Print Options

Everything You Need to Know

Your print is not only a beautiful piece of art built to last a lifetime, but an investment as well. Collectors should know everything about their fine art purchase, so this page is designed to provide detailed information about your print and the purchase process from beginning to end. The bulk of this page is dedicated to describing the print medium options that are offered. But you will also find information on what sizes are available, a price list, how your limited edition number is obtained, shipping times, and instructions on the checkout process. You will even find some information about the preparation and post-processing at the bottom of the page that makes these prints unique.

Window of Opportunity

Limited Edition Prints Available

Thank you for visiting my website! I know there are many options out there, so I must differentiate myself and provide extra value to collectors in order to attract and keep your business. Here's how I can do that. Your print is actually the culmination of many steps, from the initial planned photography shoot to the time it arrives on your doorstep. I strive for perfection at each step along the way, and that's worth mentioning because attention to detail at each step makes a big difference in the final print that will ultimately hang on your wall. Lets' start with print mediums.



Beautiful Prints || Acrylic, Metal, Canvas, Paper

Once you have selected your image to purchase, the next step is deciding on the print medium. There are so many great options today that this can be a daunting task. But I have already done the leg work of researching the various types of print mediums through extensive trial and error. After exhaustive testing using a countless number of print labs and print medium types, I can say the options below are absolute top of the line.

I take great pride in my work and only recommend the very best print medium on the market. I am proud to offer five distinct options to accommodate personal tastes and budgets, with each print series using only the highest quality material within its class.

  • Lumachrome HD Acrylic Prints
  • Professional Acrylic Prints
  • Chromaluxe Metal Prints
  • Glossy Canvas Prints
  • Fuji Crystal Archive Paper Prints

The details of each series and how they are mounted are listed below. I know you will be very happy with any of these options.


Lumachrome HD Acrylic Prints


60"x40" Lumachrome Print

If you want the very best, look no further than Lumachrome HD Acrylic prints. They are without question the highest quality prints in the world today. Lumachrome HD Acrylic prints are museum quality pieces of art and widely recognized as top of the line due to their sensational visual depth, bright appearance, razor sharp resolution, beautiful tonal range, and brilliant colors. They have been described as having an incredible 3D image quality and unsurpassed craftsmanship.

Your transparent archival photograph is encapsulated between a pure white poly surface and a crystal clear, scratch resistant, non-reflective acrylic glass. Light is essentially trapped within the glass, which results in the stunning 3D visual characteristic Lumachrome is famous for. There’s simply nothing that compares to them!

Lumachrome prints are sensational enough, but included with your purchase is a special coating over the glass named TruLife™. TruLife™ ensures the brilliant colors truly stand out giving your artwork a true-to-life appearance that other acrylic products simply can’t match. That’s because TruLife™ Anti-Reflective Acrylic is manufactured with a proprietary anti-reflective coating that creates a nearly invisible surface, eliminating any distracting reflections or annoying glare that are associated with other acrylic plexiglass printing substrates. Your print will be more than just a breathtaking piece of artwork. The material will eliminate reflections and glares, is 99% UV protected, and is also abrasion resistant and anti-static.

After the print is constructed as shown above, a "Float Mount" frame is attached to the back, creating a ready to hang work of art. A 1.3-inch-thick ROMA back mounted floating frame is attached to the 3mm Komatex protective backing. The float Mount system allows the print to jump off the wall for an even more impressive display. Lumachrome HD Acrylic prints will always be my recommendation for customers wanting the absolute best print in the world hanging on their wall. The exquisite detail, color, and tonality range is absolutely amazing.


Professional Acrylic Prints

I'm proud to introduce my Professional Acrylic Prints, which are a more cost-friendly option to the World Class Lumachrome Acrylic prints. What's the difference? Frankly, it can be difficult to tell. The Professional Acrylic Prints are exceptional high-end vibrant prints made to last a lifetime. These prints are face-mounted to 1/8" of plexiglass, and do not contain the TruLife coating that is included with the Lumachrome prints. Your image is printed on a LexJet metallic surface which really allows images to pop. The acrylic sides are polished, and the entire artwork is scratch resistant. They are sensational artwork additions to any home or business and are back mounted with Dibond for additional protection. The floating frame is 3/4 inch long, and French Cleats are used to hang the print. These Professional Acrylic prints are guaranteed to impress any audience.



