#AskBC – your printmaking questions answered by th

Quick answers to a variety of printmaking FAQs covering Breathing Color media, printer issues, shipping recommendations, and print varnish. In volume two of our “Rapid Fire” series (missed part 1? Click here), we open up the listener questions grab bag and knock down a stack of questions on Breathing Color media, printer issues, shipping recommendations, and print varnish techniques. Listen in to hear the answers to printmaking FAQs Highlights Note: These timecodes show how much time in the episode is remaining in the episode, which is how our audio player (above) displays time. –13:00: Why you can’t roll coat Crystalline canvas –11:02: The thickness of Vibrance Photo Matte –10:26: The issue behind the periodical cleaning cycles when powering up the Epson 7890 –09:45: Painting with acrylics over a digital print on canvas after it’s been varnished –09:01: If corner protectors are necessary for shipping prints –08:35: Where to find carrying cases for gallery wrap prints –06:52: Not being able to print sharp images on watercolor paper with the Epson P800 –03:59: An alternative way to varnish prints for only $5-6 dollars –03:13: The shelf life of print varnishes and if it’s okay to varnish past the expiration date Show Notes This episode featured questions from Ben, Rob from Robscheid.com, David from Waldropfineartphotography.com, Sophie, John, Charlie, Ian, Richard, and Mike. Thanks for submitting your questions! Breathing Color products that were mentioned: Crystalline Canvas, Lyve Matte Canvas, Vibrance Photo Matte, and Timeless Print Varnish. Packing supply companies: Artpack Services, Airfloat Systems, Uline, Masterpak USA. Preval Sprayer (as mentioned, we have not tested this at BC, so be sure to use at your own risk). To check out the first volume of Rapid Fire Questions With Justin, click here. Want your question to be included in volume three of this series? Submit it here. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 46! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC Podcast. Your printmaking questions answered by the experts. Justin: Hey, everybody. This is the AskBC Podcast and I’m your host, Justin. This is the second volume of our Rapid Fire Question Series. We get a ton of questions from you guys, and basically pick out the ones we feel would be the most helpful for a majority of our listeners to hear the answers too, but there are a ton of questions that don’t get picked because the answers to those questions are just too short to fill in an episode with our typical format. In these rapid fire episodes we throw all these quick questions into a grab bag and answer a bunch of them in a row. There’s no specific theme to this episode, so I’m sure I’ll be jumping around all over the place in order to answer whatever topics show up today. We’ll probably be talking about Breathing Color products, printing, varnish, stuff like that. I’ve got a stack of questions here, so let’s get started with this one from a listener named Ben. [Music Ends] Ben asks, “Why can’t I roll coat Crystalline?” Good question, Ben. Just giving everybody a little bit of context as to what Ben is referring to, Crystalline is a Breathing Color canvas product, and it’s actually designed not to need a top coat. Not to need varnish. Varnishing it actually is kind of strange, I think. If you’re going to varnish your canvas I definitely recommend using one of our alternative products such as Lyve. You get some benefits using a matte canvas instead of just buying something like Crystalline, and then varnishing it. You’re paying a little bit more for Crystalline, for one, so to purchase varnish and then to spend the time to apply it to Crystalline, it’s one of those decisions that you can make as business owner, I guess, but pretty uncommon, I would say. To answer your question, you can’t roll coat Crystalline because its ink-jet coating essentially is not designed to be water-resistant enough to handle one of these rollers that’s saturated with the liquid product, liquid top coat. When you go to roll it, more than likely, you’re going to see some ink being uptaken on the roller itself and that might transfer back down to the print as you continue to roll it. You’ll see some smearing, some smudging, stuff like that. It all depends on the image. If it’s an image that’s fairly light, doesn’t have a lot of ink being laid down on it then you may not see this effect. Feel free to try it if you’d like. Run some tests of your own. Alternatively, you can spray coat it if varnishing Crystalline is something you want to do. You can purchase an HVLP, high volume low pressure, spray gun. Load it with Timeless, or whatever print varnish you’re electing to use, and then spray it on Crystalline, and let it go through its drying process. It is worth noting that if you’re going to be spray coating Crystalline, just as if you were to be spray coating a matte canvas, you will have to allow it to go through the outgassing process, which we typically recommend is a 24 hour drying period after printing, before coating. Again, if it were me, I would go with our Lyve canvas if you’re going to be varnishing anyway. It’s more archival. It has some more longevity than Crystalline will, but again, that decision’s totally up to you. Moving onto the next question. Rob from Robscheid.com asks, “What is the thickness of Vibrance Photo Matte 44 inch?” Vibrance Photo Matte is an 8 mill, 230 GSM matte photo paper. Now, it’s a pretty nice paper. You can think of it as a low cost fine art paper. Smooth fine art paper. We say photo paper, but it can be confusing. Terminology with the word photo paper is a little confusing. It doesn’t have an RC resin coated base, so it doesn’t have that plasticy type of feel. Like I said, it’s basically really thin, smooth fine art paper, so a nice low cost, budget paper there. The next question comes from David from Waldropfineartphotography.com. David asks, “My 7890 will periodically launch into a cleaning cycling when I first power up the machine even though I have auto head cleaning option off in the printer setup menu. What could be happening?” David, good question. I think there’s two options on these Epson printers. One is auto cleaning, and the other one is called an automatic nozzle check and you adjust both of them to say on, off. I think there’s an on periodical option as well. First thing I do with new Epson printers is to turn this off typically because we like to manually do this. Run a print through it every day, and we just keep up with it on our own as to not waste ink unnecessarily. It’d try to look for that auto nozzle check option and turn that off as well. Sophie asks, “Can we paint with acrylic paint over a digital print on canvas after it has been varnished?” Yeah, Sophie. I think I’ve addressed this question potentially on a previous episode, but even myself, I can’t remember. It’s been a few episodes in at this point. You can definitely use acrylics to paint over a canvas print that has been varnished. This is a pretty common technique that people refer to as embellishing, and it can really turn a print into a unique piece of art. I really enjoy this method. I would say don’t use oils. We found some negative side effects of using oils. Some discoloration even if the print has been top coated with a varnish. Definitely stick to acrylics, and not really too much else to know here. Print it, let it dry, coat it with a varnish, and paint away. John asks, “Are corner protectors necessary for shipping prints?” Good question, John. I would definitely lean towards yes on this one. It does depend. Are you shipping something that’s framed? Are you shipping a gallery wrapped canvas? Are you shipping a loose print that’s rolled up? Are you shipping a loose print that needs to be flat? It kind of varies, but there’s also multiple different kinds of boxes. This ties into a question that I was going to answer later on down in this episode, so I think I’ll just tie them in here. Charlie was asking where he could find carrying cases for gallery wrapped prints. Now, there are a number of different places online that you can find that’s used for shipping prints. It depends on personal preference where you’re shipping them. Again, what it is exactly that you’re shipping. I would definitely lean towards using corner protectors. Especially if you’re sending it in a frame. Sometimes you’ll find these boxes that are basically filled with foam, and you can tear out a template for the size of the print that you’re sending, and then set the print in there, and then replace the foam. That way basically your print ends up surrounded by foam, of course, with a cardboard outer box outside the foam. In that case you may not need corner protectors. It’s a pretty loaded question. It depends on your boxing. It depends on what you’re shipping. You might consult somebody that ships art regularly, and see what their thoughts are if you’re confused on how to pack a print. You might test ship a few if you’re trying to really trim costs on packing supplies. Pack it one way, send it to a friend across the states, or something like that, and give them a call and ask them how it arrived. Just an idea. It depends. If you’re looking for some of these packing supplies, I did a quick Google search and just some that I typically refer people to. I’ll include a few links in the show notes of this episode, so be sure you check that out. There’s one called Artpack that looks to work pretty well. There’s Airfloat Systems. Of course Uline is a really common one, and they have a ton of different options. From extravagant, over the top things that’ll definitely work, but may be a bit pricey all the way down to just a box that’s the right size, and you can wrap the print with foam or bubble wrap it, and put corners on it, and slide it in that box. A lot of options. There’s another place called Masterpak USA. Again, I’ll include some links in the show notes, so if you’re looking for something like this definitely be sure to check that out. Moving on to the next question, Ian asks, “I am new to the printing game and recently bought an Epson P800. I’ve learned a little bit about RGB setting and ICC profiles from videos on YouTube, but when I’m printing on watercolor paper I find my prints are not sharp. The images are sort of cloudy, and the black and some colors are not sharp. Any ideas on what I may be missing?” Good question, Ian. I’m going to do some speculation here just because without reviewing all of your print settings it’s really hard to say what may be causing this. It could be a few different things. First, I’ll say that watercolor paper, depending on its texture, is just not really designed to get the sharpest print. If you’re looking for the utmost sharpness I would definitely opt for something that’s going to be smooth. When I go to print something that’s really crisp I opt for a smooth, matte photo paper, or whatever finish photo paper really, but something that’s smooth. Glossy photo paper, luster photo paper, or smooth art paper. It just kind of depends on the flavor that you’re looking for, but the smoother the media the sharper your print resolution can be. Other than that, there’s a few print settings within the driver that can control this smoothness. It’s really almost every setting that you’re making in the driver. You want it to be ideal. I’m not sure if this is an Epson paper that you’re selecting, which kind of limits the options. It basically tells you what to select in the driver. If it’s a third-party media it can be a little bit more confusing, and you should consult the supplier of that third-party media for their recommended settings. But things like platinum gap…If you’re changing the platinum gap or the head height when you’re printing, if you’re raising it mainly, that’s going to bring the print head further away from the media. The paper in this case. That can decrease your resolution or your sharpness. If you’re using the wrong media type setting that can lay down too much ink, and that can create something that looks like it’s blurry. Basically the ink is bleeding into areas that it shouldn’t be bleeding into. Again, that can blur the edges that should be sharp otherwise. There’s a print quality setting, or sometimes it’s just called quality. I’m not sure about the P800, but the quality setting is going to make a big difference as well. This ties into the media type setting. Certain media type settings allow you to do certain quality settings only, so you’ll want to review the quality setting, and potentially change that to be the highest that you can possibly select. Again, I don’t think that…I would imagine you’re probably leaving it at the default setting, and the default setting shouldn’t couldn’t create a blurry effect. I would imagine that something else was going wrong, like it’s a wrong media type setting, or this paper just won’t be able to meet the expectations that you’re looking for in terms of sharpness. That’s something else to look at is the quality setting. Those are really the main things. Like I said, I would consult some printing instruction just to make sure that you’re following those properly. If you have some follow up questions to this one, again, this is a little bit confusing with only a few details, definitely post in the show notes section down in the comments area with some additional details on what you’re using, and I’ll be glad to respond there and try to help out more. I’ve got something else here. This isn’t a question, but it’s a note from a listener named Richard. He wrote to me with message, “Hey, AskBC. I found an alternative method for applying your Timeless varnish using a Preval sprayer that you can pick up from automotive paint stores, Home Depot, and Amazon.” He says he uses it for 13 by 19 canvas prints and it works fantastic. We haven’t tested this sprayer here at Breathing Color, so be sure to use it at your own risk. I wanted to share this idea with any of you looking for a possibly cheap solution to spray smaller size prints. It looks like this sells for just 5 or 6 bucks, so I’ll include that Amazon link in the show notes of this episode. We also have some recommendations that we talked about in the past for HVLP, high volume low pressure, spray guns, and those range closer in the 100 dollar range, so 5 to 6 dollars is a pretty cool alternative, I think. Again, we haven’t tested that here, but we may do so in the future. Next question. Mike asks, “What is the shelf life of your print varnishes, and how poor are the results after that expiration period?” Print varnish has a shelf life of about one year, and it can vary regarding how poor the results may be after the expiration period. I don’t recommend using it past the expiration. Let’s just get that out in front at the beginning, but I’ve seen a few different things. Most commonly, you can start to see the varnish coagulate and this can vary. If it’s just sitting on a shelf for a year you’ll probably see it start to coagulate and separate, and you won’t be able to re-incorporate everything back together by stirring, or shaking, or anything. If you are using it regularly, and stirring everything regularly you probably won’t see that start to happen, but you may. In a pinch we’ve told people that they can still use it. I can’t say I’ve seen any negative effect with somebody using it past the expiration date on a print. Of course, it’s not something I’ve done and monitored for years down the line, so again, I recommend just purchasing new varnish if it comes to that. In a pinch, if it’s something for your personal use, or whatever, I’ve recommended running it through a strainer, like a cheesecloth, before applying it. Stir it up, run it through a cheesecloth, and then apply it to the print. Outside of this coagulation I haven’t seen a whole lot. It’s hard to give a conclusive on this because, again, we don’t really do much testing right past the expiration period, and we don’t have a lot of people that use it after the expiration period. You can run it through a number of different side effects, I imagine, of using something after it’s expired. But if you test it and find something strange definitely let me know, and I’d be glad to share it with people. All right, I think that’ll do for one episode. I hope some of what I covered there was applicable to you guys, and I figure at the very least we helped out those 10 or so people today. Right? We’ll be back next time with a themed episode for Ask BC, and we’ll have plenty of more expert interviews in the pipeline. If you’re on the BC blog mailing list you received our monthly digest for June 2016, and there was a poll in that digest asking you for the name of a guest you’d like to see featured on the show. I wanted to thank everybody that threw in the name of their favorite printmaking expert, and we’re working now to get as many of those people as possible booked on the show to bring new kinds of conversations to you guys. If you want to help us out on that you can reach out to these experts yourself. Send them a quick message and say that you’d really like to see them join the show. That’d be awesome. You can get on that mailing list, by the way, by going to BreathingColor.com/blog, and clicking the “About” page using the link in the header. As always our inbox here at the podcast studio is open for your printmaking questions. This is the foundation of everything we do here, so if you have a problem, or you’re curious about something to do with producing or printing art, we invite you to fill out the question form at Ask-BC.com. If we select your question we’ll do our best to get you an in depth answer, and we’ll also read your business or website name on air and send some clicks your way. Lastly, if you don’t have a question for the show and just want to help us out, the number one thing you can do is rate and review us on the iTunes Store. Those reviews give us a nice bump in visibility on the iTunes charts, and also help us reach more printmakers and photographers that may be interested in what we do here on the show. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you have a great week, and we will talk to you next time.   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Rapid Fire Questions With Justin – Volume 2 appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Color management tips to achieve color accurate results – print profile hardware/software, colorimeters/spectrophotometers, ICC profiles, and more! Color management is a pretty huge deal. If you get your output media settings wrong, you’re looking, at best, at walking away with a print that doesn’t look much like your original image. At worst, well, you could run into some pretty funky results that render your prints unusable. In this episode of AskBC, Kevin O’Connor joins us to talk about his recommended print profile hardware, and answers a round of questions for listeners having trouble with profiling and color management. Tune in via the audio player below! Listen in to learn about print profile hardware Highlights Note: These timecodes show how much time in the episode is remaining in the episode, which is how our audio player (above) displays time. –30:18: The skinny on the state of hardware and software for print profiling in 2016 –22:50: When it’s necessary to upgrade – taking the step from a ColorMunki to an i1 Pro 2 –18:31: The best way to scan prints with color accurate results – if a scanner RGB is a good color space to work in or if a custom color profile would yield better results –07:50: If it’s okay to select SRGB or Adobe RGB within the printer driver when doing a final profile print Show Notes This episode featured questions from Jacob, Kim, and Paul. Thanks for submitting your questions! Check out Kevin’s Color Bible: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. For even more on color management, check out Navigating Color Spaces And Affordable Wide Gamut Displays and Color Management: Avoiding Oversaturation And Exploring Color Gamut. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 45! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey, everyone. It’s your host, Justin, from the AskBC podcast. Thank you so much for joining in today. If you’re interested in ICC paper profiles, display profiles, color matching, spectrophotometers, and other color geek things like I am, then you’ll really love today’s show. Kevin O’Connor makes a guest appearance on today’s show and we talk about all things color management. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into today’s episode. [Music Ends] Justin: Hey, Kevin. Welcome back to the show. Today we’re going to talk a little bit about color management, and I thought you’d be the perfect person to chat with about this, so I appreciate you taking the time to join us. How’s your Friday going? Kevin: Friday is awesome. I’m looking forward to a great weekend shooting and processing images. Justin: Yes, that’s awesome. Sounds like a good way to spend a weekend. Like I said, today we’ve got a few listener questions, actually, that all primarily revolve around color management. We’ll do a little bit of talking about some of the hardware, some of the software, some printer profiling, just some various questions that talk about color management. We haven’t touched on this stuff in a few episodes so it should be pretty interesting. I’m going to go ahead and jump into the first question. Jacob asks, “Can you give me the skinny on the state of hardware and software for print profiling in 2016?” Jacob says that he’d love to move up to something beyond his ColorMunki spectrophotometer for profiling aqueous inkjet printers, but he’s unsure of how to take the next step. He says that the market seems dominated by “outdated X-Rite software, which is half the reason I’m moving from ColorMunki in the first place.” What are your thoughts on that, Kevin? Kevin: Well, golly. Several things come to mind. I’m not quite sure about the reference to outdated software, so I would be curious to know a little bit more about what he means by that. In general, one of the things to know about color management for various devices is that you end up with some possibilities depending on what device you buy. Many of our listeners might find that the profiles that Breathing Color provides free of charge for all of their papers works so well that they don’t really need to build their own. I encourage our listeners to try them out. The nice thing about that is if you don’t need to build your own paper profiles you can take the money that you saved by not buying a device that yields printer profiles and you can put that into a really good device for making display profiles. The current leaders in that area are devices that are not spectrophotometers, but they’re colorimeters. It’s a difference in technology, and it sounds intimidating, but what it really means is that a colorimeter most of the time will do a better job on a display profile than you would think. It certainly is as good or better than a spectrophotometer. For example, the X-Rite i1Profiler for displays is a small little unit which is often available for less than $100 if you watch for specials on it. It is a very nice display profile. The other one that everyone knows about probably already is the Datacolor Spyder, which is its current version is number 5, I believe. It has some new hardware design, but the software is the same as it was for version 4. That is a superb profiling tool in many ways, and I use it fairly frequently on several of the displays that I use often. Both of them are very good products, and because both of them are less expensive than buying a device that will do both print profiles and display profiles, I often recommend it to people if they don’t need to build a lot of printer profiles. If you need to build a couple of printer profiles, it’s sometimes easier to work with a profiling service where they send you a target with instructions on how to print the target and then you in return print it out according to the instructions and send it back to them. They run it through a high-speed professional reader and calculate a profile and send it back to you. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good alternative. Kevin: A lot of people find that that is a nice alternative to having to buy your own profiling hardware and software. Justin: Yeah. Some consultants even do the on-site thing, which at the price of some of these spectrophotometers in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, even paying somebody to come on-site and dial in all of your medias to their optimum color makes sense, especially if you’re not switching medias back and forth a lot. Profile it, and you’re good to go. Kevin: If someone needs this sort of thing to be able to make a lot of their own paper profiles, I certainly would encourage them to invest in a good tool. The top of the line from X-Rite is going to be their i1Profiler packages. They have several of those, depending on what your needs are. For someone who is only printing RGB files to a standard inkjet printer, they don’t need to buy the high-end version of that because that set of tools is overkill for their needs. It is possible to spend a lot of money on this, as you know. I don’t get a commission from either X-Rite or Datacolor or other companies, for that matter, so I’m cheerfully willing to tell people that I think that both X-Rite and Datacolor make very good profiles and you should buy the tools that meet your needs and not more than that. Put that extra money into extra Breathing Color paper. Justin: Hey, I couldn’t agree with that more. It’s interesting. In part, we use an i1Pro 2 here. There’s difference in price levels and their features. That’s all built into the software, right? No matter which package you buy with the i1Pro 2, it varies on the software side of things or limits you down to the RGB profiling and doesn’t allow you to do CMYK until you update that license or that software side. You could always start with what you need and pay a little bit more to advance that licensing later on down the line if your needs expand. It’s kind of cool. Keep the same hardware. Kevin: I think that’s a very good approach to doing that. Buy what you need and no more, and then if your needs change they do offer you an upgrade now. People don’t necessarily realize it, but Datacolor also makes a profiling solution for papers that delivers very good results. I find it a little more challenging to use than the X-Rite solution because of the way that the device scans the rows of patches, but that may be just my lack of hand-eye coordination too. It should be noted, though, that if you are purchasing the packages, that they can vary a lot in price. The ColorMunki is the best bang for the buck because it’s an all-inclusive package that meets both printing and display profiling needs. As the correspondent who wrote in to us to ask a question for this podcast says, I’m thinking that perhaps he thinks that the software for the ColorMunki is what needs some updating. I have to admit that I haven’t used the Munki in so long that I’ll have to check on that to be sure. We may have an update for him in the future about the Munki. Justin: Yeah. I think the biggest difference is that you’re limited to the number of patches that you can use in the ColorMunki software, whereas with the i1Profiler software you can define the number of patches that you want to use. You potentially have some ability to make a profile with a larger gamut. It’s a much bigger conversation when we start talking about how larger patch sets affect output profile, but yeah, maybe that’s part of his idea. A lot of these things are in part rumors, I think, that just float around, like ColorMunki, oh, it’s not as good. Maybe something that you read on the forum or read online elsewhere. From what I’ve seen, ColorMunki has the ability to produce some really great looking profiles. Again, you mentioned this before, it all ties back to buy what you need. If you’re creating a profile once in a while for an RGB printer and you’re a photographer printing stuff out, ColorMunki, that’s what that’s designed for. It’s 500 bucks, makes a great looking profile, and it’s really easy to use, very user-friendly. I’m sure it limits some of your options in the profiling stage, but again, depends on what you need. You said you’re not extremely familiar. You haven’t used the ColorMunki in quite a while. I wonder what your thoughts might be on when do you think it’s necessary to take that step from ColorMunki to i1Pro 2 or to an Isis. Do you have any thoughts on that? Kevin: Well, the first thing I’m sure would be when I win the lottery so that I can afford it. Justin: Financially, sure. Kevin: Well, that’s again the critical trade out. If you have a ColorMunki package selling for around $500 and then you want to jump up from that, there’s not an upgrade path so you’re starting over. Justin: Right. New hardware, everything. Kevin: New hardware, different software. The hardware and the software are both going to be designed to be even more precise than the Munki is. When you read the specifications of the Munki and its precision, it’s a good instrument. When you read the i1Profiler 2, or the i1Display Profiler, you end up seeing these tools that are designed to be more precise than the Munki, which is a good instrument but not designed to be quite as tight as these others are. Then the question becomes, again, is it worth going over $1,000 and investing in more, or is it going to be better sometimes to work with a profiling service to have profiles built for you? Again, I come back to the fact that Breathing Color…If you’re using Breathing Color papers, you owe it to yourself to test the profiles that are provided first because a lot of work goes into making those and making them really well, and they’re free. It’s hard to argue with free. If you don’t like it, fine; or you could get the profile and then do little profile editing. You don’t have to buy a piece of software to do that. An i1Photo Pro 2 Color Management Kit for photographers I see on one website in front of me right now is $1,549 plus shipping and tax if it’s in your state to be taxed. Are you going to get $1,500 of utility out of upgrading to this? Some people will and there are other things that come in that package that may be useful, but there’s also the entire possibility that you’re going to end up buying something that’s going to sit in the corner and gather dust. Justin: Totally. Kevin: Yeah. Not something we encourage, right? Justin: Yeah, definitely. It’s worth mentioning that even though you may gain say 10 unique features with this upgrade from ColorMunki, for example, to an i1Pro 2, do you know how to use them? There’s a lot of training that goes into people that really know what they’re doing in terms of color management software and hardware, so even though you enable all these features you may not know what the heck they mean. Without knowing what they mean and how to use them, you’re pretty much left where you were before, if not in a worse position than the tool that’s designed for beginners with limited color management knowledge. Definitely something else to consider using Colorbuild’s profiles with an Isis, using i1Profiler, and we’ve had a ton of training from color management consultants over the years just to make sure that our processes are up to date, that we’re doing everything 100% as well as it can be done to get optimal color. Training is a big piece to consider and like you said, that’s the last thing you want, is a $2,000 piece of equipment sitting in the corner when that could be a new lens or whatever. Justin: What else was Jacob asking here? I think we’ve pretty much covered everything. I guess, summary, it all ties back to we need a little more information, I guess, as far as who Jacob is, what he uses, what he prints for. I think we’ve answered this pretty well, so I’m going to move on to the second question here we have from Kim. Kim says, “I’m a fine artist who would like to create color accurate giclee prints of my tiny, 4″ by 4″ watercolor artwork.” She says, “I’ve purchased an Epson V600 scanner to capture them, and I’d like to minimize the amount of time I spend adjusting color in my files.” She said, “My question is, should I profile my scanner? Is scanner RGB a good color space to work in, or would a custom color profile yield better and more color accurate results? If so, what’s the best way to create this custom profile?” She mentions that she’s planning to create 16 bit master files of her work in the Adobe RGB color space and save them as TIFFs. Sorry, that was a bit of a mouthful of a question, but what are your thoughts? Kevin: Awful lot going on there, so let’s talk about the challenges first and then see if we end up with a possibility of a new paradigm for this person who needs to recreate this work. The first thing that I always do is I recommend, especially since these are the size that they are, is I always tell people to scan with a gray card behind the image, surrounding it so that it is instantly click balanceable in Photoshop or in Lightroom. Justin: Yeah, good idea. Kevin: It’s an important investment. For a while I was recommending a plastic one that was available from Robin Myers, who’s one of the inventors of ColorSync at Apple. Unfortunately, the plastic that he was using to make these cards is no longer available and he hasn’t been able to find one that is equally color neutral, so he stopped offering them. It was kind of a fun story. He invented the card that he started selling because he had taken a standard cardboard gray card out into the sierra while he was photographing for a couple of weeks. The first day that he was there, he didn’t notice a cloudburst coming and his gray card got wet and then it got ruined and there he was at the beginning of a two-week trip to photograph in the sierra and was unable to do so with the color controls that he wanted. That was unfortunate. He then ended up with an idea. If he could find a neutral plastic, he could make a card that would be impervious to the elements. He would then be able to use this himself for a very long time. Indeed, the ones that I have I expect to use the rest of my life unless I shatter them or lose them. However, that’s not an option anymore, so I’m currently researching other options for good gray cards. There are a bunch of them out there; I’m just not sure that they are necessarily one of the best choices yet so I’ll report back at some point in the future on choosing tools for making these kinds of references. Justin: Awesome. Kevin: If your reader has a gray card already, it’s worthwhile to try this technique out. You put a card that’s big enough to stick out on at least one side of the image behind the image, and of course optimally it would be on all four sides so that it isn’t causing an unlevel surface to be scanned. Then, sometimes you’ll find that that combined with the scanner profile that comes with each scanner is enough. Now, if that’s not the case, then we come to the question of profiling the scanner. That starts to be sort of exciting, because scanner profiling is less and less an option without buying a lot of the expensive pieces of software that we were just discussing in the last question. One of the very best ones that was being made has gone away, so I won’t even mention its name. I am told that there is a very good one coming on the market right now from a company called basICColor. They make a piece of software that you can use to profile both your camera and your scanner. If that is correct, and I haven’t tried it yet…The brains behind that particular software is one of the best color people in the world, Franz Herbert. If he’s doing that, then it’s going to be worth using and you’re going to be able to nail this down as tightly as possible. That being said, we want to talk about what’s not possible. A couple of things that are important to notice when you’re trying to reproduce artwork. In the old days of film, we talked about the concept of fugitive colors, colors that simply couldn’t be captured on film correctly without using special techniques or special filters. An example that was always given by Kodak was a photograph of morning glories, which never recorded correctly on film unless you used a special filter to correct the shot. That’s because the film simply didn’t record that frequency. It’s important to note that certain pigments and dyes have elements in them that are going to be very hard to capture, if not impossible. Profiling helps, but it doesn’t solve all of these problems. The next thing to know about this is that if the work that’s being photographed or scanned has any hint of three dimensionality to it, for example, a heavily textured paper or if it’s an oil painting where there are layers of paint built up using say a palette knife technique, you’ll find out very quickly that the color is very hard to capture correctly sometimes on a scanner because the light doesn’t always hit it evenly enough and certain color reflects at hot angles, causing a bad scan. I should say an inaccurate scan, not a bad scan, because I’m sure the person running the scanner is doing a good job. It’s just a limitation of the tool. With that in mind, there almost always ends up being a need for some editing down the road, so it requires a great deal of skill in Photoshop to be able to isolate a couple of shades of color and bring them back into compliance to match the original image. Of course, the best way to do that is going to be on a properly calibrated wide gamut display and a properly lit original sitting right next to the screen so that you can match eye to eye right there. Justin: Right. These are watercolors, I guess, so hopefully not too much of a problem, but you said that the paper itself could be a factor, having a heavily textured watercolor paper, possibly. Kevin: Possibly. Possibly, and it may be that the scanner compensates for it enough that it’s not an issue. This is more of an issue depending on the colorants used. Watercolor is not the same problem that an oil paint would be because an oil sits above the surface and takes on its own texture and its own angles, whereas watercolors- Justin: Right, they can be really thick. Kevin: …soak into the paper. Yes, exactly. Justin: Right. That makes sense. Kevin: Now, one of the ways that some of this is minimized … I have a good friend and colleague, Greg Lucas, who does a superb job of copying original artwork for artists who are working in various media and then want to make a limited edition of reproductions of one of their paintings. He’s got this nailed down to a science, but the way that he does it is he approaches it from the perspective of a commercial photographer, which is what he was before he moved into color management. His studio is setup so that all of his lights have a polarizing filter over the lights themselves. The light that hits the artwork is then captured through a second polarizing filter at 90 degree angles to the polarizing filter on the lights. What this does is it’s an old technique that was used a lot for photographing things like glassware to remove or minimize reflection, and it worked really well for photographing artwork, especially things like oils. If it turned out that there was no way to get this capture that this artist needs on the scanner, sometimes the solution is to photograph it with a really good camera with enough resolution and enough color range to be able to light it with this double polarized capture and make images that are going to be even closer because of the reflectivity being removed. Justin: Yeah, that’s an interesting technique. I wonder how many Kim might be doing. Maybe she could outsource them if it’s not too many, send it to somebody that has it set up already. Never heard of that, though. That’s pretty cool. Kevin: It can be very useful for certain circumstances. As you can imagine, in the old days especially, if you were photographing something like say a close-up of sterling silverware for a brides’ magazine or crystal, many of those shots were done on 8 by 10 film in order to minimize the amount of retouching and make easy what retouching needed to be done. A lot of that work was shot with polarized light because of the immense reduction that it caused in the need for post-production on images. Justin: That’s interesting. Anything else to add about this subject? Kevin: I think without knowing how precise she needs to be or more about her colorants, it’s very hard to give this artist much more advice other than trying the gray card because that’s the least expensive option, then after that checking out the basICColor profiling software and seeing if that works. If she already owns an i1Profiler package, I believe there