to their offerings. Catprint would be great for lettering artists to start adding their designs to cards, posters, labels, etc. I suggest ordering samples so you can get an idea of the paper weight/stocks and print quality before placing an order for your business.
If you didn’t join us at the beginning of the week here are the links for our week of printing:
Print photo gift tags (and more) with this great company
Our home printer recommendations
We hope you enjoyed our week of printing and resources, feel free to add your faves or offer any feedback on the printers we have recommended. Have a wonderful weekend!
P.S. We would love to see your prints when you get them use the hashtag #besottedwithprints so we can take a peek and give you a virtual thumbs up.
P.P.S. don’t forget us when you’re famous!
Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.
Thanks so much for the wonderful information you have shared with us this week!
Hello Miss Tristan,
Thank you so much for mentioning CatPrint on your blog post! We really appreciate your time and thoughtfulness in writing about us. We’re always here for you if you need us!
-Saloneer, on behalf of the CatPrint team