Chromaluxe Metal Prints

Fire Tree Print

Metal aluminum prints have become increasingly popular in recent years because of their visually striking characteristics, durability, lightweight material, and availability at a reasonable cost point. Metal prints are created by infusing inks directly onto aluminum plates, creating a metallic look that enhances detail and provides stunning contrast and color. While metal prints do not have that 3D visual depth or inner light characteristic as acrylic prints do, they are nonetheless stunning pieces of artwork. I have several metal prints hanging in my own house and love them. This is a 30x20" Chromaluxe metal print of Fire Tree we have hanging in our house.

The ChromaLuxe white metal aluminum panel is my metal print of choice after experimenting with several print labs and types of aluminum metal. The ChromaLuxe prints have an additional vibrancy and contrast that is unmatched, while maintaining the true tonal range of the image. ChromaLuxe prints also appear to better at true color representation which can be an issue with some metal prints. The process of printing directly on metal with a heat press can lead to minor color changes, especially greens. It is the primary reason why metal prints are considered a minor step down from the acrylics. Metal prints are best suited for environments where reflections and glare are not an issue. This is a very important consideration when choosing your print medium.
All my Chromaluxe metal prints include a black powdered aluminum extrusion frame for a true professional finish. These frames are undersized by 2 inches around the edges of the print and come with an aluminum "Z-clip" for wall mounting. This extrusion frame allows the metal print to extend out from the wall and provides an even more attractive presence in any room.


Canvas Prints

My Canvas Prints are photographic images printed directly onto a museum quality canvas material, with a glossy finish applied for a final touch. Canvas provides a texture and artsy look that simply cannot be matched by any other print medium. Each canvas print includes a 1 1/2-inch border wrap that is digitally stretched around the edges, providing a continuous natural extension of the image. The stretched edge is an artificial extension of the image, so you are guaranteed to see the entire image on the front-facing part of the print. Each print includes a sawtooth hanger for immediate hanging. Extremely affordable and absolutely beautiful!


Fuji Crystal Archive Paper Prints

The traditional photo prints on paper have largely given ground to the higher quality and more visually stunning acrylic and metal prints for understandable reasons. However, paper prints still have a huge place in the art market. My choice for paper prints is the Fujicolor Crystal Archive Prints. These prints will last for decades. This HD photo paper uses a polyester-based silver-halide material optimized for professional galley-level displays. This paper excels in rich colors and has and underlying warmer base tone, perfect for most nature photography. These paper prints have a high-gloss finish, offers sharp detail, high intensity colors, and a distinctive appearance that gives it a luxury feel.

The print does come with a 2mm styrene backing. Styrene is a super smooth plastic mounting substrate that resists warping, making it an excellent choice for adding durability to prints of all sizes. It will provide the required rigidity should you elect to get the print framed. Paper prints are usually framed, but there are so many options and personal preferences for mats and frames, I leave that decision up to the customer.


Print Labs

There are so many print labs across the country. Where to even start? Like all the other steps in the process, I was adamant on finding the very best. After talking to many colleagues and going through an unlimited number of test prints, I ended up picking three top notch professional labs to produce my prints. The lab that will produce your print depends on the print medium you choose. That's because I discovered different labs are better at different print mediums.



Print Sizes

Choosing the print size is the final decision, and I offer five different sizes ranging from 16"x24" all the way up to a whopping 40"x60". To help visualize what size to order, here are three prints of Morning Glory hanging next to each other.

Print Sizes



Print Prices

I think you will find my prices are very competitive, and consistently more cost-friendly than similar products on the market. I strive to keep the prices as low as possible.

No Sales Tax: I do not charge sales tax.
Discounts: I do offer discounts occasionally on social media, and the Print of the Month is always available at a 20% discount. The prices below do not include any discount codes, so your print may be available for purchase at an even further reduced rate. The acrylic and metal prints include French cleats so they are ready to hang.


Free Shipping

I offer free shipping anywhere within the United States, including Alaska & Hawaii. This is a substantial benefit since shipping costs for large packages are quite exorbitant these days. Your print will be packaged securely by the print lab and guaranteed to arrive in perfect condition. In the rare chance of damage during shipment, please notify me as soon as possible and I will get you another print.

The production times will vary, but please allow 3-4 weeks from the time you order until delivery. A few of the print labs I use are privately owned and have fewer than a dozen employees, so they take a little longer than the big box print shops. The Lumachrome acrylic prints typically take one week longer to produce than the other print mediums.