is an option in some of the later software a scanner profiling module as well, but it may be an extra cost option. Justin: Yeah. I’m not too sure about that myself either. I like that approach. Start with the quickest, cheapest thing that might work very well and just take it step by step from there. I think it’s good suggestions. Kim, feel free to comment on the show notes page for this episode if you have any other details you want to provide or any further questions, and we’d be glad to answer them there. Let’s go ahead and move on to question number 3, and the final question. This one comes from Paul. Paul says, “I’m creating and testing paper profiles against the paper manufacturer,” ICC profiles I presume, and he says, “I’m profiling with a ColorMunki using an Epson 4900 printer.” Says, “In the media settings selection, I’ve selected Mode Custom and opened the Advanced tab and found that he can select Epson standard SRGB or Adobe RGB. Would changing this have any impact on the final print result?” Okay. Kind of a confusing question here, I think. I think Paul’s asking if when he does the final profile print if he should be selecting SRGB or Adobe RGB within the printer driver, which would be a pretty bad idea, I think. I don’t know if you interpret this question any differently than I do, but it’s a little bit confusing. I think that Paul might have a little bit of a skewed understanding of color management here. Would you agree? Kevin: Well, there are two possibilities in the question. Let’s look at each one of them quickly and see what we think, okay? Justin: Sure. Kevin: The first possibility is that he’s talking about printing the charts that he wants to use to make the color profile. Justin: True, right. Kevin: The challenge here is that if he is printing those charts through either of those settings, SRGB or Adobe RGB, he’s clipping possible color that could be printed. In neither case would I recommend that he print this way, but particularly if you’re printing a profiling chart the best possible thing to do is to go the Adobe website and get their free file downloader that will let you send a file to a printer without applying any color management to it whatsoever. In previous versions of Photoshop, you could do this simply by choosing no color management as one of the options in the print dialogue, but Adobe removed that. Their explanation for removing it, which made it much more uncomfortable for many people, was that it was too hard for them to keep up with the changes in the printing architecture that both Apple and Microsoft kept introducing to their operating systems. They now manage only two options. Photoshop does the color management, or the printer does the color management. Being a control freak myself, I don’t like either of those options sometimes, so I use the Adobe downloader tool and I send the file directly to the printer when I’m building a profiling chart. That way, I know no color management has been applied to it. The reason this is so important is that there are colors that can be printed that do not exist in SRGB but do exist in the paper profiles. If you print your chart through SRGB, you will throw all of that color information away, even though your printer could capture it. Justin: Yeah. Don’t restrict your target, essentially. Kevin: Precisely. Very important that that be understood, that the printer doing color management on a profiling chart is a really bad idea. This free utility from Adobe is a really great tool for printing those charts. Now, let’s go to the second one. If we’re printing to this printer and we’re printing from Photoshop or Lightroom, when you go to print in the dialogue for those applications there is an option to be certain that the application is doing the color management and not the printing device. I always recommend people use that. One of the best reasons for that is that you can build a preview in those applications to see how those images are going to print on screen and not be surprised by the color management that’s done in the printer which may not look anything like what you expected onscreen. It’s nice to have color management in the printer for people who don’t want to know about it and don’t want to learn it and don’t want to be troubled by it. When you give over control to something or someone else because you don’t want to take the time to understand how it works, you have to settle for whatever they give you. I’m just way too much of a control freak to be happy settling. Justin: Yeah, agreed. Agreed. If you’ve already invested in the tools necessary for profiling the paper anyway, you definitely should go that route. Have the profile handle the color management. Paul might find it interesting. We’ve done some previous episodes on the podcast where we talk a little bit more about color spaces and what all that means. I think some clarity on Paul’s end might interest him, so definitely check that out if you haven’t seen those episodes before. You can search on the Breathing Color blog for just the word “color spaces” and you should be able to pull those podcasts up. Anything else, Kevin, that you wanted to add to this question, in response to this question rather? Kevin: Well, I would be fascinated to hear what kind of results Paul gets when he tests some of the Breathing Color profiles with the papers. Justin: Yeah. Kevin: …Because always responsible manufacturers want to know if there are any problems or any deficiencies because they don’t want to be continuing to distribute profiles or for that matter anything else that isn’t going to work as well as it possibly can. I would encourage all of our listeners if they end up with a problem where they’ve downloaded a profile from Breathing Color and they’re not getting the results that they think they ought to be getting, we should know about that. Then we can do something about it. Either we can help them figure out what’s wrong or we can fix it if there’s a problem with the profile itself. Justin: Yeah, good point. Good point. I’m not sure if Paul is using Breathing Color media, but that’d be interesting to know regardless of the manufacturer, I guess, how they compare. Kevin: Well, it’s always interesting when we get these questions where we’re not entirely sure how to answer them. We always want to hear back from the person who asked the question and anything else where the podcast might raise more questions than it answers. If you’re listening, Paul, or anyone else who’s listening, if this is not clear, any part of what we said today, feel free to ping with another question and we will address it as promptly as we can. You can also put that on the website in various ways, I think, so that we would be able to respond perhaps even quicker on the website than we would in the podcast. Justin: Yeah, definitely leave a comment on the show notes. That’s going to be the quickest way, is the comments section on every show notes page for a given episode. Comment on there, and we’ll get back to you within a day or two. Pretty quick way to do some follow-up question and answer. Definitely get there if you don’t understand what we’re trying to convey here. That wraps it up for today’s episode, actually. I think we had a pretty interesting show today. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Maybe a little bit more technical on the color management side than we normally dig into, so I hope people appreciate that. Kevin, I really appreciate you taking the time to bring your knowledge to the table. It’s always good chatting with you. Kevin: My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Justin: All right, that’s it for today’s episode. I hope you all enjoyed it. We all know how confusing color management can be, so I hope this has helped some of our listeners get a firmer grasp on some of these concepts. I’ve said it at least once already during the show, but these topics are such a great spark to start a larger conversation so I urge everyone to jump over to the show notes page for this episode and leave any questions, comments, concerns you might have down in the comments section. That’s really what this comments section is for, is to expand on things we talked about during the show. To stay up to date with all new AskBC episodes, not to mention our expert blog posts, be sure you join our mailing list. Just simply visit breathingcolor.com/blog and then click the About link at the top of the page. If you’d like to see your questions featured on the show, our ears are always open. Have a specific problem you’re trying to work through? Have you had that lingering printmaking question in the back of your mind that you’ve never asked or didn’t know who to ask? Well now’s the time. Visit ask-bc.com and fill out our short questions form there. Lastly, the best way you can help the show continue and to improve is to leave us an iTunes review and some feedback. Just hop on the iTunes app, search for the AskBC podcast, or just type in AskBC, and then give us some stars and leave your thoughts in the feedback. We’d really, really appreciate it. Like I said, it keeps the show going and it lets us know how we can improve. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it, and we will see you next time.   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post The State of Print Profile Hardware + Misc. Profiling Problems appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Professional photography tips for working around the sun, photographing the moon, and must-have equipment for shooting landscapes. When shooting outdoor photography, there are many factors you must consider in order to capture powerful images. If these factors aren’t considered, you may end up with washed out images or even an aching back. In this episode of AskBC, we interview Kevin O’Connor on what it takes to photograph the Sun, Moon, and Earth. How should you change your approach as a photographer when shooting photography in sunlight? What’s it take to get a great photo of the moon? And what are the must-have (and must-leave-behind) pieces of equipment for shooting landscapes on the fly? Listen in to learn how to photograph the Sun, Moon, and Earth Highlights Note: These timecodes show how much time in the episode is left, which is how our audio player (above) displays time. –28:05: How the brightness and location of the sun can change how you approach an outdoor shoot –23:46: How to optimize your shooting for photography in sunlight –20:25: Tips for photographing the moon –16:56: Some tools that are important to photograph the moon –13:42: How to pack for a landscape shoot and some of the most efficient tools to bring –09:00: Specific brands of camera bags that Kevin recommends –06:47: Shooting with camera filters – different types of filters to use Show Notes This episode featured questions from Ryan, Kari, and Kylie. Check out Kevin’s post on How to Photograph Fireworks. The Color Bible: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 44! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: On today’s show, I’ll be joined by photographer Kevin O’Connor. Our theme is sun, moon, and the earth. [Music Ends] Justin: Hey, everybody. This is your host Justin. Welcome to another episode of the AskBC podcast. Have you ever tried taking a picture of the moon with your cell phone? It never quite turns out like anything you’re seeing with your eyes, right? What does it take to get a great photo of the moon? Kevin O’Connor is a professional photographer, and a frequent contributor to the Breathing Color Blog. Today, he’s going to be sharing his knowledge on photographing the moon, working with the sun during outdoor shoots, and some general tips on landscape photography. These questions today probably came in from people that saw Kevin’s posts on our blog called “How to Photograph Fireworks.” I’m sure we’ll be releasing this post this year for the 4th of July, since it seemed to be really helpful for a lot of people. You can find it anytime on the blog by searching the keyword fireworks in the search bar at the top of the page. Fireworks definitely work in the same way, at least for me, as the moon does. I always try to use my cell phone to capture them and usually get pretty terrible results. It can be frustrating, but also think it can be kind of comforting, at least in our industry, that even with cell phone cameras in everyone’s hands, there still seem to be plenty of images in different subjects that only a really talented and knowledgeable photographer with the right equipment can capture. Kevin is also the author what we call the Color Bible, which is basically a massive, three part examination of every component of a professional color workflow, starting at dialing in your display, to capturing the way the color, the way you want it to through your camera, all the way down to printing it out perfectly. I’ll go ahead and put a link to those posts in the show notes of this episode as well, just in case you want to check that out. Beware, it is a little intimidating, though, because it’s so long and in depth. I would definitely suggest using the yellow buttons placed throughout the posts, so that you can download all three parts as a PDF and kind of work your way through it at your own pace, which will probably be over a few days, I would imagine. Anyway, the point is, Kevin is a great guy. He’s super knowledgeable, and I’m definitely excited to hear what he has to say today. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump right into my conversation with Kevin. Hey, Kevin. Thank you so much for calling in for the show today. It’s great to have you back on to the podcast. It’s been a while. I know a lot of our listeners are big fans of your written posts on the Breathing Color Blog. Welcome, and thank you again. How are you doing? Kevin: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here, and I think we’re going to have fun discussing our topics today. Justin: We are. On that note, let’s go ahead and jump right into the first question. This one actually comes from a gentleman named Ryan. Ryan is asking, “How does the brightness and location of the sun change how you approach an outdoor shoot?” He asks, “Is it ever beneficial to shoot directly into the sun?” Kevin: I think that that’s a pretty broad question in some ways, so let’s start with the really specific answer, that if you shoot directly into the sun and you’re not being really careful, you can damage your eyes and even cause blindness. We want to be absolutely certain when we’re composing a shot that has the sun in it, that we’re being absolutely cautious of that, how we focus, and trying to avoid looking at the sun through the lens. Obviously, you have to do this a little bit to do the composition, but there’s a great danger here that we want to avoid, because, as your mother always told you, you only get one pair of eyes, young man. You need to take care of them. Justin: The sun is pretty bright, so yeah. Kevin: Focusing that brightness through a lens would make it even worse. Of course, the longer the lens, the bigger the problem. I tend not to shoot a lot in the middle of the day, because I don’t think the light is very attractive for many things that I would be shooting. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable. For example, a client hired me recently to do a series of panoramic shots in a full 360 spin for their project. Of course, you’ve got the sunlight in the middle of the day, and that’s when it had to be shot. Then it becomes a question of, “what do you do about it?” My general advice is, if possible, when you’re going to be shooting at a time when you have a lot of sunlight, you want to scout the location ahead of time, if you possibly can. It’s always important to know what you’re walking into when you don’t have control over the light. The second point that I would make, that goes along with that, is that sometimes, especially in the middle of the day, the dynamic range that your camera can capture, whether you’re shooting film or you’re shooting a digital camera, may not be as much as what your eyes can see and make out in detail. When that happens, one of two things should be done to optimize your shooting. I’m going to talk about digital here, because film is a different discussion for another time. On my digital cameras, there are options to invoke a high dynamic range management tool automatically. For example, my Nikon D800, I can tell it that I want it to do a little bit of dynamic range compression, or a lot, or the maximum. It’s nice to have those scaled steps in the middle, there. When I do that, the camera manages a certain amount of the detail captures, so that when I open the files later on, in Lightroom or in Adobe Bridge, I can pull out the detail in the shadows, having made sure as I made the exposure, that I exposed to capture detail in the highlights. Very often, if you pull out the detail in the highlights, you don’t have any way of pulling it back, even in a raw capture. However, if you pull out the detail in the shadows and you held detail in the highlights, you’ve done a really good job at that point of getting all the detail that your eyes saw. This works well with all cameras, although different chips and different price points for different cameras are going to cause you to end up with different results at certain times, because all cameras are different, and all chip capabilities are different. This is one where you need to be doing some testing ahead of an important shoot, so you can make sure that you know what your camera is capable of. My best recommendation for this is to go somewhere where you have a lot of dark shadow and you have a lot of really, really bright light, and with the two of them together in the same scene, shoot a series of images, bracketing the exposure, to find out what works best with your meter, your camera, and your particular lens. Justin: When you are shooting directly into the sun, how do you optimize the shooting for the best possible result? Kevin: I think that’s a really good question, because we’re all going to be shooting into the sun at some point. If we’re shooting a sunset, obviously, this is one where many of us are doing that fairly frequently. The first part of that is to make absolutely certain that your lens in perfectly clean. Any bit of smudging or fingerprints, or dust on the lens, is going to degrade the image quality. You’re already challenging the lens a great deal by doing that. The second thing that I think is very helpful is that when you have the option, shooting with a prime lens often results in a slightly better image than shooting with a zoom lens, simply because there are usually fewer elements in a prime lens to capture interior reflections in the lens. A lot of times, if I know that I’m going to be shooting, for example, at roughly 100mm, I will have my 105 micro Nikon lens with me, so that I can shoot with that, instead of shooting with maybe the 200 zoom. I’ll get the same crop, but I will get a better image from the prime lens than the zoom. Justin: That’s a good point. Kevin: They’re both good lenses, but it’s important to make that work as well as possible, especially if you’re not enlarging this for the wall. Justin: It’s back to that pre-planning point, right? Knowing what you’re going to need to shoot exactly, and from how far. Kevin: Well, I am a lazy man. I only want to do it once. I’m going to go out and scout it and make sure I’m as prepared as possible, so that I can do it as well as possible. Some other tips to go along with that are that I’m always using cable release when I’m shooting things that allow me to use a tripod, simply because I think it’s important for image sharpness. Studies show that even when you set your camera to a very fast shutter speed, all things being equal, using a shutter release of some kind rather than pushing the button directly, is going to result in a sharper image. Other things that come to mind are, a good lens hood is essential. If you are shooting in sunlight, but you are not shooting directly into the sun, if you want to minimize the light from the sun striking the front element of the glass. Because I have a bald head, I wear a big hat when I’m out shooting. That big hat is very handy to hold over the lens, to help shield the light hitting it as well. The combination of a good lens hood and a good hat, not tools that you would necessarily think of first for your tool kit, but really essential ones for optimizing the quality for your shoot. Justin: Big hat. That’s a good tip. Anything else? Kevin: I think that’s a pretty good start to the question. Justin: I agree. Kevin: If our listeners have any more, feel free to post them when you listen to the podcast. We’ll pick them up in a follow-on in another podcast later on. Justin: Yeah, that’d be awesome. All right, let’s go ahead and jump into the next question. Kari is asking, “Do you have any good tips on photographing the moon? How do you photograph the moon?” Kevin: Usually the answer is, very carefully. Justin: Right. That makes sense. Kevin: It’s funny that this question would come up right now, because I’m planning to shoot the moon in the bay area shortly, where I’ll go up to an area called the Marin Headlands, which is above the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m going to shoot the full moon, shooting back at San Francisco, so that the moon will be rising over the city, through the cables of the bridge, and then over the bridge. Justin: Nice. Sounds beautiful. Kevin: This is a shot that is not unique. Many people have done it, but it is interesting to think about what our options are now and what they were when we were shooting film. In the old days, when you did a shoot like this, you would have to expose the piece of film twice. The first time, you shot the moon itself, and you exposed it for a daylight shutter speed and aperture. By that, I mean there was an old rule that the way that you set your shutter speed on your camera for a particular speed of film was that you made your shutter speed 1 over the speed of the film, as it was rated. If I were shooting in Kodachrome, for example, I would have made my shutter speed 1/60th of a second, to match the ISO 64 rating. I’d have 16. The reason for that is that the sun is illuminating the moon, as if it were daylight. To expose correctly for the moon, you have to shoot as if you were in the middle of broad day and broad sunlight. Of course, the rest of your scene doesn’t have that at all. What it has is night light. In the old days, we ran the film through twice, being very careful to mark it with a sharpie so we knew where it started on the rollers in our cameras. We shot once for the moon, and then we ran it back for the shot again with the broader landscape. We used different lenses to combine those shots together. We shot only the moon in the first one, tighter up, so that it would only be on frame. Then the second time, we shot the city with a wider lens. This gave some really interesting effects, which you can now do digitally, either in the computer or in the camera. One of the easiest ways to do this, is simply to take two shots each time. The first one is to expose the moon correctly, the second one is to expose for the cityscape or landscape in front of you. That’s what I’ll be doing when I shoot this in San Francisco. Then for fun, I may put on another lens and shoot the moon later, after it has risen a little higher so that it’s the only thing in the frame. That way, I have multiple options for compositing. If you’re doing this bracketing, where you do two shots without moving the camera at all, one exposed for the scene and one exposed for the moon, it’s a very easy matter in Photoshop or Lightroom to composite those together. Justin: You mentioned, obviously a tripod would be pretty handy in this case. Any other tools that you think would be important? Kevin: I think it’s good to have a variety of lenses when you’re doing a shot like this, because you may find you want to do a spectacular effect, where you’re shooting with a long lens to capture the moon. There was an image published recently, in one of the photo magazines, that showed somebody doing a bridal portrait with an 800mm lens. He posed the bride and groom at the top of a hill, with the moon rising behind them. Because of this lens compressing the visual effect, the moon looked absolutely huge and dwarfed the two people who were doing their portrait. It made for a spectacular image. Now of course, not all of us have access to an 800mm lens, or even a 400mm with a teleconverter, but a longer than average lens is going to give you some really nice perspective effects. Of course, if you’re just trying to isolate the moon by itself, the longer your lens the better. If we’re going to talk about tripods, we need to talk about cable releases as well, or other kinds of remote release. There is no point to a tripod if you’re not using a remote release. Justin: Makes sense. Anything else, tool-wise, for the moon, or is that pretty much it? Kevin: Same rules apply for any time that you have a bright light source in the frame. We talked about keeping things very clean or making them very clean when we’re shooting in sunlight. That’s also true for moonlight. A very clean lens is strongly recommended. Justin: Yeah, good point. No big hats on this one, I presume? Kevin: Probably not, but actually, now that you mention it, one of the things that’s very important is to dress in layers. I know from having done the same shot on the same location in the Marin Headlands before, that even in the middle of the summer, the winds can come up and suddenly you are freezing to death. Justin: Some people might not think of that, good point. Kevin: Strong recommendation for having a jacket with you. You can always take it off if you’re too warm, but if your teeth are chattering, it may cause vibration in your picture and degrade the sharpness. Justin: I have one last question here. This one is a little bit longer. I’m going to jump into that one now. This one is from a listener named Kylie. She’s asking, this is kind of the earth portion of this interview, “What are some of the most efficient tools to bring with you on a landscape shoot, to feel prepared for various depths of field, exposures, weather, etc.?” She mentions that she’s a beginner photographer and that she always gets weighted down with too much stuff. She’s, I guess, kind of afraid that she won’t bring the right equipment. She’s wondering how to better set herself up for success. Sounds like she’s definitely probably not scouting the sites well enough, not planning out the shoot well enough; otherwise she wouldn’t need to bring such a large bag of equipment. What are your thoughts on something like that? How do you best prepare for these types of things? Kevin: As I mentioned earlier, I am a very lazy person. I got this down to a science, because I really don’t want to carry anything anymore than I have to. I use a tripod that is as light as I can get away with, while still providing the stability that I need. In this case, I’m using a carbon fiber tripod, which is more expensive, but it pays for itself in terms of a less sprained back when I’m doing a long shoot. I strongly recommend getting a sturdy tripod, but also one that isn’t going to break your back when you’re hauling it around. Some people like to carry their tripods on a strap, either in a case or just attached directly to the tripod, so that they can sling it over their shoulders and carry it that way, instead of having to carry it in one or the other of their hands. The second thing that I think is important to do for this, is to have a good camera bag, one that you unpack before a shoot and repack with only the things which you think you’re going to use. Justin: Shoot-specific. Kevin: When I am doing that sort of a shoot, the bag gets emptied out. A lot of times it gets sponged out with a damp cloth or vacuumed out to make sure there isn’t any extra dust in it. Then the first thing that goes back into it is the lens brush and a lens cloth, to make sure that if my lens is going to need cleaning while I’m out, that I can do so right there. I also have a sensor cleaner, which is a very gentle little adhesive gel on a stick. It’s called a sensor gel stick. If I end up getting dust on my sensor while changing lenses out in the field, I can take it out right then and pull that little spot right off the sensor, without damaging it. The third thing that goes into the bag is only the lenses that I expect to be using. Generally, when I’m out shooting like this, I will think about what I’m going to shoot and try and figure out, for each lens, if I don’t bring this, will I miss it? The answer more often than not is no, I’m not going to miss that, because it doesn’t meet my shooting needs for the particular thing I want to do. When I’m out in the field, I usually have an 80-200mm zoom lens. Sometimes I will bring a 200-500mm zoom, when I know that I need that level of close-up or that level of effect. I almost always have a micro lens with me, either 60mm or a 105 micro. Then I will have either the 17-35 zoom lens, or I will have the 24-120. One of those has a faster maximum aperture than the others, so it depends on the time of day and the lighting I expect to encounter. I have a bunch of other lenses that I could bring, but there’s no point to carrying all of that along, unless you’re auditioning to be a pack mule, which many photographers find themselves doing much more often than they should. The next thing that goes into the bag is a remote release for the camera. I make sure always to have extra cards with me, in case I find some stuff that I really had to shoot that I didn’t expect to shoot, so that I’m not running short of space. Finally, I always have a plastic garbage bag in my camera bag. Most often, I have two. If I get caught in the rain, I want to be able to cover both the bag, to protect the equipment as best I can, and sometimes, cover myself as well. I’m kind of holding the bag and making this makeshift poncho if I’m caught in the rain. That’s where that big hat comes in again, because I’m always going to carry the big hat to protect from sunburn on my bald head, to protect in case of rain, and to protect against sunlight hitting the lens. Justin: Right, good point. Any specific brand of bag that you recommend, or preference? Kevin: I can tell you what I’m using currently. I found that the side bag that I had carried for a long time over one shoulder, slung bandolier-style onto the opposite, was getting too heavy. My neck was letting me know about it. I started looking for a backpack-style bag that was designed for photographers, but would, at the same time, have a sufficient amount of room so that my gear that I wanted to carry would fit in it, but also, if I were to go on a plane, that I could still carry it on to the plane. The one that I’m currently using is a Tamrac, and it’s part of the Explorer series. I got the biggest one I could get that would still meet carry-on requirements. Then I discovered something very interesting. When you fly in the United States, and you have a carry-on bag like that, as long as it fits within the bag sizer at the airport, there’s usually no problem to carry it on the plane, in regards to your equipment. However, when you travel in Europe, I found out the hard way that they weigh your bag. And of course, a fully loaded camera bag is going to be way over the limit that an economy seat is going to be allowed, in terms of weight in the bag. The other piece of equipment that I recommend to people fairly frequently, is some kind of jacket, where you can put some of those heavy pieces into the jacket, either a photographer-style vest, or there are actually a couple jackets designed now with modules that let you zip on these huge pockets as you need to, or you put a big zoom lens into one of those pockets and actually wear the jacket onto the plane. Justin: Oh, awesome. That’s a good idea. Perfect. Any other thing you can recommend for a beginner, like Kylie, that we haven’t already talked about? You covered it pretty well. Kevin: I think that Kylie would probably benefit from investing in a couple of filters. I always carry a polarizing filter with me. There are a whole series of other filters that might be of interest to her. Some of them are very inexpensive, and some of them cost a great deal of money. One of the things to know about these tools, is that a lot of times it’s either easier to shoot it, rather than to try to put it in digitally later on. Sometimes it’s actually impossible to successfully put something in later, so you’ve got to shoot it in camera. While there is a plug-in, the Google Nik plug-ins include an option for the polarizing effect, and it works reasonably well, I’ve found that I almost always prefer to shoot it in the camera with a good polarizing filter first. There are other filters that are worth investigating. If you like putting starburst effects into reflections, for example, that almost always works better being shot in camera. As long as you promise not to do it too much, Kylie. There’s a rule that says just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Justin: That’s a great rule. Kevin: Yes, this applies both in shooting and in Photoshop and Lightroom. The next thing that I think it worth looking at down the road, there are some filters from a company called Singh-Ray, s-i-n-g-h, and they make some really interesting filters for intensifying color, be it the full spectrum or just parts of it. They are very expensive filters, but they’re worth checking out if you find that you’re, for example, selling landscapes on a regular basis. These will enhance your work and help you set it apart. Finally, the last filter that I would add in that is a really good thing to have, is a neutral density filter. People use these to photograph, for example, moving water, so that they can make the water blur while everything else is sharp, running at a very slow shutter speed, but allowing people to capture the light in a perfect exposure. Justin: Fantastic. Anything else? Kevin: I’m thinking that sometimes there are people who do not want to carry a tripod, but they’re going to be out shooting in areas where they’re going to be hiking anyway. There are a couple of walking sticks that have been designed so that the top comes off and you spread it, so that you can put a camera on it. Sometimes, I’ll carry one of those along when I’m walking and use it as a substitute for a tripod. Justin: That sounds pretty awesome. Kevin: It’s a really useful tool sometimes. To further stabilize it, I have carried along, from time to time, the short end of a mostly used roll of duct tape. When I do that, I tape the walking stick up against something, something preferably that doesn’t damage it, and when I do that, I’ve got basically a makeshift tripod in the field, because I didn’t carry a real tripod with me. Justin: That’s a handy tip. That’s a little MacGyver-esque. Kevin: A little bit, but it’s a very useful one. Mine came from LL Bean, and I really like it. The one that I bought was made of aluminum. They’ve since replaced it with one that’s made out of carbon fiber that’s even lighter. Justin: Nice. Kevin: Strongly recommend it be considered. Justin: Yeah, that sounds like a pretty cool tool, pretty useful tool. Well, it sounds like we’ve given Kylie a pretty good list of things to consider the next time she goes out, hopefully to pack a little bit lighter. That was actually the last question I have in this sun, moon, and earth series that we’re covering today. I want to just thank you again for taking the time to join us. Always appreciate having you on the show. You clearly have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to photography, color management, and other things like that. Thanks again. If our listeners want to find out more about you, where should they go? Kevin: Unfortunately, at the moment the best way to find out more about me is to simply do a web search that looks for Kevin O’Connor and color management. They’ll find articles that I’ve posted and a whole series of blog posts on Breathing Color’s Blog, and a magazine called Out of Chaos, which is distributed free through the iTunes and Android stores. The latest issue just published last week. Lots of things that are out there. What you’re really hinting at is that I should have a website. You know, one of these days, if I ever have time, I will. Justin: I’ve heard that line a few times now. Kevin: Yes, indeed. Justin: Getting there, right? Kevin: It’s no less true. Yes, little by little. Justin: Awesome. You’ve got a ton of in-depth articles on the Breathing Color Blog, so I definitely recommend people check those out. Like I said, thanks again for joining us. Can’t say thank you enough. We look forward to having you on again in a future episode. I hope you have a great rest of the day and a great weekend. Kevin: You as well. Thanks for having me, I appreciate it. Justin: All right, there it was. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Kevin O’Connor today. If you’d like to hear more from Kevin, he’s going to be returning to the AskBC podcast soon. He’ll also be sharing more of his knowledge over on the Breathing Color Blog in the coming weeks and months. The best way to stay up to date is to head to breathingcolor.com/blog right now, and click About in the header. That page will give you the opportunity to opt into our blog mailing list, and join over 20,000 subscribers that are receiving updates whenever we release new content. Thanks for listening today, and a huge thanks to Grant Taylor, Kim, and George, Area Array, and Lightscapes, for recently rating and reviewing our show on iTunes. That’s a huge help for us, and it gives us a boost in exposure in the iTunes store. If you haven’t reviewed yet, just head over to iTunes, do a quick search for the AskBC podcast, and then click “Write a Review.” As always, if you want to hear your print-making questions featured on the show, just head to ask-bc.com and fill out the question form there. It can be about photography, printing fine art, using software like Photoshop and Lightroom, anything to do with the process of creating and printing art. That’s all I got for you today. We’ll see you next time!   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Photographing Special Subjects: Sun, Moon, & Earth appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Renée Besta covers what print permanence means, how it’s achieved, and the truth behind 3 of the most common false claims often made about longevity. How long a print will last is a subject of great confusion and controversy on the internet – you may have seen arguments about this topic in printmaking forums. The truth is, there’s a ton of misinformation, false assumptions, and plain old lies floating around out there about what makes a print last 100 years. Renée Besta joins the AskBC podcast this week to set the record straight. She’ll cover 3 of the most prevalent false claims about print permanence, separating fact from fiction and sharing truths she’s learned from deep research and extensive printing experience. For the first assumption… Did you know longevity is not purely dependent upon the printer, ink, and paper used? Listen in to learn about the 3 print permanence false claims and the truth about longevity Highlights Note: These timecodes show how much time in the episode is left, which is how our audio player (above) displays time. –29:56: A brief overview of what print permanence actually means –27:33: Why print permanence is important and should be considered –23:45: Where to get the right information on print permanence –18:15: False assumption #1: Believing that the longevity of photographs is purely dependent upon the printer, ink, and paper used –16:27: The lack of print education and fake “experts” –13:02: False assumption #2: Believing that all printers and papers are more or less equal –08:30: The impact of OBAs on print longevity –06:32: False assumption #3: Believing that the quoted Wilhelm Imaging Research “years on display” are absolute numbers –03:36: A quick summary on how to achieve a 100-year print Show Notes Print permanence studies mentioned in this episode were carried out by Wilhelm Imaging Research, Aardenburg Imaging & Archives, and Image Permanence Institute. The Ultimate Guide to Digital Printing: Part One and Part Two. For Renée’s full show notes for this episode, including the transcription, click here to download. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 43! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: In this episode, Renée Besta joins me to talk about three of the most popular misconceptions about print longevity. [Music Ends] Justin: Hey, guys. Welcome to AskBC. My name is Justin, and calling into the show today will be Renée Besta, a printmaker, photographer and frequent guest to the show as well as on the Breathing Color Blog. We’ll be talking to her in just a few minutes about print longevity. This, of course, is a very important topic to us here at Breathing Color, and we go through a lot of trouble to ensure that our media is stuff that you’ll want to print on if your work is to last a long time. Achieving that kind of quality means doing a lot of research into the science of print permanence. We do independent as well as third-party testing and have some bold steps such as removing OBAs – those are optical brighteners – from most of our paper so that we can feel confident in giving you guys materials that will really last. Obviously, having very long-lasting prints is something that’s important to most artists, but technology changes, new information is discovered and science evolves; and all this creates various pieces of misinformation that can definitely be confusing to sort through, especially for somebody new to printmaking or even somebody that’s pretty experienced. We invited Renée on the show today to clear up three common misconceptions, three big ones, and we’ll walk through them one by one. Renée will help separate some false assumptions from truths that she’s learned from experience, research and speaking with other industry professionals. Pretty excited to hear what she has to say, so let’s jump right into the interview. Hey, Renée. Thanks so much for joining the show today to discuss this print permanence issue. I think we’ll start off with just kind of a brief overview of what print permanence actually means. What are your thoughts on that? If somebody were to come up and ask you, somebody new to printing, I guess, “What is print permanence?” Renée: First of all, thanks for having me back, Justin. Appreciate it. Basically, in the simplest form, print permanence, we would generally just say, how long is the print going to last before the fading? You could look at light fading. It becomes objectionable to you under given display conditions. Of course, that’s based on different testing methods, but it also has to do with the quality of your printer, ink and papers. How long is it going to last before either the paper itself, which isn’t going to really happen these days, completely gets destroyed and crumbles like old papyrus, or will it be destroyed because of atmospheric pollutants, temperature, humidity or, more likely than not now would be light fastness or the light fading. When does that become objectionable? It’s dependent on the person. Justin: What is usually the first thing to change? The media? The ink? Renée: Right. It depends on if you’re talking about chromogenic prints or inkjet pigment prints. For chromogenic, that’s a whole different ball of wax, and I’ve been discussing that in my article with more to come, but with inkjet prints, it’s going to be, you’re going to see fading. Of course, this all depends on what colors are in your image and how they are distributed within that image. Traditionally, with inkjet pigment prints, it’s the yellow ink that’s always been the fugitive ink or the culprit that causes the issues, and it’s really important for skin tones and portraiture which, of course, constitutes a lot of the consumer market and wedding and portrait market. It’s just going to depend on which type that you’re doing. Justin: A lot of different variables. Renée: There’s a ton of different variables. So again, if that’s most of the composition of the photograph, you have a problem with the yellow ink and you’re doing a portrait, you’re going to see big changes as it fades much faster than you would just a landscape that doesn’t have much yellow in it, if that makes sense. It’s more blues and greens or what not. That’ll all change, but it’s a basic, generic term: How long is my print going to last? The question should be: How well is it going to last? Justin: Right. Why is that important for somebody that’s trying to decide what type of paper or what type of printer, what type of ink, all these different variables? Why should that be important to somebody that’s trying to make these buying decisions, like an artist or photographer? Why should they consider print permanence? Renée: They ought to consider it simply because, as you know, there’s a lot of misinformation on the market and a lot of print studios, labs and OEMs claim, “Our materials or our systems are archival.” Well, what does that mean? That’s a loosey-goosey term. If someone is putting out their hard-earned money to buy a print, they should be concerned with how long it’s going to last. Of course, it has a lot to do with not only the printer, the ink and the paper and how it’s coded, but also the display conditions, which we’ll get into. I think I had mentioned in my article in the Digital Printing Guide, there’s a lot of photographers still these days, very famous, like Peter Lik, instead of making the choice of an inkjet pigment print, they’re still selling the digital C-prints or chromogenic prints. As I mentioned, people keep bantering around this term, it’s going to last a hundred years, and I can get into the history of that in my article. It’s absolutely not true. It’s less than 30 at this point, and I would want to know if I’m spending over $100,000 or a million dollars – they’re in the millions of dollars now. Cindy Sherman’s prints. She didn’t think about longevity. That’s what was available at the time when they were printed, say in the 1980s. They’re all faded, and people were like, the more it fades, the more value it seems to have. Even if you’re just, this is what bothers me about the print on demand services and the confusion photographers have. We’ve talked about this in prior podcasts where someone will call in and say, “How come Photoshelter or SmugMug or Fine Art America only takes jpegs and SRGB?” As I mentioned before, it’s because they assume most of the people that purchase will order the less expensive digital C-prints or chromogenic dye prints, and they certainly won’t last as long as an inkjet pigment print. So it just basically depends on, what are you claiming to the customer? Depending on the price point you’re selling at, maybe if you’re selling something for five bucks, it’s not going to matter as much. I see the prices are wild and all over the place. It’s one of the hardest things to do is determine pricing, but I think it should last, based on inkjet pigment prints today should at least expect under average display conditions a life of 100 years for something that’s framed behind conservation glass. That shouldn’t matter. It matters from an emotional value and a historic value. The older I get, the more photographs become important to me. My entire immediate family is deceased. My brother died young. I have a lot of friends that have passed away. I don’t want to date myself, but in a lot of cases, all I have left are photographs, and I don’t have the negatives because somebody gave me a print in the ’70s or ’80s. Those are starting to fade. You try to put them in an album, but that’s important. That’s your memories. What happens? I was involved, I used to live in Laguna Beach, California. There was a huge fire back in the early ’90s. The first thing people do when there’s a fire – the whole town, we lost 500 homes – you grab your pets, you grab your photographs. You don’t care about your furniture or your things. So there’s a deep emotional importance to that as well. Justin: Definitely. Sounds like there’s a couple different perspectives. Depending on who you are as a listener, I guess you could be considering, who should you outsource to and how do you know what their print permanence ratings are? If you’re actually doing the printing, then it’s kind of about being able to truthfully and ethically market these products that you’re using – the papers and the inks and stuff like that – and properly estimating how long these things might last, like communicating to your customers truthfully. You mentioned there’s a lot of information out there on the market. How do you get the right information? Where do you even look for that? Where do you start? What keywords do you look for? What ratings do you look for? Renée: First of all, anything that’s basically on the website of any print lab or studio’s most likely going to be, as you just said, a lot of marketing hype. This is why I’m writing a whole portion of this Digital Printing Guide article on print permanence. If you ask anybody, “Where do you get this information from?” If anybody knows anything, they’re going to quote Henry Wilhelm at Wilhelm Imaging Research. He is a pioneer in this type of testing, has been doing it for many decades. However, you have to understand, and I will get into this in the article in detail, but just to summarize, this was started many decades ago when the only technology available were, for color prints, they were wet processed using chemistry and free dyes – cyan, magenta and yellow. That’s it. So for chromogenic dye printing, that’s how his testing began, and people used densitometers in those days to measure a small handful of color patches. They only measure reflected light. They don’t measure color. In other words, you could have a cyan, magenta and yellow patch with the exact same density value, and they’re different colors completely. As inkjet printers evolved, early on they just had four inks – the cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Then you could extrapolate that information. However, now that we have light cyans and magentas, we have multiple blacks, we have extra colors like greens and oranges, it just doesn’t work. It’s an antiquated method. Because there is no ISO standard, the manufacturer’s kind of not got behind it, now scientists, the research scientist that worked with him for quite a few years named Mark McCormick-Goodhart, who is now the director and founder of Aardenburg Imaging and Archives, he invented and then developed in conjunction with Mr. Wilhelm, a newer, much more appropriate testing system called the I* metric, which I will detail in my article. A little too much to get into in the podcast, but you have to understand. If you look at a Wilhelm report, which is what some labs will claim, you’ll see all these footnotes and asterisks. You go like, “How is this determined? Where is the data?” It will say, years on display, and it will tell you a plain print, something under glass, something under UV glass, yada yada. You’re like, “Oh, but where’s the data? How is it done?” It’s basically what people don’t understand is that it’s based on what’s called easily noticeable fading that was determined by a very small focus group of people with untrained eyes looking at photographs in various stages of deterioration. They determined what is objectionable to them. Give them a bunch of photographs in these stages, and basically it was determined that up to 35% of color could be lost before it might be considered “objectionable.” Now, to you and I, we could see a 5% difference perhaps, but this is, like I talked about in a podcast last year, it’s actually quite surprising. That is what the criteria is for failure. Well, depends on, again, the colors and the image, but I think we would object for fine art that that is way too subjective, and we want more tight tolerances, as they say. Justin: Yeah. Data driven. You see like a year estimate from Henry Wilhelm, and you just kind of take that at face value. Renée: Yes, you do. You could say 50 years, 80 years, and people think, we’ll get into this later about the top three false assumptions, but you have to understand that’s accelerated testing, but then it’s extrapolated. It’s based on a single display condition or a single lighting condition of 450 lux. A lux is a measurement of how much light is falling on an object. I would recommend people buy one. They’re inexpensive, so you can kind of determine where in your house might be best to display artwork given the fact that they’re all still done [inaudible 12:16] densitometer and that’s just not appropriate. You need a spectrophotometer. So Mark developed the I* metric system, which measures both colors and tone, because things can get flat as things fade. Again, it depends how the colors are distributed, and I’ll get into that later in the article. [inaudible 12:36] 30 patches whereas Wilhelm is still only using nine, because he can’t measure the rest. You can decide for yourself looking at those reports, visually assess the patches before and after a certain amount of exposure, but he reports in megalux values. You can look up on a table, depending on your display conditions, and figure out the years on display. It’s much more versatile with tighter tolerances. You can look at it numerically. It’s up to you. So there’s a number of ways to interpret it. A little too much for the podcast, but I’ll get into it in the article. Justin: All right. To jump into the false assumptions that we were talking about. The first one, I think, is believing that the longevity of photographs is purely dependent upon the printer and the paper used or the printing technology selected, where environment also plays a huge role and people have control over this. We’ve kind of talked about this already, but display conditions are hugely important, and it’s not solely the printer and the paper used. Right? Renée: Right. The course of materials play a very large part, but people have to take responsibility and realize it’s partly their job to make their images last by understanding preservation science and how the environment impacts longevity. You, as an artist, selling your work have a huge role to play by educating yourself and your customers on the longevity factors. I do that all the time on a [inaudible 14:01] in terms of safe display conditions. The role in the environment can’t be overly stressed, and know that there is no average lighting in a home. The difference can range from a low of 10 lux, which is very low in a dark storage area, to maybe 10,000 in areas near a window getting direct sunlight or under a skylight. That’s something to keep in mind. Everything should be kept around 70 degrees Fahrenheit or so, not over that, and between the average, what’s recommended is 30 to 50% relative humidity year round. That makes a huge difference. You do have control over that. Again, it’s the total accumulated light exposure over time is what really matters. As photographers, we’re all familiar with the classic reciprocity law, where you’re looking at F-stops and shutter speeds, and you have a doubling. You make the aperture smaller, you have to expose for longer. That law applies to light intensity and time on display. They’re directly proportional to the total exposure. There’s a lot that you can do and the customers should be educated, but people forget about the underlying light level assumptions buried in the fine print of some of the Wilhelm reports, as I was saying. Justin: From a business owner standpoint, do you think that education piece is lacking? I feel like it’s lacking pretty severely. Renée: It’s very lacking. As I said early on, one of the reasons this is so difficult to figure it out is that not only on printing forms is there a ton of misinformation and people pretending that they’re experts when they’re not, somebody says something, it goes around and around and around. When I was a kid, there was a little game people played where one person whispered into someone’s ear a couple sentences, and by the time you got to the tenth person, it was totally distorted. One of the biggest claims that’s still out there, which shocks me, with chromogenic prints, I still see people listing in print studios that they will last 100 years with Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, and it’s absolutely not true. Not even Fuji really claimed it. It’s a long story I’ll get to in my article. It came from Konica for dark storage. There was an issue with paper staining or yellowing due to dye couplers, but it’s just not true. It’s on there, and I saw it even recently. I work on a private printing forum for an eCommerce site, and I did a poll recently asking the artists, “Is this of concern to you? Do you question the print studio about this? What materials do they use?” “Oh, yeah.” So many people said, “I do this,” and then I check out their website; they were making chromogenic prints and, furthermore, a couple people claimed they last 100 years. It was pretty shocking. Justin: Ouch. Renée: Then, when you bring this up, people get very angry. I’ve talked about that before in podcasts. You can’t have a hesitation. Just because a studio says, they all say, “We have the most archival prints because we use an inkjet pigment printer. They’re on the highest quality papers.” Yada yada. They’re short on specifics. Mostly because they don’t take the time or understand anything about print permanence testing and how it’s done, or they quickly browse, like I said, some Wilhelm reports for a couple papers, cherry pick years based on maybe darker display or cold storage, not realizing how the tests are even done. Can’t be shy. I would phone a studio and ask specifically what printers and ink sets are they using and which papers. Some of them, they kind of rebrand them and use their own names. I’ve seen this. Like, they’ll call an Epson paper something that sounds real sophisticated and won’t even say it’s Epson or Canon or Hahnemuhle. They’ll just make up a name. You don’t even know what it is. Some big commercial labs can use two, three or more large format printers. They can vary from, I’ve seen some still using old 9800s. That’s a huge difference from what we have today and the newest sheer colors that Epson just released. So you don’t really know what you’re going to get. Which printer is your print going to be output on? I know it sounds like really gnarly, but I really hate it when that happens, and sometimes they stick to the older ones because they’ve invested, as you know, on costly Riffs. Justin: Yeah. Printers are expensive. I mean, without question. That kind of ties into the next assumption that I wanted to talk about – believing that all printers and papers are more or less equal. Even if a customer were to know that they could potentially get printed on multiple different printers, they may not know that that’s a big deal. When we talk about pigment ink, aqueous pigment ink versus solvent ink. Even that can have drastic effects on print permanence, so you’ve got to be super conscious about what lab is using what printer, what ink, what paper. All that stuff’s got to be considered. Renée: Right. Definitely. I want to link in the show notes to a report that’s available on Canson’s site where their papers were tested by Wilhelm. What you’re going to see, the reason I’m pointing to it, they take three different pigment printers – a Canon, an Epson and an HP – you wouldn’t believe the difference in the longevity ratings. The differences are large. I have to say I give a big shout out to Mark McCormick-Goodhart and I thank him very much for answering my questions and speaking to me, because he gave me a lot of information I didn’t know. I was really surprised to find out HP still fares the best out of all the pigment printers. Unfortunately, they’re pretty much out of the fine art market, and that’s held up. If you go onto Wilhelm’s site and look at it, even the tests Mark’s done at Aardenburg, they fare the best. The next is Canon. Shocking. Followed by Epson at the rear. Now, the caveat is that Canon and Epson, as you know, both have new ink sets on the market that are currently undergoing testing by Wilhelm. Now, Epson claims, based on preliminary data, their new HDX and HD inks now are like 200 years or more based on that preliminary testing. We’ll have to look at it, but they really should be run, as I said, at Aardenburg because you can’t test the colors. You can’t test greens or oranges. I don’t want to get into that. I’ll get into that in the article, but it does make a difference. So Epson, I think, have done a great job in improving the weakness in the yellow ink that’s been the culprit for a long time, but the other thing is surprising, which you might not know. I’ll talk about it in the article. The printer driver you use matters. There was an article published on Luminous Landscape called The Weakest Link by the president of ColorBurst. I guess that’s where the image