Digital BW, The Print

At 12:50 AM -0500 3/27/06, G Guhan Gunaratnam wrote:
>[snip]
>How many use precut mats for presentation (prior to framing).  I would
>rather not dive into cutting my own mats as I've heard it can take a little
>while to become proficient.  I'd rather look at pre-cut mats.  I've looked
>at the Light Impressions site and they seems to be adequate, but would like
>to know what others think.

Pre-cut mats are my choice, Guhan, because I don't print enough for 
it to be an extravagance, and I'm "all thumbs". I like and use Light 
Impressions's materials and think they are more than adequate, very 
nice in fact.


>   I'm matting 13x19" prints, B&W and some colour,
>B&W printed on VFA, colour on Entrada.

Just out of convenience in my small place, the 16 x 20 mats are the 
largest I use, sometimes for an image I print as large as 11 x 14 
(near my dead scanner's limit) on a 13 x 19 sheet. But I prefer 
everything to be smaller. And having extricated from the whole 35mm 
exposure what I see as the best image, I scale it up only as far as I 
think I have to in order for it to look good.


>I'm leaning towards the gallery
>white (Exeter Pre-cuts), but don't know if the Bright White Westminster
>would be a better match for the papers I'm using.

Me either, Guhan. I keep each white on hand for the prints to "try 
on" behind acrylic in a black frame. If it's a close call, I print 
another copy and look at them side-by-side. If I still can't decide, 
since I don't have a pet, I ask my younger granddaughter. She always 
knows but can't say why. Thank God. 8)


>Any relevant help is appreciated...thanks!
>
>Guhan

Hope this helps, Guhan, but I really do believe it's best to just 
trust your intuition on a print-by-print basis and to also be quick 
to swap out one mat for another to please an opinionated client.
--
Sam