What do all those paper terms mean?

When looking at digital papers, they always give you these terms and facts about the paper that sound like a whole bunch of jargon. We decided to make a little glossary of these terms to help you out when looking at different brands and paper types:

Just some of our many archival paper options

Acid free symbol

Acid Free: Acid will break down the chemical compounds within paper, resulting in the paper yellowing and becoming brittle. According to the Library of Congress, the more acid present in a paper the faster the aging process happens. This is why it is important to use Acid Free paper for any Fine Art printing, matting, and framing you choose to do.

Alpha Cellulose: Alpha cellulose is a major component of wood, plant and paper pulp. It is separated from the other components of the pulp that are undesirable in fine art papers. The pure white, alpha cellulose is insoluble and is filtered from the solution and washed prior to use in the production of paper. A high percent of alpha cellulose in paper will provide a stable, permanent material. Linen and cotton contain high proportions of alpha cellulose. Alpha cellulose can be isolated from a variety of plants. Manufactures do not usually state from where the alpha cellulose is sourced.

Barium Sulfate: Is the chemical name for “baryta.” A thin layer of barium sulfate is used to coat the paper base of many inkjet and darkroom papers. This coating leaves the paper surface smoother and more even, as well as having at brightening effect (due to barium sulfate’s high whiteness value).  Barium Sulfate coated papers have a unique look and feel, which has been sought out by photographers worldwide.

Rag, Fibre/Fibre, Paper : Are terms that today are virtually interchangeable. At one time, rag meant cotton taken exclusively from cotton rag/cloth/towel remnants. Very few cotton papers are still made from rags. The difference between true rag papers and cotton papers made from linters is that the rags have the longer cotton fibers and the weaving seems to add strength. The symbol of quality is still a paper that is made from 100% cotton rags. That is probably why people prefer to call both cotton linter and cotton rag papers “rag.”

gsm or g/m2: Grams per Square Meter. Literally how many grams a 1-meter x 1-meter sheet of paper will measure in grams. A higher gsm paper will have a heavier and usually thicker feel. Due to difference in materials and manufacturing processes not all papers with the same gsm will have the same thickness.

OBA: Optical Brightening Agents, also known as 'optical brighteners' or UV brighteners, are white or colorless compounds that are added to the printing surfaces of many inkjet papers. Their purpose is to make the papers appear whiter and brighter than they actually are. They achieve this by absorbing ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the ambient lighting and re-emitting it through fluorescence, mainly in the blue portion of the visible spectrum. Consequently, they only work in lighting with a relatively high UV content, such as sunlight, fluorescent lights and halogen lamps. When not illuminated with a sufficient amount of UV light, the color of the paper will appear with its natural creamy or yellowish hue.

All UV brighteners are inherently unstable chemicals. In the process of fluorescence, the absorption of a photon triggers the emission of another photon with a longer wavelength. This transfer of energy comes at a cost: slow changes in the fluorescent chemicals. As these chemicals break down, their ability to fluoresce deteriorates until they will no longer do so. When this happens, the color of the paper will revert to its normal creamy or yellowish hue.

 Giclée: Was adopted by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working at Nash Editions. He wanted a name for the new type of prints they were producing on the Iris printer, a large-format, high-resolution industrial prepress proofing inkjet printer they had adapted for fine-art printing. He was specifically looking for a word that would not have the negative connotations of "inkjet" or "computer generated". It is based on the French word gicleur, the French technical term for an inkjet nozzle. The French verb form gicler meant to spray, spout, or squirt. Duganne settled on the noun giclée, meaning "the thing that got sprayed.”     (In other words, it’s a fancy way to say inkjet print.)

NEW IN 2018!

We've been busy here at Panopticon adding new services to our roster. Now, we are ready to officially announce all of the new services that we now provide!

Color Film Processing

We are very excited to announce that we are now processing COLOR FILM! Our new processor can develop all formats of C-41 film from 35mm rolls to 8x10 sheet film. Not only are we developing color film, but we are also offering develop and scan as well as develop, scan, and print packages. These new services will be offered with black and white film development as well.  If you want to know more about pricing and film packages, visit our Film Services page.

