how large (or small) are your prints?

[h2oman]

I'm just curious. Clyde Butcher and Christopher Burkett make very large prints. Michael Kenna prints 7" square, some folks make 4x5 contact prints. Do you lean one way or the other (large or small)? Or do you print all (or most) of your images in various sizes, or maybe base print size choices on the particular image?

[Vaughn]

I only contact print (alt processes) these days. 120 up to 11x14.

[Merg Ross]

Contact print 4x5 and 8x10. Enlargements nominal 8x10 to 16x20, depending on image. Small prints can be powerful!

[GRAYnomad]

The biggest I've done lately is 30x60", but that was a machine print, not in the darkroom.

Biggest I did in my darkroom when I had one was about 30x40" I think.

Biggest I've done in a work darkroom, maybe 7 feet by the width of roll paper (42"?).

[John Layton]

These days: about 80% 16x20, 10% 20x30, 5% 30x40, and 5% 40x60...all wet-darkroom prints.

Large prints can be powerful too!

[GRAYnomad]

These days: about 80% 16x20, 10% 20x30, 5% 30x40, and 5% 40x60...all wet-darkroom prints.

Large prints can be powerful too!

I looooove large prints. I doubt I'll ever have a darkroom again so can't do wet process, but as mentioned I can still have machine prints made.

The next question is "What the heck do you do with them?" I have them stored under beds and rolled up in tubes, plus a few on the wall but I only have so much wall space I used to sell a lot off my web site but that's died in recent years, and also I'm not into exhibiting these days either, too expensive and too much work for loo little return.

[h2oman]

The next question is "What the heck do you do with them?"

Great question!

I have a friend who sells prints, mostly of people fly fishing. Anything else he mounts and frames for his house for a while. Then he changes out the print (these are inkjets, mind you), and takes the old print to the library (he's in a small town) and thumbtacks it to the community bulletin board for anyone to take! Here's my story: https://www.greggwaterman.com/post/w...-do-with-those I just put the prints in the frame with no mat or glass. Then I change the prints every few months.

[GRAYnomad]

Great question!
... Then he changes out the print (these are inkjets, mind you), and takes the old print to the library (he's in a small town) and thumbtacks it to the community bulletin board for anyone to take! ...

That's a good idea, I'm also in a small town and I even know the librarian.

Even large machine prints don't cost so much I would worry about giving them away these days, heck nobody buys them anyway

[rdenney]

I print for the wall at nominal 16x20, the biggest print I could ever make, either in the darkroom or on my desktop. Going larger than that requires an order of magnitude more money.

I print a lot at 8x10ish, too. And 11x14ish is my usual portfolio size.

But I’ve done more book-form printing in the last few years, and those range up to 7x9ish, though sometimes I’ll make a 9x16 two-page spread.

Rick “doesn’t sell prints so what sells doesn’t matter” Denney

[Tin Can]

5X7 to 16X20 FB & RC, contact prints up to 16X20 and enlarged from as small as 35mm to poster size

Have done 20X24 RC from 8X10

and made one X-Ray positive 'slide' by enlarging 5X7 onto 4 sheets of 14x17 X-Ray which I taped together after development and attached inside a window

with a lamp projecting it to sidewalk

my old studio was on a side street