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How & Why I PRINT my PHOTOS + Can I Print a Photo from my Google Pixel 4a (my phone)? 🤔
Ever wanted to print a photo from your phone but don't know if you should or how to do it? This is a complete guide on how and why I print my images. Now the question is: how will the 12mp photo from the Google Pixel 4a come out on a large print?
#print #phonephotoprint #completeguide
✨ WATCH NEXT ✨
- Google Pixel 4a Review https://youtu.be/7wNDXsDKoCg
- Google Pixel 4a vs DSLR https://youtu.be/4KY9rIr0ifE
- Editing videos https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6kUdfoIX4tzTqZ41_aJFU0XfyhN7r0gC
✋ COME SAY HI!! ✋
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford (http://bit.ly/lba_instagram)
- TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@loic.bellemare.alford
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- Facebook: https://fb.com/lbaphotographie
📖 CHAPTERS 📖
00:00 - Introduction
01:10 - Why I print my photos?
04:03 - Photo unboxing!
05:24 - How to choose the right image for your room?
08:19 - Basic photo editing for prints
10:37 - Advanced photo editing for prints
11:47 - All about frames
15:15 - Hanging the frame on the wall
17:18 - How did the Google Pixel 4a (my phone) print come out?
18:44 - Choosing the right printing service
20:10 - Conclusion - Thanks for watching!
🖼 SHOP FOR PRINTS 🖼
- My online store: https://store.lbaphotographie.ca
🎶 MY MUSIC 🎶
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/iu5gau/
📸 GEAR I USE ON YOUTUBE 📸
https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo https://geni.us/dji-pocket-2-combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card https://geni.us/sandisk-extreme-128gb
- Canon 6D Mk https://geni.us/canon-6d-mkii
- Google Pixel 4a https://geni.us/google-pixel-4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM https://geni.us/canon-lens-24-105
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-16-35
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-70-200
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD https://geni.us/vanguard-veo-265cb
- DJI MAVIC AIR https://geni.us/lba-dji-mavic-air
🌍 MY PERSONAL WEBSITE 🌍
- 0:00 Introduction
- 1:10 Why I print my photos?
- 4:03 Photo unboxing!
- 5:24 How to choose the right image for your room?
- 8:19 Basic photo editing for prints
- 10:37 Advanced photo editing for prints
- 11:47 All about frames
- 15:15 Hanging the frame on the wall
- 17:18 How did the Google Pixel 4a (my phone) print come out?
- 18:44 Choosing the right printing service
- 20:10 Conclusion - Thanks for watching!
[Music] hello everyone just a few days ago i did my biggest order of prints i ever made including one large print of a picture i took using my phone the google pixel 4 so i'm really excited to see how this one turned out but this video is going to be a full guide on how to print your own shots because it can be quite complicated when starting out so we're first going to be talking about why i print my images you're probably going to be surprised of the reasons why i print my images it's probably not what you're thinking of then i'm going to be talking about how i choose which moves i put on the wall because it's a pretty important decision and you cannot just put any image you like on the wall then we're talking about how we edit the images because this is very important when you're printing them out into them in a certain way we're definitely talking about where i print them so i use different services over the years so i have a few ideas about that and finally i'm going to talk about how i put them on the their walls and which frames i decided to buy so let's get started by rolling the intro for those of you who are new to the channel i'm rugby mahalford a young photographer and filmmaker on the journey to become better at this art i brought back my old intro so do you prefer that one or the newer one i was using in the last few videos let me know in the comments down below so let's talk about first why i decided to print my images but before talking about that we need to talk about another thing is that some people think that it's pretty pretentious of printing your own images and putting them on the walls of your own room apartment or house i totally disagree with this you could go to ikea or any other decoration place and buy some very generic pictures to put on your wall and that would be okay but putting your own images wouldn't be that's totally crazy a picture that you buy at ikea or your own picture that you print is basically the same thing in the end and it's just a picture on the wall so whether it's you that took it or that somebody else i don't see the point of what is the difference inside of it but there's also better reasons of why i print my images on the wall so first of all i think that just like many of the decorations i have in my apartment so like the plant i have here my yellow sofa or these little birds on the side here they're all decoration that make my place look better so that's the first reason of why i print my images it's because i want to decorate the place and just add a nicer touch throughout my apartment another reason why i think printing your images is really great is as a constant reminder of why you like photography so each time i wake up and i see an image in my room or i walk around my apartment and see different images it's always a reminder of why i take pictures in the first place and this keeps me motivated because i want to take some even better pictures than i want to have on my wall and this brings me to the most important reasons why i print my images now and just like anybody a few years ago my main objective when taking some pictures was to get the most likes possible on instagram or