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What size do you print your 6X6 personal photos?


I print my 6x6cm, 6x7cm, and 6x9cm personal photos in the following sizes:

8x10 inches was the smallest size when I printed in my own chemical darkroom
8 1/2 x 11
8 1/2 x 17
11 x 14
16 x 20 was the largest size when I printed in my own chemical darkroom
20 x 30
24 x 36

Normally, I instruct the lab to print my images on the above size paper as large as possible without cropping my image. After printing, I trim any unwanted white borders.

When I shot a lot of 6x6 weddings, I did see albums that accepted square prints; however, I never used them and I do not know if they were archival.
 

usually square on 8x10 or 11x14
 
RalphLambrecht said:
usually square on 8x10 or 11x14
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Ditto. The rest gets covered by mats or trimmed when I use Plak-It.

I wish that square paper was available. Ilford does not have squarish paper available, but some brands do. I have to try those brands.
 
I've been printing a lot on 18x24cm (7x9.5") lately, and mostly from 35 mm negatives. Then I print roughly 4x7" (12x18cm) since I like it that way.

I print 6x6 negatives either on 18x24cm paper (14cm/5x5") or if framing it, 30x30cm. I don't dry mount (...yet) but use IKEA standard frames and tape.

I think I'll use more 8x10" paper for my printing, I'm just going to use up my current stock. For 8x10" I think I'll print 35 mm as 6x9" and 6x6 as 7x7".
 
I make contact prints in palladium/platinum and don't put them in albums.
 
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4x4 inches, & they're put into a regular photo album that accepts 4x6 inch prints.
 
I have to admit I print very little of my stuff unless I'm going to exhibit it. But when I do print 6x6 negatives, I generally start with a 5+ inch square as a test print. I stock 11x14 paper which cuts up as four 5.5 inch squares plus some test strips. The ones that go to exhibition then get printed about 10.5 inches square. I have in the past (I've been lazy lately) dry mounted the best of the test prints on individual pages in a ring binder to create a small portfolio. Since family and friends are scattered a bit geographically, I generally scan and place on the web (or burn a CD/DVD) for that function.

Internally the "mini-portfolios" look like:


The print is dry mounted on a piece of mat board in the general style I use for exhibition -- and wouldn't you know, the mat board fits out of the window cut from the larger mats! The mounted piece is then put on a black page punched for the ring binder. Yes, it's a bit of work, which may explain why I've not done one in a few years! With mat board thickness involved, there is a pretty tight limit on how many can be put in one binder; perhaps not so good for vacation shots.

The small label gives title, film and various details. My original purpose was for occasional self promotion or maybe take one along when out in the field to show anyone questioning my activities.

Since there are many ring binders with a transparent front pocket, one can exercise unlimited creativity in adding a cover:

(Or not!)

If you print 4x4 inches, you could get Printfile pages for 4x5 that have four pockets and could be double loaded to display a total of eight per page.
 
Thanks for the responses!
Looks like my regular lab (Icon, LA) will develop 6X6 (cm) film and make 6X6 (inches) prints as a "combo" deal, so maybe I'll go with that. I wish I had more options when it comes to storage of this size though.
I am really starting to love the 6X6 format.
 
trondsi said:
Does Costco make decent prints?
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Yes, but it depends on the specific store. Mine has excellent techs who keep the white balance calibrated. They print on Fuji Crystal Archive, which has better permanence ratings from Wilhelm Research than Kodak Endura. Dry Creek photo publishes profiles for all costco printers.
 
I remember reading an old text on Rolleiflex cameras from the 50s, and it said best image quality could be had with 5x5" prints. Of course, that was using 1950s films. I think they were being overly conservative in order to present images that looked really good. I used to print them about 7x7 on 8x10 paper and 10x10 on 11x14 paper.
 
I mostly print to fit 16x12" frames which is the main size in both my sets of exhibition frames, so most of my 6x6 images are approx 9"x9" (23x23cm). For one off images I print 12"x12" and get square frames

This raises the interesting question of what size prints from different formats you print to fit existing frames. I shoot 6x6, 6x9, 6x17, 5x4 & 10x8, and now 7x5. I drew up a visualisation in CorelDraw (Illustrator or similar would be the same) to see how frames would balance. In the end I decided 6x17 in my 12x16 frames was only justOK but I really need newer (wider) frames and slightly larger prints for the format.

Ian
 
I walked past the photo printing kiosk at my local grocery store and they are now offering square prints as an option. Makes a lot of sense with people shooting on Instagram and such. The curious thing: A 5x5 print costs 50% more than a 5x7" print! I guess the smart thing to do would be print them on 5x7 and trim them yourself.
 

I use graph paper to do the same. I like my 7x5 (vertical) contacts on 16x12 very much...but 5x7 (horizontal) does not work for me quite as well on 12x16, but (sorry folks) good enough in that I will keep to 12x16.

I found the same thing happening with 16x20 prints on 22x28 boards, but went with 24x28 for both vertical and horizontal prints.

When I was printing square images from 120 film in color (of my boys and generally not shown, so I guess are 'personal images'), I usually printed them 7x7, occasionally 10x10. They are in boxes and not matted.
 
Very basic, 5x7 or 8x10.
 

I printed some in 6x6 size. They look very good at that size.

I think 5x5 is fine, but very conservative as you say. 35mm is usually printed 4x6. If we convert to 6x6cm 120 film then print size could easily be 9x9 inches with about the same resolution. Of course both films can usually do larger prints than that, but too large fits best on the wall, not in a photo album.
 
The reasons that 5x5" works for me are that paper comes in 5x7" or 8x10" (easy to cut in half to make 2 5x5's plus a test strip) and I like albums that aren't too big for family photos, one image to a page.
 
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