From social feed to fine art: photographers explore new creative possibilities with Canon printers

Sharing your photography on social media is a great way to grow an audience and connect with people who love your work. But turning that online success into something financially rewarding can be a challenge.

Selling prints is the natural next step for many photographers. It’s more than an extra revenue stream – it’s a tangible way to see your work appreciated in a whole new way. Knowing that someone has chosen to display one of your prints in their home or workplace, especially when there are countless others they could have picked, is both reassuring and inspiring.

That’s the journey that Dutch photographers Cuno de Bruin and Rances Verhoeff have begun, as they move from sharing their images on Instagram to the timeless appeal of print using the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 printer.

Cuno’s beautiful landscape and travel photographs have an enduring quality, reflected in prints designed to stand the test of time. The stylish precision of his images reflects his roots in fashion photography, a world where drama and impeccable composition are part of the fabric. He majored in fashion photography at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam, before starting a career shooting fashion commercially. A trip to Japan in 2018 saw him fall in love with travel photography and a desire to capture landscapes, people and stories, and his career subsequently took a new path.

Like many photographers who spend a lot of time travelling, Cuno never had the capacity to do his own printing and instead relied on a third-party service to fulfil print requests. "In 2022 I made the decision to start selling prints, but chose to outsource the whole process," he says. "It was a complete nightmare, to be honest, as I didn’t have any control of the paper I wanted to use or anything like that."

Like Cuno, Rances is focusing on fashion and portrait photography at the start of his career. Up to this point, he hasn't provided prints to clients, instead delivering digital files and suggesting where and how they could be printed.

So why the change? For Rances, the move to printing is about more than convenience. It gives him the chance to deliver a full service – one where he controls every aspect of the process – and to see his photographs in a new light.

"I really like to have my work in my hands – it really comes to life," he says. "It looks like a different picture to the one you see displayed on a screen."

Printing isn't just for final output, either – he's beginning to see how a Canon professional photo printer can become part of the creative process itself. "The printer could be useful during my fashion shoots. I've seen photographers taking a few shots, then printing out an image so they can check the lighting. I think that's a great idea. You can make notes on the prints of how you could improve the lighting and other aspects of the image – then make those changes, shoot some more and print out another image to compare with the first."

Rances and Cuno have put time and effort into building audiences on Instagram and TikTok, so how will they translate the success they've had on social media into success with their prints?

"I love to tell a story on Instagram," Cuno says, "and that's something I would really like to be able to do with prints as well." Creating triptychs is one way to do this, he suggests: "Not everyone has the space to hang a triptych on a wall, but being able to tell a story across three prints is an opportunity I want to explore."

Creating limited edition print runs is another way that Cuno can generate interest. "I think restricting runs to 20 or so prints will keep it a bit more exclusive and more special for people who have managed to buy a print – and it keeps the printing process more manageable for me as well."

It's not just physical prints that Rances and Cuno will be producing with the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 – the printer also gives them an opportunity to create behind-the-scenes content for their social channels.

"I uploaded a story where I showed the same picture printed on two types of paper," Rances says, "and it generated a lot of interaction where people were explaining why they liked one print more than the other. So I am encouraged to share more about how I print."

Cuno explains that there's a lot of interest from his followers about how he works up his images. "I already get asked a lot of questions about my editing process, and I think it will be similar with my printing process too. I think it's nice to give people a bit more insight into the process of printing and how I treat my images for print."

Both content creators are enjoying exploring the ways in which Canon photo paper and LUCIA PRO II inks can help to enhance their work before they launch their dedicated online print shops. "I need to see what kind of paper works for me," Rances says. "At the moment I really like the Canon Pro Luster and glossy Pro Platinum, as they make the colours pop more – although I do like Pro Premium Matte for black and white portraits."

Cuno says it's the first time he's been able to explore how to get the best from the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310. "I love bright, colourful images and I always do some work on certain colours. I set my greens to a certain tone, for example, and I take a little bit of blue out of my images as I feel that if the blue tones are not too bright then they will work better with the other tones. So, I'm excited to find a new way of working again, and to see how the colours I like to use will react on paper."

Access to a Canon professional photo printer that outputs up to A3+ means they can offer a range of popular print sizes. "I will probably offer three sizes to begin with: A3+, A4 and maybe a slightly smaller size," Cuno explains. He is excited to try different paper stocks too. "Pictures react differently when they're printed on matte paper and glossy paper, and I've been testing out framed prints to see which I prefer. Having the opportunity to test out all these options at home, to have that control over my images and see the results straight away, that's what I'm really excited about.

"I think it will help with my colour grading as well," he adds. "I use Adobe Lightroom for my editing and grading, so being able to see my images in print and on screen at the same time so that I can check what works and what doesn't work, that's a really exciting thing."

Being able to use Canon's Professional Print & Layout software to print out a contact sheet of thumbnails, each with a different print setting, will help streamline the whole process for Cuno – as well as reducing paper and ink waste.

Sharing his printing journey with his family is another benefit of having the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 in his home office. "It's a small thing," he says, "but being able to show them images of places I've been in the form of a physical print has more impact than a photo on my phone or computer."

As Cuno and Rances refine their craft and develop their own print collections, the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 is giving them the freedom to experiment, learn and grow. Making a print has become more than a final step – it's part of their creative process. But by embracing professional printing at home, they're adding a new dimension to the way they work.