 

Bulk Negative Scanning

Have developed film you want a quick look at? We now offer roll, strip, slide, and individual film bulk scans. These are great for quick looks at negatives or for making small, medium quality prints. Our Fuji Frontier can scan both black and white and color film as well as positive film! Along with your bulk scans, you will receive free digital file transfer and an 8x10 contact sheet. For more information, visit our Scanning Services page.

 

Bulk Image Scanning

Bulk image scanning is a fast and cost effective way to scan that shoebox of photographs you've had for years. Our scanner can handle images up to 8.5x11 inches so all of those old photographs can be digitally preserved or put onto a DVD included with your order. If you'd like to know more, visit our Scanning Services page.

 

Value Printing

Last but not least, we would like to introduce our value printing services. Value prints are great as test prints to know what to print larger or for little images to give away to clients, friends, and galleries. They are also great for duplicating  or preserving old family photographs. For more information, visit our Digital Services page.

Take a look at our updated services pages on the website or stop by the office to talk in person with one of our staff members about us helping you with all of your photographic needs.

Which Digital Camera is Right for You?

When in the market for a new camera, most people don't know where to start. Many people purchase cameras beyond what they need because they think the more expensive the camera, the better it is. If you want a camera for family vacations, you wouldn't buy the same camera that you would use to professionally shoot weddings. This post will give a brief outline of the tree tiers of cameras that you can purchase and what each type is best for.

The first type of camera is the one that you would buy for your children, your grandparents, or for everyday events that you would like to capture. These are point-and-shoot cameras. They are mostly automated but you can choose settings like portrait, night, sport, and optical effect modes. This type of camera is a step up from your phone camera, so your Facebook uploads will look great. Point-and-shoots run anywhere from $50-$250 and are small in your hand with very easy to use settings. If this is the type of camera you are interested in, check out the Canon Powershot ELPH 180.

If you would like to go a little higher in quality and complexity, the $250-$800 range might be for you. This group of cameras are known as digital single lens reflex or DSLRs. DSLRs give you more control over the image settings and are great for those who are interested in leaning more about photography or for web based media. In the manual mode, you have full control over the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. DSLRs also have removable lenses so you can chose any lens you want that fits the mount. Many of these cameras also record video in high definition. Although this type of camera is a higher quality than the first, files from these cameras cannot print much larger than 16x20 inches. If this is what you are looking for, the Canon EOS Rebel T6 might be for you.

For a professional quality camera, this is a case of spending more to get more. They can range from $800 to almost $4,000 (and then there are the medium format digital cameras that can be up to $45,000). Though, after a certain level, nothing changes. These cameras come with full control over your image, both in making the picture and its output. They create the highest quality files that are great for fine art photographs, professional commercial photographs and for large print based mediums. These DSLRs are for photographers who are already experienced with cameras and and how they function and would like an upgrade. The Canon EOS 5D Mark IV could be yours if you would like a professional level camera.

Recently, mirrorless digital cameras have become popular. They can run from $800 to $2,500 on the highest end. These cameras have all of the same settings as the high quality DSLRs but with smaller and lighter frames. The body looks like that of a 35mm film camera. Mirrorless cameras rely on a viewfinder for focusing which can be a turn off for some people, but preferable for others. If you are looking for one of these cameras, check out the Fujufilm x100F.

As always, the best camera is the one you have with you. You don't need a $3,000 camera to make great images, so just go with what you got and make some work!

**This post is not sponsored by any company. It is just some recommendations from our staff.**

Art Reproductions

Have you ever wanted a reproduction of an original print or painting? We can make a photographic print that looks exactly like it! Through color matching techniques, we can make you an archival reproduction that can be sold as digital editions, given as gifts, put on display, or kept as copies in place of the original print or painting.

This method is great for any painter, printmaker, or traditional photographer who wants to recreate an original. It is also helpful for people who have darkroom prints that they would like to digitize without the negative present or to reproduce a print but cannot quite seem to do it the same way again.

