Why Printing Your Photos Still Matters

The image isn’t finished until it lives off the screen

In a world where most photographs live and die on a screen, printing your work has become something of a lost ritual. But for me, the print is still the final result—the moment the image becomes real. It’s when all the time spent planning, hiking, composing, and editing finally takes shape in the physical world.

I use the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 for all my fine art prints. It’s a large-format pigment printer that delivers exceptional detail, subtle tonality, and deep blacks that screens simply can’t replicate. But it’s not just about the resolution or the paper. It’s about finishing the process.

A Print Forces You to Be More Intentional

On a monitor, it’s easy to scroll past your own work. To over-edit. To change your mind. A print doesn’t allow for endless revisions—it asks you to commit. To slow down. To truly look at what you’ve created.

That process of preparing an image for print teaches you to see differently. It sharpens your editing, your composition, your color sense. You start thinking about how an image breathes on paper—not just how it pops on Instagram.

You See More—And Feel More

Medium format files from the Fujifilm GFX system contain extraordinary detail. But much of that nuance is lost when viewed on a phone or even a high-end display. In print, you start to notice things: the texture of a rock, the gradient in a sky, the shape of a snow-covered tree line. Things that felt subtle in Lightroom suddenly feel intentional on fine art paper.

And it’s not just about seeing more—it’s about feeling more. A printed photograph has presence. Weight. Texture. It invites you to spend time with it in a way digital never quite does.

It Makes the Work Real

There’s something deeply satisfying about holding your own photograph. Framing it. Signing it. It completes the loop in a way exporting a JPEG never will. The image is no longer a file—it’s an object. A piece of work. Something you made with your hands and your eye and your sense of timing.

For me, that’s when the photograph is finished.

Print for Yourself—Not Just for Clients

Even if you’re not selling prints, printing for yourself is one of the best things you can do as a photographer. It gives your work permanence. It builds your confidence. And it connects you with your images in a more physical, lasting way.

So much of photography today is about speed and screens. But print is about craft. It slows you down. Makes you look closer. And reminds you why you started in the first place