Musings from the Multiverse: 2014

Artist to Artist

An Artists Introduction to Art Photography and Digital Giclee Printing

Information for artists and photographers on services for photographing your art and printing to Giclee and fine art quality resolutions on art papers or canvas.

Artists today have great advantages over those of the not so distant past. Selling our art was not lucrative in the first place, unless you were well known or had a following, but selling a painting at a time or the more costly method of offset printing, screen printing or similar has been revolutionized by on-demand methods. The new art-quality printers make for affordable production of art at reasonable overhead. Once you have the printer, it is only a matter of having supply and printing when you have a need of a single or small quantity.

If you work digitally as I do now, after many years of board, pigments, canvas and all manor of art supplies especially, this is an essential process you will need anyway. Yet, if you use traditional mediums and have found less than convenient ways to reproduce your art, paying others to do this for you, you might want to consider taking ownership of this process. If you do, I hope this will give you enough information to take the leap, learn the skills, and at least control your destiny as an artist with more understanding. For this I am passing on what I know. I don't know it all, (understatement) but encourage you to take this power of publishing to heart and see how it can be a much more empowering way to be an artist and publish yourself. What you cannot do, find someone who can help and share any capability to publish with other artists. We can be there for each other too.

That good idea is in pooling our resources as artists or getting an association together that you and your colleague artists can share costs to purchase equipment and supplies and publish, or approach a small frame shop locally and do the same, giving them the use of the equipment to house the printer and equipment if you can use their space. They might see an advantage in having artists there that will buy board, frames and supply too.

We are creatives by trade. Think of a way to do this and do it!

The idea is to be autonomous and self sufficient as artists. "Publish or Perish" is a saying for visual as well as literary artists. Take control of your art and help support the rich and varied culture we once had, now largely taken over by big corporate art machines and greedy galleries. We can, by sheer number take our culture away from the deadening commercialism it has become, but it might take some personal responsibility from us to happen. To modify a saying from the news industry;

"If you do not like the Art you see, go and make your own."

Step One: Photographing your art.

If your art is not a digital file already, you will need to photograph and digitize your art correctly. This is the most important step, and you will know why soon enough if it's not done right.

Photographing your art it is very important to have done with professional knowledge. The digital file you make can determine the quality and color accuracy for thousands of prints and many editions, so paying for a good digital file of your art is well worth the cost. Keeping a digital file of the art on a storage hard drive can be dangerous if your drive goes bad, so making a CD/DVD and an additional disc copy stored off site can insure you will never lose the investment of a good digital photographic image of your original.

There used to be many photo labs in my own area that could do good art photography, and I used them for years.

Before digital, if I could afford it or I planned to sell the original painting or illustration and did not already have an art quality transparency, I would pay about $50 for usually a 4" X 5" or "repo quality" consisting of 2- 4X5's one exposed a bit dark and the other a bit lighter, so I could later do prints or submit copies to magazines and publications, if not later doing my own offset prints. Now I have a scanner that can scan the transparencies and keeping the originals safe.

Due to the digital revolution in cameras and computer imaging, very few if any still exist. Exceptions being a few labs that can do quality photography of art. Some can only scan up to 16" X 20" or will do section scans and stitch the image together at 400dpi. It's best however to do it all in one color correct, razor sharp shot. Currently some common prices for photographing art are as follows:

16" X 20" $50.00
20" X 24" $60.00
20" X 30" $80.00
24" X 36" $100.00

Note: After 16" X 20" size art some services have to scan sections and stitch them together. You need to know a bit about that and I have done this many times when others failed to get my art scanned correctly.

The process breaks down into two main tasks:

1 1. The Image Capture – actually taking the photo of your work.

2 2. Post Processing – cleaning up your digital image for print.

How to Set Up the Camera and Lights

Photographing your Art

Photographing your artwork for the purpose of creating digital images can be a very difficult process if you are not familiar with what’s involved. However, one of the most important things to remember is your setup. Above is an example of how to correctly setup your equipment to photograph your artwork if you have that equipment, have a friend who does or are attempting this yourself.

You should be able to set your camera about 15-20-feet away from your painting — as the painting gets larger, so does the distance required. You use the zoom lens to fill almost the entire frame with your painting. The edges of your painting should be parallel to the viewfinder. If the edge of the painting looks curved, you need to move back.

