Printing A0

Recently I have been printing some A2 size prints of my 10x8 captures. Originally I intended to display them as their negatives on the wall, they are just so nice, but after printing my 5x4s at A3 size to show in tutorials, I really liked having these prints to hold and show. Its so much nicer to have a print in your hands than a representation on a screen. Seeing the size difference again made me think of printing big. I thought for a week about it, and I decided to take the plunge. The work needs to be as big as possible, to have the effect. Shooting on 10x8 demands consideration, when you take a photograph on 10x8 so much work and setting up as gone into the process that it is highly considered. These shots cannot be merely walked by, when for example you are using an SLR, you walk around and snap at so many things, when using such large format everything is methodically thought through. These photographs cannot merely be walked past, so the Print needs to be large, to demand attention.
I chose the image I wanted carefully, as I cant simply print another if it does not work out well. I even had to rescan the negative to ensure I had enough resolution, just to be methodical. I went over the image from the start. Again I left in the problems of the scan process, and paid attention to the development process so the strange effects came through. I rotated the image to make things simpler when printing onto the 'roll paper', which was big enough to fit a A1 across, or an A0 lengthwise.
I methodically went through the print settings, 16-bit output, Super Fine Detail, unclick high-speed, all through the paper options.
I printed a test strip, of approximately 3 inches to check the print, check the sharpness, the tones, the resolution. All was great so I decided to proceed. It took around an hour and a half to finish printing. When It was finished I noticed quickly there was several inches missing from the other side of the print.
I had to come back the next day to do another print. I guess there was no definitive way of knowing the roll was nearly done, it sure looked like there was a fair amount of paper left. If I had not printed the test strip it would have printed the whole image, but I am still glad I did the test print, because I can imagine if I printed the whole thing before checking and one little thing that I might have overlooked could have ruined the whole print. The next day when I printed everything went without a hitch. Again II went through all the settings, though they hadn't changed since the previous day.

Printer Profiles 2

It turned out that the printer profile I chose was wrong, the first few step were right but, I loaded the Profile into the wrong place, and what I thought was right on the instructions was actually a wrong profile with a similar name.
It caused the print to be really dark and the colours were off too, we ran a nozzle check, which concluded that the nozzles were fine, which made us realise what was wrong.
We had to re download the file and load it into a different place. That place was Users > Library > ColorSync > Profiles. We checked in the ColorSync Utility that ProPhoto RGB fits inside the colour space for The Fotospeed High White Smooth FineArt Inkjet Paper. This caused the profile to be available within the drop down menu where you choose the profile, in colour management. The difference was one was 4K and the correct one was called the same without the 4K.

Printer Profiles

Today I have been learning about colour profiles.

I printed my final pieces fairly easily as I used Epsom printing paper, and the screen had already been calibrated, and the profiles had already been loaded onto the system.
The only trouble I had was as I was printing large - A0 - I talked with my tutor to make sure everything was clicked correctly in the print settings in Photoshop - I am used to printing from light room, and the majority of my printing has been from there.
Last Year I printed form Photoshop all day everyday in my job at Splash photos. In that job I was making quick prints on glossy paper to be sold quickly, rather than high quality exhibition worthy prints to be deliberated over.

My prints have been in black and white so it has been fairly simple, however I helped others doing their final pieces.
The trouble my friend had was that she was using different paper profiles. We had to download it from the fotospeed website, which to be honest it was hard to find, I had to specifically google the profile rather than go through the website find the paper and find the profile, as there just didn't seem to be a link there.
When I downloaded it I was able to follow the instructions that had also been downloaded with it. I had to find the folder "Library" which on these shared university computers was not so easy, then I had to drag the file in to the subfolder labelled "Profiles". Then in Photoshop I loaded a test file, brought up Print Settings, and chose Photoshop manages colour, instead of printer manages colour in the menu. The Profile was in the list there.
We chose to un-click high speed, and chick finest detail, which we set at the maximum available, which for this was "SuperPhoto - 2880dpi" in the print settings within print settings.

This was good experience, even though it didn't directly affect me, it is something I can bare in mind in the future. I think if I was by myself or in a calmer setting I could work things out quicker, with a busy environment with many people asking me questions while I was reading it took a little longer, but for my first go, I feel it went well, and I can remember how to do this next time I need to.