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Why Print

Lesson 2 from: The Photo Printing Workshop

Alex Strohl

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Lesson Info

2. Why Print

Alex talks through how printing has brought him closer to his photographs and has helped him improve as a photographer.

Lesson Info

Why Print

So we're back on the field yesterday went good. I was able to get a couple of shots that I like have narrowed down to one before I go and edit it and print it. I want to talk about why I'm making this workshop. So, so I've read just like maybe some of you have read Ansel Adams book, the print and what it was an awesome read. It left me a bit wondering how to start. It was still a bit intimidating and if you're there, I feel you and that's how it felt when this massive printer behind showed up at my door. I was like, alright, I better start printing and I had to learn everything. But the drive for me was really to develop a better connection with all my images because I'm sitting on 200, images from the last 89 years of work. And I felt a bit disconnected to a lot of them because sometimes I shoot and I leave them there, I don't look at them. So I thought if I print them, maybe I'll develop a deeper, more mystical relationship with them. And that's what I did. And I'm still doing to thi...

s day, I'm trying to print more and more, it's still takes time. You know, it's hard to find the time. I feel like printing informs your shooting because when you print something, you see all the imperfections much more than on the screen. Oftentimes I print a photo, I'm like, what's that there? I didn't even see it on the screen, it could just be a mailbox something that's distracting and I'm just gonna go and clone that out. Or sometimes I see appreciation for something. I see a bird somewhere where I see the shape of a cloud I didn't see. So it's just a different way to look at your images. And as a photographer, it's something that you have to work on. Its new ways to look at your work. My end with this workshop is to get you to become a master printer with time. But the thing is We always say, you know, practice makes perfect repetition is great. But at the same time, I've met old school photographers that I've been shooting for 30, 40 years and still have no clue what they're exactly want to shoot. And I've met really young photographers who know exactly what they're shooting already with a few years of practice. So practice is not enough. I think you need to study The game and improve it, refine what really makes you progress with photography or printing is sure repetition is good, but you have to adjust each time. If you just bring 2000 photos, but never adjust anything that's repetition. But you haven't learned a thing. So each time you make a print, you have to look at it compared with the screen then at the end of the day, your biggest tool is your judgment, right? You might be tempted to show it to other people for advice and that's good. But you have to take the final word with your photos or printing is like, does it look good to me or not? Doesn't meet my standards. And that's the only thing that matters. So now without further ado, let's print this photo that I shot yesterday. This is not an editing workshop. But you're gonna see me edit it kind of fast based time lapse. Just so you see the decisions that I'm making. But it's not gonna be a crazy edit because the light looks good already. Just gonna work on some of the tones and the darkness of the sky and that's about it. Once I do that, I will soft proof it using lightroom and paper profiles. Print it on a smaller piece of paper and then a big one and you get to look at it.

Ratings and Reviews

user c7bdd5
 

Thank you. Lots of good information. Well done.

Isaac Johnston
 

Through and also to the point! Well worth the watch, and I feel confident to print on my own now.

fbuser 517642fd
 

I would recommend it for anyone trying to understand the print process better but, I think Alex needs to work on speaking a bit clearer and maybe slow down a bit when he is moving his cursor around in LR as was difficult to keep up with him and to see what he was doing.

Student Work

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