When I first got my Epson 4800 printer I was tackling so many learning curves all at once that I really didn’t spend any time experimenting with papers.\u00a0 I was learning the virtually unlimited possibilities with Photoshop, getting used to the vast field of color management, Lightroom came along and that presented a new learning curve, HDR with PhotoMatix, LightZone, Photokit Sharpener, Imaginomics Noiseware Pro and more.\u00a0 Plus I was focusing on composition, light, post processing, soft proofing, etc.<\/p>\n
It’s no wonder that paper was not high on my list of things that needed my complete focus and attention.\u00a0 I settled on Epson Enhanced Matte, a paper that gave me the effect I was looking for; that is, photographs that looked like paintings.\u00a0 And given the number of artist’s proofs I had to print before I got a print that I was satisfied with, it didn’t hurt that it was a fairly inexpensive paper.<\/p>\n
Epson Enhanced Matte is a really nice paper for what I wanted to do.\u00a0 And I’ve never looked back at the decision to go with matte.\u00a0 I briefly tried some glossy and luster papers and didn’t like what they did for my photographs.\u00a0 So I was happy to stay with a matte surface.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t realize when I started that the low D Max would be a challenge or that there would also be some color gamut difficulties, especially in the yellow-browns.\u00a0 These made working with some images rather formidable.\u00a0 It took a while but I finally started understanding what was going on and anticipating and pretty much avoiding these problems.\u00a0 Then…<\/p>\n
Enter Red River Papers<\/strong><\/p>\n Then a little over a year ago I wanted to print our Christmas cards and my brother told me about Red River papers.\u00a0 They have a 7X10″ size that’s scored in the center that makes a perfect 5X7″ card.\u00a0 Red River has a huge selection of papers so I got their sampler and gave them all a test.\u00a0 The paper that stood out way above all the others was their polar matte.\u00a0 When doing side-by-side comparisons I was blown away.\u00a0 There was more shadow detail than I had ever seen on a matte paper.\u00a0 And the images glowed.\u00a0 It was an exciting moment.\u00a0 So I switched from Epson Enhanced Matte to Red River Polar Matte and have been very happy.<\/p>\n Another benefit of RR Polar Matte is the large selection of paper sizes.\u00a0 Most of my images have an aspect ratio of 2X3, the same aspect ratio of our sensors.\u00a0 And 90% of the images I print are composed for this aspect ratio.\u00a0 But more and more I’m visualizing compositions in the field that work best with a 4X5 aspect ratio.\u00a0 With Epson I was limited to a paper that was roughly 11X16 unless I wanted to go to 17″ roll paper.\u00a0 Bear with me for a moment as we go through the math.\u00a0 My normal print size for a 2X3 aspect ratio image is 10X15.\u00a0 This fits nicely into a 16X20 frame.\u00a0 To keep the same image length for a 4X5 aspect ration image, a 12X15 print was required.\u00a0 But my Epson paper was only 11″ wide.\u00a0 So I ended up making the image smaller – 10X12.5.\u00a0 The problem with this image size is that it is more suitable for an 11X14 frame than a 16X20.\u00a0 But RR has a paper that is 13X19, just the perfect size for my 4X5 images in the larger frame.\u00a0 I’m definitely pleased with the impact these 4X5 images make.\u00a0 I can see why large format photographers love this format.\u00a0 This will certainly have an effect on the way I compose images in the field.<\/p>\n So now that I’m comfortable with all the variables that were demanding my attention early on (Photoshop, Lightroom, et al.) I can start exploring different papers.\u00a0 I’ve heard some wonderful things about Red River Linen.\u00a0 So I bought a box and gave it a try.\u00a0 I used one of my most glowing images for the test – Bristlecone Moon<\/a>.\u00a0 Here are my first impressions.<\/p>\n The texture is just wonderful.\u00a0 The surface has a linen grain that is very sophisticated.\u00a0 The paper is not quite as white as Polar Matter (which is the hallmark of the latter).\u00a0 The color gradations are very, very nice.\u00a0 There is a\u00a0transition from blues to purples in the sky.\u00a0 Both papers produce a smooth, very pleasing, almost magical\u00a0gradation.<\/p>\n The overall image is softer than with Polar Matte.\u00a0 The colors are not quite as saturated and some of the fine detail like the grain of the wood is a little softer.\u00a0 The dynamic range is not as great but still more than adequate.\u00a0 The color rendering between the two papers is exactly the same (I’m using Image Print phatte black profiles).\u00a0 These are all things you would expect from a linen surface.<\/p>\n However, I think this is exactly what I’m looking for with my larger prints.\u00a0 My images are pretty intense, pretty dramatic.\u00a0 That works well for smaller sizes.\u00a0 However, sometimes I feel they’re a bit overpowering in larger sizes.\u00a0 I’ve tried to soften them just a bit but that requires a print file for the larger sizes that doesn’t come directly from the master file.\u00a0 And you introduce more variables that can result in slight differences in colors and saturation.\u00a0 With Linen, the softness can be achieved through the paper.\u00a0 And the good news is the print file is created directly from the master file with no changes whatsoever.<\/p>\n So I’ll continue to use Polar Matte for my note cards, 8X10 and 11X14 prints.\u00a0 The 16X20 prints may go either way but will probably tend more toward Polar Matte.\u00a0 But when it comes to larger images I’m using Linen from now on.<\/p>\n (1336)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first got my Epson 4800 printer I was tackling so many learning curves all at once that I really didn’t spend any time experimenting with papers.\u00a0 I was learning the virtually unlimited possibilities with Photoshop, getting used to the vast field of color management, Lightroom came along and that presented a new learning … Continue reading “Red River Paper”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-6r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4576,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}