Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers, 2nd Edition

After reading some excellent reviews from "Fine Art Printing" Uwe Steinmueller and Juergen Gulbins, I am truly convinced that this book must be seeing for those who really would like to learn, in low level, the best printing technics. But there were a important missing in this book. What are the best steps to preserv the best integrity from Raw files and them print.

If you in Lightroom and could send your Raw file directly to printer is one option. In second, you can choose edit in Lightroom and go thru Photoshop in TIFF convertion. And third way is export in DNG thru bridge and still in photoshop. So what is the best ways, aproaching printing resolution?

Great book with lots of good information, but I am a little perturbed with the lack of profiles, and information for people with a common printer that is a generation or two older. I have an Epson 4000 printer, and it is still going strong, and was also a very popular printer. The authors have chosen to skip these printers and go straight to the 3800 and 4800 printers instead. I wish they would go back at least a generation to help us out. I DON'T replace my printers EVERY time a new model comes out. I do so when the need arises--which often will mean I might skip a new model or two. I think that most people are the same!

Otherwise, I'd recommend this book highly.

The thing I love about niche books is that they stand out from all the others in the market. Nice books can be risky, being independent either the market is new or unknown and its kind of like throwing darts, not knowing whether you'll make a big hit or not when you toss that sharp projectile in the air. With 'Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers' this is certainly a niche market, that being inkjet output for photography lovers. Does the dart find its mark or trail off, careening off the wall??

Bullseye!!

I think that this is a great book for professionals or hobbyist photographers that are looking to get the best quality hard copies of their work from a (much) cheaper alternative way of printing. From looking at different kinds of equipment to settings to sample images, this book does every kind of examination that I would want and does it well.

Looking to learn how to enhance photos? CHECK
Want to learn the basics of Photoshop? CHECK
Want to learn how to present photos better? CHECK
Want to focus on black & white photos? CHECK

Great writing, layout, and a great niche market, this is an easy recommendation.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

If you are pushing hard for the last 3% improvement in Fine Art look no further..To be a Master is to have your OWN Style and Skill..This book provides the up skill techniques to present your work more professionally as a Master must...So many great usable tips and ideas to help you improve...Simply Buy it and use it and see..I did..

This is a title on digital printing by Rockynook, a recently established publishing house specializing in books on computers, digital photography and image production. They distribute their titles through O'Reilly here in the US. They have strong ties to a German publishing house dpunct.verlag, whose specialty is computer science and digital photography. Most of the early titles published by Rockynook have featured German authors. While I don't read German, the several books I've read in this series read as if parts have been translated from German, with occasional verbiage that reads as if it were transliterated, not translated. But the overall quality of the books is excellent, they're filled with beautiful pictures representative of the authors personal work, and overall the clarity of the text is more than adequate.

This is the second edition of this work, the first was published just last year in 2007. The publication of a second edition following so closely on the heels of the first suggests the rapid changes that are occurring in digital image production.

First, some caveats. The book is not really intended for the casual photographer who may print out occasional 4x6 prints on his ink jet printer. It is not for those who are using color lasers or small dye sublimation printers. It is for photographers using photo inkjet printers. The emphasis here is on "photo." Other printers are briefly discussed, but the discussion relates to "fine art printing."

What does that mean? It means one must be willing to make a substantial investment in both equipment and time. A high quality lower end photo printer with some printing capabilities for 13", 17", or 19" paper will start around $500, and the prices go up from there. These printers typically have 8-12 ink colors, and large prints use a lot of ink. That means substantial ink replacement costs. Good quality photo paper in larger sizes may run $2-$4 per print or more, depending on size. By the time you've calibrated your printer, done several test prints, make adjustments, hopefully printed a final perfect copy, you'll have invested some serious time and money to make a single quality image.

The stated goal of the book is to teach you how to make museum quality prints. Museum quality means not only are the prints excellent in composition and rendering, it also means that they'll last for decades to centuries. Besides outlining some of the tweaks in Photoshop that are an inevitable part of printing, there are discussions of the choice of archival inks, paper weight and finish, managing workflow, color, and presentation. The use of printing packages is covered. Both Windows and Mac systems are discussed. The final framing and presentation of prints is well covered.

A real positive is that specific recommendations concerning three manufacturer's printers are given, Epson, HP, and Canon.

This is an excellent work for the serious amateur, and possibly a reference for the professional photographer who wishes to retain final control over his images. Also, this is a good introduction for those interested in discovering the requirements for high quality inkjet printing.