fantastic tips/tricks here. thanks. I don't like actually signing on the actual print and instead sign on the mat board for all my matted and framed work but I know its easier to steal your work that way (if they really want to do that). But this method is a good alternative. I know some online printing services now have the ability to add your signature on your prints if you upload the file (transparent PNG file) to them.
Thanks Roland. The signature consistency is the result of LOTS of practice, and even then, I'm still always a little sketched out signing by hand. The digital version's so much less stressful :)
Thanks for making this video Drew, it was so great to see the process of creating your digital signature. I'm so apprehensive about offering a limited number of prints for my images. I know it increases their value, and your value as an artist, but what do you do if someone desperately wants to buy a print after you've reached that number?
Thank you, and great question. If you watch my other “signing your photographs” video I talk about my feelings on this, but in a nutshell I also allow 10% over of my numbered series as numbered Artist Proofs which are signed and numbered with an AP designation. Traditionally with film photographers would offer their early prints which were often experiments with dodging and burning to get the print just the way they wanted it as proofs, and those could be sold outside the defined series. I sign my artists proofs with an AP designation, so basically it’s be a short run series outside of the art series. If my art series is 250 limited prints, I’d allow an AP series of 25 so they’d be signed Cain AP05/25 for example. Hope that helps.
Now that is something I could use. My hand writing is awfull. All I need to do is write my name mutiple times, take a picture, set it up on pc and away I go. Way cool. Can you tell at what dpi did you scan yours with please?
Yeah, I think there are a lot of people who would love not to have to “risk” a bad signature on a print! Anything higher than 300dpi should be perfect.
Hello Gary, for signing prints in person by hand I use Sakura Pentouch Fine Tip Metallic Ink Markers, here are direct links to both colors. Gold Pen: amzn.to/38S76Pd Silver Pen: amzn.to/37Pcsth
@@GARY1951A Awesome! Be sure to check out my other signing video if you haven't already where I give some tips on using the pens and getting a good signature. Paint pens have their own personality and it's important to have the paint flowing smoothly before you put pen to print.
@@drewcain -- I used your tips on making d digital signature and WOW -- I DID IT and it IS very helpful! I also bought the pens you suggested! THANKS SO MUCH!!
Hi Drew, thank you for your videos, I just came across your channel tonight. I was wondering where do you order your canvas prints? I am an amateur photographer and dont know who is a good reliable good quality canvas print company. Do you send in raw image or jpeg image when getting a print made?
Hi Michelle, for print you’ll want to output either a high resolution JPG or an uncompressed TIF, (converted to sRGB if it’s not already in that colorspace). The lab we use for our canvas prints is called Simply Color Lab, they’re a pro print lab in Ohio and for canvas they’re the best we’ve ever used - and they do really well with art papers and acrylic as well.
Hey Abby, size is really a matter of personal taste to a certain point. For anything bigger than 11x14 I size the signature at basically 100% of the one I signed on the paper to begin with and then for smaller prints I'll scale it down a little to make sure it doesn't overpower or detract from the image (while still being easy to read of course). If you place the signature in a spot on the image where you have less detail and good contrast, it should stand out and be readable at even 50% or less of the original size. Most of all with smaller images, you just want to make sure that it looks right to your eye. If it looks too small, it probably is. Hope that made sense.
Thanks for posting this. Very helpful. To market myself, I had a logo designed with Photo Logo. But when it comes to digitally signing a print, my actual signature feels more authentic, but then I am not reinforcing the brand with the logo. What are your thoughts?
