Eddie Ephraums
I’m sure we are all familiar with Paul Sanders’ mindful approach to photography, through the 2019 OSW workshop he led and the timeless-looking monochrome landscapes he creates through his watchful eye. Looking at the quality of his prints, I always assumed his post-processing and printing regime might be quite involved. But talking with Paul it soon became clear the opposite is true.
In its simplest form, Paul’s printing just involves pressing <Command P>. This is for jpegs from his Fuji X100V. He prints them straight, the way they come out of the camera. He describes these X100 images as playful journal images, compared with his more mindful medium format Fuji GFX 50S pictures. “I accept these journal jpegs for what they are. I don’t worry about absolute perfection. I want them to look how I felt about the subject, which in some cases might even mean the image isn’t perfectly sharp, or doesn’t have a completely full range of tones – a true reflection of the experience.”
The workflow for his medium format images isn’t complicated either. It involves just a minimal amount of post processing work. He imports the images into Lightroom, where he catalogues the files and does very basic processing, for which he has created three simple presets: soft, contrastier and something he loosely calls “crunchier”! He finds he doesn’t need to sharpen his GFX files, but when he used to work with Silver Efex he sometimes found it left unsightly halos around subject details. Interestingly, Paul exports his Lightroom files to Photoshop for printing. Why not print from Lightroom? Quite simply, he finds Photoshop easier for printing. Others, like myself, might find Lightroom a much easier application to print from. Either way, whichever application a photographer finds easiest to work with has to be the right one for them.
Paul is a firm believer that printing is the best way to complete the creative process of making a photographic image. “An image doesn’t exist until it’s in your hand. It needs to be tangible. I like to feel the paper and to smell the ink. These tactile qualities reinforce the power of a photograph.” For him a screen image just doesn’t compare. “When people see how easy it is produce high quality prints from their own images, one thing they do is to stop overworking their files as they might previously have done for social media. They dial down the settings and their prints become subtler, clearly benefitting from this less forced approach. Subtle qualities can get lost when images are published on line.”
Speaking with OSW workshop participants over the years, it’s clear that something as seemingly simple as getting a good print straight from a camera jpeg can be a challenge. It needn’t be, as long as the printer and the computer are set up properly, and are set up to talk with each other. For this reason, Paul enlisted Fotospeed’s help to make sure his printer and driver were properly configured for Fotospeed’s refillable ink cartridge system that he uses for his Epson 3880. (Computer/printer set-up is something Adrian and I always cover on our print workshops.) With his printer set up correctly, Paul found he could print using Fotospeed’s generic paper profiles, without having to get them to create custom profiles for his particular printer. As I’m sure people know, the subtle variations between each individual printer may necessitate custom profiles. Fotospeed create theirs at no charge if you buy your paper from them.
As Paul explains, another key to consistent printing is to shoot in the same way. He says this also helps build confidence and that once he started printing, and got consistent results, he couldn’t stop. He finds printing addictive. “It’s the healthiest thing you can become addicted to!”
Paul’s choice of paper is Fotospeed’s Smooth Cotton and Platinum Cotton. He also uses their High White Smooth Duo for anything double-sided. He doesn’t like to use a wider variety of papers. Apart from the obvious cost of holding a range of papers, too much choice can complicate and confuse the situation. Typically Paul prints his recent square format landscape images 35x35cm on A2 paper, with a larger margin on the bottom, where he signs and stamps the print.
Over the years, Paul has worked with many other photographers and workshop leaders, some of whom like to work in a more complex way. But, why, he wonders? He’s often observed workshop participants (and himself) struggling with this kind of more complicated approach. “Printing needs to be accessible and our job as workshop leaders is to make it fun and easy.” Paul doesn’t believe that printing has to be difficult to earn your stripes. “We all need to learn how to print in a way that suits us, so that we remain engaged.” This is something Adrian and I also strongly believe in.
When looking at other photographer’s prints, Paul tends to judge them based on his emotional reaction. “This means you can’t teach a one-method-fits-all approach. You have to understand the emotional reaction to the subject of the person who took the image, and not help them process and print, or crop the file, the way you would yourself.” He goes on to say, “It’s important to ascertain why the photographer was interested in the subject and to help them find the means to match this in the print. People don’t come on workshops to be turned into a version of the workshop leader.” As for the value of workshops? Like many photographers (including myself) Paul finds it hard to learn something as ‘easy’ as printing from books or manuals, but if someone sits with him and shows him what would work for him, then he’s able to quickly grasp what’s needed.
Paul has an overseas workshop scheduled for when the OSW print workshop is being held. At the moment it looks like it will be postponed until next year, in which case Paul will join us on the From Vision to Fine Art Print workshop in October.