Frequently Asked Questions

Shutter speed is always shown. As it is the only measurement tied to the physical world that lies outside of the camera apparatus, we think of shutter speed as the most important element of the exposure triangle.

The ISO is shown only if it’s at least 800, for digital exposures. It’s always shown, for film exposures, as part of the film stock.

The resolution of the image is always shown. If not otherwise specified, the image has not been up-scaled in any way.

If not otherwise specified, the exposure was digital on an MFT, APS-C, FF, or DMF sensor — we intentionally don’t distinguish between these sensor sizes.

If not otherwise specified, the image was obtained from a single exposure.

What we don’t show, and why:

Camera & Lens: we believe the exact equipment used to make a particular image matters a great deal — but only for the photographer making that image, when making that image.

Focal-length & Aperture: we believe that these settings are so dependent on sensor size, that they mean almost nothing on their own — i.e. not showing the sensor size means not showing these settings either.

Showing everything would mean showing a whole bunch of names, numbers, and keywords that only professional photographers could make sense of. Which perhaps we would do if we didn’t also know for sure that, when looking at images they themselves didn’t make, professional photographers don’t much care about all of the technical settings.

How does buying images work?

Every image we sell is editioned — i.e. it is guaranteed to only exist in a limited number.

The art world has a few different definitions for “editioned”, “limited edition”, and related terms. So, for clarity, this is the definition we use: If an image is billed as an “Edition of 5”, only 5 prints (of optimal size and resolution) of that image will ever concurrently exist — to the best of our ability to enforce this. Details:

No “proofs” of any kind are allowed. I.e. “Edition of 5” does not mean “Edition of 5 + X artist proofs + Y printer proofs”; it means “Edition of only and exactly 5, ever”.

No previous or further editions are allowed. I.e. “Edition of 5” does not mean “1st Edition of 5” or “x-th Edition of 5”; it means “Edition of only and exactly 5, ever”.

Additional prints can be made/sold, by the author, but only if those prints are significantly different from the editioned print in size and/or resolution. Details:

We consider 254dpi to be the “ideal” resolution for hang-on-the-wall prints, but we’ll let the resolution of any one print vary a bit in order to achieve consistent sizing across all of our prints. (The minimum resolution for editioned prints is 225dpi. For images with very high digital resolutions —around or above 100mpx— we might choose to limit the print’s recommended physical size, thus increasing its resolution to significantly more than 254dpi.)

For resolutions up-to 60% of the resolution of the editioned print, but limited to a maximum of 175dpi, any number of additional prints, of any size, can be made. E.g. an image that is 6800×3400px will be turned into an editioned print that has an image area measuring 70×35cm and that is printed at a resolution of 246dpi; for that image, for resolutions up-to 148dpi, any number of additional prints, of any size, can be made.

For sizes up-to 60% of the size of the editioned print, as measured by the short edge of the image area, any number of additional prints, at any resolution, can be made. E.g. an image that is 6800×3400px will be turned into an editioned print that has an image area measuring 70×35cm and that is printed at a resolution of 248dpi; for that image, for sizes up-to 42×21cm, any number of additional prints, at any resolution, can be made.

Rented prints are exempt from the limitations described above, but are subject to different limits meant to protect the value of editioned prints, in the cases where both rented prints and editioned prints, of the same image, are available. See below.

Replacing prints is allowed, under these conditions:

(1) if the original/previous print still exists, it must be shipped back to us, at the owner’s expense, beforehand;

(2) if the original/previous print no longer exists, the owner must prove to us that the print does indeed no longer exist, beforehand;

(3) all of the direct and indirect costs resulting from the re-print are the owner’s responsibility, and must be paid in advance of the re-print being made and delivered.

Every editioned print has an ID printed on the whitespace bordering the image area. Every ID is unique to the particular print it can be found on, and all the IDs are recorded and kept by us forever, along with the details of when and why that print was made — to the best of our ability to do this. At any one time, only physical prints baring IDs that are valid, as verified by us, are considered authentic.

