Photography and Inkjet Printing Renaissance at Limited Editions Maui

Randy Hufford, owner of Limited Editions Maui, does and has done just about everything related to photography, art and printing. Hufford started shooting and developing film at an early age and by the time he was 16 he picked up his first professional paycheck for $500 from Hobie.

Surf photography
Randy Hufford pioneered nighttime surf photography in the 1970s.

“I took pictures of a pro skateboarder sponsored by Hobie skating in a pool with the tuxedo he got married in, and Hobie paid me for one 35mm slide from the shoot,” recalls Hufford. “I got a clue that this was fun and I started doing a lot of surf photography.”

But Hufford wasn’t content with run-of-the-mill surf photography. He pioneered nighttime surf photography, building a strobe inside a water housing for unique stop-motion action photography. He was recognized for his work by Surfing Magazine as a progressive surfing photographer.

Around that time, Hufford met his wife, Becky. They lived in a camper and camped out wherever the surf was good, capturing the surf scene and basically living a Bohemian lifestyle in Hawaii.

Hawaii landscape photography
Much of Hufford's fine art photography captures the majesty of Hawaii's landscapes.

The Huffords traded their camper for a more permanent abode in a guest cottage, where they turned a closet into a darkroom. Though they weren’t actively seeking out enlargement and photo processing business, people found them and their demand necessitated a larger and more operational lab.

“People were knocking on my door at 10 at night, so we moved down to central Maui and opened a photo lab,” says Hufford.

From there they built a growing and successful photo lab business to not only meet demand on the island, but to control their own images.

Photographing Hawaii“The main reason I opened a photo lab is because as a photographer I didn’t have control over the entire image process. I wanted control over my image: dodge and burn, lighten and darken, adjust the color, make corrections and changes,” says Hufford. “The photo lab made me excel as a commercial photographer: shooting interiors, food, aerials. I could also provide finished mounted prints. Most photographers don’t realize that we’re in the most exciting time of photography because of the control you have with Photoshop, calibrated monitors, printers and all the stuff we can print on.”

With the advent of inkjet printing, Hufford says everything changed, mostly for the better since he was able both simplify and expand his offerings.

Photographing trees“After 25 years all that processing equipment was basically useless. We liquidated most of our equipment and I moved my studio to a rural area on Maui in a pole house. We replaced a big photo lab with one 44” inkjet printer,” says Hufford. “A lot of people don’t realize how powerful one inkjet printer can be. Those machines are like printing money; you can output so many prints without the labor. I can generate as much income as a $5 million lab with just one 44″ printer.”

As mentioned earlier, Hufford has done just about every type of photography and every aspect of the process, from capture to finishing, but he says his passion is education. Hufford holds classes each year at a facility called the Institute of Visual Arts.

Big surf photography“All we do is go out and shoot. It reminds of when we lived in our camper, because I forget everything else and just go out and shoot and create images. We just did a class on shooting HDR panoramas and in a week I shot around 60-80 panoramas, each composed of 70-150 images stitched together,” says Hufford. “It’s so much fun to create such powerful images. When I shot interiors in the past with film it meant 300 to 500 bucks in Polaroids and a whole slew of strobe lights. Now I can go in and shoot HDR, pick up the ambient light of the room and see the exposure outside the window which I couldn’t do with film.”

In addition to the Institute of Visual Arts, Hufford has produced a number of educational DVDs on finishing, inks and media, digital art enhancement, marketing giclees, calibration, fine art photography and processing HDR panoramas. Hufford has also come up with a product called the Dual Edge Ripper to create unique deckled edges on fine art papers.

Educational DVDs on photography and printing
Hufford has produced educational DVDs on everything from processing HDR panoramas to color calibration and inks, inkjet media and finishing.

“It’s amazing the amount of things we can output now. I’ve been testing a backlit panel with LEDs that light the edge of the Plexiglas so it lights evenly. The LEDs are ten times brighter than they used to be, they’re full spectrum so there’s no color cast and the images have more dimension, plus they’re dimmable,” explains Hufford. “We’ve been experimenting with it in the fine art market where we put the art in a frame and just plug it. They have so much dimension that it feels like you can walk into them.”

Hufford is obviously busy with everything a photographer and educator can possibly do, but he’s not too busy for his favorite pursuit: creating photographic art.

“There’s a place down the road called Grandma’s Coffee House with the best breakfast in town, which is decorated with my images. The heliport nearby has hundreds of tourists come in every day. I put some of my prints and backlit panels there as well, and having my work at both places helps sell my work. I’ve been working with other businesses where I help them by decorating their offices from which I get additional exposure,” says Hufford.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: A Small-Format Laminating Time-Saver

Laminating small stuff, like menu boards and table tents, can be a real pain. Just ask Chuck Black, print shop manager for the Coors Distribution Center (CDC) in Denver.

