Every photographer should give the gift of their work to their dearest, and what better way to do that than with a printed piece of art?
The holidays are coming up soon, and if you’re in the spirit, consider the gift of your own artwork to clients, loved ones, friends, etc. What you create is special: you put effort into it, you spend hours in post-production or with subjects, and you refine your craft and creative vision until you feel like it’s just right. Your art should be on someone’s wall, on their coffee table, in their cubicle, etc. Want to get started? Let’s take a look at some of our favorite options for 2018.
Editor’s Note: This year’s Photo Print Gift Guide is sponsored by ShopDuggal.com. All the quality of the famous Duggal print house–but brought down to consumer prices.
Shop Duggal Vibrachrome Metal Print
Create your own custom fine art-worthy, vibrant yet durable print on metal. For a beautifully finished piece of art that will stand the test of time. These metal prints are sought after for high profile museum and gallery exhibitions internationally have even traveled to space as the first permanent photography exhibition aboard the International Space Station. All of our Vibrachome Metal Prints have rounded corners for safety, are backed with a low profile track brace and shipped with all necessary hardware for easy hanging.
Prices Starting From: $34.00
Shop Duggal Soft Cover Photo Books
ShopDuggal.com offers a diverse range of premium book styles that can be customized for all types of projects. With the high quality paper and special options such as lamination and foil, you can bring your photo book to a whole new level. The Photo Books are printed on a HP Indigo Press which offers high definition printing, seven-color capability and bonus ‘karma points’ because of reduced environmental impact due to it’s ability to offset carbon emissions. All of this allows us to provide you a superior product with a fast turnaround. The softcover photo book options are perfect bound and printed in Brooklyn, New York.
Prices Starting From: $27.00
Shop Duggal Photographic High Definition C-Prints
The HD C-Prints® are three times the resolution of industry standard – See the difference you’ve been missing®
Produced on true archival photographic papers, Shop Duggal’s stunningly vivid HD C-Prints® feature an astounding 6,100 apparent DPI. The high-end processor guarantees the complete transfer of photographic information from file to paper while the laser alignment system and optical transfer ensure the maximum quality of each pixel needed to produce the superior prints.
Prices Starting From: $9.82
Epson Legacy Paper
Some of my favorite paper ever made is Epson’s Legacy Paper. Epson specially created this paper for photographers to print, well, their legacy! It’s designed for fine art sales and as a result, it is their highest end paper. It comes in varieties of matte and glossy with all the flavors in between.
So what makes it so expensive? Lots of it is made in Europe in some of the oldest paper making factories in the world. The patterns and threads are randomized for much of the paper and you can tell often in the feel of some of the paper and in the way that your image is bound to be rendered.
Buy Now: Amazon
Canon ProGraf 1000
Perhaps my favorite printer for most of the work that we do here at the Phoblographer, the Canon ProGraf 1000 is a beast of a machine. It is heavy, always connected to WiFi, will randomly shake the ink to ensure that it doesn’t blot up or dry, and will accept a number of types of paper. It’s also pretty simple to use once it is connected to your home’s or office’s WiFi.
Trust me when I say that this is THE PRINTER that is going to get you addicted to printing.
Buy Now: Amazon
Red River Palo Duro Etching
Some of the most unique paper that I’ve tested recently is Red River’s Palo Duro Etching paper. It’s a matte paper designed to render the images you print to look like something that would have been made in the darkroom. To that end, if you’re one of those folks who loves making their images look like film as much as possible, then consider making those images completely manifest with a print that will embrace that look.
Buy Now: Red River
Blurb Premium Photo Magazine
Recently, we released our own zine using Blurb’s Premium Photo magazine services. Consumers can utilize Blurb’s fantastic editing software when putting together their zine. Then they can render a PDF, send it off to Blurb, and get it printed. The quality of the paper is fantastic with being a balance of just enough sheen to make images pop but not too much that it makes reflections on the paper to make it hard to read at times. You can pick up a zine and read it anywhere–which is perfect for that coffee table book that you’re going to gift someone.
Oh yeah, maybe we should mention that the quality is more along the lines of a coffee table book than a zine. It’s pretty high end.
Buy Now: Blurb (also check out Emulsion!)