To be honest, this is the very reason I'm not a fan of Photo Logo. Unless they're just refining your true signature a little bit, it feels a bit too manufactured to me. This is obviously just my opinion, BUT I've owed a successful branding and design agency for nearly 20 years, so that opinion does carry some amount of weight. That being said, I believe an artist can have both a "Brand" and a "Signature", HOWEVER, from a branding standpoint, if you're going to have both, the brand mark (logo) should not look like a signature, unless that signature is actually the one the artist is signing their work with, otherwise you're technically devaluing the brand. A simple example of this would be someone like Thomas Manglesen who uses a standard logo (font text) for his site and galleries, but signs his prints by hand mangelsen.com/ NOW, to throw another option into the mix -- you could digitally apply your Photo Logo signature to your physical prints by including it in the file you send to the printer (see my newer video on digitally signing your prints ua-cam.com/video/kf0RIZ2AULM/v-deo.html ), in which case you'd technically stop using your physical signature and exclusively use your Photo Logo as your professional brand and artist signature. I feel like this is less authentic than a hand written artist's signature, BUT it does retain brand consistency. *note, if you're going to go this route, it would be best to have a vector version of your Photo Logo (which I don't think they provide) so that you don't have any odd artifacting from resizing the logo within all print sizes. If you'd like more clarity, fire me a note from the contact form on wanderborn.com and we can correspond directly in more detail. Hope that helps
@@drewcain Thanks, Drew. I think we are on the same page. I had been using my logo as my signature on the image for printing, but I'm having my first art fair in the fall, and I think I will use my actual signature for my prints. I'm glad that you don't think mixing up the two things is a bad thing... On a practical level, you can't really make out my signature unless you kind of know what it's supposed to say. :) Cheers!
James, I think that's totally fine (at least for now) ... There are plenty of artist signatures that are illegible, but in my opinion it's far better to have a hard-to-read signature that's original than some nice signature that somebody else made that looks like an impersonal graphic. There's also nothing wrong with spending some time learning to write your signature in a way that is new (and easy to read) ... If you like your Photo Logo version, maybe spend some time with a notebook and re-train your hand to sign using that as a guide. Either way, it's exciting that you're doing an art fair. I hope it goes really well for you!
![Signing Your Photographs - [Photography Tips & Tricks]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7bb97nEs8ds/mqdefault.jpg)
![Signing Your Photographs - [Photography Tips & Tricks]](/img/tr.png)
Great Vid, I appreciate your help Drew.
fantastic tips/tricks here. thanks. I don't like actually signing on the actual print and instead sign on the mat board for all my matted and framed work but I know its easier to steal your work that way (if they really want to do that). But this method is a good alternative. I know some online printing services now have the ability to add your signature on your prints if you upload the file (transparent PNG file) to them.
Very cool. Enjoyed this. Still a bit above my PS skills, but I think I'd be on the right track if I tried it.
Your signature is so damn beautiful!! Mine is different every time 😅. Love the handwritten feel but in a digital version!
Thanks Roland. The signature consistency is the result of LOTS of practice, and even then, I'm still always a little sketched out signing by hand. The digital version's so much less stressful :)
Very nice! Is it okay to hand sing your photography?
Thanks for making this video Drew, it was so great to see the process of creating your digital signature. I'm so apprehensive about offering a limited number of prints for my images. I know it increases their value, and your value as an artist, but what do you do if someone desperately wants to buy a print after you've reached that number?
Thank you, and great question. If you watch my other “signing your photographs” video I talk about my feelings on this, but in a nutshell I also allow 10% over of my numbered series as numbered Artist Proofs which are signed and numbered with an AP designation. Traditionally with film photographers would offer their early prints which were often experiments with dodging and burning to get the print just the way they wanted it as proofs, and those could be sold outside the defined series. I sign my artists proofs with an AP designation, so basically it’s be a short run series outside of the art series. If my art series is 250 limited prints, I’d allow an AP series of 25 so they’d be signed Cain AP05/25 for example. Hope that helps.
@@drewcain Thank you for your reply! That helps immensely! 😊
You’re very welcome! I’m happy I could help.
Now that is something I could use. My hand writing is awfull. All I need to do is write my name mutiple times, take a picture, set it up on pc and away I go. Way cool. Can you tell at what dpi did you scan yours with please?
Yeah, I think there are a lot of people who would love not to have to “risk” a bad signature on a print! Anything higher than 300dpi should be perfect.
WOW!! This is so helpful!! When you do actually sign your prints, what type of pens do you use??
Hello Gary, for signing prints in person by hand I use Sakura Pentouch Fine Tip Metallic Ink Markers, here are direct links to both colors.
Gold Pen: amzn.to/38S76Pd
Silver Pen: amzn.to/37Pcsth
@@drewcain Thanks Drew -- got them ordered!