I recently caught up with Black while he was laminating a run of about 1,500 11×17 signs for CDC accounts. The signs, printed on an OKI laser printer, are troubleshooting procedures for each account to follow regarding kegs and whatnot, and what to do if there are problems before calling in for service.

It’s not the most exciting project to come through the print shop, but it has to be done and they all have to be laminated. Fortunately, what would have previously taken a full day or two to run through the CDC’s larger laminator now takes relatively no time at all.

Earlier this year the CDC purchased a small-format GBC laminator, the HeatSeal Sprint 950, which eliminates the hassle of trimming out each piece individually: you feed the printed sheets (usually up to 30, depending on the thickness of the media) and, voila, a laminated piece with a nice 1/8″ border encapsulating each one.

“We got the laminator to save time trimming everything down. All the small-format media we laminated was going through our 38” laminator, and especially when we were doing hundreds of sheets at a time it would just take forever,” says Black. “Since we got the laminator we’ve easily saved 40 to 50 hours of labor time. You just load your paper and you can pretty much walk away from it.”

Black estimates that about 10 percent of the work that goes through the OKI is laminated. Though it’s a relatively small percentage of the small-format printing, it really adds up and was a real time-killer before the acquisition of the laminator.

Black normally uses the 3 mil laminate designed for the GBC laminator, which comes in various roll sizes and is 11″ wide. He switches to the 5 mil version for signs that need a little more substance to them, either for a higher-end look or so they can stand on their own in a tabletop holder.

“You can set the laminator to 11 inches wide and however long you want each piece to be laminated; we usually set it at 11×17. But if you had a roll of 11-inch paper you could laminate a length up to 200 feet,” explains Black. “We’ve printed two per sheet so afterwards I can use my industrial cutter, line everything up and do two or three chops at once and go through the entire stack.”

For more information about GBC laminates and laminators available at LexJet, contact a customer service specialist at 800-453-9538. To find out more about the laminator and how it works, check out the video embedded below…

The Next Phase in Canvas Printing for Industry Veteran Louis Brevetti

Canvas printing website

Louis Brevetti, owner of printmyphotooncanvas.com based in Wolcott, Conn., estimates that he’s produced more than 1.5 million canvas prints during his career as an art publisher and as an art print provider for big box retailers.

Printing wedding photos on canvasNow, Brevetti aims to continue that production rate but with a different focus and a new online business. The strategy is simple: provide high-quality canvas prints at an affordable price with free value-added services to boot (color adjustments, red eye elimination and touching up minor blemishes).

Over the years Brevetti has learned through trial and error how to keep quality up and production costs down. What he found was that with the right printer, inkjet media and finishing methods it was possible to do it and keep materials and production in-house and in the U.S.

“We came up with a method to produce and finish canvas that allowed us a fantastic production rate, but the quality of our images was just okay. That’s how I found Dustin Flowers at LexJet. I asked Dustin to print a sample for me and I was very impressed with what he came up with,” says Brevetti. “My son Dan stretches the canvas with our special stretching technique that we guard very closely because it shaves off about 40 percent of production time. I have a Canon iPF8300 12-color printer and we print to Sunset Reserve Bright Matte Canvas. The difference in quality between what we were using before is like night and day. Dustin knew exactly what I was looking for, and everyone who has looked at our work has been very impressed.”

Brevetti adds that though the business is conducted almost exclusively on the Internet, he plans to open a storefront in Wolcott (Connecticut) as well. The website is set up to complete the canvas order in three simple steps. Brevetti says it was important to ensure the image travels from step to step exactly as it was in the previous set. For instance, in Step 2 users can crop their own photos as they like and their work will remain throughout the process.

Printing your own photos on canvas“Every image we receive will be set on quality settings that maximize the art. If you send an image at 300 dpi we’ll print it at the highest quality setting. If you send an image that’s 100 dpi, we’ll print it in an 8-bit color format because it doesn’t do any good to print it on anything higher. If you send giclee quality we’ll print it at a giclee quality print setting at no extra charge. The quality of the image will dictate the print quality setting,” explains Brevetti. “For the stretcher bars we use mortised corners and put nails and brads in each corner so that the canvas will never come unfastened.”

With more than a million canvas prints behind him and what Brevetti hopes are a million more, he adds: “The most important thing I’ve learned over the years is that the customer has to feel that they received more than what they paid for. If they don’t feel that way they always wonder if they got what they could have gotten for their dollar.”

For more information, to see how it works and what you get, go to printmyphotooncanvas.com.