print driver gives much better results because it doesn’t rely as much on the yellow to produce the skin tones and other things. So there’s greater longevity. The ICC profile matters. These things you can discern using the I* metric system versus Wilhelm’s because the inks are laid down in different combinations. The inkjet coatings vary widely, as you know. You guys do your coatings and that has an impact on longevity. They’re not all the same, just because you think, “Okay, I’ll have this lab make my prints,” or a print studio and they’re using a pigment printer, like I said, it could be old. The newer, the better, because not only do you generally get greater color gamut, you’re getting better longevity. You know how the term archival is bantered about and it’s used very loosely, has no real meaning. I’ve seen on websites that these labs or print studios will say, “Our prints are archival because,” and this is a quote, “our papers are acid free.” I mean, this is the type of thing you see, and I think that’s why people just get turned off to this stuff. There’s just so much stuff out there that doesn’t make sense. You can’t filter it. It’s not even appropriate. Just because a paper is acid free doesn’t mean it’s going to work well with different inks from different printers. I mean, it’s just like, that has nothing to do with fade resistance. Therefore, it doesn’t mean it’s archival. I mean, it better be archival. If it’s fade resistant, it’s going to hold up, it damn well better be archival and not fall apart in your hands. It just, like I said, it doesn’t make sense how the terminology is used with archival. Archival means nothing. I mean, it does and for library standards and documents, but people use that all the time and they just, I think everybody’s just in a hurry. Do business, make sales, make prints, and they don’t want to be bothered with it. Good enough to them is good enough. They don’t understand the nuances of how the testing is done and the criteria. This is what we’ve come to, and pretty much got pretty good pigment ink sets these days. The battle has really moved to media and inkjet coating. So we’ll see, and the only way you’re going to be able to do that is to pull up different reports if you’re so inclined. I am, because I’m a nerd with this stuff. Compare the same paper using different pigment printers and see if there’s huge differences. Depends on if that’s done. Aardenburg relies on donations. He’s not industry sponsored. Wilhelm is highly industry sponsored. Depends on what you’ll find. Justin: Yeah. OBAs play a pretty important role. Renée: A huge role. Absolutely. Justin: Yeah. We haven’t really talked about that. That’s kind of interesting. Renée: Yeah. That’s another, like I said, I could have come up with about a dozen false assumptions. OBAs, absolutely. That’s been controversial for years. I remember quite a while back, there was a statement released by Hahnemuhle saying, “It’s okay as long as you realize eventually the paper’s not going to crumble, it’ll just kind of revert to its normal, more worn or yellowish type of state.” There’s a lot more that goes into that. Obviously, it affects the colors to start with. Just basically, they’re going to look different on a brighter background and then as those fluorescent compounds or dyes actually, the optical brighteners, disappear from exposure to ultraviolet light and it returns to that, it’s really going to effect the colors, especially in the highlights where more of that paper color shows through. So you can have an imbalance. Justin: Definitely. It doesn’t make much sense just to say that the paper’s going to slightly change back to the way it looked before. Renée: That’s what was said. I mean, you go back and forth. Photographers are just really hooked on the bright white papers and the only advice you can say, “Try to wean yourself away from them. Use a baryta.” Be aware that almost all RC papers have OBAs. People, when they think in terms of OBAs, they’re thinking of cotton or canvas papers. Do they add them to brighten up that? They’re not really aware how much are in the photo papers to take the photo black ink. I don’t really like resin-coated papers anyway. They’re kind of thin and cheesy feeling, but that’s really important. Justin: Yeah. I had the third kind of false assumption we were going to talk about. We’ve kind of already hit it for the most part in believing that the quoted Wilhelm standard years on display is an absolute number in terms of how long the print will last. Obviously, we’ve talked about the conclusion that that’s clearly not the case, it’s kind of based on where it’s going to be displayed, and Wilhelm only tests the one display condition. I’m not sure there’s a lot more to talk about on that. I don’t know if you have anything else to add to that assumption or not. Renée: No. Not really. Because it depends on the light conditions and the display conditions and the environment, but people do, it’s important to know, as I said, they’re going to pick that number and say that’s what’s going to last. Beware not putting that out to the customers. I mean, we had a lawsuit back in the 1980s from a woman in Wisconsin, I believe it was, that sued a local portrait photographer because Kodak used to claim, “memories that last a lifetime”, all that marketing hype. Sued him because her cherished family photos, not only did they fade and turn lighter, but they underwent drastic color shifts. They were turning blue and all these horrible colors that kids look like aliens and saying, “Why is my son looking like an alien?” So she couldn’t pass those portraits on to the next generation. People were taught, consumers, because of this marketing hype, they’re going to last forever. Well, they don’t last forever. Eventually, that photographer sued Kodak for making these claims that they should not. I mean, he lost his house from what I understand. I guess it got settled out of court, but they had good gun lawyers and outnumbered him. There have been other issues with, what are you going to do if you don’t inform the customer, they’re displaying it under the wrong conditions or you’re not using the right type of paper or ink or especially a C-print and you tell them it’ll last a hundred years, then about five years it gets faded? They do want replacements. Justin: Yeah. It makes sense. I mean, it’s all that education and that liability certainly falls on the lab to educate the customer. Renée: Exactly. Justin: Otherwise, they have no way to know. Can’t assume that that’s going to be common knowledge or anything like that. Renée: Definitely. Justin: Well, great. I think we’ve pretty much covered everything we planned to talk about. Obviously, if the listeners are interested in this stuff, this is pretty juicy content, so definitely recommend reading that article that’s forthcoming to kind of build on this conversation that we had today. Can’t wait for that to come out. Renée: Yeah. It’s been too long in coming, I have to say. I kind of got in and just when you get into it and then, I mean, obviously, you’d have to be an industry insider or somebody at the level of Henry Wilhelm or a Mark McCormick-Goodhart to understand how this testing’s done, but there are very few people that understand it’s based on a little focus group, like with Henry as the expert observer saying, “What do you think?” Then they’re saying, “This is objectionable,” and then they take a measurement and say, “Oh, that’s a 35% loss. That’s way too much for us.” The other thing, I get a lot of questions. Again, people are saying, “Oh. I have this older printer and I bought one that’s several generations newer and I can’t get the prints to match and my customers are upset with it.” Well, it goes to people that are doing these limited editions. We’ve talked about that before, too. You might want to think about doing smaller runs and having them printed all at once, because it’s very hard to go back and match. If you’re interested, I think I was asked to just basically give a quick summary on how to achieve a 100-year print. It’s basically what we’ve talked about. Don’t do chromogenic prints. Use an inkjet pigment printer, not one with dyes. Use OEM inks. Use the newest model printer as the ink sets keep getting improved in terms of longevity as well as gamut. Sometimes people hold on to these thinking they’re saving money or avoiding nozzle clog problems, particularly in the case of Epson, but then they have a disadvantage with print permanence. Use OBA for your papers. Choose the papers carefully. 100% cotton. The best are 100% cotton based with the baryta. Buy a luxmeter. They’re pretty inexpensive. You can get one as cheap as 15 bucks or so on Amazon and measure lighting levels around your house and figure out, where’s the best place based on that to place it. I try to keep things at about 228 lux or less. The lower, the better. That would be my advice. Other than that, I’ll be explaining in detail how to assess Mark McCormick-Goodhart’s database – it’s a free membership – and how to interpret those reports. It’s just a little different, but I think it’s easier because you can correlate any display lighting condition and lux level with the number he reports in megalux. You can look at it visually. If you’re a numbers person, look at the numbers, but we’ll go through that, and I’m going to include a little video with a sample report. Again, I’m grateful that he gave me permission to use screen shots in the article, which is not easy to get. That was one of the other reasons this was delayed. It kind of took a while. He’s a busy person. Justin: It’s going to be well worth it, that’s for sure. Renée: It’ll be worth it because you have to understand Wilhelm’s in his 70s. I think he’s maybe headed into retirement. Again, I think things are going to change, and as people get more educated, they’re going to demand people use the newer I* metric. Don’t know what’ll happen with that, but there’s a lot of papers and printers in there. I was surprised myself, as much as I think I knew, I know nothing. Jon Snow. Justin: You’ve definitely brought some great information today. We appreciate you, as always, stopping by and chatting about these false assumptions. Like we say, education’s the most important part. So learning as much as you can from either a consumer level or business owner level is just, can’t stress how important that is. We appreciate you bringing accurate information to the show as you always do. Renée: You’re welcome. Justin: We look forward to that article. Renée: Okay. Thank you very much. Justin: Take care, Renée. Renée: You, too. Justin: All right, guys. That’s it for today’s episode. If you enjoyed that discussion, you’ll definitely want to check out Renée’s written blog post series titled, The Ultimate Guide to Digital Printing. It’s a huge three-part series and one of the best resources available anywhere on the Internet for printmakers looking to master their craft. Renée really went all out for this thing, and there’s even a 40-minute video lesson on analyzing color gamut in part number two. Be sure to check the show notes for the link to that. The third and final part of the series is still forthcoming, so make sure you opt-in to our mailing list if you’d like to be notified when that piece drops. As always, subscribe to iTunes to stay updated with the podcast and hit the BC blog at breathingcolor.com/blog for all of our great written content. I want to think of a quick shout out and thank you to Cassie8Lang and Swizzleschtick for recently reviewing the AskBC Podcast on iTunes. You guys are awesome and your feedback has been a huge help to us. So we really appreciate it. Until next time, I’m Justin from Breathing Color. Thanks for listening.   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post 3 Print Permanence False Claims (and the Truth About Longevity) appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Our interview with Keith Cooper on starting a career in commercial photography, building a photography biz, staying inspired, and more. Making a living doing photography is tough. Many people have a photography hobby, but turning that hobby into a full-time career takes more than a knack for art. It takes business sense, a strategy, and revenue. In this week’s episode, we interview Keith Cooper, a commercial photographer based in Leicester, UK. Keith shares with us his experiences working in commercial photography – from how he approached making it his full-time job, to the tools and tips that help make him a success. Listen in to learn how to start a career in commercial photography Highlights Note: These timecodes show how much time in the episode is left, which is how our audio player (above) displays time. –19:54: Is still viable to take on photography as a career? –18:32: Keith’s entry point as a photographer –16:36: The most common sorts of images he’s hired to capture –13:17: Staying inspired and motivated –11:44: Working for credit/exposure –07:32: Adding new equipment to your arsenal – rent or buy? –05:34: Essential equipment for beginner photographers –04:15: Keith’s best piece of advice for new photographers –03:38: Discovering the potential of your market Show Notes Keith Cooper is the owner of Northlight Images, check out his writing and services there. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 42! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: In this episode, we interview Keith Cooper about how to turn a photography hobby into a profitable career. [Music Ends] Justin: Hey everyone, and welcome to AskBC. I’m your host, Justin, and today we’re going to be talking to Keith Cooper, from Northlight Images. No doubt if you’ve done a Google search for pretty much anything related to printmaking, you’ve run across Keith’s website and blog. Keith is a commercial photographer, printmaking educator, and all around charitable guy when it comes to helping others get better at making art, so I’m super excited to be able to talk to him today about making a living as a photographer. Keith, thank you so much for joining us, welcome to the show. How’s it going? Keith: Very well, thank you, and thanks for asking. Justin: Yeah, no problem. As I mentioned, we’re going to talk about making a living as a photographer. Pretty prevalent subject, considering most of the people that listen to the show and follow our blog are engaged in photography in one way or another; whether it’s at a professional capacity, hobbyist, or kind of like myself, just as a consumer and a general fan of art. The image capturing technology available today in smartphones and such has pretty much turned everyone into a photographer, a hobbyist photographer at a certain degree, which begs the question, is it still viable to take on photography as a career? I see that there’s certainly still a huge need for trained professional photographers to deliver images at that commercial capacity, but what about photography for the pure sake of art? How do you minimize risk there? What are your thoughts on that? Keith: It’s really tricky, and most of these things, you need to know if you’ve got a market for it. If you’ve got great pictures, but nobody wants to buy them, you have a large pile of great pictures, but you’re not making any money from it. That varies. If you can find local sales, people are more likely to buy local images or images that mean something to them, but in general, it’s about the business, and that’s what a lot of photographers forget. Justin: Right, yeah. When you say local, you mean like the subject of the photography? Like images that are around your space? Keith: Yes! I live in Lester, in England, the place where they found a king in the car park. I’m some distance away from the sea, so there’s no point in me having great seascapes for sale, because people aren’t interested for them. If I lived at the seaside, if I had a small gallery there, I’d have local pictures, local area. That’s what people buy, and people just don’t buy much in the way of prints. Justin: Yeah. That makes sense. It’s kind of a balance between what you’re passionate about taking photos of and what makes sense from a marketing perspective then. What was your entry point into photography as a career, and how did you navigate that split between photography as an art and as a commercial service? Keith: I took up photography for a living in 2004. I can date that. That was when I was 44. I’d had a successful career in a number of other businesses, had photography as a bit of a hobby, and was in a position where I could actually look and think, “What do I really want to do?” And I looked at photography. Several people said yes to that, but then again, I looked at it from a point of view of, “Could I make a business from it?” That was where I realized that yeah, I might love going around taking landscape photos and producing huge great prints, but there wasn’t much money, certainly here in the UK. There’s not much money in that. I looked at what areas of photography as a photography competent for, what areas I didn’t want to do. Looked at that, and came up with a business plan. It fell down to coming up with a business plan that I felt could actually make some money and make a living of. Hence, why I do commercial photography. I don’t do weddings, I don’t take baby photos, pictures of pets. I would lose the will to live if I had to do that. Sorry folks, it’s a skilled area, but it would really bore me to do it. I would have no interest, and if you can’t maintain interest and the business side of it, then stick with the day job. Justin: Yeah, that’s a great point. I think some of these things that you’re talking about is just a huge highlighting, like something that should be a glaring point that people should take from this podcast. It really is to take that approach that you did, and from a more business aspect. People are just kind of like, “Oh, I like taking photos. Let’s jump in, buy website services, and try to sell these things” with almost zero consideration of what will actually sell. “How should I approach this? Do I have business model?” I feel like that almost never crosses people’s minds when it comes to making photography a career. Clearly, you did this and it’s working for you, so I think that’s a great point that you made. What are some of the most common types of images that you’re hired to capture? Keith: In architectural work, it tends to be quite dull, boring buildings, and that’s where the skill comes in, because almost anybody can take great looking photos of iconic buildings. It helps if you’ve got the right kit, with tilt shift lenses and things like that, but almost anyone can take a picture of a great building. When it’s an extension to a house, or a new shed out back, making an interesting photo of that takes a bit of skill. That’s where you have to have nice weather. You have to accept that it’s never going to be a great work of art, and essentially one of the things I’ve found in business, your job is to produce the photos that the clients want, not the ones you want to take. Just because you don’t fancy taking something, you don’t get a choice when you’re doing it for a living. Justin: That’s gotta be tough, to put your thoughts about the image aside and present what you think will look good, regardless of what you think. That’s got to be a hard decision, something that’s pretty tough to do. Keith: It is. In many ways, that’s one of the skills of being a professional photographer – that you’re there to do a job. You’re there to produce a product, and that product is an image that the client is happy with. You may get to work with them and decide what the artistic line you’re taking is and what lighting they want and nice things like that, but most of the time, you’ve got an hour to go somewhere, take some nice looking photos of it, and the thing is, you know the photos are never going to be produced to any size, they may, at most be produced at 1000 pixels across on a website, and you have to produce the same element of skill to take that photo, as you would for a commission for a large print. Justin: Yeah, that’s tough. Does commercial photography involve a lot of setup and research from your end, or it is more of showing up and figuring it out when you’re on there, winging it and ending up with these shots that are acceptable to the client? What’s the ratio of preparation to winging it? Keith: Technically, I should say you never wing it. No, of