Displaying Your Prints
There's more to being a photographer than merely creating great images. If you don't somehow display your work, you haven't completed the communication process — nor have you shared your visions, your emotions, and your feelings. That is a big part of photography, too. Many new photographers are shy about exhibiting or showing their work because they fear criticism and rejection.
Far too many amateur photographers get their prints back from the photo lab and throw them into a drawer or a box with the intention of doing something with them later. The problem is, later often doesn't come. Because of this, lots of really beautiful images are never seen by anyone other than the people who take them and the people who process them.
Why bother to take pictures if you're not going to use them, especially in this digital age when there are so many opportunities to do so? Rather than being stuffed into a box or an album, they could be made into mouse pads. They can be uploaded to a photo website and put on T-shirts for a fundraiser. You can even do the old-fashioned thing and frame them.
Figure out what you want to do with your best pictures before you even take them. Having a system for handling your images once they're developed will give them a fighting chance of being seen by someone else, and that could be a very nice thing for everyone involved.
Rather than keeping all of your prints and negatives or slides, do yourself and your surroundings a favor by going through them and tossing the bad ones as soon as you get them home. Better yet, if you're a digital photographer, don't upload or print a photo that isn't your best.
You might hang on to a couple for later study if you truly think you can learn something from them, but there is no other reason to hang on to bad pictures. If you're not proud enough of your shots to show them to others, dump them.
After you've pitched the bad prints, go through the rest and think about what you'd like to do with them. If there are some you want to do something with right away, such as mounting and framing, pull the image and the negative and put them in a separate envelope or folder. Be sure to indicate what they are and when they were taken. Many photographers lightly write this information on the back of their prints. If you're working with slides, the slide holders are a great place for this. Mark the ones you're not using as well, and put them away in an organized manner.
If you're working with prints, you can buy specially sized boxes or file cabinets to hold them. Slides can go into slide sheets or remain in the boxes they came in. Good labeling is essential to the storage process.
If you're working with digital images, go through your folders and decide whether to keep a file. Do this as soon as possible after you have uploaded your files. Marginal shots can be explored later in PhotoShop; sometimes they can be improved. Backups of all good folders should be made as soon as possible. Options for this include uploading to a reputable online site such as Dotphoto or WebShots, or backing up to a CD or DVD.