facebook facebook is a bit kind of dead but instagram still exists but to be honest i don't look much anymore who likes my pictures how many likes i get on instagram or all kinds of things like that i still like sharing my images and seeing that all of you really enjoy them but it's not the main reason of why i take a picture instead my goal is to take some better pictures than the one i already have on my wall so i can show them to everybody that comes inside of my apartment inside of my room or wherever i'm showing them so this is really something that changed inside of my photographing because i'm not trying to get likes anymore i'm really trying to improve my photography and my motivation is to satisfy myself not others when taking some better images so as long as i really like the images i'm taking and i know that i can print them and put them on my wall i'm going to be very satisfied with my images instead of being motivated by the algorithms that can be something harsh and even if when you take great pictures sometimes they just don't work out with the algorithm on instagram or facebook or wherever you post your images so i think it's a much better reason to motivate you at taking better pictures okay so i finally got the notification that my package has arrived so let's go get it and open it up okay so i'm all ready to open this box and for this i'm going to be using some small little scissors you want to be careful not to use something like a really sharp knife because you don't want to go through and break the images that are inside okay so let's see what's inside of this so they seem to be all pretty well protected okay so the first images seem to be here it seems like they've turned out pretty well just be really careful when you're handling the images not to touch them too much because you don't want to be putting the oils of your fingers on them okay so the images are finally right behind here so the first one here looking pretty good okay so first image here second one right here and probably the favorite one right here of my dog another one here that seemed like it came out pretty well because i was scared this would be pure white but they think they kept a little bit of the greys inside of it which is pretty good and finally this one right here so yeah now let's talk about why i chose those images okay so now let's talk about how to choose the right images for your scene so if you look around here the first thing that is very important is to choose a picture that complements the colors that are already inside of the room where you're in so i used to choose just pictures i really like not necessarily thinking about if they match with the other colors around or the other things i already had inside of my room but this is actually very important so if you look around my room right here we're gonna see there's a lot of yellow this is the main color that we're using to add some accent color inside of the room but there's also a lot of brown and there's also the blue with the carpets and also the pillows right here so if you look at the picture that i chose to go on the wall right behind here we're gonna see it's a picture of my dog so first of all there's a really big sentiment because you know that i really like being with my dog if you watched any of my own videos before and this is actually the picture from the google pixel 4a so i'm going to talk about later how it came out but what is very important here is if we look at the colors right here we're going to see that we have the yellow and orange that matches the same colors that i have inside of the room here with the other yellow around and then if you look at the background here we're gonna see there's a lot of green and this complements the colors where i have inside of my room my plants and things like that where there's a lot of the green colors and then there's also my dog here that is brown that matches with the other pieces of furniture that have inside of the room so overall all the colors inside of this picture match pretty well whatever the colors i have inside of my room so this is very important to have a picture that doesn't look really weird inside of your room it's making sure that the picture actually matches the tone of your actual room as you have it right now okay so now if we move on to the second part of my room right here we're gonna see i have other pictures on the wall that i already installed and again if you look at the colors inside of these pictures we're going to see there's a lot of red orange and yellow and this matches the colors like we talked about that are inside of the scene i also have an orange bowl right here that works nicely with these pictures but what is very important instead of these two pictures on the wall right here is actually that both of these pictures are very similar in terms of color because they're all so both side by side so it's important to make sure that they match together and the colors work well between these two pictures because if you have very different pictures side by side i might be a little bit weird and not make something that is very uniform and looks well inside of the scene but now if you look at the other pictures here there's another thing that's very important inside of them is that they all have memories for me so these are all pictures of a trip that i took the second week i arrived here around seattle so they all have a saturn a memory inside of them so here we had a crazy storm uh with some clouds coming in on the side of the water uh these were just mountains that were super super nice and colorful that i never really expected to see here so they all have something that is special for me and that makes them that when i put them on the wall and if somebody asked me