Do you print your astrophotos? Other · Stuart Taylor · ... · 28 · 1613 · 6

StuartT 4.69
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Occasionally people have asked for prints of my work, but I have always assumed that colour photo printing would be difficult given the delicate colour balancing required. My images look good on my well-calibrated screen, but I don't know how I could get a good print done which does justice to the original. But maybe it's just because I don't know where to go or what instructions to give.

I'd be grateful for your advice.
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EdDixonImages 3.82
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Usually not.  Did print an image of the sun which came out quite well.
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Robcafe51 7.53
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My friends are prompting me to do so so I'm going to do some research this month for cheaper ways to print and frame. I'm also looking at acrylic and glass for any "masterpieces," LOL, to come in the future that I may want to memorialize in a special way.
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TheMadLawyer 2.15
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I have used Fracture for a few pieces and the production was good, better than mediocre, but probably not excellent.
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Reg_00 9.14
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Have printed one and it came out excellent. Pretty soon I'm going to print enough to make a 3x3 grid on the wall in the livingroom. There are many print shops that can print you samples so that you can see what it will look like before ordering the real thing.
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kenkoziol 0.00
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I would recommend mpix.com.  I did a lunar eclipse mosaic and other printers could not get the orange color right.  This place is the one that did get it right and the prints came out great.  I printed two of my images from them and they were metal, 12x18, glossy with white base.  Total after discount for 2 was $136 and they have sales all the time (from the ads that show up in my email constantly).
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mhtandy 0.90
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I've had a few prints made on metal by Printique (owned by Adorama), and I thought they turned out very well. I have read a lot about printing in various forums, and a common suggestion is to increase brightness significantly before sending the image out to be printed. I increased the brightness by about 20%, but the prints were still a bit on the dark side so I'd bump that up even more for future ones. The color was great, though, and was accurate compared to my monitor's version.
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Reactor 1.81
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Recently I decided to print several A1-format flip-calendars with my astro-photos to make gifts to my friends. This is a short of my experience.

1) You should first convert your images to CMYK color space. Generally you have two options: perceptual and relative colorimetric. With either method you will face some color loss, so check which is most suitable for each image. If you are using Adobe Photoshop - go Edit -> Convert to Profile. Choose target profile, e.g. Coated FOGRA39, and select "Intent" - perceptual or relative colorimetric. Toggle "preview" checkmark to see how your image will change.

2) I'd advise choosing a glossy paper. It will give you a higher contrast.

CS Konstantin
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brent1123 2.80
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I work with a local gallery to print mine on wood laminate when needed (wish I could do metal but its expensive) - the owner knows what he's doing and recommended some adjustments for best print quality, usually I have to nearly clip out the background since a good monitor image will look foggy or low contrast when on print. Before Covid I actually had some profitable art shows but haven't done any since then. I'm in the US so I applied for a Tax ID (free) and this gave me access to wholesale pricing which generously dropped the printing costs as well.

And on another note, since I have a Tax ID for my photography business every since new piece of gear I buy is a business expense on my taxes ;)
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GaryI
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I have tried many methods and suppliers, looking hard for a nice cheap way to print them out.  That does not exist, at least not yet.  There is no substitute for using metal prints from a high quality supplier.  It doesn't come cheap - 18"x12" prints run about $65, and special coupons are harder to find these days.  I have used Printique (used to be called Adorama) for many years and I am satisfied with them.
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Juno16 5.01
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Gary Imm:
I have tried many methods and suppliers, looking hard for a nice cheap way to print them out.  That does not exist, at least not yet.  There is no substitute for using metal prints from a high quality supplier.  It doesn't come cheap - 18"x12" prints run about $65, and special coupons are harder to find these days.  I have used Printique (used to be called Adorama) for many years and I am satisfied with them.

Hi Gary and @mhtandy

I too have tried Printique and was very impressed with the customer service, however, my prints were not nice enough to spend big $$ for metal.
Way too dark and less than snappy colors. I tried to increase the brightness and contrast in PS, but still not nice enough for me to print metal.
Of course, I have only tried printing on inexpensive glossy paper and that might have something to do with it.
Question: Should I use color correction? I have turned it off before because I read (somewhere) online that print service color correction was not advised.

I have a few images that I would really like to print. Any advice?

Jim
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RogerN123456 4.24
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I print mine on Hahnemühle Art Rag 308gsm paper using a Giclée print service from Prodigi. They can print and deliver in multiple countries which is helpful when someone orders one from Australia etc.  

For the larger prints, e.g. 90cm x 60cm, I find that they are better without glass due to reflections. I spray mine with Hahnemühle Protective Spray instead.  I printed and framed a load for an exhibition earlier this year and they really did look good.

I have also used Whitewall for Aluminium Dibond prints, which also look good, particularly if you are after a glossy result.
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profbriannz 17.56
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I have printed, exhibited and even sold some (well, six) of my images.  I print on metal using the chromalux process, done by a professional landscape photographer who is local and does test printing for me for free.   

