Nowadays it's no a problem at all to print a very decent quality photo,
for example A4 size, in a home environment on a printer, on which I normally print texts for school and work and scan documents.
I don't have to be embarrassed at all about the result, I can frame it and hang it on my wall.
I'm just curious to know a bit more about it.
A home printer, for a photographer, should meet a few conditions.
In particular, it should have a higher ink count than those conventional printers,
because that gives me more color range, better gradients.
It should work with classic dye-based inks.
What does that mean?
Dye-based inks that actually react with the media, they soak into the media and they're great for photo contrast
for use with glossy media, typically glossy photo paper.
The advantage of the dye-based ink is the beautiful contrast of the photos and just the way it reacts
with the photo paper and maintains the natural sheen, while it doesn't alter the surface of the photo paper itself in any way.
Of course, what might be more important to us now than it used to is the cost of that print.
Since the Pixma G640 is such a relatively new multifunction printer,
the volume of the ink lets me bring the price of the final print down to an absolute minimum.
This particular model can handle up to 3800 photos in the classic 10x15cm postcard format.
Now I'm really curious to see how it prints.
It's easy, I open the photo in whatever program I'm used to.
Classically, I select print, the Canon driver opens and I simply select the paper type in that set-up.
Here's your matte photopaper, we're going to print this on matte.
The print quality, obviously we're photographers, so high, no other option here.
We'll choose to print with border, select the format and simply hit print.
It can handle all our standard types of photopaper and a little something extra.
actually like this one a lot also because it can work with the so-called fine art medium,
which are the highest grade papers, the best quality.
They are a little bit different, they are actually cotton, they have a textured surface,
so then the photo can look completely different again and you get a better feeling from it even when you look at it.
Nowadays it's not really about having a photo that's either glossy or so-called matte, which was in fact glossy, but with a kind of texture.
Today I can have a completely matte photo with no glare that looks like it's printed on a quart paper,
plus of course these fine art mediums that add that extra feeling to it.
So in this case I definitely like the glossy one better
and we have it in 6 color channels.
Is there any way to say that some photos are better suited for glossy paper
and some for matte, or is that nonsense?
would really say that every photographer has a slightly different eye, everyone likes a bit different things
and it's great that everyone can choose the paper they want.
And once they know how the paper behaves, in combination with the photo, they can really achieve their goal.
So if I want to print a beautiful contrasting photo that has more plasticity,
I definitely go for the glossy paper.
If I want one that's, let's say, dreamier, with a little bit flatter dynamic range,
one that's, well, just more matte,
I'll go with the matte paper where I can better see, for example, the details in the shadows.
Maybe some portraits?
A portrait, fine art, some nudes maybe, to stand out nicely on that matte,
but again I would like to repeat that it's up to each individual, what they like and what it is exactly that they want.
Yeah, plus, if I have it at home, I can test it as much as I like, which is great.
Exactly, you try it out and then you go with whatever you choose.