How big can I print?

This is one of the most common questions we get and the answer differs every time.

There are a few factors at play:

• the megapixels of your camera
• the quality of the pixels & photograph itself (is it in focus, good exposure, etc.)
• what is the viewing distance of the finished print ( if the print is going to be seen from a farther distance you can get away with a lower dpi when printing)

Printing is finding the perfect combination of all these factors. Each photograph is different and we are more than happy to review this information with you at the office!

Calibration

With the digital age we are in, we are constantly looking at photographs on screens. While computers and the internet make sharing our photographs much easier, it also means no one is seeing the exact same thing as you are on your screen.  The brightness and colors can range from monitor to monitor, which can also completely throw off your print matching. Usually monitors right out of the box are too bright and have a default color profile, which can be fixed with calibrators. And then there are the Ferraris of monitors that have their own calibration system built in! Properly profiling and calibrating your monitors will give you reduce editing time and a more realistic no-surprises representation of final print.

At the office we go the extra step and have our printers calibrated to our monitors, so what you see is what you get! If you ever want to view your images on our screens before we print we are happy to set up a time for you to do that or if you are not local we can send you test prints to see what we see.

Things we DO recommend:

• Eizo monitors
• NEC monitors (spectra view series)
• Spyder calibration systems
• i1 Display Pro Calibration
• calibrating your screen monthly

Things we do NOT recommend:

• editing on a laptop
• editing on an iMac
• keeping your brightness to your screen turned up too high

Dodging & Burning

While we use photoshop on daily basis to create beautiful digital images we also love using traditional darkroom techniques to create the best fiber or RC print we can. Almost every print we make requires some dodging and burning. Here is a brief explanation of dodging and burning:

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BURNING IN

This is where a portion of a print is too bright after the main exposure. The majority of the print looks good, so additional exposure would make it too dark. To fix this you add additional light ONLY to the bright area. To do this you cut a hole in cardboard or use your hand in a cup shape to project a beam of light back onto the paper AFTER the main exposure. This happens a lot in skies or if a heavy flash has been used. We also use burning to add a vignette to an image.

Some of our burning tools

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DODGING

This is where a portion of a print is too dark in the shadows after the main exposure is made on the enlarger. To fix this during the exposure you hold back or shade the problem area with a dodge tool (a piece of dark cardboard or plastic on the end of a thin metal wand). The time using the tool varies depending on how dark the problem area is during the main exposure. It is very important to keep the dodge tool in motion during the exposure, this helps feather the effect and makes it blend into the rest of the photograph. We usually use dodging in shadows to bring out texture in the print. You want to have a rich black but you do not want to block up all of the shadows in the image to achieve the rich black!

Some of our dodging tools

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An example of darkroom dodging and burning from Fstoppers

If you want to learn more about darkroom editing we recommend checking out this post on FStoppers Website

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One Stop Shopping for Exhibition Production

What is one stop shopping for exhibition production? Here at Panopticon Imaging we can assist you with all phases of your exhibition from file upload, paper selection, printing, scanning, image editing, image sequencing, framing consultation, custom box building and delivery! Planning an exhibition is exciting and nerve-wracking.  We work directly with you to make the production process as stress free as we can.

To start all you have to do is upload your images to our website. We can also create a secure FTP login for you, if you are printing over 10 large files ( over 10GB).  Most recently we have worked with the Flash Forward Festival to produce the exhibition "Boston: Irish" for Boston photographer Bill Brett.

Framing doesn't have to be a daunting task. We have a vast variety of mounting, matting and frame moldings for you to choose from. We are more than happy to assist in selecting the frame that will highlight your artwork and convey your visual aesthetic.

Once the exhibition is all framed. We take meticulous care of every photograph by individually wrapping and photo cornering the images. Also, on large scale shows we can mark each image with the thumbnail print out on the outside wrapping. This makes the installing easier as you can sort all of the images.

Also, we can create all kinds of boxes for photographs. Are they getting shipped? Or transported on a van for local delivery? We do not buy pre-made boxes instead we customize everything for you. Each box is built by hand to ensure that your images arrive in perfect condition. We created half boxes for these images for delivery to Boston. This will protect the images from shifting during transport.

We have a delivery van that can accommodate images up to 56x70 inches in width! We can make deliveries on request to Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Here at Panopticon we try and make it as easy as possible for so you can enjoy your opening! For more information on Bill Brett's work check out his website here.