A behind-the-scenes look into the process of taking a photograph to getting it ready to print… on glass. (Part 1 of 2)

Remember the fish picture that I took earlier this fall? Well, I thought it would be the best candidate to try something new and different in the photographic printing world… glass printing! When my friend and fellow creative Caryn Esplin first brought up the idea of printing on glass, I immediately knew that I wanted to try this method by printing the fish!

In my personal opinion, the final images that we share with others as photographers are far less impressive than what I like to call SOOC or straight out of camera. Here’s the image of the fish as I took it, SOOC:

The lighting method that I used to take this picture was called SQIBB also known as studio quality lighting with invisible black background.

One thing that I think a lot of photographers tend to miss when taking photographs is basic design principles. After getting a critique from my friend and fellow creative Gerardo Sumano, he suggested that the fish was a bit too close to the rocks and it needed more proximity. I then took the advice and moved my fish up off the rocks. I also rotated him a bit more to the left which encourages an upward direction and is complementary to the amount of lead room that is present. I wanted to keep the fish pointed to the left because it feels more balanced with that higher mound of rocks on the right side of the fish bowl.

After getting the fish photoshopped to where I want him, I always like to duplicate my file and create a final FPO, for print only version. By doing this, I’m able to adjust the lighting and change color profiles in a separate file from the photoshop file where I did most of my edits. Plus with this method, If I need to make a change on the photoshop edits, I can do so, then have them update with the changes I made in each separate FPO file for the different printers and profiles I might use.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of 2 as it goes over the glass printing process itself and includes pictures of the final product! Until then, check out some pictures of glass printing from Pinterest.