Paper for colour printing.

[shootinglulu]

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Hi.

Please can anyone advise me? I am at the point of brain warp over indecision and too much internet searching.

 

I am new to printing with my Epson 3880.. I'm not keen on the 2 papers i have, Ilford Gallerie smooth gloss and smooth pearl.

I will be doing b+w and colour printing. I've narrowed my choice down (i think) to ...

Harman gloss FB A1

Hahnemuhle photo rag baryta

Ilford gold fibre silk

 

I am wondering are these papers good for mono and colour? should i choose different papers?

A slight problem is that i haven't had enough experience to develop a preference for a matt or gloss look.

When does a picture suit matt or gloss?..so much learning but i'm so pleased to be printing at last.

Thanks very much.

Lucy

[tollie]

I print with the 3800 and after some trial I have found that Epson's Velvet Fine Art paper, with appropriate driver produces results that are just astounding. I first used this paper for BW and than recently have begun to print color.

 

Its worth a try.

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[shootinglulu]

Thankyou very much Todd, i'll have a look at that. Thinking i should send off for some samples.

[archi4]

I have used Harman and found it excellent on the 3800.

Also very good are the Innova papers. However recently tried the papers from Permajet and found them just as good at a much lower price point here in Holland.

PermaJet - Inkjet Papers, Canvases & Inks for Fine Art

I make my own printing profiles using x-rite i1pro and have calibrated my monitor with a brightness of 80 cd/m2. Good profile and having the monitor correctly calibrated is essential to obtain "what you see is what you get" Using Epson papers will guarantee the profile out of the box is correct.

Apologies if I am telling you things you already know.

maurice

[shootinglulu]

Thankyou, very much for your advice, everything is helpful, i know very little about printing.

Lucy

[Jeff S]

I primarily use Ilford Gold Fibre Silk for color, and Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl and Photo Rag Baryta for b/w. All great papers (each 'semi' gloss).

 

The key is getting good profiles and making sure your settings and workflow are appropriate. This is a good resource...Epson 3800 Step-By-Step Printing Workflow although I vary this a bit based on my own tests and experience.

 

Jeff

 

PS I saw your ad to sell the M9 on the forum. While I use an M8.2, I think you should consider some good insurance (riders to policies are relatively cheap...generally a couple hundred $ per year for over $20k coverage)...and don't sweat about the camera. The same applies to the M8 (and lenses), none of which are inexpensive.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Jeff S

[shootinglulu]

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Jeff ,thankyou for your advice and words about the cam and insurance which make me realise i must sort that out more to feel safer!.. The link is very useful. The papers you mention are liked a lot so i'll look at them all.

The fiddly techie part off things always fuddles me and i have a chap from Robert White coming to show me how on monday. Hooray.

Thanks a lot:)

[Jeff S]

Enjoy, Lucy. The learning curve is not much different than with a darkroom; different issues, perhaps, but very much an iterative process. So, don't expect to become an expert immediately and don't get frustrated by blips along the way. If you stick with it, you'll never want to use an outside print service (unless huge prints is your thing).

 

Having a good resource person helps. I have a friend who helped me make the darkroom to digital leap, and a year later I have a nice print portfolio to show for it.

 

I also suggest that you not introduce too many variables at once. For instance, pick one paper for color and one for b/w and stick with it until you understand how it works with various settings and workflow. And, the same goes for the workflow...don't change more than one thing at a time, or as they say, 'keep one foot on a rock.'

 

Jeff

[shootinglulu]

Jeff thankyou for your encouragement which really helps. I've only printed a handful of pictures so far, although they're far from perfect i'm very pleased. I want to do it well, you seem to know me when you advise not to get fustrated but i'm so excited about making prints and i'm experiencing a tendency to remain positive!.

Thankyou!

Lucy

[thompsonkirk]

My personal run-down on papers:

 

Epson Presentation Matte for a high volume of work prints: cheap & easy to use; all of the papers below are much more expensive.

 

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308 for fine-art Matte prints: the way the ink rests on the coating looks almost painterly. Blacks go down to Zone III.

 

Harman FBAl Glossy for fine color prints: amazingly deep blacks that rival gelatin-silver papers (in Zone System language, they will produce clear separations between Zone II & Zone III, whereas most inkjet papers & inksets won't reproduce Zone II).

 

(Harman Warmtone Glossy for fine BW, which you didn't ask about.).

 

The surface that looks most like a fiber-based paper is Epson's Exhibition Fiber (different name in Euro zone), but it contains an overdose of artificial brightening agents. Harman is glossier but has a more natural, less artificially-brightened look, & the Warmtone paper base looks just like Portriga Rapid 111 of yesteryear.

 

When Canson papers first came out their Baryta got rave reviews as a fine-art paper, but IMO wrongly so: with both Epson & Canon printers it produces differential glossing.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

Kirk

[shootinglulu]

Kirk, thankyou

I have the sample pack of the Hahnemuhle papers to try, it will be fun to see all of these. I am also going to try Harmon gloss FBA1 it sounds very good, i'm not keen to use very artificially brightened paper. When used film and ordered b+w prints from Ilford i always chose matte, i need to experiment with gloss paper.

Thankyou for your help.

Lucy

[Mark Pope]

Lucy,

 

another vote here for the Permajet papers. I use their 271 oyster for most of my printing and it gives great results on my 3800. I have also used their fibre based papers for b&w work and it also gives great results.

 

Permajet do a sampler pack which contains one or two of each paper type and their profiles are available on their site.

 

Cheers

 

 

Mark

[shootinglulu]

Mark thankyou very much,

Glad to have found your blog, book marked for later reading, looks very interesting! Thanks:)

[ace5426]

I am using an Epson r2400 printer and not the 3880, but I think the results should be the same; I have tried a lot of papers over a number of years for both color and monotone and up to now my favorite has been Epson Exhibition Fiber until the Canson Baryta came on the market. It is without a doubt for my use the best available right now. Colors are bright and a wide dynamic range. Black and White is the most neutral of any I have used--I add 2 red and 4 yellow in the Advanced B & W mode and with the 2400 I found I had to reduce ink by 18%. Then I use Qimage for printing which again is the best I have found. This is all using the factory profile. Hope this is something for you to consider.

Phil

[shootinglulu]

Phil thankyou for your advice, i think the best thing for me is to look at sample packs, i like the sound of the paper and compared to the exhibition fibre which is rather liked it seems.

Thankyou.