Keep the camera lens at the exact center of the art or you will get distortions (Parallax or foreshortening and distortion). On an SLR camera a 50mm lens has the least distortion.

Lighting need be as close to the color temperature of sunlight, or at about 5000-6000 k. (More Here) Lighting that is color temperature correct is what most printers are optimized to use. It's the most consistent balance for color and will more consistently render colors accurately. Correct lighting angles and exposure are also important. This is an art in itself, so always use quality methods or services.

For information on photographing your art and whether it is a good idea to do it yourself, read this article: http://matre.com/731/print-prep/

Processing Digital Art Images

Photographing the art is the first step, but may be the easier part. If you are versed in Photoshop you might be able to compensate for any problems in the photography, but this is something you should know is quite technically difficult, and in some cases impossible without sometimes re-illustrating the image completely. So concentrate on a good photo first, and then worry about fixing smaller issues digitally if need be.

If you have Photoshop it can be much help with many aspects of printing art and graphics for promotion too. If you cannot afford the full Photoshop program, you can get a scaled back version of Photoshop Elements. Differences about these two versions are discussed here.

I can say with experience that for the fine adjustments, Photoshop Elements will not afford you many advantages as will the full blown Photoshop application. The extra $500-900 Photoshop Extended version cost is an issue for most, but there are some alternatives. Then plug ins, or additional little programs Photoshop uses can be added to help with color and photographic processing, adding to capabilities and unfortunately expense.

One free application you can get is Gimp V2.0. It can give you some good basic tools to help, but it may not be immediately easy to use, and will take a little time and effort to learn, as any powerful application. It might however afford you a cost effective solution if you want to try and manage your own digital images. Photoshop is the hands-down preferred professional tool.

Photoshop Screen

The Computer

For digital processing you need a computer with some muscle to work on these programs with fine art images and large file sizes. File resolutions for web are 72 DPI (Dots Per Inch), but reproduction quality art must be 300 DPI or greater. This will make files that are sometimes over 200 and 300 Megabytes.

Remember, your computer has to hold the image file and a backup, plus all the running operating system and programs in memory. That can be 2-3 Gigabytes at any one time. So you need a fast processor and lots of memory. I use a maximum of 8 Gigabytes and today there are motherboards and systems that hold twice that and more. That can be much more expensive than a standard computers usually found in a store. If you attempt to work on a large file and you don't have enough memory, the computer uses open space on your hard disc to manage the memory it uses and because it is less efficient it will slow you to a crawl and make work so tedious and frustrating you usually are forced to give up.

In most cases, and if you can find one, it is cost effective to have a good photographic service shoot your art images saving you the time and difficulty. You can still put the image in your computer, reduce the size and manage them for your promotional and web based needs without too much worry. It's good to have some skills to do these smaller tasks for your own needs, but don't expect to be able to produce your own high resolution fine art digital images without significant number of hours of study, testing and expense.

I've used Iris and HP printers, but I have found over many years and for my own needs that Epson does a great job of printing from my digital art files and is true to the colors given them.

If your screen is too dark, bright, or out of color calibration what you see and send to print will be too bright, dark, or off color. Its needed to adjust your screen so that what you see is what the printer will also see.

There are devices that can calibrate your screen and some software for that out there too, but this is an additional technical step that can cost more time and money but should be considered standard for only serious art publishing.

For the computer to work with large art files you need a fast processor (Multi-Core and fast), lots of memory (RAM), good software (Photoshop or other), a good video card (Nvidia or ATI) a good quality large screen and an art printer. All that can set you back $7-10,000 on the low end, so it is not for the artistic faint of heart, or, a modest budget. You can see why using experienced people with the knowledge and experience, the right tools and equipment is a much more economical and less stressful way to go. For the costs of time and money you add that cost to the sales price. (see "Pricing" below) This is why prints command a higher price too. When you understand, you can tell the collector it is worth the quality, and not just a mark-up for profits. But we know that now.

Printing Fine Art

Traditionally in the last 100 or so years, to make a quality fine art print, an artist has a photograph done as above. Then color film separations are produced, plates burned and then it was up to the press person to adjust the colors matched to the proof as closely as possible.

