Digital BW, The Print

I'm planning an exhibition next year and, as part of it, I'd like to
print some large Hasselblad Xpan (panoramic) images.

I'm thinking maybe 1.5m high.  The prints need to have impact,
dramatic effect.

It makes sense to print it digitally - probably in a professional lab
(my R2400 won't quite be able to print big enough - although, with a
roll of paper, it would go close).

I'm struggling with how to do it and how to present it.  One
possibility is to print on canvas then stretch over a frame.  Another
possibility is just to print on paper and use glassine pins to nail
the image to the wall

BTW, the images are largely of Vietnam and Cambodia - but it would
seem a little cliched to use a scroll arrangement (e.g round wood at
top and bottom).

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Regards
Gareth

Are you going to be selling the prints, and do they need to 
be "archival"? If the answers are maybe and no, there are several fine 
weave banner materials that would hold higher detail than most canvas, 
and still allow you to stretch them on some kind of frame, or hang them 
like a tapestry. Some of those materials would allow a backlight to 
illuminate them, which might be an interesting effect. There is also 
back light film materials, or if the images fit, you could print on 
silk (but a lot of things won't look right on silk).

And if you want big, and are going to be sending them out for printing, 
why not print them 1 meter (or more) wide?

Since you were quoting metric sizes, I'll guess that you are not in 
America, so getting the same materials that I describe might not be 
possible unless you find a company in the US that will ship to you.

Yes, they will be sold and, as such, should be archival.

But what are these other materials and, when you say they're not
archival, how 'unarchival' are they?

I'm not sure how they would look on silk, but I suppose there is only
one way to find out.  Can you print on silk with a R2400 or would I
need to send it out?

I'm not locked in on size - what I need is a size that looks good. 
The images I have will look fantastic printed big.

Regards
Gareth

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Greg"
<dfaprinting@y...> wrote:

>
> Are you going to be selling the prints, and do they need to 
> be "archival"? If the answers are maybe and no, there are several fine 
> weave banner materials that would hold higher detail than most canvas, 
> and still allow you to stretch them on some kind of frame, or hang them 
> like a tapestry. Some of those materials would allow a backlight to 
> illuminate them, which might be an interesting effect. There is also 
> back light film materials, or if the images fit, you could print on 
> silk (but a lot of things won't look right on silk).
> 
> And if you want big, and are going to be sending them out for printing, 
> why not print them 1 meter (or more) wide?
> 
> Since you were quoting metric sizes, I'll guess that you are not in 
> America, so getting the same materials that I describe might not be 
> possible unless you find a company in the US that will ship to you.
>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "garethjolly" <garethjolly@y...> 
wrote:
>
> Yes, they will be sold and, as such, should be archival.
> 
> But what are these other materials and, when you say they're not
> archival, how 'unarchival' are they?
> 

Are your photos posted on a web site?  I've spent quite a bit of time in VN and once to 
Angkor Wat.  It would be interesting for me to see VN from your view point.

Martin

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "garethjolly" 
<garethjolly@y...> wrote:
>
> Yes, they will be sold and, as such, should be archival.
> 
> But what are these other materials and, when you say they're not
> archival, how 'unarchival' are they?

I'm not really sure how long they would last with pigment inks. The 
other fabric type banner material I have came from 
http://www.digifab.com from the prices, I would say that archival is 
not the property they put at the top of the list. Normally things 
like that are a maximum of 2 years, some considerably shorter. 
Without testing I wouldn't risk it. 

FOr archival fabric, I would suggest Intelicoat Torino 17 mil 
cotton/poly material. In the USA it is simply known by a part number 
I can't remember, but a web search should turn up some info. This is 
the canvas that I use because of the gamut/dynamic range, water 
resistant, and archival testing. Intelicoat claims it will go 100+ 
years (with no coating on the print) with pigment inks, tested with 
accelerated light fading like everything else.


> 
> I'm not sure how they would look on silk, but I suppose there is 
only
> one way to find out.  Can you print on silk with a R2400 or would I
> need to send it out?

Silk should work fine with the 2400. The silk I've tried from 
Breathing Color has a paper backing, so feeding is not a problem. 
After printing just remove the paper. The dynamic range of silk is 
very low! Consider it for a specialty application.

> 
> I'm not locked in on size - what I need is a size that looks good. 
> The images I have will look fantastic printed big.
> 

Then you should consider getting at least one of them printed really 
big to see how it looks. If it's pictures of people, prints that are 
life size can be very impressive! If you go with canvas, and have 
highly detailed images, then canvas prints should be BIG to retain 
the detail of the images.

Where are you located? I might be able to point you in the correct 
direction for larger than 13 inches wide, or contact me off list so I 
can send you information to someone close to you. You almost can't 
throw a rock without hitting someone that owns a 4800 anymore.

Just uploaded them into a 'private' area of my website (I'm too lazy
to update the entire thing!)

http://www.users.bigpond.com/garethjolly/Vietnam/

Main website is at

http://www.users.bigpond.com/garethjolly

Greg, if you did know a source for canvas printing / paper in Sydney,
Australia, I'd be greatly appreciative.

Regards
Gareth



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mxgo95747"
<mxgo95747@y...> wrote:
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "garethjolly"
<garethjolly@y...> 
> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, they will be sold and, as such, should be archival.
> > 
> > But what are these other materials and, when you say they're not
> > archival, how 'unarchival' are they?
> > 
> 
> Are your photos posted on a web site?  I've spent quite a bit of
time in VN and once to 
> Angkor Wat.  It would be interesting for me to see VN from your view
point.

> 
> Martin
>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "garethjolly" 
<garethjolly@b...> wrote:
>
> Just uploaded them into a 'private' area of my website (I'm too lazy
> to update the entire thing!)
> 
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/garethjolly/Vietnam/
> 
> Main website is at
> 
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/garethjolly
> 
> Greg, if you did know a source for canvas printing / paper in 
Sydney,
> Australia, I'd be greatly appreciative.
> 
> Regards
> Gareth
> 
> 


I'm afraid that I don't know anyone there, or where to buy materials. 
The only thing I know about buying materials is that you are somewhat 
limited in the number of places to go looking. Not sure what the 
shipping and import duty would be to have them printed here and 
shipped to you. I'm sure there are many people in Australia that have 
a 7800 or 9800, I just don't know any to recommend. If you decide to 
try the priting and shipping route, I may not be able to get the kind 
of results that one of the newer printers will produce, but I can get 
pretty close on canvas. If you do end up shipping things, you 
definitely want to have the stretching done locally to you. Shipping 
large stretched pieces would really "break the bank". 

For canvas I like the Intelicoat 17mil cotton/poly material, and a 
lot of people seem to like the Fredrix 901wr material.

I did take a look at the images, but with the size on those pages 
it's hard to tell what kind of final print size I think they could go 
to. General rule is that when the subject is in sharp focus, you will 
be able to keep the detail in the subject to a larger size. Images 
where the subject might have a slightly soft focus, then you won't be 
able to go as large before the detail falls off.

Hello Gareth,

>Main website is at
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/garethjolly

I really like your work.  My favorite is the wonderfully spooky "Woman
And Mirror" in the Recent work section - there's such a lot of neat
stuff going on in there - a once in a lifetime shot.  I also like very
much "The Great Wall" in the China series, also the two couples in
"Untitled".   The commentary with the pics adds a lot - alltogether a
very enjoyable tour.  Thanks for posting the link.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm