All the way back in 2011-2012, I did a photo project where I posted a photo daily to social media. It changed me and my photography for the better. 

A decade later, I’m barely on social media and struggling to find a way back into my photos. The common wisdom is that if you really want to up your photography skills you’ll start printing your photos. So I went and bought a printer and started printing. After a lot of trial, error, and wasted ink and paper, I finally hit upon a combination of papers and techniques that I like.

Once my desk became cluttered with photos, I decided to start sending printed photos to friends and family.

Things I’ve Learned

Printer

I was overthinking about buying a printer and walked into my local photo store before Thanksgiving. I thought I’d just buy whatever they had in stock. They had a floor to ceiling display of Canon printers and had every single model they make. I ended up sitting in my car reading about them and picked the Canon Pro-300 because I didn’t want to spend the Pro-1000 money and wanted a printer that could go for extended periods with little to no use. The Pro-300 also uses pigment inks and handles not being used for weeks at a time without a problem.

Getting the printer drivers right and getting good results out of Lightroom and CaptureOne could entail an entire blog post of their own. I can’t say I want to go through that again. Even though my Macbook recently did an update and broke my printer and I did have to do it all again. Note: Every single Apple update seems to break the printer drivers.

Paper

Photographers can get rather opinionated about their printer paper. I’ve bought a lot of different papers to find what’s right for me. I started this project thinking that I was going to use double-sided matte paper that was very reasonably priced and would allow me to print the info about the photo on the back. Then I found Red River’s Big Bend Baryta 310 paper, it completely changed my way of thinking. At a distance, I loved the matte paper and it’s hard to tell the difference, but the project is 4x6 (inch) cards and when holding the photo in your hand semi-glass of the baryta paper is incredible. The blacks really pop and details are crisp compared to the matte paper.