Frequently Asked Questions
What are your photos printed on?
My photos are printed on top quality archival 100% cotton rag material, the paper is 308gsm and has been chosen to best show off my works. There are cheaper options out there however to best show off the beauty in my images and ensure my customers have premium quality prints that will last for a long time I have chosen to use this material
What is the ink used?
Top quality pigment inks are used to ensure a long lasting print for you to hang on your wall for years to come.
Why should I buy a Limited Edition Print?
*What you receive is a limited edition print personally checked and signed by me on top quality materials (as mentioned above) to show off this artwork and preserve your investment.
*My Guarantee that there will be no more of these printed once an edition is sold out. I do reserve the right to use the image for promotional purposes in the future however that will only enhance the demand for my artwork on your wall.
What are my framing options?
Framing of your prints can be very personal choice and there are a number of options available to you:
- I can arrange framing of your print, this will be at an additional cost to you
- I can also suggest a number of local (to Ballarat) high quality framing businesses that I have personally used
- Or you can get the print framed at your preferred supplier
NOTE: I do recommend using non reflective glass (which I use for all of my framed prints) as it helps to show off the artwork to its full potential.
Do you use Photoshop?
Yes I use Photoshop as a photo editing program. Photoshop can be a dirty word, especially when talking to photographers. It is a very powerful photo editing program and all of my editing is similar to the good old print days where tone was enhanced using a different mix of chemicals or spots where removed etc.
What I do NOT do in photo shop is composite images. None of the prints for sale are composite images, all the elements in the scene were there in the field. Compositing is taking an element from one photo/scene and inserting it into another. A lot of planning and preparation goes into ensuring elements like the milky way are in the right place at the right time.
Why do you use Photoshop?
Photoshop is a powerful editing program, it helps to remove unsightly elements, be it a light in a night shot or dust spot on the lens. As I mentioned above I do not combine elements from one scene and place them in another. All milky way photos are carefully planned to best utilise the position of the the Milky Way in the sky at that time of year.
I've seen prints cheaper elsewhere, why do yours cost what they do?
My prints are printed on top quality materials. All of my images require elements of planning and preparation, most locations I have had to visit multiple times before I successfully take the image I envisioned in my head. There is also a large amount of time spent processing and preparing the images, especially my limited edition images, they are often panoramic images of 7 or more photos stitches together. That all occurs before an image is available for printing. Additionally, once I prepare an image for printing there can be a number of test prints before I am happy with the final result. This time and dedication is where the extra cost is involved.
My print doesn't look like it did on the computer screen. Why?
Every effort is made to make the prints look like the images on my gallery, however in the printing process some parts are darker than they are on the screen. All of my prints I have personally test printed a number of times before an image is made available for sale, so you can ensure that the print is of the highest quality and all are ones I'd happily hang on my wall.
All monitors are also calibrated differently, so there maybe slight colour differences between your monitor and an actual print. Monitors have the ability to show a greater brightness or dynamic range which means a print can look a little darker when printed than on your computer screen.
I checked your site a while ago and a print is now more expensive, why?
The reason is three fold:
1) Basic economics; price increase over time as supply of my limited edition prints decreases, unlike some other photographers I still aim to keep the prices of my prints reasonable as I love seeing them enjoyed by others
2) To reward my loyal followers who get a discount for an early purchase of a Matt Thomson limited edition print
3) From time to time the costs to print increase and I must pass that cost on