My Immediate-Turnaround Printer Workflow

For those who have seen my TikTok's and Reels where I print out a photo that I just took and hand it to a performer, this post will outline the softwares, workflow, and tips that I use to make this happen in real-time.

For those who don't want to read the whole post:

Sony Image Edge to iPad

Edit in Lightroom-iPad

Export to camera roll

Air Print to Canon Selphy CP 1500

The Inspiration

I do not claim to have come up with this concept on my own- I have followed Instagram & TikTok creator happy2find for years, I believe he is one of the pioneers of this format.

I however had not seen much content of this format in performing arts, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Equipment

This process requires a few pieces of equipment in order to work properly.

1) Canon Selphy CP1500 Photo Printer

2) Canon Selphy Portable Battery

3) Air-Print Enabled Photo Editing Tablet

4) SD Card to Tablet Dongle (if you have an older camera)

Obviously, you'll need the photo printer itself. It comes with an AC power adapter for home or stationary use. However, you'll need to purchase a portable rechargeable battery in order to use this printer away from an outlet.

If you intend to shoot .jpg without any edits or post-processing, you don't need a tablet. However, if you want to do any exposure, color, white balance, or cropping edits before you print the photo, you will need a tablet that can run a photo editing software.

I use the Adobe suite in my every day life as a creative, so Adobe Lightroom for iPad was a no-brainer.

Most mirrorless cameras from the major camera brands have an app or software that you can use to browse images on the camera card from a phone or tablet. This is a key part of this process for me. If your camera does not support this, you will need to buy an SD Card dongle that plugs into your tablet to browse photos directly from the card.

I shoot on Sony Alpha camera bodies, so I use the Sony Image Edge app to view photos on the cards directly from my phone or tablet.

The tablet, along with the printer, battery, and paper tray, all pack up into a small footprint that fits in a camera sling bag that I bring with me.

I recommend buying some sort of cheap bag or nylon sleeve to put around the printer while it's in your bag! I left the printer in my bag loose the first two or three times and it has tons of scratches on the screen and body. Here's a link to the protective sleeve I bought.

The Process

Step 1: Take a good photo!

Step 2: Use your camera's app (or sd card dongle) to browse the card for the photo that you'd like to edit & print.

Note: even with the app, you still have to browse the entire card's worth of images, so it's extremely helpful if you have an idea of a few "good shots" in your head before you start looking through them all.

Step 3: Import the selected photo into your photo editor on your tablet or phone

Step 4: Edit the photo!

Note: The Canon Selphy CP1500 prints on 4x6 photo paper which is the same aspect ratio (3:2) as most modern cameras, however, the perforated tear-off edges on the photo paper will encroach on the aspect ratio and give you a tighter crop than the the exported image looks like.

Step 5: Export the photo to your camera roll. (If you do not have an air-print enabled tablet but you have an iPhone, you can send the photo from your tablet to your iPhone so that you can air-print from your phone)

If you do not have any device that supports air-print, the Canon Selphy CP1500 has a slot for a physical SD card to be plugged in for print files. If you need to use this method, I would recommend having a second, empty, SD card that you only put the finalized file on for printing. You do NOT want to be scrolling through 800 files using the photo printer arrow keys!

Step 6: Assemble the printer and turn it on. If using air-print, it does take 10-20 seconds for the printer's network to launch before your device will recognize it. I usually have to manually go into my tablet's wifi networks and select the printer network, every time.

Step 7: Print!

Note: there is a setting on the printer that I recommend changing that controls color rendering. Setup > Print Settings > Image Optimize > Off

If this is on, the printer has the authority to change contrast and colors for "better prints". I prefer to control those things in my photo editing software instead of having the final product come out looking different than I intended.

You will also need to go into Setup > Printer Setup > Keep Print Settings > Image Optimize > On

Otherwise as soon as you turn the printer off, it will default the Image Optimize setting back to it's default option of on.

Step 8: Break off the perforated photo paper tabs and show that thing off 🥳

Helpful Tips

1) The largest time variable with this process for me is how long it takes to find and select the photo that I actually want to edit and print. Keep a mental note while you're shooting of the ones that you think might make good candidates.

2) Avoid printing photos in rain, snow, dust, or windy conditions. Any small amount of debris on the photo paper as it is printing the 4 color passes will absolutely destroy the image, leaving streaks or cuts on the paper.

3) You can alter many points of this process, including SD Card dongle vs wireless app, iPad vs other tablet, Lightroom vs other image editing software, inserting the SD card directly into the photo printer, etc. However, know that most modifications of this process that differ from what I outline will add to the length of time it takes start to finish. If you're trying to catch an athlete or client with a finalized photo before they leave, you might not want to be fooling around with some of these alternative methods.

That's it! Happy Printing 🖨️

* Notice, some of the links in this post are Affiliate links and I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you*