Digital Darkroom I

Another friend's or girlfriend's birthday and you didn't have time to think about a gift? Sometimes you need to quickly get your photo on paper and put it in a frame to give it to a close person after an hour. This is the first article about how to quickly and as cheaply as possible print your photo at home and turn it into a presentable product.

 

Printing.

The cheapest and at the same time largest format is A4, which costs 0.50-1 Ls when printing anywhere. Photo frame costs ~2 Ls. Together it comes to ~3 Ls for a framed photo. Unfortunately, it won't be cheaper at home, but sometimes because of speed we are ready to pay extra to get what we need right here and now. That's why I chose the cheapest and somewhat decent photo printer Epson Stylus Photo R220, which costs ~50 Ls. It's a 6 cartridge/color photo printer. Another big plus is that it prints on CD and DVD discs in quite good quality. One cartridge costs 11 Ls (together 66 Ls). You can buy cheaper here (with delivery it comes to 55 Ls). On average you can print 50 A4 photos, which means 1 Ls ink cost per one A4 photo. For paper, I recommend buying original Epson papers, because they give the best results. My favorites are Epson Matte Paper (pack of 50 sheets costs 10 Ls), Epson Glossy Photo Paper (pack of 100 sheets costs 20 Ls) and the coolest among glossy papers is Epson Ultra Glossy Photo Paper (pack of 15 sheets costs 10 Ls). These papers are available both at Elkor and Latvian internet shops. I'm pleased that there is a choice both for cheaper papers (0.50-0.20 Ls) and expensive ones (1 Ls). So the cheapest option to print an A4 photo at home is approximately 1 Ls. The most expensive variant costs about 2 Ls.

Frame.

I really don't like ready-made glass and other frames in stores. If someone likes them, then I recommend going to stores Tiimarii, Jusk or Novalux, where you can cheaply buy some simple frames.
Since those frames I don't like, I go to the Baltijas Papīra store (Ģertrūdes Street 23), where I buy white 50x70cm size and 5mm thick cardboard, which costs 2 Ls (you can also buy black for 3 Ls). There you can also have it cut in half on the spot. That gives you two frames for 2 Ls or a passepartout of 35x50cm size. A4 photograph is 20x30cm, and our frame is exactly 10cm on the edges, which looks quite good.

Attaching.

To properly attach the photo to the cardboard, at the same Baltic Papīrs you can buy double-sided adhesive sheet (A3 or A2 sheet costs about 2 Ls). That means about 0.20 Ls per one A4 photo. To protect the photo from scratches, humidity, sun and dust, you can buy laminating film. You can get it at the Kviller store on Kr. Barona Street 136d, where they sell it by the meter (2 Ls/meter). Laminating film is like a big scotch tape, which you simply paste onto the photograph. There is both glossy and matte laminating film. I use it very rarely because the glossy one makes the photo shiny and part of the interior reflects from this film. Matte film is slightly better, but for color photos it "eats" color, but looks good on matte black and white photos. There are also quite big difficulties at the beginning to get the photo in smoothly with both the double-sided adhesive and laminating film, because any air bubble that forms or remains between the photo and film will be very noticeable on glossy photo paper, that's why my favorite is matte photo paper.

Process.

The whole process takes about 20-30 minutes depending on experience. First, the photo is printed with Epson Stylus Photo R220. Color photos are excellent (it is still a cheap printer and you can't expect much from it), but in black and white photos it's hard to get exactly black and white tones, sometimes it's barely noticeably in some other tone. Next, the photo is glued to the cardboard with double-sided adhesive. Then if needed you can laminate. In both last processes you need to be careful to not create air bubbles. Glueing should be done slowly without rushing. Next, you need to solve the problem of how to attach the photo to the wall. You can buy double-sided tape from a construction store. That's the fastest way to attach a photo to the wall. Another option is to take wire or thumbtacks and make a hook and insert one end into the cardboard back, making a simple hook.

Application.

White cardboard I like more and visually with a photo it looks more presentable, not cheap like cheap glass and wooden frames look. So the cheaper home A4 photo print costs: photo paper 0.50 Ls + ink 1 Ls + base 1 Ls. Total 2.50 Ls (not counting the printer, computer, electricity and work). That means at home for 2.50 Ls you can "produce" a quite good quality photograph with a frame in 20 minutes, which you can give as a gift to friends, clients, cool models, good customers and even for your small exhibitions.

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