I’ve been printing, matting and framing for the past several days ,getting ready for the first shows of 2011. I have a lot of new photographs so this is both a busy and an exciting time.
It occurred to me that I went through a lot of trial and error when I first started this process of preparing photographs to display and sell, and that it just might be helpful to some if I shared the system I finally worked out.
I print on an Epson 4800 which accepts paper up to 17” wide, both cut sheet and rolls. I standardized in Red River Polar Matte a few years ago. I prefer to print on matte surfaces as they give my photographs a ‘painted’ look. They don’t look like photographs which is something I strive for. And I found that Red River Polar Matte has the richest blacks and holds good shadow detail, much better than other matte papers.
I also standardized on mat board. I use Bainbridge Matte White. It’s an museum quality mat board. And, as the name suggests, it’s off-white. My intention here is to emphasize the photograph and not get carried away with trying to pick mat board colors to complement the images. I want a mat board that does not call attention to itself but instead stands back and lets the photograph speak.
I cut my own mat board on a Logan Model 750 mat board cutter. I purchase mat boards by the case in 32X40 inch sheets. They cut down very nicely to 16X20. On these size prints I use a solid sheet of mat board for the backing and cut an opening in the front sheet. They are held together with linen tape. The photographs are held in place on the back board with archive quality photo corner tabs.
For the smaller sizes (8X10 and 11X14) I dry mount the photographs directly to the backing. This make it possible to print larger images. For example the image for my 8X10 size prints is actually 6X9. And for my 11X14 prints the image is actually 9X12. I use archive quality dry mount tissue to adhere the image to the backing. (By the way, the image size for my 16X20 photographs is 10X15.)
All the matted photographs are packaged in clear bags. I’ve switched to the ‘safety’ clear bags. These are the ones with the adhesive strip on the bag body and not the flap. This means there’s no chance of the adhesive strip getting stuck to the photograph as its being removed.
As for frames, I use standard off-the-shelf frames from Aaron Brothers. I prefer a dark frame but don’t like black. I find that black is too cold. I prefer the rich, warm tones of dark browns. A color that I frequently find that matches what I like is Espresso. I don’t go in for frames with large borders. Again, I like something that does not call attention to itself but rather steps back. The dark colors also work better for this purpose. I tried lighter browns but they don’t set off the image as well.
There are a lot more details but this outlines what I do. One of the key things to getting a handle on the printing, matting and framing process was to standardize as much as possible. It still takes several evenings but I can be very productive, an important consideration when you try to take the next step to display and sell your work.
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Ralph,
Thanks for this timely post. I am currently figuring out how to display some of my prints as well. I have a few questions. I use an Epson r2880 and having some difficulty getting the print to look like what’s on my computer. Do you use any specific RIPP? How does dry mounting your smaller prints allow you to use a larger print? Finally is the back matt board the same type of board as the cut out board?
Thanks,
Larry
Larry, regarding your Epson R2800 printer or any printer for that matter you need to do three things to get prints that are reasonably close to what you see on your monitor. First, you need a color calibrated monitor. Second, you need to use an accurate ICC profile for your ink and paper combination. Third, you need to have the color managemen environment configured properly.
You can use a Spyder or Color Monkey for the monitor calibration. For ICC profiles if you use Epson papers and Epson ICC profiles they whould come very close.
As for configuring your color management environment, you should start with the printer driver. It will be happy to do the color management for you. You want to make sure that that feature is turned OFF. Secondly, if you’re printing from Photoshop you want to make sure that Photoshop is doing the color management and that it knows the color space the image is in and the ICC profile of your ink/paper combination. I’m leaving out a lot of details here as this is a rather complex topic.
You’ll notice up above I hedged a statement when I said that the prints are ‘resonably close’ to the images on the monitor. Regardless of what the gurus say about the two being exactly the same, that rarely happens. You’ll often need to make slight soft-proofing adjustments to get the print and the monitor to come out the same (or at least very close). Depending on the paper you’re using, the adjustments can consist of slight color balance changes using the Color Balance adjustment, slight increases in contrast using Curves and slight increases in saturation using Hue Saturation.
You can to go the expense of purchasing a RIP but that can be expensive and the improvements may be marginal. I’d recommend you first make sure that you’re doing these three things I’ve mentioned correctly and still not getting acceptable results.
Good luck.
Ralph,
Is the matt board used as the back the same type of board as the cut out one?
Larry
Larry,
Yes, I’m using matt board for the back and front. I used form core for a while for the backing but stopped using it because of its thickness. I had problems finding frames that could easily handle the thickness.