A serious lesson I learned recently is that you should always get a few photos printed from a professional lab from time to time.

The level of learning that you get just by looking at the prints will be of a totally different kind.

This might sound very stupid at the first glance, but as I learned recently, there is a world of difference between looking at your photos on your computer monitor and holding the print and sharing it with friends and family.

The things you learn are on multiple levels.

Suddenly you will realize that the digital noise that you saw in the photo when you were watching it on the monitor is no longer there in the print. In fact, when you compare the prints of the same photo with noise with one in which you removed noise, you will find that the photo with the noise on screen looks sharper and better in print.
And the photo from which you had removed the noise so aggressively, now looks like photos of plastic dummies.

You will find out that your camera is not as crappy as you thought, and no you do not need the latest Canon or Nikon SLR.

Suddenly a small bulb will light up on your forehead to show you that high ISOs of 400, 600 or even higher is not as bad as many reviewers shout about. In print, the noise caused by the high ISO is barely visible.
It means that if needed, you can safely go to higher ISOs (specially if you have a DSLR) when taking photos of your children’s birthday party in the evening.

Look at the photo above. It was taken with a camera phone (Motozine ZN5) in a dimly lit room.
When viewed at 100% size on my monitor, it looks horrible.
Had it not been the photo of my brother playing with my 6 month old son, Krishanu, I might have deleted this photo. But since this photo has emotional appeal to me, I got it printed and trust me, the print looks awesome.

On a technical note, my friend Jatin pointed out… prints reveal things that appear subtle on monitor like clone stamp tool smudge marks etc.

He also warns about the issue with colors… there is a lot of difference between colors that you appreciate on your monitor and the colors that you get in a print. This opens up the doors for something called color space etc.

So folks, get some photos printed and learn from it.

A very pleasant side effect of getting your photos printed is that your wife, your mother, your brother etc, start to develop an interest in your photography. You see, now they get a bunch of photos of special events (which they insist on calling “Memories”) that they can share with their friends.

And trust me, there is no greater satisfaction than watching your photos become prized possessions of loved ones.

You do not learn all that, until you actually take prints of your photos and share it with people around you.

Happy shooting,
Gunjan