Jim Nickelson - Fine Art Inkjet Printing: The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print

Jim Nickelson

The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print

Fine Art Inkjet Printing: The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print

Jim Nickelson

www.jimnickelson.com

Editor: Joan Dixon

Project manager: Lisa Brazieal

Marketing coordinator: Mercedes Murray

Layout and type: Hespenheide Design

Cover design: Aren Straiger

ISBN: 978-1-68198-206-9

1st Edition (1st printing, June 2017)

2017 Jim Nickelson

All images Jim Nickelson unless otherwise noted

Rocky Nook Inc.

1010 B Street, Suite 350

San Rafael, CA 94901

USA

www.rockynook.com

Distributed in the U.S. by Ingram Publisher Services

Distributed in the UK and Europe by Publishers Group UK

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016944451

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in China

To Heather, for encouraging me to begin printing seriously;
to Becky, for supporting me in everything;
and to Eliza, for inspiring me to do it all .

Jim Nickelson is a photographer whose work is driven by a sense of wonder of the natural world and its underlying science. Jim works full time as a fine art photographer and custom digital printer, and he teaches workshops on photography and digital printing both privately and through Maine Media Workshops.

Jim has received numerous awards for his photography, and his work has been exhibited widely. His work resides in museums, as well as in public, corporate, and private collections across the United States and Canada. Jim makes his home in Camden, Maine, with his amazing wife and daughter. He can be found online at jimnickelson.com and at nickelsoneditions.com .

Fine art inkjet printing continues to increase in popularity as its quality now surpasses many traditional types of printing and as acceptance into the art world is essentially complete. Inkjet printing has finally come of age.

Over the past decade, Ive worked as a custom fine art printer for clients across North America. Ive also been pursuing my own fine art photography career and have been navigating the gallery world during that time. Id like to share some of what Ive learned about fine art printing and, in particular, printing with the intention of working with fine art galleries.

I wrote this book to provide a different perspective from a more traditional technical book and to spend more time discussing how to realize your artistic intent with a print as well as special considerations for the art world.

Before we jump into printing, lets talk about what this book covers. In this book well talk about the basics of creating your own fine art prints using inkjet printers, including details about both hardware and software. Well also talk about more subjective aspects such as choosing a suitable paper and how to realize your artistic intent in the print. Later chapters will address preparing your work for presentation to fine art galleries and emphasizing the print as an object, along with many other topics.

Throughout the book, standalone Print Mastery articles provide more advanced information for those wishing to take their printing to the next level. For beginning printers, feel free to skip these sections until you feel the need for more information and are prepared to tackle them.

Over my years of printing and teaching I have developed basic principles that underlie my decision-making throughout the editing and printing process. Ive identified these Principles of Printing throughout the text and gathered all of them in the Appendix for your convenience.

I focus on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for digital darkroom software and on Epson inkjet printers for hardware, because these are the most commonly used tools for processing and printing. My goal, however, is to make these materials generally applicable by providing principles that can be used with different types of software, computer platforms, and printers.

Finally, I often refer to photographic prints and photographers, but the lessons and tools in this book are equally applicable to making digital prints of any type of artwork, such as reproductions of paintings or digitally created artwork.

Enjoy, and happy printing!

In this chapter, well discuss my overall philosophies for creating fine art inkjet prints as well as why its such an exciting time to be working with inkjet prints. Well also cover what makes a fine print and how best to realize your artistic intent for an image in a physical print.

Art stands on the shoulders of craft ,

which means that to get to the art

you must master the craft .

ANN PATCHETT

My philosophy for creating the fine digital print derives from a simple concept: the creation of a fine digital print requires excellence in both craft and art . Mastery of the craft of printing is a necessity for mastering the art of printing. I will of course address mastery of both in this book.

The craft in making a fine digital print is the development and implementation of the necessary skills to create prints that are without noticeable flaws and that take advantage of the inherent properties of the materials. Part of the craft of printing is developing your skills and workflow so that you can consistently produce prints that look as you intend. Learning the craft of printing requires learning both about the printing hardware as well as the editing software used to prepare an image for print.