about them i have something to say about them which is pretty important because you don't want to just put pictures that are nice but i don't really have a story behind them you want to take pictures on the wall that when you see them reminds you something that you enjoyed while you took the picture okay so the next thing we want to talk about is how to edit the images because this is super important because if you simply send a picture that you took your phone with your camera you don't edit it before you might be disappointed because one thing that is sure is that when you're going to print your image first of all the colors are going to come out and they're going to be a little bit darker and the second thing is also the colors usually at least in my test tend to be a little bit less vibrant so it's very important to keep that in mind when you're sending a picture to be able to print it so i wanted to show you how to do it using your phone so i was going to use my google pixel 4 but there's a bug right now with go photos and they don't allow me to edit it but it's not a big deal because you can really use whatever device you have to edit your photos so i'm going to be using my ipad right here but if you have another phone or even if you have like iphone or anything like that really any the basic app that has basic editing functions is all you need to be able to edit your photo so here we're going to come inside of my photo that i have right here and i'm going to go inside of edit the first thing i'm going to do is just make sure that the picture is straight and that's a little bit cropped in so i'm just going to make sure that we keep the same original size right here and make sure that my dog is nice and centered so this looks pretty good but what is very important is not cropping the picture is actually going inside of the adjust tab and making sure that everything is a little bit brighter so we're gonna come into brightness here and we're going to bring it up quite a lot actually just make sure that if you have white parts inside the image they don't become a pure white because if they become a pure white you're not going to be able to print them afterwards it's just going to be white completely so i'm going to first bring the brightness up probably around like almost 20 so 17 should be okay then i'm going to contrast and i'm going to bring the contrast quite a lot because we want to make sure that the colors are very separated so it makes it a little bit easier when you print it out and then next we're going to do is the thing that i decided to never do when you edit your pictures and actually bring up the saturation up quite a lot this is going to ensure that when it prints out it still keeps the colors and make sure that they're still nice and vibrant even if you lose some vibrancy and some color we're also going to see here that by adding vibrancy saturation inside the picture we actually have a little bit more contrast that was added and it's not as wide as it used to be so adding these free settings so adding more brightness more contrast and more saturation is going to make sure that when you come out with your picture you're going to have a better result once it's printed the second thing we're going to do is actually go inside of lightroom because for the pictures i have on the wall right here i did may have an edit that was a little bit more complex and this is because i removed a lot of the distractions inside of the image so you need to understand when you're going to print out your image it's actually going to come out and it's going to be much bigger so small details that are inside of the image are going to show up a lot more so if i zoom inside of this shot and i show the before so i'm just going to go here instead of edit and i showed it before we're gonna see that there was a lot of little things in the background here that were pretty distracting so i went out and cleaned up the whole background of this image just to make sure that it looks a little bit better so to do this you simply go inside of the clone tool here and i'm going to see that i have all kinds of points here where i simply remove some different elements inside the shot just making it a lot cleaner so this is make sure that when i print it out and put it on a wall we don't get all these distraction inside of the cushion and it's just a much cleaner and nicer looking image in the end so these are the two easy techniques that i do to make sure that my pictures come out better and you can pass a lot more time in your photos that's not a problem at all but these are just the basic things that i do to make sure that my pictures when they're printed especially when they're printed in a big format come out and look nice okay so the next thing we'll talk about is which photo frames i use and how i put the pictures inside of them so i use some photo frames from ikea they're pretty cheap photo frames i don't really mind having super high quality ones i don't think it makes a big difference but what i really like having inside my photo frames is actually having a white border around the pictures that really makes the picture uh easier to see and just makes a little bit more nicer and looks a bit more professional but you can definitely go full frame if you want inside of the frame that's not a problem at all okay so here we're gonna open the box from ikea and i should have these photo frames right here so one thing that's very important is just making sure that you're doing all of this on the surface that won't scratch up the frames in the end so this is why i am on my bed right now is that i want to make sure that when i'm going to be opening up this frame it won't break and dance i'm just going to get rid of this so we have