Get studio-quality prints of photos at home

Merely good cameras and accessories won't help you get the photograph of your dreams. What is often overlooked is the last mile: the printer. The printed photo is what gives the final expression and life to a photographer's creative visualization and intents. The painstaking efforts put in by the artiste might just come to naught if the printer isn't up to the mark.

Ironically, printing is the only segment in the entire process where the photographer usually doesn't have complete control over the product he or she is creating. During the shoot, she would get the angle, light, composition, aperture, shutter speed etc right. And later, she would fine-tune the raw image digitally on an editing software.

But to get the final product, she would have to either rely on low-cost, less-efficient home printers or hand over the image to a third-party studio. That's the make-or-break last mile, especially for professionals who depend heavily on the quality of the prints.

Canon, the Japanese photography pioneers, recently launched 'in-studio' printers -- Pixma Pro-1, Pro-10 and Pro-100 -- that fill this gap. "In-studio printing" is a concept wherein the photographer takes high-quality prints of photos himself or herself. The specs of printers is important because they determine to a large extent how the captured image, which is in RGB form, is converted to printed form, which is in the CMYK format.

The Pixma series is targeted at discerning professionals who would not like to compromise on high-colour-accuracy printing, says Alok Bharadwaj, executive vice-president, Canon India. These have, what is called, the Optimum Image Generating system that analyzes the intended colour and determines the most ideal ink mix based on factors like print modes, paper quality and image attributes.

"Pro-1 and Pro-10 also feature Chroma Optimizer which is added as a layer over the inks to create more uniform level of glossiness and regulate surface reflections. It also increases the density in darker colours, for deeper blacks with more gradations," Bharadwaj said.

Pixma Pro-1 has large volume 36 ml ink tanks and the 'Fine' technology ensures that it can print an A3-bordered full-coloured photograph in 4.20 minutes. An Ethernet port allows multiple users at different computers to use Pixma Pro-1 over a wired network.

Bharadwaj said that now photographers can also be assured about security and confidentiality of their creations too. "Often photographers worry about the exclusivity of their personal creations being compromised when they give the image to third-party studios for taking the prints. These are very critical not just from the privacy point of view, but also from the business aspects."

The high-end printer segment is competitive with many models from other players as well fine-tuned to specific applications. For example, HP has Officejet 6600 e-All-in-One which is a low-cost multifunction colour printer that is touch and wi-fi enabled. It also allows multiple devices to print wirelessly over a network. Epson recently launched new models aimed at CAD and engineering markets: SureColour T-Series wide-format inkjet printers.