Why I still proof on paper

I trained as a printer before I worked as a photographer, and the habit has never left. Every commission is proofed at 24 × 30 cm before the files go anywhere.

What a proof catches

Shadows that looked open on a monitor and are simply black on paper. Skies that band. A horizon that is level by the numbers and still looks wrong on the wall.

None of this is visible on a laptop in a hotel room, which is where most editing happens.

What it costs

About two days per job and a box of baryta paper. Clients receive the proofs with the final files, and in ten years nobody has asked me to stop.