Limited Editions

So what are limited editions and why are they important? Most artwork is sold as 'open editions', meaning that an unlimited number of prints of the same image can be produced over time. This obviously limits their value.

An investment in fine artwork should be protected not only physically, but from a financial aspect as well. That is why every photograph in my collection is limited in number, with most as an edition of 150 images. When each photograph has reached it's production limit, REGARDLESS of medium or size it will never be produced again. I'm proud to offer limited editions which includes a paper medium in addition to the very high end acrylic and metal pieces. Most artists today do not offer that option.

When you purchase an image from Chris Marler Photography, rest assured you will truly own a unique piece of art. Every print is digitally embedded in an unobtrusive manner with my signature and your edition number (such as 69/150) in the bottom corner. A signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity is a shipped separately from the print itself for additional provenance.

Checkout Process

Ordering your print is easy and secure. After picking out your print from the online gallery, simply click on that image which sends you to the photo page. Then scroll down to see the purchase options. There are typically four choices, one for each type of print medium. Next to each print medium is a pull-down menu with the available sizes. Select the size you want and press the Add to Cart button. This will take you to the shopping cart where you can specify the print quantity and enter any discount codes.

There are two secure ways to purchase your print.
PayPal:
You may use your PayPal account by pressing the PayPal button. This will take you to their site and you may proceed to login and pay from your own account. You may also use PayPal if you don't have an account, as they process credit cards as a guest. PayPal is 100% secure and widely recognized as a trusted e-commerce platform.

Pay with Card: This option uses Stripe to process your credit card. Stripe is a third party company that processes millions of credit card transactions. It is also 100% secure.

If you have any questions about the prints, the process, or the checkout, please contact me. Thank you so much!


Why Your Print is Unique



Preparation:
Preparation is key and getting a spectacular shot rarely happens by circumstance. Most of my nature photography shoots are planned out well in advance, sometimes years in advance. Planning to photograph a moonrise over a specific mountain peak, the milky way at a remote dark sky location, or when elusive migratory birds arrive at my favorite wildlife refuge takes time and research. It doesn't always work out, but good preparation always increases the chances of coming back with amazing shots.

Experience:
I've been photographing landscapes and wildlife for over thirty years, and there is just no substitute for experience when photographing in the field. I understand what works and what doesn’t, and that only comes from years of trial and error. I’ve been fortunate to visit so many incredible locations, and have discovered many favorite hidden areas still relatively unknown to most people.

Creative Vision:
I feel this is one my most distinguishing features as a nature photographer. I go out of my way to create unique and compelling images that other photographers might overlook. Every photographer has their own unique style and identity, and I hope my style speaks to you when browsing through the galleries.

Knowing Your Equipment:
Knowing your camera equipment inside and out is essential. I've been shooting Nikon my entire life, so I know how to use all the controls instinctively without even thinking about them. This can be critical in the field. If you are trying to figure out some camera control on location, it's likely you will miss that fleeting moment of golden light or that perfect wildlife shot.



Shooting to Print:
The purpose of my nature photography is to produce large museum quality fine art prints. I don't shoot with the objective of posting to social media, to get as many Instagram or Facebook likes as possible, or even to have my images displayed in magazines or calendars. That's all nice, but printing an image on the highest quality medium and having it displayed in a home or office setting is my ultimate goal. Why is this important? In order to maximize print quality, you have to approach photography in a different way from the outset. There are several techniques I use when pressing the shutter button that greatly enhances the final print quality. I can say without hesitation that one new shooting technique in particular makes a huge difference when producing large prints. It's a game changer and I always utilize it when photographing landscapes.

Post Processing:
I have spent hundreds of hours behind the computer perfecting the art of post-processing to ensure your print looks absolutely amazing. All photographers these days use post processing to some degree. But I go well beyond the basics. There are very specialized advanced techniques designed to ensure your print can be enlarged and still maintain incredible detail, without any degradation in image quality or introduction of noise to the enlargement. I have attended post processing workshops from the best printers in the world that specialize in creating large nature photography prints, and I apply those lessons learned to each and every print that goes out the door. Also, post processing edits should be unique to each print medium and size. I meticulously apply custom adjustments to your print based on this criteria, to ensure it is printed to the highest quality possible.