Print Aesthetics

While we’ve all seen and admired great looking prints, we don’t always stop to think about what exactly we found so captivating. But there are some common traits that we generally see and appreciate; full and vibrant colours, deep blacks and luminous highlights, satisfying detail in the right places, smooth mid tone tonalities, and depth that creates the illusion of three dimensions. I think you’ll agree that these are all desirable qualities, especially when evaluating your own prints. The first step to making good prints is establishing a vocabulary for the different elements that you might want to see in your printing. It then becomes much easier to make improvements and creative choices based on the results that you’re achieving. 

What is true for any print is that success depends completely on the quality of the photograph, both aesthetically and technically. As Ansel Adams said, “the negative is the score, the print is the performance.” I think it’s safe to say that we’ll never remember a mediocre symphony played brilliantly, just as we’ll glance over a technically perfect print of a mediocre photograph. There are a few almost universal qualities however that we can use to both evaluate a print and decide if it properly interprets the photograph, and the photographer’s vision. This process will fine tune our ability to get the most out of the software and hardware we use to achieve our results. Here are the most important elements to consider, in no particular order:

Sharpness

Are the important details in the print sharp at a proper viewing distance? Is high frequency detail (areas of high detail like foliage, grass, sand) defined and clear without halos and other sharpening artefacts? A properly sharpened print exhibits detail where it’s needed, but doesn’t look overly sharpened or “crispy”. This really makes an image look and feel more organic and highlights the detail in contrast to smoother areas. We’ll talk more about this in the sharpening post, but it is critically important that we sharpen just enough, and not more than needed. Over sharpening, especially when done on a global scale (across the entire print) is a sure sign of a print that will lack subtlety and dimension.

Optimal highlights and blacks

Highlights should be smooth and creamy without losing important detail. Clouds and snow are perfect examples where optimal highlights can make or break a print. Similarly, achieving deep blacks without muddiness in the shadows is generally something to aim for.

Smooth transitions

Just as a symphony would sound rather hollow without the harmony and counterpoint that complements the melody, a print without smooth transitions between the highlights and shadows lacks richness and fullness. It is the transition between the brightest and darkest parts of the print that provide the depth and often visual interest. So called “shadow detail”, which creates a sense of depth and richness, is key to bridging the transition between the shadows and deep blacks. When done effectively, the print “just feels right.” 

The ability to render smooth shadows that invite the viewer to explore rich undertones is very much a hallmark of great prints, and will often be the first thing that someone appreciates and explores upon viewing your prints.

Luminosity / Saturation

In a similar way to rich tonalities, this is the ability of a print to look as though it is lit from within. Whether through color or brightness, it is really important to look for this in every print. Prints without luminosity often look flat and feel lifeless and two-dimensional. Over-saturation however can also work against you, so there’s a delicate balance required between just enough and too much. 

All of these qualities are subjective, will vary from image to image, and possibly change based on your interpretation of the photograph. But more often than not they will provide a useful guide as you gain experience printing your images. 

Scale

During our premium service appointments, we are often asked about sizing and scale. I don’t mean how large can a photograph be printed, but how large should it be printed. There’s no question that scale influences a viewer’s perception and response to a print.

The way you physically interact with a print will be different depending on it’s size, and so that’s always important to consider when you print your images.

We either hold smaller prints in our hands, or get very close to them, which makes them feel more intimate. This interaction is different from our relationship with a large print, where we almost always need to create distance between ourselves and the print, and almost never actually hold it in our hands. Large prints offer a grandiose feel that many like and prefer, especially if the subject matter is complementary to the size. That bring us to another important factor in scale, at least in my opinion —the subject matter. Some images are generally appreciated better at certain sizes. For example, many landscapes photos are grand in nature, encompassing large vistas. Our experience has been that they just don’t impart the same perspective and sense of depth when printed at a small size, say smaller than 16”x20”. This in turn definitely affects the emotional response that a print may produce in the viewer, and that is always of paramount importance to us. This is not to say that you always need to print landscapes large, but rather that you need to be aware of how scale changes perception.

When images are printed larger, they generally tend to lose contrast, become lighter in appearance, and emphasise small details. On rare occasions we make minor adjustments to the file when making larger prints to compensate for this. But in general, assuming you have optimal resolution, if your proof looks good at a smaller size, it will look good at larger sizes. In fact it may look much better!

In the end you need to decide what size your prints look their best. What you shouldn’t do is assume that size doesn’t have an aesthetic impact on how your prints are perceived. We know many photographers who will only print their images at certain sizes, and so the size becomes a part of the photograph’s identity. Nonetheless, do pay careful attention to make sure that the size will complement the photograph, and never diminish the subject of your image.