Printing the Image - 2018-06-24 - South West Images
It’s been awhile since we’ve printed images, almost too long for both printer (though fortunately no printer head clogging issues) and us. Since our plan is to head back to southern Utah in the fall, I decided to dig into my archives and find a few prints from our previous trips there. Ann printed an image from Bryce Canyon, in black and white, and it glows. We’re planning a printing session soon to try hers again, but larger! For now, you’re stuck with my images.
The first image I printed was from our first trip to Utah. This image was taken in Canyon Lands NP on a quick (way too short) trip into and out of the southern part of the park. I think this is a part of the park I’d like to explore again, given the fewer people, as well as the various unpaved routes we could go on with Beast!
The image printed well and matched the qualities I see on my monitor. I did finally come to see the dangers of over sharpening and too much use of the clarity slider, which increases local contrast. You can see the problems it can cause in that strange edge effect in the upper right corner between the skies and the protruding buttes. It’s much more evident in the print than on screen, which means I’ll have to learn to be more careful in my use of both tools. Then again, I already have - this image was from 2015 and I’ve become much more sensitive in my controls, generally not pushing things nearly as far as I did before. Still, lesson learned.
I then switched over to an image from our spring trip last lear. This was an image from a location we drove by in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Again, I’d love to return here, but it’s not on this year’s itinerary. My goal here was to see how well the different layers of rock would separate, and how the darker green bushes would appear agains the lighter rocks
I had a bit more problem with this image. Actually a lot. For some reason the rocks appeared much lighter than the image above, yet the trees were just right. I even tried to make some adjustments, but still couldn’t get the textures in print that I see on screen. I decided to let the prints sit for a bit to reevaluate what’s really wrong, then try again. Perhaps I’ll work on it when we print Ann’s image larger.
The last image I wanted to print was from a place we’re definitely returning to this trip - Snow Canyon near St. George Utah. We’ve already booked our campsite for three full nights, so we’ll have time to revisit this lovely place. This image was taken on the petrified dunes looking out to the canyon walls. It was very early morning and the sun was breaking through clouds on the horizon. My goal here was to see if the print would hold the sense of light.
Well, the print captured it, which was good. But I also learned something that photographers had discussed before about print images that I’d not seen yet, which is that the eye seems to be much more sensitive to color temperatures in prints than they are on a monitor. If you look at the canyon wall, then quickly look down at the trees below, you see that the trees are quite a bit cooler in color tone. That really shows up on the print. That comes from the fact that there is so much in shade all around the lit bottom rocks and trees (and the trees’ greenish color). I’ve already “corrected” that by warming up the color temperature on the bottom half of the image so that it appears to be a more consistent color temperature. But again - lesson learned.
All in all, a very educational printing session!