We believe that existing in only a limited number is an intrinsic part of what makes something “art”; and we really want to help bring more “art” into the world. But we also believe that, if the something in question is digital in nature, modern technology allows for it to both exist in a limited number but to also not be subject to the perils and frailty that come with only existing as a physical object. Trying to concurrently solve for both of these goals is what led us to the rules governing editioned prints.

Can I have the image printed or framed differently, when buying?

Yes. When buying editioned prints, you can have the image printed and/or framed differently: you can change the print medium and method, the materials and method used for mounting and framing, and you can even slightly change the print’s size and resolution.

Conditions and limitations:

The custom printing, mounting, and framing can only be done through 3rd-party service providers that we approve of.

The image-area’s aspect-ratio must remain the same as the aspect-ratio of the image itself.

The image’s colors must be accurately represented.

The image area must be bordered by at least 1cm of visible whitespace, on which the print’s ID will be displayed.

The size and resolution of the print can only differ from the ones we had selected by a maximum of 10%.

For images with very high digital resolutions —around or above 100mpx— we might have chosen to limit the print’s recommended physical size, thus increasing its resolution to significantly more than 254dpi; in such cases, you are allowed to increase the print’s physical size by more than 10%, so long as its resolution remains at least 254dpi.

All of the direct and indirect costs resulting from customizing your print are your responsibility, and must be paid in advance of the print being made and delivered.

The easiest way to customize your editioned print is to choose from the many printing and framing options offered by Whitewall, our printing and framing partner:

Before placing your order, explore Whitewall’s website, and decide on what option you want to go with.

Please note that we don’t allow multi-piece printing, canvas printing, and direct printing on wood or brushed metal — we believe that these ways of printing too-significantly alter the way the image looks.

Inform us of your custom printing/framing option within two hours of finalizing your order. After confirming your request, we’ll either send you a payment link for the additional cost or reimburse you for the extra already-paid cost — depending on whether the printing/framing option you’ve chosen is more or less expensive than the recommended option.

This same process applies if you don’t want to print/frame in a significantly-different way, but just want to make a minor change to the print — like, for example, only slightly changing the size of the print, or only slightly changing the amount of whitespace bordering the image area.

These are our favorite Whitewall printing/framing options:

Photo Print Under Matte Acrylic Glass — this is our recommended option, most of the time.

Fine Art Pigment Print under Acrylic Glass, using matte glass.

Solid Wood Frame with Passe-partout, using museum glass.

The recommended printing, mounting, and framing options are meant to, above all else, make the image “shine” as brightly as possible. But, of course, this is subjective: the recommended options implicitly reflect our own tastes; and this is why we allow you to so-extensively customize editioned prints.

If you want to print/frame in a way that is unsupported by Whitewall or is significantly different from what is described above, please get in touch with us before placing your oder.

How does renting images work?

We believe that prints, in general, are nothing less than beauty made real; and we really want to help bring more beauty into the world. But we also believe that existing in only a limited number is an intrinsic part of what makes something “art”; and we also really want to help bring more “art” into the world. Trying to concurrently solve for both of these goals is what made us decide to offer prints not just for sale but also for rent.

Conditions and limitations:

For a given image, only 20 rented prints can concurrently exist.

For a given image, rented prints have a resolution at least 20% smaller than that of the editioned prints, and they are at least 20% smaller in size — as measured by the short edge of the image area.

Only those images which, meeting these requirements, result in rented prints that we deem “large enough to beautifully hang on walls” will be offered for rent.

At the end of the rental period, rented prints must be destroyed. This is to be done by you, on video, which you then send to us. After we confirm that the print has indeed been destroyed, we’ll return your deposit. Details:

Tearing the print fully in half, on its long edge, is all the “destruction” that’s required.

Please keep the destroyed print, until after you hear back from us. On the off-chance that we are not convinced the print was indeed destroyed, we may require you to provide further proof of this — including, in very rare cases, asking you to ship the torn print back to us, at your expense.

