Your images already look good on social media platforms. Let’s be honest, with the amount of work that you can do with post-production and even in-camera, it’s really easy to take a good bird photograph. We’ve already talked about making good bird photos many times, but you can make those photos look even better. There’s an old saying that a photograph isn’t done until it’s printed. And considering how colorful nature is, it’s sometimes best to print your bird photos on metal. Thankfully, Lumaprints can do things very affordably with a quality that isn’t often seen at their low price points.
This article is presented in partnership with Lumaprints.
So here’s the thing. If you’re editing your images to look a certain way, then social media will automatically know to make those photos brighter on the screen while darkening the rest of the screen. That further enhances how it looks. To get that in real life, the best thing to do is to use a glossy texture with a metal print and just the right lighting. Lots of other brands make this really complicated with custom surfaces and all that kind of stuff. But with Lumaprints, the process is pretty difficult to not get right. You just choose one of your really beautiful photos and then you print it.
Here are a few tips on how to choose the photo:
- Choose a colorful one where there are at least three important primary colors that are separated by some sort of white or black.
- Make the images contrasty, but not too contrasty. Clarity and sharpness help too, but sharpness is better to choose over clarity.
- Increase the selective saturation of the most important color channels
- Adjust your white balance
After that you simply just head over to Lumaprints, log in, order the print, and wait for it to ship. The shipping process, which I’ve done myself many times, is very fast in my experience. I’d even rate it as faster than most of the other options out there.
When you get your print, be careful taking it out. We recommend not even using a knife as you may cut or damage the surface of your print. So instead, just use your hands and be careful. Once it’s out, it’s also got hanging equipment. No need to frame it because it’s a Lumaprints metal print after all.
Now here’s the important part: choose the right place. Metal prints with a glossy finish work best when the light is directly right above it. So if you’ve got a home with a skylight of some sort, this might be the best option. If you don’t then there are lots of other great places you can put it. Your hallway, with the lights right above it, is a good choice. And when you’re doing that, place the metal print on a wall spot where it’s closer to the light shining directly over it. So that means that you shouldn’t put it too high up on the ceiling if you have the conventional 12 foot high ceilings.
Ideally, you’d choose white lighting because it won’t cast any odd colors on your print. Honestly, my best recommendation is to put it in a hallway with fewer windows that will cause reflections and take away from your masterpiece. And when people see it in person, they’re bound to be even more captivated. That’s all the more reason to print it big, too!
I mean, imagine looking at a tiny hummingbird’s feather details really blown up to a larger-than-life size. On the Lumaprints website, a 20×20 inch print isn’t even $100. That’s more than worth spending on you and your work. Give it a try!