Here are some of the steps we take to color match original paintings, prints, and documents:

·      Scan or photograph the original at a high quality with the best, even light you can get. If the image is too big, we might have to make more than one scan or photograph that we later stitch together in Photoshop.

·      Upload the image into Photoshop and begin correcting the file to make it look closer to the original. This includes cropping out parts of the file that are not the image and sizing the image correctly.

·      Make lots and lots of TEST STRIPS! Test strips allow us to compare the printed reproduction to the original. We carefully compare the test strip to the original to see what parts of the image we need to adjust.

o   We make sure to keep all of the test strips to track the progression.

·      Once the test strips match the original painting or print, we make the full size printed reproduction!

New Bedford Dockside by Jim Earl

Check his work out HERE

Fox by Mary Gilmartin

If you are interested in this service, please call, email, or stop by the shop and we can make you a beautiful digital reproduction!

How big can I print?

This is one of the most common questions we get and the answer differs every time.

There are a few factors at play:

• the megapixels of your camera
• the quality of the pixels & photograph itself (is it in focus, good exposure, etc.)
• what is the viewing distance of the finished print ( if the print is going to be seen from a farther distance you can get away with a lower dpi when printing)

Printing is finding the perfect combination of all these factors. Each photograph is different and we are more than happy to review this information with you at the office!

Calibration

With the digital age we are in, we are constantly looking at photographs on screens. While computers and the internet make sharing our photographs much easier, it also means no one is seeing the exact same thing as you are on your screen.  The brightness and colors can range from monitor to monitor, which can also completely throw off your print matching. Usually monitors right out of the box are too bright and have a default color profile, which can be fixed with calibrators. And then there are the Ferraris of monitors that have their own calibration system built in! Properly profiling and calibrating your monitors will give you reduce editing time and a more realistic no-surprises representation of final print.

At the office we go the extra step and have our printers calibrated to our monitors, so what you see is what you get! If you ever want to view your images on our screens before we print we are happy to set up a time for you to do that or if you are not local we can send you test prints to see what we see.

Things we DO recommend:

• Eizo monitors
• NEC monitors (spectra view series)
• Spyder calibration systems
• i1 Display Pro Calibration
• calibrating your screen monthly

Things we do NOT recommend:

• editing on a laptop
• editing on an iMac
• keeping your brightness to your screen turned up too high

The common file formats

---

JPEG

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is named after the committee that created it in 1986.

It is not as sharp out of the camera as TIFF or RAW modes, and every time the JPEG is manipulated more than once or twice, it will eventually become unusable. Every time the JPEG image is modified and resaved, it will lose more data.

Once compressed in JPEG format an image cannot be uncompressed (you cannot regain the original quality). This is why the original photo (your digital negative) should be taken with as little compression as possible.

When to use:

-       emailing

-       posting to the web

When NOT to use:

-       Printing (while we can use jpeg files for printing we would prefer a larger file in the form of a tiff or PSD, if the jpeg is compressed to heavily we do not recommend printing with it at all)

---

TIFF

TIFF stands for Tag Image File Format.

Tifs have a high image quality and is supported by many image-manipulation programs such as PhotoShop, Pagemaker, QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Paint Shop Pro, etc.  You can have layers in photoshop when you safe with a tif and it can be modified and resaved, with the images being used an endless number of times without throwing away any image data.

When to use:

-       Printing

-       Editing in programs

-       Saving master files

-       Publishing

When NOT to use:

-       Emailing

-       Posting to web

---

RAW

The RAW mode is a picture format where the camera has made absolutely no changes; the files are not yet processed or ready to use with an editor, etc.

Its advantages are that a huge amount of control over the final look of the image is yours. Additionally, all original details stays in the image for any and all future processing needs.

The general rule is to shoot your images with the highest setting that your camera will allow (largest image size in terms of pixels, lowest compression – usually large/superfine).

