Sport Photo Gallery in West Dulwich, London, has bought an Epson Stylus Pro 9900 large-format inkjet printer to spearhead its expansion into large-format print for both its retail sport and entertainment image sales and for its professional photographic print and finishing services.
Sport Photo Gallery sells classic and contemporary sport imagery and memorabilia products under licence from Getty Images online at www.sportphotogallery.com, offering prints in a range of sizes, media and finishing options; allied to this is Entertainment Photo Gallery, which features music, film and TV stars. More recently, the company began offering printing and mounting services to professional and student photographers, via its Digilab London brand, providing the same quality and turnaround as central London labs but at significantly more attractive prices.
Previously, the vast majority of the prints made were produced on conventional photochemical paper via a high-end laser-based digital photolab system, but this was limited to a maximum print size of 20 x 32 inches. According to Sport Photo Gallery director Spencer Maclean, there is a growing demand for larger formats.
A large-format inkjet was the solution to both the size and media requirements. With the advice of supplier CWE Solutions, which also provided a suitable Rip and support package, Maclean chose an Epson Stylus Pro 9900, a 44in roll-fed printer that uses Epson’s UltraChrome HDR 11-colour ink set to provide an extended colour gamut on a wide range of media, with resolution up to 2880 x 1440 dpi for truly photographic-looking results.
Custom ICC profiles made by CWE for a variety of media enable the full colour potential of Epson’s extended ink set – which includes green and orange inks as well as various cyan, magenta, yellow and blacks – to be realised.
“The standard of the prints from the Epson is fantastic,” said Maclean. “We’re getting excellent quality blacks from the Epson and it’s great at accurately reproducing some reds – a colour that appears quite commonly in sportsmen’s kit.”
The package installed by CWE included a Shiraz Rip which is able to drive both the Epson Stylus Pro 9900 and an existing inkjet which is used for output to canvas, saving the cost and complexity of having two separate Rips.
Sport Photo Gallery has been promoting its new large-format capability via its website, offering prints from stock images at up to 60 x 40in, with mounting and framing options. “Images have a huge impact at this size,” says Maclean, “there’s nothing like it when you see these large print come out. It’s another arm to our business, and we’ve had a very positive response from customers, especially on the Digilab side, where customers generally come back for more,” Maclean concludes.
www.sportphotogallery.com