the footer frame right here so usually most photo frames are going to come and they're going to have multiple layers of plastic so be sure not to use a knife or anything that could cut through the frame the front part of these frames mike here are plastic so they're super super easy to scratch so i'm just gonna take this off remove all the corners right here and so now we just want to remove all of these little things around here i'm going to remove the back of the frame put it on the side right here now i'm just going to go get the picture because i actually don't have the picture and i want to have it ready once i'm going to remove all the protection from the glass right here all right so let's just move this box out of the way and i have my picture right here again we're going to remove this we're going to remove the white border that was talking about and then we're going to come on the glass right here and these are a little bit tricky and you remove the little plastic that's in front so there's plastic on both sides of [Music] the fake plexiglass here so we're just gonna come here we're gonna put it back down you can see that i always just touch the sides right here of the plexiglas i never actually touch in the middle of the glass so yeah you need pretty good fingernails to be able to do this gonna remove this the white border then we're gonna take the image and usually these images are a little bit larger than the actual size of the hole that's perfectly fine because you want to make sure that it goes over the hole here so i'm going to place the image uh but i actually forgot something else i'm going to go get some sketch tape which is pretty important to make sure that the actual image stays in place okay so i'm back with some masking tape actually not sketch tape but just to make sure that you're using a tape that is going to be able to remove afterwards without breaking the image you want to make sure you're not using something um like some duct tape or something like that that could break the image when moving it later so now that we go to have it placed just remember which side is the top so i know the top is on this side so i'm going to take my piece right here and make sure that my little thing here to attach at the top is actually placed in the right direction and once this is done you simply come here we're gonna close all these little things and we're gonna be good to go place the frame on the wall okay so our frame is good and i'm gonna be ready to go put it on the wall over there so let's go do that okay so now that i've measured everything on the wall i made sure that it was centered here and this is the same height as my other photo frames right here i have a little kit here from ikea to attach it on the wall this is what i recommend using if you're going to be putting them on a wall you can also buy some on amazon or wherever you get your things but this is just very simple little system to be able to put it it creates really small holes but they're still pretty strong which is important because i'm in apartments i don't want to be doing anything to break the walls um but also always check with your landlord if you're allowed to put some frames before doing it but i got the authorization here to do it so i'm all good to go so we're simply going to put it in right here and the tricky part is actually getting the actual frame on the wall because you want to make sure that you align this little thing so this little thing in the back right here with what the little insulation you put on the wall right here so i actually got it almost first try um it doesn't seem to be super straight so i might have to move it just a little bit this is looking all good for me so that's it so now we have our frame on the wall and it's looking pretty good so i have two other frames to go install so i'm going to do that and then we'll talk about how this print came out from my google pixel 4e and how does it compare to the other prints i got using the online service i used to print them [Music] do [Music] okay so before ending this video i actually wanted to talk about if it's possible to print a picture taken with your phone so this is a 12 megapixel taken with my google pixel 4 and print it in a big format so this is 20 inches by 30 inches i'm gonna put the dimensions in centimeters on the screen but this is actually a pretty big format and my answer is yes it's definitely possible but just be careful so if you look at the picture right here very close we're definitely gonna see that this is a picture coming from a phone because there's detail inside of the fur of my dog and everything that you really see it's over sharpened it doesn't look really good but the good news is if you walk away just a few meters so if i just go up like a meter or two meters or something like that which is most people when they're gonna be looking around and looking at this image they're not gonna be directly in front of the image actually a little bit more away from here i cannot tell the difference at all i cannot tell this is a picture that was taken by her phone so i think that in conclusion it's definitely possible to be printing some pictures using that we're taking on your phone and printing them in a big format so this is a good news for everybody that takes pictures using their phone and actually want to put them on the wall it's not going to be the best quality but it's definitely possible because most people don't look at a picture very close if we compare this to the other pictures on the other side we're going to see the pictures that come from our dslr which is 24 megapixel are much sharper even when you're really close but i think that for most people it's perfectly fine to print your 12 megapixels even in a big format