@@GARY1951A Awesome! Be sure to check out my other signing video if you haven't already where I give some tips on using the pens and getting a good signature. Paint pens have their own personality and it's important to have the paint flowing smoothly before you put pen to print.
@@drewcain -- I used your tips on making d digital signature and WOW -- I DID IT and it IS very helpful! I also bought the pens you suggested! THANKS SO MUCH!!
@@GARY1951A That's AWESOME Gary! Well done!
Hi Drew, thank you for your videos, I just came across your channel tonight. I was wondering where do you order your canvas prints? I am an amateur photographer and dont know who is a good reliable good quality canvas print company. Do you send in raw image or jpeg image when getting a print made?
Hi Michelle, for print you’ll want to output either a high resolution JPG or an uncompressed TIF, (converted to sRGB if it’s not already in that colorspace). The lab we use for our canvas prints is called Simply Color Lab, they’re a pro print lab in Ohio and for canvas they’re the best we’ve ever used - and they do really well with art papers and acrylic as well.
Great video! What size do you use for small/medium/large prints? Thanks!
Hey Abby, size is really a matter of personal taste to a certain point. For anything bigger than 11x14 I size the signature at basically 100% of the one I signed on the paper to begin with and then for smaller prints I'll scale it down a little to make sure it doesn't overpower or detract from the image (while still being easy to read of course). If you place the signature in a spot on the image where you have less detail and good contrast, it should stand out and be readable at even 50% or less of the original size. Most of all with smaller images, you just want to make sure that it looks right to your eye. If it looks too small, it probably is. Hope that made sense.
Thanks for posting this. Very helpful. To market myself, I had a logo designed with Photo Logo. But when it comes to digitally signing a print, my actual signature feels more authentic, but then I am not reinforcing the brand with the logo. What are your thoughts?
To be honest, this is the very reason I'm not a fan of Photo Logo. Unless they're just refining your true signature a little bit, it feels a bit too manufactured to me. This is obviously just my opinion, BUT I've owed a successful branding and design agency for nearly 20 years, so that opinion does carry some amount of weight.
That being said, I believe an artist can have both a "Brand" and a "Signature", HOWEVER, from a branding standpoint, if you're going to have both, the brand mark (logo) should not look like a signature, unless that signature is actually the one the artist is signing their work with, otherwise you're technically devaluing the brand. A simple example of this would be someone like Thomas Manglesen who uses a standard logo (font text) for his site and galleries, but signs his prints by hand mangelsen.com/
NOW, to throw another option into the mix -- you could digitally apply your Photo Logo signature to your physical prints by including it in the file you send to the printer (see my newer video on digitally signing your prints ua-cam.com/video/kf0RIZ2AULM/v-deo.html ), in which case you'd technically stop using your physical signature and exclusively use your Photo Logo as your professional brand and artist signature. I feel like this is less authentic than a hand written artist's signature, BUT it does retain brand consistency. *note, if you're going to go this route, it would be best to have a vector version of your Photo Logo (which I don't think they provide) so that you don't have any odd artifacting from resizing the logo within all print sizes.
If you'd like more clarity, fire me a note from the contact form on wanderborn.com and we can correspond directly in more detail.
Hope that helps
@@drewcain Thanks, Drew. I think we are on the same page. I had been using my logo as my signature on the image for printing, but I'm having my first art fair in the fall, and I think I will use my actual signature for my prints. I'm glad that you don't think mixing up the two things is a bad thing... On a practical level, you can't really make out my signature unless you kind of know what it's supposed to say. :)
Cheers!
James, I think that's totally fine (at least for now) ... There are plenty of artist signatures that are illegible, but in my opinion it's far better to have a hard-to-read signature that's original than some nice signature that somebody else made that looks like an impersonal graphic.
There's also nothing wrong with spending some time learning to write your signature in a way that is new (and easy to read) ... If you like your Photo Logo version, maybe spend some time with a notebook and re-train your hand to sign using that as a guide. Either way, it's exciting that you're doing an art fair. I hope it goes really well for you!
@@drewcain Thanks very much, Drew! I've been playing around with your Photoshop tricks to see what I prefer. Appreciate your feedback!