When to use:

-       While shooting

When NOT to use:

-       Emailing

-       Posting to web

---

Digital Paper Options

The world of digital papers is endless but not all papers are created equal! Here at Panopticon we use a variety of papers with Canson and Epson  being our preference for their archival natures. While we have our favorite papers to work with we are always happy to custom order papers for you and create new printing profiles for our printers. Paper choice is a personal preference and we recommend that you come in to review the options and talk to us about what you are looking for. If you are not able to come in to the office we can provide you with test prints on a variety of papers so you can review them at your convenience.

Our price lists offer two qualities of paper: standard and exhibition. Both paper options use archival inks. The only difference is standard papers are a lighter weight than the exhibition papers. If you think about it in old school darkroom terms, standard paper is the equivalent to RC paper and exhibition paper is fiber paper (for a more in depth look at darkroom papers visit our Darkroom Details blog post!)

Here are some of the papers we offer for digital printing:

* - marks "standard" papers"

MATTE PAPERS:

Epson Hot Press Natural

Epson Hot Press Bright

Epson Cold Press Bright

Canson Rag Photographique

Hahnemuhle William Turner

Epson Enhanced Matte *

GLOSSY & LUSTER PAPERS:

Canson Platine Photo Rag

Canson Baryta

Epson Premium Luster *

Breathing Color Vibrance Metallic

Harmen Fiber Based Wamrtone

Ilford Gold Fibre Silk

Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl

Somerville Toy Camera Festival

Francine Weiss

About the Festival:

Since 2013, the Somerville Toy Camera Festival has celebrated the quirky and creative results that can happen when photographers are forced to loosen their controls, submit to the light and embrace the accidental. Each year since, the Festival has brought a wide range of toy camera photography by US and international artists together in simultaneous shows at galleries throughout the city, and featured related programming including artist talks/panel discussions, workshops, social events, and a darkroom day.

This year the guest juror was Professor Christopher James who is the Director of the MFA photography program at Lesley College of Art and Design in Boston.

Liz Ellenwood with the Gold Holga Award!

What is a toy camera?

Holga, Diana and LOMO just to name a few. They are simple and inexpensive film cameras where you have little to no control over shutter speed and apertures. Common qualities of images made with toy cameras are vignetting, soft focus, light leaks and other distortions. It is the true point-and-shoot camera!

Toy camera photography has been widely exhibited at many popular art shows, such as the annual "Krappy Kamera" show at the Soho Photo Gallery in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. Various publications such as Popular Photography magazine have reviewed the Diana camera in its own right as an "art" producing image maker. Several books have also featured the work of toy cameras, such as The Friends of Photography's "The Diana Show", "Iowa" by Nancy Rexroth, and "Angels at the Arno" by Eric Lindbloom.

Chris D'Amore

When is the exhibition?

The 2016 Somerville Toy Camera Festival will take place in September-October, with exhibitions at three non-profit spaces in Somerville MA: Nave Gallery Annex, Washington Street Gallery, and Brickbottom Gallery. For a full list of opening dates check here.

In addition,  The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA will have a walk-in camera obscura built by artist Marian Roth! The installation of the camera obscura in a small gallery at the Griffin will take place on September 8, and is open to the public. The camera obscura will be accessible to visitors during regular Griffin Museum hours through October 2, 2016.

Liz Wood

How are we involved?

We have been proud sponsors of the Somerville Toy Camera Festival for the past few years. We offer a 15% discount for the exhibiting artists of the Festival for their scanning, printing & framing needs. Every year we look forward to seeing what each artist has created with their plastic cameras!

Ky Lewis

Tech Blog: Colorspace, File Formats and Untagged Files

Have questions about digital printing? How to get images to us? What type of file to send? We have tried to start simply and move onto the more complex questions. If you have questions regarding any of this or just want to review the process with us, please call or email us! First things first… You can upload us files here and you will see this screen from Hightail. You can drag and drop your images for upload to us.

Do I send Jpg, tif or psd? Raw?

You can send us any of the above. We have provided some details below about the difference between each type of file.