course not, but yes you do sometimes. Google Maps, Google Earth, Street View, are great tools for some of the commercial properties that I photograph, because they’re already there. I can look at them. I can look at a map, so I know what direction they’re facing so I know that if it’s a South facing elevation, then the sun is going to be shining on it around mid-day. If it’s an East facing elevation, then I need to go in the morning. There’s little bits like that. You may need to actually get permission to go on site. You may need to talk to the building management people, because it may be the architect that’s commissioned you to take the photo, but the building has now been handed over to its owners, so you then have to deal with the owners and get permission from them to go on site, take pictures. That’s a set up that you need. In terms of really thinking it through, most projects don’t run to that much, other than knowing where you’re going to be. Justin: Yeah, right, that makes sense. I can imagine it varies a little bit. I guess it’s a case by case basis thing, because everywhere is going to be a little different – every job is going to be a little bit different, right? Keith: Yes Justin: Do you find it difficult to stay inspired and motivated at a personal level in creating your own art, when your full time job is to create these photos for other people? Keith: Well, when I set up Northlight Images, the company that ran as the photography business, one of the original aims of it was to have no more, on average, than two paid jobs a week. The reason for that is that I understood quite well that if I was working five days a week, I should say that if you could get five days of work a week, but if I was working five days a week, my inspiration would go. I know myself well enough to know that if my interest starts to flag in it, you’re not going to get the best results. By setting the business up right from the start, and looking at how it was going to be structured, how it was going to be run, that enabled me to know that I would have enough time to do other things. Those other things include all the reviews I write and all the testing I write about. That testing gives me an excuse to just go out and try things. I find that if I’ve got a printer to review, then I want some images to print. I’ve got loads of images to print, but it just gives me that extra little nudge to go out and take a photograph just because. Justin: Yeah, what a great point. I think that kind of ties back into your initial point of pre-planning this business so well, but balance, what a huge part of your business that is, to be able to balance personal versus your career and keeping that inspiration in both of those avenues is super important. What do you think about working for credit or for exposure as a beginning photographer to get a few gigs under your belt? Keith: It’s something that you should do with great care, because photo credits don’t pay bills. If you’re doing it as a hobby and you just want a few pictures, then that’s fine, but remember that once you’ve charged somebody some minimal sum, or nothing for a job, the next time they want you to take some photographs and you go, “Well okay, our rates are x or y for the kind of work you want”, they won’t see it as anything other than a massive price hike. Once you give discounts to people, and I include doing it for free as a hefty discount, then once you give discounts and they go back, people never remember the discount, they always only see the price rise from last time. You have to be very careful with doing it, and there are a lot of companies that quite deliberately go out of their way to try to get photographers to work for nothing. My general approach to it now is to ask. If an agency contacts me and asks me if I can supply some photos, say from our stock collection, and if I can supply some photos for nothing, or in terms, photo credit. I generally say, “Are you getting paid for this work?” They usually sort of pause a little bit, then I go, “Well are you being paid to do this work?” “Well, yes we are.” “Well, what makes you think that you should be paid for doing the work, yet our work doesn’t count for getting paid.” It’s a tricky thing, because when you’re starting out, there’s always that urge to really, “Oh well, if only I do this picture”, but you should remember that photo credits don’t pay bills and frankly, when was the last time you looked at a magazine or something like that and thought, “Oh! I must find out who the photographer was who took this photo!” Justin: Right, and how much exposure are you actually getting? Very little. Did you take this approach as you started your photography business? Did you ever do for credit or for exposure work? Keith: One or two, they tended to be with a couple of local charities where I was quite happy donating my time as part of work and producing stuff. Doing stuff for them that they could have paid to get done, but it wasn’t really any great trouble. In terms of real work, no, I started out right from the start, I worked out a reasonable pricing structure, and just limited the kind of jobs I would do, to make sure I could do a good job for it and charge people realistic rates. If you do something cheap for somebody, they don’t value it. If you do some work for somebody at a fraction of the price that they would normally be charged, what value do they really attach to it? Probably not a lot. Justin: True. Definitely. I would totally agree. How did you get into photography? As far as training goes, how did you train to be a professional photographer exactly? Keith: Yes, well not something I widely admit, but I don’t have the slightest qualification in photography whatsoever. In fact, if I was hiring somebody to do photography for me, their qualifications would count for very little. I spent several years previously on a number of different careers. I spent those years as a university researcher and lecturer, so I have plenty of academic qualifications, and assorted letters I could use after my name if I wanted to, but I don’t. They are in fields totally unrelated to photography. To my mind, my skills that were most useful were the business skills. A lot of photographers won’t like this, but I would say that if you are really great at business, you can learn photography quite easily. Certainly to a competent level. There is this great thing that photographers are somehow different. “Our work speaks for itself.” No, it doesn’t. You need to market it. There are an awful lot of conceits that photographers have and don’t like to admit that, “Well, it’s really not that difficult” to do basic photography. Selling it and making a living from it, that’s the tricky part. Justin: Certainly. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. How do you approach adding new equipment to your arsenal? Do you do this very often? I imagine it’s pretty tempting to just buy up every new piece of equipment that comes out, so that you can be most prepared for any new jobs that you encounter. Do you ever rent equipment versus buying it? Keith: Personally, I prefer to buy stuff so that I can really learn to use it inside out. Whilst there’s a side of me that would love to have new kit all the time, just to play with, the business side of me requires justification for buying new kit. For example, I had from 2007, I got the Canon 1DS Mark 3, 21 megapixel, full frame DSLR. Great camera, really made a difference. I’d previously been using the 11 megapixel 1DS, so that was quite a hefty jump. When Canon bought out the 1DX a few years later, I skipped it, and the reason I skipped it was one, it was less megapixels, and two, it was aimed at a different type of photographer. It had really great autofocus performance, which is probably not that important when you’re taking pictures of buildings, and it had low level capabilities, so high ISO. Then again, if I’m taking pictures at night, I’ve got the camera on a tripod. So it was a great camera, in many ways a much better camera than what I had, but I looked at what I’d got, and said actually, what I’d got was better. I kept that 1DS 3 until last year, when I got the Canon 5DS, and the jump from 21 megapixels to 50 megapixels in the kind of work I do is really noticeable. I see it, I even see it in the quality of smaller website photos that I give to clients to use. So, yes, there’s a bit of it that I would love to use a new kit. I like playing with things as much as anyone. In some ways, that’s one of the reasons I write the reviews, because that gives me a chance to play with new kit, do all the fun bits, although I have to give it back after. Justin: Of course. What a good way to balance that out though. Get your hands on it for a few weeks and mess around with it, and then give it back. Is there a single piece of equipment other than a camera, lens, and a tripod that you think is essential to add to your kit early on as a photographer? Keith: Probably not, actually, because with digital cameras now, I would have said a while ago, “Oh yes, a light meter”, or something like that, but you’ve got a fantastically accurate and flexible light metering system built in to modern cameras. For what I’m doing, for my architectural work, I invariably use a tripod, and a good hefty tripod really makes a difference. I have, for my landscape photography, I almost never use a tripod. In fact, I have a deep dislike of using tripods for landscape work, unless I need it because it’s dark or something like that. I regard landscape photography as a larger scale version of street photography, and there needs to be an immediacy, a certain sort of response to what you’re seeing. To me, using a tripod just slows things down. Some people say it’s good, for me, it’s not. I would just go for a good bag and a good coat, because getting wet is annoying. Justin: That’s awesome. I want to just tie all of this stuff together that we’ve been talking about. Say that somebody approached you that has a deep, deep passion for taking photographs, wants to start up a business, and you have a couple of sentences to give the most sound advice that you could possibly give them, what would that look like? Keith: It would be, know your market. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you haven’t got a market, then it’s not a business. That’s the hardest thing for a lot of photographers to realize, that just because lots of friends and relatives love your pictures, it doesn’t mean there are people out there cuing up to buy them. Just because you sell one print, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to sell twenty. Justin: How do you research a market like that? How do you determine what the market is? Is there an easy answer to that? Relatively easy? Keith: Well, look at who uses photographs. Photographs are still widely used. Look at all kinds of businesses that might use the kinds of photographs that you want to take, and this is, I’m not including wedding photographers, where you have a built in market for your photographs. On the commercial side, look who uses those pictures. Where do they get those pictures from? Can you supply those pictures? Can you supply those pictures profitably? Can you persuade people to come back and use you again? All basic business. It’s like any business. “Here’s my product. Is there a market for it?” In some ways, you need to look at the market almost before you define your product, because there’s no point in producing certain particular types of pictures and then nobody wants them. Justin: Certainly. That’s the most sound piece of advice I ever heard. If people wanted to find out more about you, Keith, where can they go to do that? I know you have website and a blog, what about social media? Keith: I use them a bit, but I tend not to use it. I’m somebody who doesn’t even generally carry a cell phone with them. Which given my career, before I took up photography, I was looking up advanced technologies and how technology changes society and things. It is a bit odd really. Really, I put most of my effort into the website. It has links to Google Plus, Twitter, but the real effort goes into the website, because that’s where I write stuff. I write articles. I make no apologies for them being quite long and comprehensive. They’re there for people to read and hopefully get something out of. Justin: Right, yeah. I know your website is a fantastic resource. Whenever I got into this industry, I actually did a lot of learning from your site and I’d be shocked if the majority of people listening to this podcast haven’t already run across your site. What’s your website address? Keith: It is www.northlight-images.co.uk. That’s it. That’s for both the commercial pages and the articles. The commercial pages are there too, we obviously sell the photography services. I know that the vast majority of visitors actually go there for the articles, or even the Canon rumors that I pop up occasionally on it. Justin: Right. Perfect. Keith, I really appreciate you taking the time to get on the show today and I hope this isn’t the last time. I’m so glad that we finally got you on though. Again, I just really appreciate you taking the time out of your day. Keith: No trouble at all, I really enjoyed it. Justin: All right. Take care, until next time. Keith: All right. Justin: All right guys, that’s it for today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed my discussion with Keith Cooper, and I hope to have him back soon for some more Q&A on the show. If you have a question for Keith, or about anything related to printmaking, you can submit it to us by heading to ask-bc.com and filling out the form there. To catch the next episode of AskBC, as well as browse our entire archive of over 40 episodes featuring various experts, subscribe to the show on iTunes – just search for AskBC and hit subscribe and our most recent episodes will download to your computer or mobile device as soon as they’re released. For more content from Breathing Color, check out our Blog where we publish a new post every week. Recent topics include gallery wrapping tips to avoid canvas sagging, a tutorial on how to create custom patterns in Photoshop, and a guide to optimizing your computer for image editing. Get all of those posts and many more for free by visiting breathingcolor.com/blog. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you guys next time.   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Interview: Keith Cooper on Starting a Career in Commercial Photography appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Updates, a series of rapid fire printmaking FAQs, and a replay episode on cleaning and maintaining your printer. This week, Justin offers some updates, tackles some “rapid fire” listener questions, and replays an old episode of AskBC. Tune in to hear Justin answer a series of quick questions about topics such as: print paper, turn buttons, and coating. Later, a replay of episode 9 in which Justin interviews certified Epson technician Ron Ardito and asks him how to properly clean, maintain, and store a wide format printer. Printing on the back side of a one-sided printable paper Breathing Color paper that can be printed on both sides Information about Turn Buttons Safest method to remove dust and airborne grime from our coatings Whether a coat of Timeless is enough protection to avoid putting a print behind glass The best paper for acrylic face mounting Much more! Listen in to hear the answers to printmaking FAQs Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include Steve from North Of Superior Art, Marg from Little Shuswap Studio, John from Tech Photo, Brian from Rocky Mounting Publishing, and Jackson Ball. In question 1, Justin mentions our Pura Bagasse papers which come in smooth and textured varieties. As mentioned in question 4: AskBC Episode 19: ICC Profile Basics, Printing on Magnets, & Bulletproof Prints. In question 5, Justin mentions our Vibrance papers which come in gloss and metallic varieties. Want to read Justin’s Rapid Fire Q&A’s rather than listen? Click below to download the text transcription of this episode. Includes a bonus question and answer not available in the audio version! ? BONUS: Download the Rapid Fire Q&A including a bonus question! Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Rapid Fire Questions With Justin appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

In this week’s episode, we cover print varnish tips and common problems relating to varnish application. Mixing, timing, using custom ICC profiles, handling a HVLP spray gun, and more. When it comes to print varnish’s great power, there comes great responsibility. Without using the proper varnish application techniques, you can end up with bubbles on your canvas, or prints can come out too dark or too light. It can become frustrating when you encounter varnish problems especially after spending countless hours editing, color managing, and printing your work. In this week’s episode, our very own Justin Bodin covers questions all about print varnish. He addresses some common problems associated with print varnish and provides solutions to make your print varnishing experience, well, responsible. Even if you may not be facing problems with coating your prints now, it’s always great to know solutions before you actually experience it yourself. Whether to use varnish on a metal inkjet image Stacking or mixing different types of varnish The timing between applying varnish and stretching the canvas Mixing a varnish container that doesn’t have a large enough opening Measuring ICC profiles for canvases with or without varnish applied Checklist to use when handling a HVLP spray gun Much more! Listen in to learn about print varnish tips and common problems Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include Jeff from Fastidious Fotog, Mike from Mike Guilbault, Kurt Jones, Kathy Louie, and Joe from Campanellies. Ready to master varnish? We have compiled the links to every single post, guide, and tutorial we’ve ever written on the subject of print varnish into a single, epic PDF. ? Download the BC Varnish Collection Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Print Varnish Tips: Common Problems & Solutions appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Part Two of our episode on everything color depth. Software and hardware to work in 10-bit, Apple’s new DCI-P3 color space, and more. Most people know that a higher color (or bit) depth will give you more colors, but may be asking, “What is color depth and how does it work?” Do you have to buy new equipment? Do you even need those extra colors? In Part Two of our special double episode on Color Depth, we continue the conversation with Renee Besta to talk about software and hardware that you’ll need to maintain 10-bit output throughout your entire workflow. Missed Part One of this episode? ? Click Here. 10-bit monitors The DCI-P3 color space DCI-P3 vs. Adobe RGB Upgrades with Apple’s El Capitan Maintaining 10-bit color throughout your entire workflow Work station graphics cards LUT (Look Up Table) and other monitor factors to consider Much more! Listen in to learn about color depth Show Notes Ready for more on color depth? Renee has sent us some additional notes and links to complete her discussion on this episode. They’re available for free as a PDF below. ? CLICK HERE to download. Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Color Depth Confusion (Pt. 2) appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Answering “What is color depth?”, the tools you need to work in 16-bit, and how to solve common color depth related workflow issues. Most people know that a higher color (or bit) depth will give you more colors, but may be asking, “What is color depth and how does it work?” Do you have to buy new equipment? Do you even need those extra colors? This special, two-part episode is all about clearing the cobwebs around color depth (wait, 8-bit is the same thing as 24-bit???) – Renee Besta joins the show to talk about what bit depth is, how to achieve 16-bit output, as well as the solutions to color depth related issues that can result from not knowing how to properly manage your workflow from start to finish. An introduction to color depth Where those bit depth numbers come from How you can be working in 8 bit and 24 bit at the same time Is 16-bit only for “purists”? Can printers handle 16-bit? Mismatched bit depth issues Apple’s Yosemite OS and color depth Camera settings Color vs. Cost Much more! Listen in to learn about color depth Show Notes Ready for more on color depth? Renee has sent us some additional notes and links to complete her discussion on this episode. They’re available for free as a PDF below. ? CLICK HERE to download. Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Color Depth Confusion (Pt. 1) appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

