If you had to pick one paper!

[Adampro1]

Roy - Off topic (and started a trend) but ok by me

On the topic of printing images, I've just started with photo prints (my wife runs a stationery business, so I'm technically printing all the time, but on a Heidelberg windmill).. I've been taking photos for 10 years professionally and 15 years total. Honestly most of my clients just want a CD. It's really quite sad, I miss having physical images in the hand. So this year I'm really gonna push prints on my clients. I've been working on a lot of albums etc. And I just need to get my printing down pat, and paper is the first step.
It's interesting that you and a lot of others feel the best paper is based on the print, rather then what you like.

So far I've used Canon's matte photo paper for proofs, but the second I try switching up to Canon photo rag, or luster or pro premium semi-gloss or the cotton paper I use for letterpress (not a printer paper). The images just look off.. For some weird reason. That's another issue for another thread, but lets just say it's gonna be an uphill battle till I'm satisfied. OH and I've realized that I shoot for digital, so I'll also have to retrain myself to think about how the image will look when printed (both in camera and in lightroom)..


Anyway, back on topic (although feel free to deviate):

I'm ordering the following to sample, hopefully getting good results is as straight forward as using the right icc profile since I'll only have a few pages of each.

Hahnemuhle Matte Fine Art Smooth Archival Inkjet Paper Sample pack
Hahnemuhle FineArt Glossy Inkjet Paper Sample Pack

So I'll get to test most of the Hahnemuhle papers

 

[Adampro1]

turbguy - I've been testing Canon photo rag (a bit limp at 188gsm but ok). But I actually agree, I'm more partial to matte photo paper, then semi-gloss. My problem has been that everything I print has turned more of a green color then a true black and white. I really think it's the paper because I can get a blue/black (mostly black) print on the matte photo paper from Canon. Just not on the fine art photo rag.

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Roy - Off topic (and started a trend) but ok by me

On the topic of printing images, I've just started with photo prints (my wife runs a stationery business, so I'm technically printing all the time, but on a Heidelberg windmill).. I've been taking photos for 10 years professionally and 15 years total. Honestly most of my clients just want a CD. It's really quite sad, I miss having physical images in the hand. So this year I'm really gonna push prints on my clients. I've been working on a lot of albums etc. And I just need to get my printing down pat, and paper is the first step.
It's interesting that you and a lot of others feel the best paper is based on the print, rather then what you like.

So far I've used Canon's matte photo paper for proofs, but the second I try switching up to Canon photo rag, or luster or pro premium semi-gloss or the cotton paper I use for letterpress (not a printer paper). The images just look off.. For some weird reason. That's another issue for another thread, but lets just say it's gonna be an uphill battle till I'm satisfied. OH and I've realized that I shoot for digital, so I'll also have to retrain myself to think about how the image will look when printed (both in camera and in lightroom)..


Anyway, back on topic (although feel free to deviate):

I'm ordering the following to sample, hopefully getting good results is as straight forward as using the right icc profile since I'll only have a few pages of each.

Hahnemuhle Matte Fine Art Smooth Archival Inkjet Paper Sample pack
Hahnemuhle FineArt Glossy Inkjet Paper Sample Pack

So I'll get to test most of the Hahnemuhle papers

WOW talk about a "Blast from the past".

Fifty plus years ago I started working as an apprentice in the printing industry, and the piece of equipment we all started on was the Heidelberg Windmill. Was state of the art back then, and a respected occupation

Now you know I come by my appreciation of the printed image honestly!

Roy S.

 

[Adampro1]

Roy - The machine we bought was from an old man who refused to retire (his daughter was slowly selling off his machinery). She told me that the windmill was his first machine, he bought it and ran it out of the living-room of his small shophouse, used it to raise 4 kids. She said that the machine was well taken care of by him, but had never had any major servicing. Ran well, but it definitely had it's issues (at this point he was using it mainly for die-cutting).
So when we got it, I had to figure everything out for myself (not much of a manuals kinda guy). One month later and we were printing without to much trouble. It's an old machine, so it has it's quirks, and could definitely use a refurbishment, but it gets the job done.