Not destroying the print at the end of your rental period —or refusing/being-unable to prove to us that you’ve done so— has more extensive consequences than us just retaining your deposit:

(1) you are, in this case, liable for the higher of either (a) €1000, or (b) two times the highest price that the image sells/sold for as an editioned print, if it is/was available as an editioned print;

(2) additionally, you are also liable for any costs incurred by us in the process of recovering this debt.

It goes without saying that we really, really hope to make absolutely no money this way.

We know that destroying the prints at the end of the rental period is a terrible waste. We’ve thought long and hard about how to do this differently and still have the economics work out — for you, for us, and for our artists. Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to find a better way.

Other than choosing between CM & IN, can I have the image printed differently, when renting?

No. When renting, other than choosing between centimeters and inches, you can’t customize the print in any way.

Rented prints are meant to be displayed using poster hangers. This is why the centimeters/inches option exists: to allow you to have the widths (of the print and of the support) match exactly, if you want. This is also why rented prints come with an extra 2cm/0.8in of whitespace at the top and bottom: most poster hangers seem to be this exact size.

(Please note that, at the end of the rental period, rented prints are to be destroyed. For more details on this, see the question above.)

How do I order via email, if I get the “Shipping not Automated” message?

For some countries, our order-print-ship process is not yet automated. In such cases, we need to manually initiate the process, after you get in touch with us by email.

If your billing country is different than your shipping country, please see the question below.

If your billing country is the same as your shipping country, please send an email to , with the following details:

The image you’re interested in, and wether you want to buy or rent it, and any custom printing/framing requests that you may have.

Your name.

Your shipping address.

By sending us this information, you implicitly agree to share this information with us, with the understanding that we won’t further share it with anyone else - other than our shipping partner, in the event that we accept your order.

The process will then continue via email, potentially with a bit of back-and-forth conversation. If we decide to accept your order, we will send you an email containing a custom, secure Stripe payment link — to a “checkout” page containing the full details of your order.

My billing country is different from my shipping country. Can I still order?

As an anti-fraud measure, our automated order process only allows orders that have the same billing and shipping country.

We understand that the logistics of modern life will often result in the need to make exceptions to this rule. And we’re very willing to do that, if you are also willing to work with us a little, in such cases.

Please first check that you can find the country you want to ship to, in the countries drop-down, on the buy/rent page. If you can’t, that means we don’t generally support shipping to your country; in which case, please see the question below.

Please send an email to , with the following details:

The image you’re interested in, and wether you want to buy or rent it, and any custom printing/framing requests that you may have.

Your name.

Your billing country.

Your shipping address, plus some form of proof attesting that you currently reside at that address.

My country doesn’t seem to be supported. Can I still order?

We ship through Whitewall, and we support all of the countries that they support — all of which are listed in the “Country” drop-down on the buy/rent page.

In the case of renting prints, if your country isn’t supported, that’s the end of the story, unfortunately: It just doesn’t make economic sense to try and get a print out to you; the cost of doing that would be too great, when compared to the cost of the rental. But, in the case of buying editioned prints, the same isn’t necessarily true; and, in such cases, we’re willing to go the extra mile and try our very best to make things work.

Please send an email to , with the following details:

The image you’re interested in buying and and any custom printing/framing requests that you may have.

Your name.

Your billing country.

Your shipping address.

The process will then continue via email, potentially with a bit of back-and-forth conversation - during which we will also ask for some form of proof attesting that you currently reside at the provided shipping address. If we decide to accept your order, we will send you an email containing a custom, secure Stripe payment link — to a “checkout” page containing the full details of your order.

(Please note that this process is long, arduous, and quite expensive. Getting the print to you will require Whitewall first shipping it to us, and us then re-shipping it to you via a 3rd party carrier. The added time will be at least two weeks, and the added cost will be at least €500.)

What is (digital) C-Type printing?

C-type printing is the process of creating a photographic print by first exposing an image onto light-sensitive paper, and then chemically developing it. Details:

In traditional C-type printing, the image is exposed manually, in a darkroom, by using a film-enlarger to project the color-negative film onto the light-sensitive paper.

In digital C-type printing, the image is exposed via computer-controlled LEDs or lasers that precisely move along/atop the light-sensitive paper, inside a specialized printer.

