About Proofing
Skiddaw House
The limited edition prints I'm offering for sale are original, signed and mounted work that has been through an extensive proofing process.
All of the images on this site are the on-screen versions of the images, optimised to look right on a range of computer screens. They are not the final print versions of the images, but they do give you a good idea of how the printed versions will look.
What is Proofing?
Water Nook House
Proof printing is the process of printing tests. I spend a lot of time working on my images to get them looking as close as possible to how I remember the scene. I then spend a lot of time and fair amount of money sending those images away to the lab to see how they look as prints. The resulting proof prints get put on my studio wall to be examined in great detail and viewed under a range of natural and artificial lighting. Initial proofs are almost never quite right. So I tweak and improve, and go through the whole process again. After anything from two to twenty rounds of proofing I'll have an image hanging on my wall that, despite several days of intense scrutiny, I can't see any way to improve. Then, and only then, will I offer copies of that print for sale.
The Difference Between Print and Screen
When you look at a digital image on a monitor in a darkened room you get to see the image in all its glory; the monitor itself is providing the light, showing all the details in the shadows, the richness of the colour and the full depth of the contrast between highlights and shadows.
When print that image onto photographic paper you are switching from a transmissive media to a reflective one. Instead of the glowing backlight from the computer screen, you're seeing ambient light reflected from the paper. The result is that the image hanging on your wall is never quite as bright as its surroundings and consequently looses some its impact. With careful altering of colours and contrast and sharpening you can create a version of the image that prints as well (or sometimes even better) than the original looks on-screen.