Successful Adaptation to Changing Times at PhotoGraphics Maui

Fine art photography printing and mounting
This fantastic Hawaiian surf image by Franck Berthuot of Berthuot Visuals (www.berthuotvisuals.com) was printed on Sunset Photo eSatin Paper and mounted to Masonite.

PhotoGraphics Maui illustrates how someone can do what they love while their business model changes radically over the years. In PhotoGraphics Maui’s case, the company’s evolution started about 30 years ago when Japan was the world’s economic powerhouse.

Printing and mounting fine art photography
The customer was blown away by the treatment of this photo, which is Sunset Photo eSatin mounted to black-stained bamboo and finished with a non-glare plexiglass.

In the ’80s, Japanese tourists were flocking to Maui, Hawaii. Arriving literally by the busloads, PhotoGraphics Maui’s owner, Renee Zaima, started shooting tour group pictures.

“We processed our own film and pumped out pictures every day. Then we would go to the airport and sell the pictures to them,” explains Zaima. “Then we got into wedding photography and videography with the Japanese. We used to send our small prints out, but the lab was closed on weekends. With the Japanese we were doing an average of 80 weddings a month and we had to get the albums to them before they left. So, if the wedding was at four o’clock that day and they were leaving the next morning at 8 we had to have the photos and the video ready for them.”

That business largely dried up in the ’90s, coinciding with Japan’s “lost decade” when markets dived and Japan’s economic growth slowed to standstill, a harbinger of things to come in the American economy in 2008.

Fine art and photography printing
Most of these images were printed on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper and mounted to aluminum. Renee Zaima, owner of PhotoGraphics Maui, says a lot of customers come in and buy the images off the walls. "I don't take a commission on the ones we sell because I know the photographer or artist will want to print more," she says.

Fortunately, PhotoGraphics Maui was able to pick up the slack by shifting its business to traditional photo lab work for photographers while still offering photography services. The next big shift came with the Internet boom and the digital age.

“When the digital world and the Internet happened, we started concentrating on fine art. We still do everything, but we print more reproductions for artists than we did before,” says Zaima. “You have to change with the times. It’s hard to catch up when you don’t stay on top of those changes. We’ve done that by going to large format inkjet printing and offering the mounting services.”

Inkjet printing photography and mounting to aluminum
This image is Sunset Photo eSatin Paper mounted to aluminum and finished with non-glare plexiglass.

Those two differentiators are the company’s bread and butter; the bread being the large format printing and the butter the mounting services. In order to keep that business smooth and efficient, Zaima needed to supply the two Epson Stylus Pro 9800 inkjet printers with consistent products.

“We were getting everything from a variety of vendors, and sometimes the boxes weren’t even marked or the products weren’t consistent. We were wasting money because we had to keep re-doing our projects, and finally we found someone who was consistent with our customer specialist at LexJet, Sukesh Pathak,” explains Zaima. “We love the canvas and the coatings we get from LexJet [Sunset Select Matte Canvas, Sunset Satin Coating and Sunset Gloss Coating], and Sukesh has been on top of things for us. I get emails when he’s not even at work to follow up with me on products and shipping. I also have LexJet’s Sales & Application Guide book that I can show my customers, because everyone’s looking for something different.”

Those different media options for PhotoGraphics Maui include LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin Paper and Sunset Photo Metallic Paper. The combination of different media with a range of mounting substrate options helps set PhotoGraphics Maui apart.

PhotoGraphics Maui mounts to aluminum, Masonite, bamboo and other materials, sourcing and cutting the materials themselves. The prints are typically applied edge to edge with a layer of non-glare plexiglass on top and channels on the back so the pieces “float” off the wall.

“I can’t compete with stores that offer prints terribly cheap. We stay away from that, which is why we’re so glad we found LexJet because now we can order everything we need,” says Zaima. “We go with what our customer’s needs are, so I’m constantly looking for something new that will catch their eye. I can’t make money printing 4x6s; that era is gone. With a product like Sunset Photo Metallic and our floating frame, it looks very modern and contemporary and the photographers love it; it’s probably our most popular product.”

How To Video: Streamlining Workflow with Onyx Software Plug In

Software for sign and banner production workflowIf you’re looking for a tool to help eliminate production bottlenecks, SmartApps Sign & Banner Pro from Onyx is a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that helps users streamline the sign and banner workflow. With Sign and Banner Pro you can:

  • Set up grommet/eyelet and fold marks for fast banner finishing
  • Set up bleeds beyond Adobe Illustrator’s limitations
  • Create banners with all finishing marks to scale

In the videos embedded below you can learn more about the benefits of Sign and Banner plug-in and how to use it…