One of the most rewarding things you can do as a photographer is to see your images printed. Prints can be made either at home or at specialist labs, such as WhiteWall. Having dominated the fine art printing industry for years, WhiteWall keeps on evolving. Their latest innovation is related to monochrome photography.
Just like any photographer, I love seeing my images in print. Furthermore, I love seeing my work printed on the finest materials with the best technology available on the market. My own experience with WhiteWall has been mesmerizing. I first saw their prints in one of the galleries and immediately fell in love with how alive the images looked. It's a feeling that's hard to describe with words. With proper museum-grade illumination, the images truly do come to life. While I only recently found out about WhiteWall, turns out they've been astonishing audiences around the globe for over a decade now.
About WhiteWall
Established in 2007, WhiteWall is based in Frechen, Germany, a country known for producing some of the finest imaging equipment, including Leica, Arri, Dedolight, and many more. It is only fitting that one of the best printing labs in the world hails from Germany.
WhiteWall has solutions for nearly any printing requirement. From the prestigious and highly revered Hahnemuhle paper to Canson, to the crème de la crème of prints: metal prints. Alongside that, WhiteWall, of course, prints on wood, acrylic, and other materials. Although based in Germany, WhiteWall has the ability to ship worldwide within 10 days, meaning that no matter what your specific requirement is, you can expect to have your images within 10 days. Given how fast the art and photography world moves in 2023, this is a great service. For example, I am setting up an exhibition in only 2 weeks, so the fast turnaround is much appreciated. To help deliver these orders, WhiteWall has over 180 staff members who are committed to delivering the best quality.
Personalized Consultations
Knowing how important it is for the artist or photographer to ensure that their prints are exactly how they imagine them to be, you can book a private consultation with one of the team members at WhiteWall by following this link. This consultation allows you to explore various customization options for your print, and you might be surprised by the wide array of choices available at WhiteWall. To make informed decisions, I recommend booking a consultation so that the experts in the field can assist you in choosing the best options.
This is not something that I see very often anymore, but this consultation really allows you to explore what options there are and customize your print to look exactly how you want it to be. You might think that there can only be so many options when it comes to customization of prints, but you'd be quite surprised when you check out just how much you can tailor at WhiteWall. I know I was shocked by how many choices you can make. To help you make those choices, I suggest booking a consultation so that the experts in the field can help you decide what's best.
Visualization tool
A tool that is helpful for visualization of the prints is WhiteWall's new ultraHD sharpening. Basically, all it is is an aid that is meant to replicate how individual papers will change the print outcome. This is available for some of the best papers in the industry, such as Ilford B/W and Hahnemuhle Baryta paper. You might wonder why the paper you print your images on matters? The best example I can think of is, of course, the matte/glossy dilemma, only with much finer differences that are noticeable once you compare the two. Some papers work better with contrasted photos, others with more even images. The paper you choose can easily dictate the mood of the image and the impact it has on the audience. Photographers traditionally would get sample prints and then decide which paper is best. This need is now eliminated, and you can simply use this tool to see what the difference is.
Black & White Section
Completely new to the WhiteWall offers is the Black & White section of their website. They feature a lot of educational and inspirational content not only on printing in black and white but also on monochrome photography. Content from titans of this style such as Phil Penman and Natalie Oberg is also readily available to further explore their fascinations with the style and how they tailor their output process to get the best results. Given just how many options and pathways there are with printing, this is not something I would skip.
Speaking of output, WhiteWall can offer Ilford B/W photo prints mounted on aluminum backing and Ilford B/W photo prints under acrylic glass. In general, prints that are mounted on aluminum and placed under acrylic glass are pretty much as good as you can get. The same prints are sold at auctions and displayed in museums. If you are looking for quality that is indeed stunning, this is the way to go.
Awards
WhiteWall has won the TIPA award in 2023 and has been named "The Best PhotoLab Worldwide," as well as "Best Frame Design," which is a great achievement but something I would expect to see from them nonetheless. The configurator that WhiteWall designed takes you through all the necessary steps of customizing and making a print that is authentic and true to your vision. Unlike many of the other solutions on the market, the configurator in WhiteWall has a lot more options and choices.
Final Thoughts
Overall, WhiteWall is a fantastic solution for printing images. Of course, being one of the best printing labs in the world, their services come at a premium cost. While the quality is hard to match, so is the price. If you are looking to get large prints in particular, expect to pay a premium. Then again, WhiteWall is offering an exclusive 15% discount to all Fstoppers readers using code WWFS15. Given the high demand for these prints, this is a generous offer I would not overlook. Whether you are a fine art photographer or someone who is interested in having incredibly high-quality prints, this is a great opportunity to elevate the quality of your images. Having been to dozens of various exhibition openings, I can easily tell if the print was made in a high-quality lab or in a general printing studio.
I have used their services before and totally agree with how good WhiteWall is. In fact, I sent the same files to four printing services, and none of the alternatives could stand up to the quality of WhiteWall. It certainly convinced me, and the higher cost and slightly longer wait for prints was well worth it.
Use them for many years and never been dissapointed.
I’ve used White Wall myself, and they do beautiful work. However, I get a little indigestion from the fact that everything is shipped from Germany. That’s a lot of carbon put into the atmosphere for the prints being produced. That’s my main reason for not using them. I would love to see them get a lab in the US. Otherwise I use Bay Photo. They do every bit as good a job as White Wall, but I must admit they have some great consultation options.
I'm pretty sure they have one in New York. I could be wrong though.
Do they use something other than a Canon or Epson printer?
Sorry, but pure advertising ! Not the good place in my opinion.
I disagree. I am always interested in sources I do not know about and how good they may be... and why. So one guy doesn't like shipping from germany and loves Bay Photo; I am interested in his opinion and experience. So is this only good advertising if they are paying for it? Or you don't want to know anything more than what you already are familiar with and those static opinions? I don't think any of that is true but until I have omniscient market knowledge and experience (heaven forbid as that would be no fun) then I am interested and feel you should be too for the very same reasons. Bonne chance and, lol, Vive la différence.
I agree with Jean-Marc. If you’re going to write an article about printing, you should send an image to several labs, compare their output and note the pros and cons of each (speed of delivery, technical assistance, etc.) I have never used WhiteWall so I can’t disagree with your evaluation but that’s not the point. I don’t think that Fstopers should publish what is basically an advertisement for a particular lab.
Totally agree with you. Fstoppers is primarily about generating income for the owners. It is not a labor of love or a public service, although I think it should be. This "article" is most definitely an advertisement because it is sponsored by the lab that it is about. They have paid for this space on Fstoppers site in an effort to get Fstoppers membership to spend money with them. That is the only purpose of this "article".
I completely agree about printing, but I honestly can't take almost anything else in this article seriously as it's pure advertising (literally sponsored content). I'm sure they do great work, but when you have a sponsored post like this I can't take it as a "review" of any sort. No sponsored post is going to say "they're pretty good but XXX is better".