Raw are the proprietary file from the camera manufacture. Some examples are: Canon (.crw, cr2), Nikon (.nef, .nrw), Sony (.arw, .srf, .sr2), Pentax (.pef, .ptx).  Raw files hold the most data from your digital camera and are the easiest file to adjust exposure, contrast, white balance and other fine tuning. We can edit your Raw files however this requires an editing charge.

JPG is best for web use, but still can be printed from if it has high enough resolution and was saved at a high enough quality. (80+ in Lightroom, 10+ in Photoshop).

PSD is an Adobe Photoshop proprietary format. It can handle all of Photoshop’s features, but has some compatibility issues with non-Adobe products and Lightroom. PSD has a 2gb files size limitation.  Due to the compatibility and size issues, PSD has been (or should be) replaced by TIF by most photographers.  We prefer TIF.

TIF is one of the most universally accepted formats. It can be opened by most image editing and page layout software. TIF supports all the same things as PSD and has a larger file size limitation (4gb).

Ultimately, just send us what you have and we’ll figure it out. Got layers, send us those too. We can always provide assistance with your files or if you want to sit with one of our Digital Technicians and review files in person.

OK, so a tif  file, 16bit or 8bit?

Either one is fine. Whatever works for you.

What color space should I sent it in? AdobeRGB98, sRGB, ProPhotoRGB

You can send us files in any of these color spaces. You should be working in either AdobeRGB98 or ProPhotoRGB to begin with. sRGB is meant as a web colorspace, anything you upload to your website or facebook should be in sRGB.

As far as AdobeRGB98 or ProPhotoRGB goes, it could go either way. ProPhotoRGB is much bigger than AdobeRGB98 and can produce more colors. However, you must work in 16bit with ProPhotoRGB otherwise you can end up with posterization effects (banding). The other down side to ProPhoto is it includes imaginary colors. Yes, I said imaginary colors. They (Kodak) made the ProPhotoRGB color space so big that 13% of the colors included do not exist in the real world and are not visible colors. This can lead to color issues when printing. Some colors will become over-saturated or will be estimated to its nearest in gamut color and can cause banding. Even the best printers in the world can’t print imaginary colors.

AdobeRGB98 is larger than sRGB, is easily printable by commercially available printers and includes no imaginary numbers. Its not perfect, nothing is, but it is the standard most of the photographic world uses.

If you have a gray scale file, that is fine as well. Gray Gamma 2.2 will do just fine.

What about CMYK?

Leave that to the offset printers. If you send us a file with a CMYK colorspace we will convert it to AdobeRGB98.

What about an untagged file?

If you send us a file with an untagged colorspace you will get a call from an angry elf… just ask Ron Cowie. Again, you can just send us what you have and we’ll figure it out. Following our recommendations makes it easier, but we are happy to help in whatever stage you are in!

High-Resolution Scanning

We offer high resolution scanning of all film (color and black & white) sizes, from 35mm and 120mm film, to large format negatives, photographs and other flat surface materials.

Lets chat a bit about our FLEXTIGHT scanner.....

With its high-end optics and 3 line x 8000 pixel Kodak Image Sensor, the Flextight X5 produces images of superb quality and detail. Even though you can find scanners with larger sensors, you will not find better clarity and detail rendition when scanning photographic film. This is due to the electronic image handling of the sensor, the mechanical precision of the device, the quality of the filters, and the resolving power of the Rodenstock lens.

Due to their structure as virtual drum scanners, inside the flexible film adapters, the film is curved in a radius and by this way guided around the sensor.  The film is tightened so that it is in a perfect flat position. The Flextight gives you the beautiful quality of a drum scan without having the mess of using mounting fluid.

It is pretty much the Ferrari of scanners and we love it.

Photographing and Matching a Painting

At Panopticon we work directly with many mixed media artists, painters,  and watercolorists. Depending upon your medium we have many ways of capturing your artwork for reproduction.

We recently received and image from the Hingham Historical Society for photographing. This image is an original oil painting titled "Marsh Homestead". The original date of production and artist are unknown.

