Ordering a print from our archive

High-quality prints of historical photographs can be used for interior decoration, for scientific research, or they can make a very nice present. Ordering prints of photographs from our archive is easy:

Write down the ID of the photograph in our archive (as seen in the viewer on the right of the actual image).
Email us to muzeum@sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz: the photo IDs; preferred size (at least 20×30cm, up to 110cm wide); preferred paper (photo matte, gloss or fine art paper); mailing address.
We will email you with information as to whether the particular photograph will allow reproduction in the size you request, and will quote the cost.
If you wish to proceed, make payment to us via Paypal to address honza@sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz.
We will send you a preview of the edited photograph, if requested, once payment arrives. We will ship the reproduction, usually within 1 week.

How to calculate cost

1 square metre of print: 66 Euro (4 Euro for A4) on fine art matte, photo matte or photo gloss media.
Preparing archival photograph for print and author honorae:
- 6 Euro for prints up to size of A4.
- 20 Euro for 35mm film, glass plate negatives for sizes up to 30x40cm.
- 33 Euro for bigger prints.
Shipping cost: We can ship worldwide; the cost depends on your location, and the size and number of photographs. For sizes up to 30x40cm, we ship for 4 Euro in Europe, and 9 Euro worldwide.

How we prepare the print

All photographs in our archive are digitized in high resolution and quality (up to hundreds of megapixels). The scans are archived in unedited form. Preparing a photograph for print includes looking it up in the archive, editing and retouching, and optimizing for our printer.

It is important to consider that the negatives in our archive were intended to be cropped, balanced and retouched at reproduction. They are not final products. Unless requested otherwise, we perform similar editing as the photographer would do in the dark room, for each specific print and size. This usually includes:

Cropping — all historical negatives were intended to be cropped, usually from 13×18cm to cabinet photograph size.
Optimizing contrast — negatives were exposed by hand, based on the experience of the photographer. Some can be underexposed, others overexposed.
Retouching — we retouch damage that is disturbing when appreciating the photograph ; however, we do not intend to turn historical photographs into a “modern” look.
Adding a color cast — 19th century photographs were usually reproduced in brown tones; early 20th century photographs were reproduced using different kinds of toners; while finally from 1940s, photographs were usually reproduced in neutral gray. We can imitate those toners in our computer.
Optimizing for output device — reducing resolution for print to 600DPI and doing output sharpening.
We print the photographs digitally, using a state of the art HP Designjet Z3100 printer. This printer offers a wide range, in both color and black and white printing. We can print photographs up to 110cm wide. The inks used are water and light resistant, estimated to last over 100 years when displayed.

Automatically generated preview

Preview of photograph prepared for print.


Restaurant “Třeboňka”, Tábor photographs 60×90cm.	Restaurant “U zlatého lva”, Tábor photographs 50×60cm.	Restaurant KFC, Bratislava photographs 100×100cm.