Small editions of 100-250, or large offset editions of 1000-10,000 are usually printed at one time, with up to 50 artists "proofs" for the first prints pulled off the press. This has always been time intensive, complex and expensive and would produce a large quantity of prints all at once. But it was all done with fine halftone patterns, or screens.

Typical set up for Printing Art Digitally

Within the last decade, fine art printing has benefited from the digital printing press and the now affordable inkjet printers from companies like Epson, Hewlett Packard, Rowland, Iris and other printer manufacturers. "On Demand" became a revelation for artists. Art could now be ordered in as few as one or two prints at a time.

On-Demand Printing is more affordable for artists. Having a small supply for sales is much more economical than an edition of 250 or 1000 prints to store and protect, that can take months of sales to pay for the printing and before profits. With small orders, you can get just enough prints for your sales and quickly produce more if needed. Technology today is working well for the artist more than ever, but knowing the process is like knowing your brushes and pigments if you want quality editions and prints.

There is much more to know about the process of printing fine art, including papers, inks and conservation. For fine art it is very important to use art materials with qualities suitable for fine art standards. When digital printing was first authorized by national and international art print organizations, and allowed to be called "fine art quality", the materials and inks had to conform to standards expected by collectors, museums and galleries that would demand the qualities fine prints traditionally had been known to have. The term "Art Quality" has demanding standards that as an artist you should understand. On-Line articles and information abound today, so you can educate yourself easily.

Art Quality Digital Prints

Papers and Substrates

Art Quality Papers with low acid content, or cotton and similar materials take inks that do not fade or degrade like offset printing inks, unless other or more expensive methods like art Stone lithograph or screen printing is used.

Organizations like Print Council of America, are print specialists with a current membership of over 200 individuals, most of whom represent collections of works of art on paper throughout the United States and Canada determine what an art quality print is and the materials qualities they must have. While the organization is comprised primarily of museum curators, it also includes university professors, conservators of works on paper, and independent scholars with a strong commitment to the study of prints.

With the advent of high quality prints that current ink jet printers of capable of, and ink formulations and art quality papers, such printing was recognized by the organizations as having sufficient materials integrity and deserving of the "fine art print" classification. Laws for the production and sales of such quality art prints can actually be enforced legally now under the many international councils who have agreed to standards of quality.

The word giclée was created by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working at Nash Editions. He wanted a name for the new type of prints they were producing on the IRIS printer, a large-format, high-resolution industrial prepress proofing inkjet printer they had adapted for fine-art printing. He was specifically looking for a word that would not have the negative connotations of "inkjet" or "computer generated". It is based on the French word gicleur, which means "nozzle" (the verb form gicler means "to squirt, spurt, or spray").

Pricing - How much should I charge for my giclee prints?

By Helen South, About.com

Setting a price on your artwork is one of the most difficult tasks an artist faces. The best guide is to look at the prices for similar art in galleries and on the internet. You'll find good quality open-edition Giclee prints from US$30 through to highly collectible limited-edition prints by well-known artists at us$1500. Be realistic about comparing your work to other artists. The price will take into account the price of your original drawings, the size of the print itself and the number of prints in the edition.

As a starting point, calculate the total cost of the print run itself. Include any set-up fees, such as the cost for photography or scanning, and the total cost paid for the actual prints, as well as any packaging and delivery fees. Divide the total cost by the number of prints, and you have your base price per print. You'll then need to consider how much profit you'd like to make, and balance that against what would be a fair market price to expect. Be careful not to undersell yourself, but don't price yourself out of the market either.

I agree with Helen. Keep the highest pricing on your original if you still own it. Some collectors will want originals and will expect to pay a nice premium. So if you do sell the original the compensation will be satisfying.

Here are some articles of reference to read on this subject:

http://www.insanetwist.com/2012/08/introduction-to-fine-art-printing.html

http://www.art-mine.com/for-sale/digital_art/introduction-to-digital-art

http://inkjetstation.com/blog/introduction-to-fine-art-printing-part-i/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gicl%C3%A9e

Advice & Help

I've listed some resources for you, and with some searching on the Internet you can find many services to print art for you too, but you will have less control, higher costs and less profit for your art depending on who you work with and what you can learn about photographing and printing. In any case, do research and ask experts for advice whenever you can. Educating yourself will be a lifelong standard to keep up with markets, methods and technologies that you need to understand to work in the arts today. So, start yesterday.