Chris, one of our Digital Techs, went to work meticulously adjusting lighting to create the ideal conditions for capturing the image. Then begins the process of color matching. We will create as many test strips to ensure the color is exact.

We work our way from the test strips adjusting the color and contrast to the final file. From the finished digital file the client now has a high quality digital representation of their work as well as the option to make an edition of archival pigment prints. At Panopticon we try to give each piece of artwork the same amount of time and attention that the artist put into the original.

Sum sum summertime- that's a wrap!

Whoa! Summer is always an exuberant time to go down the Cape, have some BBQ and for us down at Panopticon Imaging, make work! Our artists have been busy, so we have been having a great season of working with them on finalizing images, prints and exhibitions! We were so excited to work on so many of these projects we lost track of the time, but don't worry- there were a few outing with the Panopti-crew where we were able to steal some sun and fun. We ushered in the season with quite a bang at the Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward Festival! We have been working with the Festival and it's artists for the last three years, and it is always fantastic and quite a different array of work every time.

This year we helped with the printing and installation of the 7 shipping containers that were on the Rose Kennedy Greenway for all of May! In coordination with the Fence, this outdoor exhibition was so much fun, and such a great experience working with the international artists that made up the roster. Each shipping container held a solo exhibition from artists like Angélica Dass and Gregor Schmatz. 

Angélica Dass's solo exhibition in the shipping container.

Along with the Fence, we had the great pleasure of working with Boston Globe Legend Bill Brett on his Flash Forward solo exhibition.   We take great pride in managing and implementing all production for these kinds of exhibitions- from the proofing with the artists, printing, framing and even delivery to the exhibition venue.  This was the fist of the two large-scale exhibitions we helped produce at the beginning of this summer, the second being a brand new relationship we started with artist Emil Cohen!

The crew with Emil Cohen at the William Scott Gallery

Emil Cohen came to us for assistance in producing his solo exhibition, "Portraits in Provincetown" at the William Scott Gallery that was held in July.  The exhibition would be of 76 portraits he made of the good people of Provincetown, both large and small scale to be displayed.  The portraits are beautiful as well as playful and sometimes mischievous- just as you might expect from P-Town. Working from London now, Emil needed to produce the exhibition remotely, and we were happy to take on the task.  When the exhibition was finally ready for air-time, we took that opportunity to join him in P-Town for a little out-of-office research and development.  We hope if you were there this summer, you were able to see Emil's work, or him photographing for the project!

Our whole summer did not just consist of large-scale exhibitions, though.  We work on any photographic endeavor, and were happy to work on both printing and framing projects for a multitude of new clients.  Artists such as Lazaro Montano stopped by to have one of his great Color Block pieces printed and framed; as did Toni Pepe, who had some of her new work in this summer's Community of Artists exhibition at the Danforth Museum of Art.  It was also great to do some expert framing for the end-of-summer exhibition Landscape as Fetish at Gallery Kayafas, introducing us to the work of Angela Mittiga and Mark Dorf. 

Finished framed work by Lazaro Montano

It has been a delightful season, and we hope that the fall brings even more exciting projects as we get to see what everyone has been working on all summer! And don't worry, we haven't slowed down one bit.  We are currently preparing artist Betsy Schneider for her exhibition at Harvard's Carpenter Center, and looking forward to the great work that will be in the Griffin Museum of Photography's annual Atelier exhibition in September! Stay tuned for more, and have a great rest of August!

One Stop Shopping for Exhibition Production

What is one stop shopping for exhibition production? Here at Panopticon Imaging we can assist you with all phases of your exhibition from file upload, paper selection, printing, scanning, image editing, image sequencing, framing consultation, custom box building and delivery! Planning an exhibition is exciting and nerve-wracking.  We work directly with you to make the production process as stress free as we can.

To start all you have to do is upload your images to our website. We can also create a secure FTP login for you, if you are printing over 10 large files ( over 10GB).  Most recently we have worked with the Flash Forward Festival to produce the exhibition "Boston: Irish" for Boston photographer Bill Brett.

