From paper to frame: preparing your own exhibition prints

Many photographers have ambitions to print and exhibit their work but are unsure of how to go about it. There's an abundance of choices to make, from paper type through to print settings and frames, making it a challenging but exciting adventure.

Commercial photographer and filmmaker Clive Booth has put together multiple exhibitions in the UK and abroad, and is renowned for his atmospheric fashion, beauty and portrait imagery.

Cheryl Walsh started her photography business making and printing high school portraits. She now specialises in fashion and full-length portraits shot underwater. Cheryl has also exhibited widely, mostly in group shows, and also runs printing courses for Canon USA.

To be sure of the quality of the final product, both photographers insist on maintaining control over the entire process, from capture to frame. They print on Canon imagePROGRAF PRO printers, from the A3+ PRO-300 to the 112cm PRO-4100. A key reason for choosing an imagePROGRAF pro photo printer is the broader colour gamut (the range of colours that can be accurately represented) delivered by the LUCIA PRO pigment ink system. Zero ink switching, with separate channels for matte and photo-black inks, also helps to keep costs down.

Here, the two pros take you through every step of the process of printing photos for an exhibition, from selecting paper to choosing mounts and frames, to demonstrate that printing your own images for an exhibition is not as complicated as you might think.

3. Colour management is key

Colour management is key to successful printing, and a properly calibrated and profiled wide-gamut monitor is essential. To get the print colours as close as possible to what is seen on screen, Cheryl and Clive follow a D50 workflow: setting the monitor's white point to 5000K, the brightness or luminance to 120 cd/m2, and using a D50 fluorescent lamp to evaluate the prints.

Cheryl and Clive print their photographs from PPL using ICC profiles. Each Canon paper has its own ICC profile – data that characterises a colour space and defines the colour performance for a given printer and paper.

If you're using third-party paper, you'll need ICC profiles for your specific paper and printer combination – they can usually be downloaded and added to the app. You can save the colour management settings as PPL presets, along with paper types, sizes, print quality settings and rendering intent. "With PPL, you have all your settings in one tab," explains Cheryl. "I make presets for each of my paper types and sizes, so it's easy."

You're almost ready to print, but for best results, first produce a soft proof from PPL – a highly accurate on-screen preview to show how the image will look on paper. "It's important to proof – always," advises Cheryl.

4. Pick mounts and frames carefully

Your mount and frame shouldn't detract from the image itself, but Clive and Cheryl have differing views on how they think their photographs are best displayed. "When you have a picture fighting for attention on a wall, putting a big border around it makes it look special, like a piece of art," says Clive.

Cheryl prefers her gallery images to look more like a traditional painting and presents them without a mount, in large, ornate frames. "If I'm selling my images, it's up to the client," she adds. "I'd recommend a natural white mount, certainly for smaller images – I want the focus to be on the image itself."

5. Choosing images to exhibit

Selecting the right images to showcase can be difficult. Do you stick to a theme, focus on creating a narrative or simply select your best work? Cheryl held her first retrospective in 2019, featuring 10 years' worth of images. "It was huge," she says. "My images are all 'fantastical', so I broke it down into nine different categories and picked the strongest image from each."

Both Cheryl and Clive agree that shapes, colours and textures are useful when grouping images, but Clive thinks it's more important to pick the work that best demonstrates your abilities. "Should every picture work in its own right, or do you have a series that forms a narrative? You're looking to show the absolute best of the best – the best of what you have."

Clive also points out that the traditional gallery is only one place to show your work. "Sometimes I'll exhibit my work at ad agencies," he says. "They all have their own exhibition space. In effect, we're all brands, so choosing the right location is really important."