Giclee for Photography

Traditional giclee prints have been limited to photographic papers until a few years ago. With the advent of the Iris 3047 many fine art and commercial photographers have been able to create work that can be displayed on papers such as the Arches watercolor lines.

One great concern has been durability, Dmax and tonal range. All these issues have been resolved with the advent of 6+ inks which are pigment based. The number of inks creates a greater gamut, higher Dmax and the pigments insure archival characteristics unheard of before.

Opportunities for photographers to market giclees are great:

Portrait and wedding professionals can now offer very large giclee prints on a disparate number of surfaces. We can help you by providing some printed paper samples to display to your clients.  Print reordering is as simple as a phone call.

Architectural and aerial photographers often need big prints for their clients. Recently a CEO of a large Florida based company ordered a set of large prints for one of the boardrooms. At the first meeting in the room the officers loved the photographs so much they wanted copies to display in their offices. With the files on hand, printing was a matter of a few hours.

Fine art photographers are the first natural beneficiaries of this process: limited edition giclees on their choice of paper. And, if you have not seen black and white or duotone prints we make, you are in for a surprise! The blacks and gradation rival and sometimes surpass fiber based silver gelatin.

The Reality

Migration to digital high quality printing is becoming more of a necessity than an option. Many of the film and paper manufacturers are slowly (and some not so slowly!) abandoning traditional silver based technology.

One option is for a photographer to set up a digital printing lab; the advantages are cost savings and immediate feedback. The problem is that it takes time and a steep learning curve to become proficient. On average it can take from 1 to 4 hours to scan, color correct and print one image.

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