on the wall before wrapping up this video i wanted to quickly talk about where to print your images because i realized i didn't talk about that and that's actually pretty important so in the past i used to go to costco but the problem when printing with costco is actually that if you had anything an image that was very close to white or very close to complete black it would just come out completely black or completely white depending on the color this is definitely a problem so this time i used a service that was a little bit more on the pricier side but it was still super easy i just submitted the images online and it delivered them to my house just a few days later and they actually retained pretty much the colors instead of one of the pictures i have on my wall in my room that is pretty tricky because it's very close to being pure white but it's not totally pure white but it didn't just make everything white in the end it's actually pretty nice they retain all the details inside of the clouds instead of that photo so that's definitely a service i can recommend if you want to get even better image quality in that case you're probably better to go to your local photoshop usually they can have a service to print your pictures and in this case they might even offer do you do to do a few tests before and you can pay to really make sure that your pictures are coming out as you desire but that's definitely a thing you have to look out around see the different options that are offered in your area and try and find the best that is for you so you can try different prints from different places and see which one you like the best if you really want to get the best image quality but if you don't really want to think about it too much i can definitely suggest using mpx it was a really great option for the ones that i have on the walls right here i hope you enjoyed this little video on why and how i print my pictures i know that the first time i printed my pictures it was a bit intimidating i wasn't sure what to do what were the best practices and things like that and i definitely still have a lot to learn about that but i hope that this is going to help a few people understand why you shouldn't print your images i think it's a really great thing to have your pictures on the wall and always remind yourself why you're making photography but also understand how to print them and how to install them and which one to shoot use if you enjoyed this video please let me know by hitting the like button below and definitely subscribe to the channel for more content on photography and filmmaking see you in the next one [Music]
Video Links
- Google Pixel 4a Review
- Google Pixel 4a vs DSLR
- Editing videos
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- TikTok
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD
- DJI MAVIC AIR
- http://bit.ly/loicba
What is this video about?
I've just received my biggest print order yet, and I'm excited to share what I've learned about printing photos. So many of us take pictures constantly, but we keep them buried in our phones or laptops. Printing them is something that used to feel intimidating to me, but I've discovered it's one of the most rewarding parts of being a photographer. This video walks you through exactly how I do it.
Why I Print My Photos
First, let's talk about why this matters. I used to think the only motivation for photography was getting likes on Instagram—but printing my own work changed that completely. Now, my goal is to take photos good enough to hang on my walls. It's a tangible, personal metric that pushes me to improve in ways algorithms never could. Plus, having your own images displayed around your space is a constant reminder of why you love photography in the first place. It's also just decoration—no different than anything else you'd put on a wall.
Choosing the Right Images
Not every photo deserves to be printed. I look for images that complement the colors already in my room, have a memory or story attached to them, and will remind me of why I took them. Context matters. If you surround yourself with generic stock photos versus images you actually connected with, the difference is real.
Editing for Print
This is crucial. When you print an image, it will come out darker and less vibrant than what you see on screen. I always increase brightness, contrast, and saturation before sending anything to print. If there are distracting elements in the background, I'll also clean those up using the clone tool—they'll be much more noticeable on a large print. These basic adjustments take minutes but make a huge difference.
Framing and Installation
I use simple IKEA frames, which are affordable and look clean with a white border around the print. The installation itself is straightforward—just be careful with the glass, use masking tape to secure the image, and use a proper wall mounting system that won't damage your walls or frames.
Can You Print From Your Phone?
Here's the test: I printed a 12MP photo from my Google Pixel 4a in a 20"×30" format. When you're standing close, yes, you can see the over-sharpening and lack of detail compared to a 24MP DSLR file. But from a normal viewing distance—a few meters away—it looks completely fine. The detail loss is only noticeable up close, so phone photos absolutely can be printed large.
Choosing a Print Service
I've tested different options. Costco is affordable but can blow out whites and blacks. This time I used a more premium service that preserved the full range of tones, especially important for tricky images with near-white or near-black areas. Your local print shop might offer test prints, which can be worth the investment if you want to dial things in. Try a few options and see what works best for your standards.