People who follow me on Instagram know that I have a simple of rules to judge the quality of an image. It’s rarely the pure technical quality, such as ISO, shutter speed or aperture. More often it is that special feeling when you look at it and - to put that extra criticism into the equation - the answer to one simple question: would I actually hang this on my own wall? When combining all of those aspects nine out of ten images don’t make it to the finish line.
Although I always photograph in color, this rarely holds up in post production. The modern world simply has too much content and visual impulses. Photographers are canvassing the globe with their smartphones and there’re taken millions of images each day; Apple even advertises this in their award winning “Shot on iPhone” campaigns. Due to technology, some of them even come close to “Planet Earth-material”. How cool and beautiful they are: I find them too tense and therefore distracting to serve as interior decoration. Black and white has some kind of timelessness and peacefulness. And combined with my subject of choice, wildlife, these kind of images are clean and hold better in almost any interior.
When browsing for a company to print these images I came across the Germany based company Saal Digital. They provide a range of products, including fine art prints on baryta paper. It’s undoubtedly my paper of choice for fine art prints. Why? Well, without going in too much technical geekiness: the benefits include greater detail and definition, extended tonal range, some delicate texture and great archival properties. For short: monocolored prints on this material are, especially on a 50 x70 cm format, genuinely legit.
As I don’t want my images altered by other software I ordered using the direct online upload option. Sadly they don’t put this in the spotlight as much as the software they provide, as it is much easier to use. And more important: when not using the software app it supports TIFF-files. This means the possibility to upload (much) larger files with greater detail. The order process was straight, simple and incredibly rapid: within only 3 days I received my order. Nicely, securely packed and carefully rolled with some protective sheets in between the prints.
These guys come highly recommended for quality and speed!
