Photo Exhibition Print Preparation and Retouching

What we prepare

• Fine art retouching checked at final print size, so marks, halos and repeating patterns don't show on the wall.
• Color and density matched across the series, so the prints read as one body of work when they hang side by side.
• Film scan cleanup: dust, scratches and color casts, keeping the film's grain.
• High-resolution development from your RAW captures, and upscaling where a file falls short of the print size.
• Files soft proofed against your lab's paper profile, in the color space and format it asks for.
• Sharpening for the size and paper, unless your lab sharpens its own files.
• Changes to the files after you've seen your lab's test prints.

What stays with you and your lab

We only work on digital files. Printing, scanning film, test prints, mounting and framing stay with your lab and framer, so you can keep the people you already trust. Tell us which lab you're using and we'll set the files up for it. If you haven't chosen a process yet, C-print vs archival pigment print explains the main choice.

Why this isn't the same as prepress

A magazine or brochure goes through prepress: CMYK, ink limits and bleed. An exhibition print usually doesn't. Most photo labs take RGB files and print them with a profile for that printer and paper, so converting to CMYK would throw color away for nothing. What matters instead is how the image holds up at size on that paper. Soft proofing and test prints are how you check it.

Film scans

A scan records every speck on the film, and a large print makes each one easier to see. We clean scans by hand and keep the grain even, so a repair doesn't show as a smooth patch. Automatic infrared cleaning, common on desktop scanners, doesn't work on traditional silver black-and-white film, so those scans need hand work anyway. If you're printing large, ask your lab or a scanning service about a new scan, because a better scan usually beats upscaling.

What to send us

• Your finished images, RAW files or scans, at the highest resolution you have.
• The print size of each image.
• The lab, the paper and the lab's file specifications, if you have them.
• How each piece will be mounted or framed.
• The opening date, and the date your lab needs the files.
• A reference, such as an earlier print you like or your own edit.

How to prepare photographs for an exhibition goes through the whole process, including a schedule that works back from the opening.