Ben Horne wrote:
Perhaps I should elaborate a bit. The context of my comments about lightjet is within the scope of this conversation --- producing large prints.
Just to be clear, I never said that everyone should use lightjet, or even that this is the only way I print. I have some prints on inkjet as well. I just like the tonality and gradients I get from lightjet upon close inspection. I too love the look of inkjet on the Bartya paper. I only print some of my work on Flex. the problem with flex is that some images end up looking rather sterile.
When you do very large prints, this will expose the weakness of any print medium. You'll find that it is VERY important to not only keep the print flat, but also to keep it super smooth. Even the smallest imperfection is magnified. This is one of the things that flex deals with very well.
A facemount becomes necessary to help keep large prints very flat --- especially when paired with a rear mount to dibond, as mentioned above.
I'm not sure how possible it is to face mount inkjet prints. From what I understand, face mounting is easiest with flex because you are essentially bonding plastic to plastic. When an injket is face mounted, I'm sure there is a chance that the ink will spread, or cause other strange issues.
I am unsure how one would best mount and display large inkjet prints. If anyone has knowledge on this, I would certainly appreciate it, since that is likely they method I will use when producing large B&W prints.
I completely agree with you in that when mounting large prints all the weaknesses in the system are glaringly exposed. However, I have not found face mounting necessary. Flex makes for gorgeous prints, as good as they get for color gloss media. It is however more sensitive to mounting systems because it is the thinnest paper out there. Still, with proper mounting technique and materials I can get a perfectly flat print without face mounting.
It all has to do with how smooth the surface of the mounting board is and more importantly, with the smoothness of the adhesive interface. My framer and I did a lot of experimentation with all the different media (we did this on 8x10s to save costs but also so we could examine them in hand under brutal hard light - direct midday sunlight).
We found that the best system is vacuum bagging the print to a Styrene faced board, bonding with a neutral PH professional spray adhesive. This gives a perfectly flat print where nothing from the interface shows through the print paper. We were using solid Styrene boards at first but then found another board that has two thin Styrene faces with a closed cell poly core in the middle. Just as smooth and stiff but much lighter (light is good for large prints). The closed cell core cannot absorb any humidity so it is very stable.
My framer vacuum bags the whole thing in a clean room, with the print, adhesive and mount board temporarily sandwiched inside the bag between two 4x8 foot sheets of Plexiglass.
We use the same system for my large B&W inkjet prints. I use Hahnemuhle Baryta cotton rag. It has a very delicate printing surface but the paper is very thick and stiff, which makes mounting a non-issue.
Finally, if you prefer floating mounts, and here is where I find face mounting a necessity, there is still another alternative. There is a great outfit in NC that prints directly to aluminum. I had some samples sent to me and they look superb. Pretty much as flat as it gets and bulletproof. The outfit's site is here: http://imagewizards.net/