Framing doesn't have to be a daunting task. We have a vast variety of mounting, matting and frame moldings for you to choose from. We are more than happy to assist in selecting the frame that will highlight your artwork and convey your visual aesthetic.

Once the exhibition is all framed. We take meticulous care of every photograph by individually wrapping and photo cornering the images. Also, on large scale shows we can mark each image with the thumbnail print out on the outside wrapping. This makes the installing easier as you can sort all of the images.

Also, we can create all kinds of boxes for photographs. Are they getting shipped? Or transported on a van for local delivery? We do not buy pre-made boxes instead we customize everything for you. Each box is built by hand to ensure that your images arrive in perfect condition. We created half boxes for these images for delivery to Boston. This will protect the images from shifting during transport.

We have a delivery van that can accommodate images up to 56x70 inches in width! We can make deliveries on request to Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Here at Panopticon we try and make it as easy as possible for so you can enjoy your opening! For more information on Bill Brett's work check out his website here.

What is an Inkjet, Pigment, Iris and Giclee Print?

Question:

What is the difference between  Archival Inkjet prints, Pigment Print,

Iris

Print and

Giclée

prints?

Answer: Nothing! They are all the same printing process.

We call our prints Archival Inkjet prints. However, they are also known as a Giclée, Iris or Pigment prints. Giclée is just a fancy word for "spit ink". Pigment prints get there name from the archival pigment inks used. Iris prints were named after the printer used which was manufactured by Iris Graphics. Ultimately, they are all the same. Some labs or galleries like to use fancy words to charge more money or make it sound more specialized.

Image Courtesy of

Stephanie Goode

Now that we have demystified the print names. What are some things you should be asking? The most important question to ask are the following.

Is this paper archival?

One of the papers we prefer is Epson Hot Press Natural.  It has a smooth natural white surface with a high Dmax, beautiful tonal transitions and no optical brighteners. This paper is acid-free,

lignin

-free, 100% cotton fiber, 330gsm weight paper. They are printed on an Epson printer with "

Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta

" inks.

Another paper is Canson Platine Fibre Rag. It has a pure white surface with an extremely high Dmax and no optical brighteners. Internally buffered to resist gas fading. This paper is acid-free,

lignin

-free, 100% cotton fiber, 310gsm weight paper. They are printed on an Epson printer with "

Epson UltraChrome HDR

" inks.

Image courtesy of

Brenda Bancel

Does the paper contain optical brighteners?

Optical brighteners

are chemical compounds that absorb light in the

ultraviolet

and violet region (usually 340-370 nm) of the

electromagnetic spectrum

, and re-emit light in the blue region (typically 420-470 nm). Basically, they make paper brighter in the sunlight. But over time they can degrade and this will affect the your image and makes it non-archival.

Are the inks archival?

We have two different printers which use two different types of inks.

Epson UltraChrome HDR

and

Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta

. They are both pigment inks with high pigment density and feature a resin coating for each particle for more stability to produce prints of an even surface and gloss and that are highly stable on a wide variety of media including fine art, specialty and plain paper. These inks can deliver twice the density of our conventional pigment inks. As a result, they reproduce a larger gamut of color and deeper blacks.

Digital Printing in a Digital World

Are you a Commercial Photographer, Fine Art Photographer or Novice Photographer? Here at Panopticon Imaging we would like to make the printing process as easy as possible.  When you visit our website you can upload all of your files/images directly here!

The "Upload Files" tab will transport to our Hightail account.This makes it super easy to upload numerous larger files to us!

Once we have your files we can review the paper options. We are more than happy to help you select papers. Want to stop by the office? We love visitors and we have 2 books you can look thru and feel the paper's weight and textures. Canson and Epson papers are our preference for their archival natures however, we can use any paper of your choice.

Want to print large or panoramic images? We can print up to 44 inches wide by however long your image is. We offer standard print prices along with square inch pricing to give you the most value for your image.

Want to make sure the colors or tones are spot on? We can provide test prints & strips for a small fee. Just like we did for Emil Cohen's Portraits in Provincetown series. Stop by, email or call and we are here to help with your printing needs.