I'm happy to help, but in some cases need to direct people to other specialist sources. I am not a shop or service, but can help with some small orders. I print my own art, and do my own digital corrections, sometimes doing re-mark editions of canvas art I have digitized, so, I can help with color correcting, but have to charge for that, and sometimes the problem is beyond what we can afford to do, but as an illustrator there are only few things I cannot do with advanced retouching and correction I have done for over 20 years.

I also print art for other artists and friends, and educate as we go. If you are interested, I have outlined below what services I can offer. I can store digital files for art safely, so after we do the initial print and it has been approved, sending me an email order for prints can deliver prints within a week. Once I have the print-proofed file I also have the color profile and the art will print exactly the same each time if the same papers are used. A new profile is needed if you want to use your own papers. In many cases some papers will not work well, so I don't offer papers beyond the art paper and canvas I stock, (See them Below) because quality and final results can otherwise vary.

Best of luck, and always educate yourself as you can. Having control of your medium is what an artist must have to do good work. That understanding can give you more creative freedom and control in making art as you truly want it to be. Being an artist today seems more complex, but really just transposes the new tools from the old. While the tools have changed, the path of an artist demands as much intelligence and effort as ever.

What I do for my own Art

I have and use an Epson Stylus Pro 9800 printer for my own art prints. (Shown above) The 9800 allows me to print on paper or canvas and on rolls or sheet that can be up to 44" wide. In most cases, this limits the size in one of the dimensions to 40" or less. The other dimension can be up to 38 feet if from roll.

I use Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks. These are water soluble pigmented inks that significantly outperform lesser ink technologies, providing consistently stable colors. We always use Epson cartridges, not refills. These inks are long lasting ("archival" or "museum quality" are common phrases), and they enable true color fidelity, gloss level, and scratch resistance. This breakthrough ink technology also makes it the perfect choice for professional neutral and toned black and white prints with higher density levels.

My Preferred Paper

I primarily use Epson UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper

100% cotton hot press for long term durability
Acid free and pH buffered to preserve fine art and photos
Natural white, ultra smooth surface for incredible detail and accurate reproduction
Outstanding D-Max for prints with exceptional contrast
Dries instantly for easy handling with Epson inks

Some Standard Pricing

(This is only for a general idea of cost )

Print Size	Cost of First Print	Cost of Each Additional Print
8"x10"*	$36.00	$28.50
11"x14"*	$36.00	$28.50
16"x20"	$53.33	$42.22
20"x24"	$80.00	$63.33
24"x36"	$144.00	$114.00
40"x60"	$400.00	$316.67

My Canvas

I also use fine art quality Epson Premium Canvas Matte. It offers a high resolution coating that is pliable enough to withstand stretching without sagging, and displays a subtle texture for a true artistic look and feel. Combined with incredible color reproduction, Premium Canvas Matte for Epson provides a matte finish, instant dry versatility, and water resistance to allow for all applications that require the highest image quality and an archival display life.

Highest resolution canvas coating for outstanding reproductions
Matte surface for easy spraying
Unique texture for true artist look
Heavyweight for quality feel
Cotton/Poly blend for increased durability
Stretchable for framing

Standard Canvas Pricing (Stretching, Coatings, Mount Services are not Included. Ask for estimates.)

Print Size	Cost of First Print	Cost of Each Additional Print
8x10"	$65.00	$60
11x14"	$85.00	$80
16x20"	$125.00	$110
20x24"	$140.00	$125
20x30"	$150.00	$130
24x30"	$198.00	$175
24x36	$236.00	$200
30x40	$295.00	$250
36x48	$370.00	$300
40x50	$420.00	$380

If you are a photographer and want photo prints I can help you also, but I have to use other printers to print on to photo papers due to the ink differences. I can explain this and help you get good prints. Most professional photographers use the same printer we have, but with different ink. Changing inks is costly and difficult, so a printer is usually set up for photo or art exclusively. There are many services for art quality photo prints in the area and I can help you find them or arrange that too.

I'm happy to work with you and your art. For more information, advisory or my printing services please contact me directly or by email. As an artist I am very familiar with your concerns and want to help when I can. I can in some cases help tailor pricing a bit to meet your needs and walk you through the process as well. Art is important, but artists are more important than ever now. Let's do art!