I honestly think it's an easier machine to figure out then these Canon Pro-1 and Pro-100 printers

Best,
Adam

 

[fotofreek]

As a young teenager I was fascinated with the printing process. In Junior High School we had, among the several shop coursed offered, a print shop. I had no time in my schedule to take that course, but I sneaked in during lunch hours and learned aobut setting moveable lead type and working with a small manual letterpress. When I was 14 I bought a used small Kelsey letterpress (manual, of course) and several fonts of type and did a neighborhood printing business of cards, envelopes, and letterhead. This led to multicolor wood block prints and then to black and white photography with my own darkroom. With the advent of digital photography and high quality home printers it is great fun working at home to produce artistic photo prints that would have been extremely difficult with negative or positive film images and a darkroom in the past.

I share your concern about the current apparent lack of interest in the printed photographic image. Will art museums of the future have all digitally displayed images in lieu of artistic photo prints? I hope not!

 

[The Hat]

Fifty plus years ago I started working as an apprentice in the printing industry, and the piece of equipment we all started on was the Heidelberg Windmill. Was state of the art back then, and a respected occupation

It still is state of the art, letterpress is making a huge come back some people are realising the quality it once produced and still can in the right hands..

I agree with @fotofreek, I too would be saddened to think that future young folks could forget how it all started..

 

[costadinos]

-Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta 325gsm is my favorite, by far, for photos that are going to be displayed.

-Hahnemuhle Museum Etching for the matte prints.

-Epson Premium Luster for weddings/portraits.

And this one for everything else, from 10x15cm to posters to digital albums. Extremely cheap, lovely pearl texture (probably the best of all I have tested, even among the "fine art" papers), durable , and works well with 3rd party pigments (no gloss differential whatsoever, less bronzing):
http://www.photomart.co.uk/Catalogu...r/ImageColour-Pearl-Inkjet-Photo-Paper-260gsm

 

[Roy Sletcher]

It still is state of the art, letterpress is making a huge come back some people are realising the quality it once produced and still can in the right hands..

I agree with @fotofreek, I too would be saddened to think that future young folks could forget how it all started..

Still a very small niche market around here. For the most part the old HB Windmill is used for Diecutting, foil stamping and blind embossing with a heat and foil attachment. Can't honestly envisage any SERIOUS commercial resurgence of letterpress. Like photographic film most interest is from former aficionados who are living more in hope than reality. The real world is driven mostly by commercial imperatives. Usually with the commodity product war cry "Faster! cheaper!". Which puts letterpress at a disadvantage.

Again just my personal opinion. Again I am polluting this forum with cross posts.

However! I have had a thought about favourite papers, and have come to the conclusion that my preferences tend towards those that are easily available to me in Canada, and also tend to be discounted with special discounted deals from time to time. For about the last 10 years I found the Ilford range met those requirements. Then about two years ago they started rebranding their products, discontinued the products I liked, and jacked up the price. Discounts also vanished. Since then have moved top Red River Papers and have been satisfied with t heir comprehensive range. Usually place a reasonable sized order once, sometimes twice a year.

Roy S.

 

[fotofreek]

Nice thing about Red River is that you can order a very inexpensive sample package of all their papers. You can even find a discount for the sample pack sometimes. I've used some of their papers for special projects. I've used ultraPro Satin which has a very nice low gloss surface, and the Aurora Art Natural C2S has an off white matte surface with what feels like a slightly sueded finish.

Like Roy, I use heavily discounted papers for many projects. I stock up with Staples Photo Supreme Double Sided Matte when it is on sale for a few dollars a 50 sheet box, and I have two lifetime supplies of the Costo Kirkland glossy photo paper that I bought when it was on a half price sale - both 8.5x11 and 4x6 sizes. Even at full price it is a great bargain.

 

[Adampro1]

Cheaper, faster is sadly the way of life, especially here in Singapore.

I'm having a problem with black and white prints on the pro-100, they're turning a yellow/green. I'm using Canon photo rag 188gsm. And I'm printing using either Canon profile, or hahmunbal profile for photorag.. I'm not converting to grey scale, just processing a color photo into a black and white image, but it looks black on my screen. IF I convert to greyscale the images look the same on my monitor, but then when I print it has more of a red/yellow look.

Do I need to calibrate? anyone wanna pass me a link on the best steps to getting BW images out of either photoshop with canons pro-1 plugin or lightroom or just using the stand alone canon software.

Also, ordering sample packs over the next couple of days, will try the epson luster paper that was suggested, but noticed that they don't do 13x19 size or 5x7 which are the two sizes I'd need the most.

I've read a lot on this issue still can't figure it out.

Sorry to deviate from topic for a bit, I am enjoying hearing peoples paper choices.