They look good, even if my appreciation of then has dulled somewhat by over-exposure.  The process is expensive, and the sale price to date barely covers the cost of printed and gallery commission (30%).   I have printed up to 90 x 60cm, but more often print at 60 x 40cm - because of cost.   The dozen or so I haven't sold will adorn my walls, once I put a picture rail up.

A lot of the landscape astrophotographers also the same process to print their artwork for the Winterstellar exhibition we hold in these parts (winterstellar.com)
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PhotonPhanatic 4.53
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I've printed several for myself and a few at the request of friends. I always print on glossy aluminum through artbeatstudios.com and have been happy with the results.
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kruegerth 1.43
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I tried a couple of different substrates and ended up with Hahnemühle fine art Baryta (325 g/sqm). It comes with very high contrast and snappy colors but does not have  this overstated "postcard" look. I like it a lot. If you want to have colors right you have to take care of a calibrated screen and a supplier that does ensureva color managed printing process. 
To my experience - no matter how well your monitor is calibrated - dark areas tend to look darker on a print. I would recommend a small "test print" before you do as an expensive large print. 
Thomas
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ranous 4.52
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I've been using bayphoto.com for my prints and have been very happy with the results.  They have an ICC profile you can download from their site.  You can use it with the soft proofing feature of Photoshop or Affinity Photo which will display your image to more closely match what their equipment will produce.

https://support.bayphoto.com/s/article/bay-photo-labs-icc-profile
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rroesch 1.20
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I have printed several pictures for a gallery display. The pictures are metal printing and they come very nice. If you do metal printing, you don’t need glass and frame. They also include mounting plate. One of the sites I use is McKenna in MN, assuming you are in the US
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BobGillette 7.14
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I do an annual calendar for friends and family.  Initially used Shutterfly, but after they introduced an unwanted auto-adjustment of exposure feature that I couldn’t defeat, I switched to Vistaprint.  Friends and family are pleased, so I am, too. I also enclose a separate printed description of the images. 

CS, Bob
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TareqPhoto 2.94
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I printed only 3 [not mine] on mouse pads also not done by me, and they are nice mouse pads i am using for three different computers, now i am waiting to have my own best astro images then i will print more if i can find the store again or somewhere for that.
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Tackettbr 6.24
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I am using bayphoto for my metal prints. I have been happy with the process and ICC profile as mentioned above. Currently, my prints are  hanging in my home office and at work. 12x18 is listed at 58 usd.  This has increased by 10 usd over the past year. They have 15% metal discounts every 2 to 3 months, I usually wait on orders until then. My largest print is 24 by 36 with good detail maintained on the Rosette.

20221112_124153.jpg

20221112_124851.jpg

20221112_124835.jpg
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ODRedwine 1.51
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Yes, printing works fine with a good printer.  The trick is to use print profiles managed by the computer, not the printer.

I use a Canon Pixma with Canon ink and Red River UltraPro Gloss paper. Processing and printing is done in PhotoShop.

To get the color and brightness correct I make 5x7 test prints using "Photoshop manages color" mode with Red River printer profiles.

The photos below are 13x19" prints hanging on the wall at my Lake House.

CS


BTW  I have also printed astrophotos on Red River canvas using the same printer.



image.png
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Soothsayerman 2.11
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I print some of mine usually on 16x20 metallic paper.  I get them done professionally and send them to Adorama here in the USA to do the job.  My monitor is calibrated so I have a pretty good idea what I will get.   Metallic paper isn't metal, but it is close enough for me.
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hornjs 3.61
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I have not printed on metal yet.  I usually print some off at cvs photolab to hand up in my office.  Results are mixed.  BUT, if I want to print on metal through bayphoto, do I set my ICC profile in pixinsight prior to saving the image as a jpeg and uploading to thier site?   Or do I need to have photoshop or affinity to do it there?
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Soothsayerman 2.11
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Jeff Horn:
I have not printed on metal yet.  I usually print some off at cvs photolab to hand up in my office.  Results are mixed.  BUT, if I want to print on metal through bayphoto, do I set my ICC profile in pixinsight prior to saving the image as a jpeg and uploading to thier site?   Or do I need to have photoshop or affinity to do it there?

For Adorama Printique you can do it either way.  Save only to jpg if you are using the "save as maximum file size" option otherwise save as .tif.

You can specify if you want them printed with your color profile or if you want to have them print it with there's.  They will correct the color to sRGB if is it not right.
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ranous 4.52
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What I do is bring in my finished image from PixInsight into Affinity Photo.  In Affinity, you load the Bay Photo ICC profile into their soft proofing tool.  In the soft proofing tool you apply a layer using that profile, and the image is adjusted so that it'll look like what the printed image will be from their printers.  You then adjust your proofed image to get it looking like you want it.  I usually end up having to significantly brighten the image and maybe bump up the saturation.  When you get is looking like you want, you save this adjusted image which you can then upload to Bay Photo.  You can also use Photoshop for this as well.  You can find youtube videos that demonstrate how to use the soft proofing feature.
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