gdanmitchell Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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dswiger wrote:
I am interested in your take on printing this image as I would like to maintain brightness/color.
When I've had prints on canvas, some become flatter/darker.
I've also had this occur on some matte papers
There are no correct answers when it comes to papers and alternatives like canvas. I have some ideas, but they probably represent my own personal biases as much as anything.
In general for large prints I prefer to print on so-called "lustre" papers (some of which go by different names) which have a reflective surface but not a smooth glossy one. They can produce very good blacks and seem to naturally create an appearance of stronger contrast, though you can also print very subtle images on them. There are a lot of fine papers of this type, though I like to use Epson Ultrapremium Lustre for proofing and for occasional less expensive versions for some clients for whom cost is an issue. (For example, certain commercial uses where the appearance of fine art is more important than the reality of fine art quality prints.) My favorite papers for serious printing (and I don't mind at all that others like different papers than I do!) are Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk for color and Ilford Galerie Gold Mono Silk for black and white.
On the other hand, I do think that matte papers can also be nice, and they work especially well for very small prints intended to be held in the hand and viewed closely - including folios and cards. But matte papers do tend to mute the intensity of colors and contrasts. That's fine if it is what you want (for example I've seen some beautiful matte prints of very high key photographs) but if you are working for sufficient contrast and color it might not be the ideal way to go.
I'm not a big fan of canvas myself, though I've seen some very effective prints on canvas. It is excellent for pushing print size a bit further than you might with a more traditional style of photo paper, since the canvas texture tends to make resolution issues a bit less critical. And I wouldn't hesitate to go with canvas for a client who was set on that idea.
In any case, if you are having a challenge in getting your matte and canvas prints to have enough life, it just might be that you might like a lustre surface a bit more.
Good luck,
Dan
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