In both cases, the paper —which is light-sensitive because it is coated by a silver-halide emulsion— is then chemically developed in the traditional way: it’s processed in a photographic developer, it’s put through a bleach-fix, it’s washed in water, and it’s left to dry.

Giclée printing is an alternative process also used to create high-quality/fine-art prints:

Giclée printing does not use light-sensitive paper or chemical development.

Giclée printing can be thought of as very, very high quality inkjet printing — done only on archival paper, using only archival inks, on specialized large-format printers.

C-type printing is better at reproducing continuous tones, and it is significantly cheaper. But Giclée printing has advantages too: it allows for many more paper options to choose from, and it has a slight edge when it comes to color gamut. How the print can be mounted and framed can also differ significantly, depending on whether it is a C-type print or a Giclée print — with Giclée prints generally requiring more expensive mounting and framing.

(On naming: Giclée prints can also be referred to as “pigment prints”; all C-type prints can also be referred to as “silver-halide prints” or “photographic prints”; and digital C-type prints can also be referred to as “Lambda prints”, “LightJet prints”, or “Chromira prints” — all of which are references to the types/brands of specialized printers used to make them.)

What Is DPI?

DPI, which stands for “dots per inch”, is a measure of print resolution. Details:

The higher the DPI value of a print, the more detailed/fine it is.

The higher the DPI value of a print, the higher the image’s digital resolution (i.e. its pixel count) needs to be.

The lower the DPI value of a print, the more likely you are to see individual pixels, as you move physically closer — which is not at all ideal.

The are many opinions on ideal DPI values:

The value you’ll most often see recommended, for “high quality” photo prints, is 300 — though nobody seems to know where that exact, specific value comes from.

We think this is slightly-too-high of a DPI value, resulting in detail you can’t really see and prints that are smaller than they could be.

There are standard formulas that compute the DPI value based on the viewing distance — the most used one is “DPI equals 3448 divided by the viewing-distance-in-inches”, which looks very cryptic but checks outs, with the “3448” coming from “1/3448 ~= tan(1/60deg)”, with 1/60deg being a reasonable approximation for the size of the smallest distinguishable “pixel” of our visual field.

We think that only using these standard formulas will, too often, result in DPI values that are too low — like, for example, a value of only 143dpi for a viewing distance of 24inches.

The websites/apps for most print labs and print stores also use the above-mentioned formulas but they (pre) compute the viewing distance using the print’s size — usually, the viewing distance equals 1x-to-2x the diagonal measurement of the print.

We think that using these standard formulas witch such large viewing distances plugged-in will always result in DPI values that are way too low — like, for example, DPI values between just 101 and 51, for viewing distances between 34inches and 68inches, for a print only 24×24inches.

Our opinion:

We believe prints should be as large as possible, while still offering vast detail when viewed from very up-close — because people, we think, naturally want to get closer and closer to beautiful things.

We consider 254dpi to be the minimum “ideal” resolution for editioned prints, but we’ll let the resolution of any one print vary a bit in order to achieve consistent sizing across all of our prints.

A standard DPI of around 254 is high, but it’s still a compromise — if we could, we’d double that value.

Unfortunately, using a significantly-higher standard DPI would result in editioned prints that, too often, would be just a bit too small to beautifully hang on walls — based on the native digital resolutions of modern professional cameras and the after-cropping digital resolutions of final (single-exposure) images made with said cameras.

What is Whitewall?

Whitewall is the best photo lab we know of, and they’re very likely to be the best photo lab on the planet.

They’re based in Germany, they’ve been around since 2007, they’ve fulfilled more than 2 million orders, and they count more than 500 museums and galleries as their customers.

We print & frame & ship through them, and we make no profit on these services: we charge you exactly what they charge us, including any discounts we may be elligible for at the time.

(Please note that we do round the printing/framing/shipping costs to the next whole number, before displaying them to you. But we do this only because we hate decimals — from both an accounting as well as a UI point of view. The accrued rounded cents we inadvertently make doing this are many, many times less than the potential profit we “loose” by passing our discounts onto you.)