How studying and practicing the fundamentals of composition can turn a boring image into a dynamic one, basic rules of composition (and when to break them), and some tips on achieving compositional balance. Perfecting image composition is something that can take artists a lifetime to master. It’s also a subject heavily reliant on individual taste. But while aesthetic preferences do come into play when composing an image, there are certain theories and “rules” every artist should be aware of in order to understand how their composition is succeeding or failing to draw viewers’ eyes. Professional photographer Kevin O’Connor joins the podcast to talk about some of the most crucial fundamentals to composing strong images. Balance, tension, focus, and more. These are lessons that can be learned today and practiced tonight. And while Kevin focuses on composition as it relates to photography, fine artists such as painters and illustrators will find plenty to learn here, too. Defining “balance” as a compositional element How to create balance or find it organically in your photos The rule of thirds Tips on creating more interesting compositions when shooting portraits Create a triangle! Locked elbows, locked knees, and bullseye vision Creating dynamic tension with composition Some examples of thinking outside the box to create tension Thinking in quadrants How to compose stock photography The importance of critiques Much more! Listen in to learn about fundamentals of composition Show Notes This episode featured a question from Roger. Kevin mentions his article on the art of cropping, which can be read here. Kevin has also written extensively on how to shoot sharper images. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: Prefer to read instead of listen? CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 37. Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of AskBC. I’m your host Justin from Breathing Color, and today Kevin O’Connor is back on the show, and we’re going to chat about the fundamentals of strong image composition. Before we get started with Kevin, I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about our Image of the Day collection. Every day, we feature a different photograph or art piece on our social media accounts. If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter or are on our blog mailing list, you’ve probably seen some of the awesome images we find and post daily. We curate this Image of the Day collection to stay engaged with the art community that uses our products and to promote some of the really talented artists that are sharing their work on the internet. You can view the entire collection on a single page by visting the blog at breathingcolor.com/blog and clicking “Image of the Day” on the header. That’ll take you to a gallery on our site packed with art from around the world from amateur and professional photographers, illustrators, painters, and more. We’ve featured everyone from an 18-year-old up-and-coming photographer to an ultra-successful Swedish design team, and we want to feature you, too! If you’re a photographer or fine artist, you can submit your work to be considered for our Image of the Day collection – we’d love to see your art and possibly share it with our entire audience. The instructions on how and what to submit are up at: breathingcolor.com/blog/iotd – iotd as in “image of the day”. That page will walk you through everything you need to know, but one thing I’d like to mention is that every place that we put your image will also include your name and a link back to your portfolio or website – it’s important to us that whether it’s on our gallery page, in a tweet, or in an email, viewers will always have a way to visit your website, check out more of your art, or buy prints from you. So again if you’d like to see your work featured in our digital collection, head to breathingcolor.com/blog/iotd for the details. We’ve received submissions from some really talented artists so far, and I’m looking forward to continuing to build that collection as a fun and hopefully inspiring asset to the Breathing Color community. Alright, now let’s get into my discussion with someone who could certainly be found in the Image of the Day collection – Kevin O’Connor. Justin: Welcome back to the show, Kevin. Thanks for taking the time to join us again today. How are you doing? Kevin: It’s a great day. It’s raining, and we like it when it rains! Justin: Rain in California, right? That’s awesome, finally. Well, we’re here today to talk a little bit about composition – fundamentals of composition, I guess. A little 101. Now, I’m not a professional photographer myself, but from what I understand about the craft, the key to composition is understanding both, I guess, the rules and also how and when to break them. Would you agree with that statement? Kevin: I think that’s a really good starting point. If you don’t understand the rules well, you’re not gonna break them effectively. Justin: Yeah, so learn really well first, and then you can kind of naturally see when you can step outside of those. I’m excited to get your thoughts on composition, maybe we can start the conversation with a gateway question from a listener that I have. So this listener’s name is Roger, and he asks “How would you define the term ‘balance’ in the composition of an image? Is it important, and if so what are the considerations?” Kevin: Well, that’s an awful lot in that one little question from a reader, isn’t it? Justin: [laughs] Yeah, just a few words. Kevin: There’s a lot we can say here. But I think, if we talk about composition, just in general – balance pops up over and over. So, let’s start with composition and work balance into it, because they’re tied together so tightly, you can’t really separate them. Justin: Yeah, that sounds perfect. Kevin: Okay, so the first rule that almost everybody knows, but just in case we’ll review it again, is the rule of thirds. Justin: That one I do know! Kevin: Well, see, you’re cooking with gas, Justin, what can I say? Just in case some of our readers or listeners aren’t familiar with it, the rule of thirds says that you should divide your composition into both horizontal and vertical thirds. Whether you are composing a horizontal image, a vertical image, or a square image. And then, to make the image better balanced, there’s a strong preference for putting the primary object of interest for your image on one of those lines, which divides the left to the center, or the center to the right, rather than putting it dead center. In my very first photography class, my principal instructor started the class by looking at all of us and saying, “You know, I”m sure you all think you’re great photographers, but most of you suffer from several afflictions. You have locked elbows, locked knees, and bulls eye vision.” And she went on to explain that locked elbows meant that you never rotated the camera to take a vertical frame instead of a horizontal. Locked knees indicated that you never stooped down or climbed up to change your perspective from eye level, and bullseye vision meant that you put everything dead center in the middle of the frame. Justin: That’s pretty funny. Kevin: And it’s also very accurate! When we submitted our first assignments to her right after she made that comment, she just looked through the whole stack and started holding them up and said, “Okay, based on what I said to you, what do we think about this one?” Well, ther ewas the image dead center composition. Over and over, dead center. I got to the point where even when the client was requiring dead center for some reason, I winced every time I had to do it. Because, that conditioning was so well ingrained in me that you never want to do that. So if we talk about using the rule of thirds, the next thing we often go to is the idea of balancing the elements in a photo, because most of the time we’re going to have more than one element in the final image. So one of the easiest ways to talk about balancing is, imagine that you have a picture that you’re doing of two people. Now, you could put one on the left and one on the right, and they would be balanced, but this would be kind of dull. It might be much more interesting, especially if this is a couple to have the two of them posed together on one side, looking back across the frame to the other side. If we do that, then the large, empty space is in balance with the two people on the other side of the frame. If you pose them so that they’re looking out of the frame, it’s not as balanced as it was – they don’t have anywhere to look. So you want to pose them so that they’re looking back across the empty space rather than out of the edge of the frame. It’s a pretty simple example of balance, and I think that we know this one, a lot of us, but it starts to get more interesting when we have either multiple objects that we want to balance, or we have multiple points of interest in the image, and how do you make all of those work together? So I do a lot of portrait photography, and one of the most interesting ways to photograph a group of people is to pose them in a triangular shape. So, if you – instead of lining everybody up for a family portrait, pose mom and dad sitting down, and then one or more of the children on their knees behind them, or standing up if they’re very young, so that you start to bring a triangular composition, it starts to feel like it has more balance to it instead of everybody just standing in a straight line like they’re walking in a parade. Now, the parade composition can work very well sometimes, but it’s also going to look a little static after a while. Justin: Yeah, a little boring. Kevin: Making these people appear in the frame as a geometric figure draws the eye in and leads it from one face to another. If we have a picture where one element is so dominant that the eye can’t get away from that element to see the rest of what’s in the frame, generally we think of that as an unbalanced image. Justin: Makes sense. Whenever you make that triangular shape, do you still follow that rule of thirds? Or would that be something that’s more centered? Kevin: I tend to never put anything in the center because of my early conditioning that we discussed a couple of minutes ago. I have this vision of my instructor rising up out of her grave to scold me if I were ever to do that again. So yeah, they tend to be a little bit off on one of the thirds, or on the intersection between the thirds. If you look at just a standard grid divided into thirds like that on your composition shape, you’ll find that moving things around can be a really easy way to play with the cropping of your image if you’ve already created the image, and enhance it. You’ll remember that some time ago I wrote a blog post about cropping and how it was a neglected art, and we see that very frequently where a little bit of cropping would make such a stronger image that you wonder why people just don’t run to the crop tool in Lightroom or Photoshop and take advantage of it. One of the nice things in the latest versions of both of those applications is, you can tell it to put in the rule of thirds overlay so that you can move it around on the frame exactly how it’s going to crop, and take advantage of that compositional tool to strengthen your image a great deal with very little work. Justin: Yeah that’s handy. You can do that on your camera as well can’t you? Have the actual grid show up? Kevin: Many cameras offer it as an option where you can do that. In the olden days, we used to send the little glass screen into certain specialty shops, and they would actually etch onto the glass screen so that you’d see it in the viewfinder. Sometimes they’d also put in the crops, because if you were shooting with most cameras at the time, they never showed you an 8×10” through the frame, and yet that was the most-often sold composition. And if you shot to fill the frame, you couldn’t crop it into a 8×10” because that ratio is 4:5, whereas the standard 35mm camera is a ratio of 2:3 or 4:6. You’d find yourself with only 5x7s instead of 8x10s, because that’s all you shot. There was no way to fix it. Justin: That’s so funny how 8×10” became the standard even though that wasn’t a standard size that a camera took. I find that so amazing. Kevin: And then when you go to Europe and you see that all of their photos are based on a much more rational compositional scheme – you look at it and say “oh golly, wouldn’t that be nice if it were the same way here.” Justin: Yeah, make your job a little easier. Kevin: And that’s why we had those little screens etched so that we always knew where an 8×10” would fit, and we never shot outside it because that was our bread and butter when we were running studios. Justin: Yeah, is that a camera setting on modern day cameras, where you can also view the scale like that? Kevin: I don’t think most cameras offer that because the demand is less than it used to be. When you send a print in to be printed by an outside service, a lot of times now they’ll actually print the whole frame. You get an 8×12” instead of an 8×10” and they’ll smile at you and say, “We do this so that you get to do the cropping instead of us. So you chop off the two inches you don’t want.” Justin: Gotcha. Kevin: This sounds like a wonderful thing, except for the fact that it is excruciatingly difficult to find 8×12” frames almost anywhere, they’re still being sold primarily as 8×10” frames instead of 8×12”. Justin: Yeah, another marvel, strange. Kevin: Things grow up from very interesting sorts of perspectives, don’t they? The original 35mm camera that Oscar invented for Leica, used 35mm film and he built the camera to match the existing film instead of specifying something different. When Victor Hasselblad built his camera, he used existing film as well and chose to make all of the frames on his camera square. Composition gets to be very different when you’re composing in a square form. Although, the popularity of something like Instagram shows that the square has a lot of life in it if you use it correctly. Justin: Yeah, it forces you to be a little creative, doesn’t it? Kevin: A lot creative, sometimes! When you look at these images, you think, “How do we enhance those?” Regardless of whether it’s a square or a rectangle. All sorts of things start to appear after you start mastering with rule of thirds and then start to balance elements. There’s some other things that go into this that we should probably talk about. One of the easiest things to talk about in terms of balance is the idea of symmetry. It’s really easy to take a symmetrical picture sometimes, although not always visually interesting. If something is exactly mirrored on the left and on the right, sometimes that’s interesting, but more often than not, it looks a little trite. You think to yourself, “Oh, that person is learning how to compose.” But you don’t’ think to yourself, “That person has learned.” They’re practicing. So, one of the things that we most often see in terms of this is a picture of the landscape where the horizon is set dead center. In general, most instructors will encourage you to experiment with making that horizon line not at the dead center of the frame, but either one third above the center or below, hitting the rule of thirds line again. Justin: All ties back to that, doesn’t it. Kevin: If you make it in dead center, there better be something to differentiate what’s above and what’s below to make it a little more interesting, unless your whole idea is to create this perfect balance that has no tension in it at all. Justin: Yeah, right. What do you think would be a good reason to do that? A boat or something? Kevin: Well I think at this point it’s a good time to talk about a word I just used, and that’s “tension.” The more balanced an image is, the less tension it has. And the less tension it has, very often, the less interesting it is. So there needs to be some tension between the elements that are in the photos so that there is something going on there that draws the viewer’s’ interest, in addition to the subject matter, that makes them look more carefully. If you look at dynamic tension in a photo, one of the ways that you’ll see that done very often is to have what we call “a leading object” which draws the eye into the photo to the particular center of interest. Now this is harder to shoot than some people realize, but you look at it and you start to think, “Now that’s interesting, because they composed this, or cropped this after they shot it, to compose in the computer, so that my eye looks at the first thing and goes all the way into the photo because they lead me there in such a way that I couldn’t not go where they wanted me to go.” When you look at very powerful images, a lot of them are composed this way so that you don’t really have an option – your eye isn’t going to race around the photo and look at a whole bunch of disparate elements, the photographer composed it because he or she had a very strong idea of how they wanted that image to appear and how they wanted to lead your eye to it. In Western culture, the eye tends to start on the left edge of the photo and travel over to the right, and generally it starts lower in the frame on the left and rises to the right. A lot of our images that we compose that are very powerful work this way also. Imagine, for example, a photo of a person, and that person has been photographed so that they are on the right vertical of a frame that is divided into the rule of thirds. If your eye starts at the bottom left, it’s going to rise up and over to their face almost instantly. That’s an easy example of how that would work. It gets more complex when you start to work, for example, with vertical images. What do you put in the bottom left to rise to the top right, which is going to be the taller dimension, as opposed to the shorter dimension in a horizontal dimension. Justin: That’s tough, what would you use in any case like that? Kevin: It depends on the scene that you’re seeing, simply because you have so many options there. A lot of times, it’ll be what we call a secondary object leading to the main object. But that brings up an interesting point, Justin. This may be a good time to talk about a composition called the “near far effect”. These are always shot with wide angle lenses, and these tend to juxtapose a subject of interest in the foreground with something in the background. And they’re often, both of those are adequately sharp, so you can understand that they are meant to relate to each other. People do these images sort of naturally sometimes, if you’ve ever been to Yosemite and watched people trying to take a photo with mom and the children in the photo as well. If they’re good at what they do, they’re going to put them at the bottom of one side and toward the edge to let the grandeur of Yosemite rise above them and fill the rest of the frame. There’s so much light available most of the time when you’re doing an image like that, that you’ll probably be working at a fairly small aperture. And so you’ll have a lot of depth of field, which will be enhanced if you’re using a lens that is wider than a normal lens. When you do that it can look great, if you can tell there’s something in the foreground that relates to the background and you’ve balance both of the elements off-center enough that they balance against each other. Justin: Interesting, yeah these are things that I just don’t think about as an art-consumer. It’s kind of interesting to get a professional’s thoughts on what’s going on behind the scenes and in your brain as you’re composing these things. Kevin: Some of this comes only from long practice. You look at your images, you put them into competitions or clubs or groups for critique from other photographers who may see something you didn’t, which I find incredibly valuable. People critique my work and I learn every time they do it. You look at your own work in the privacy of your own editing area, and you think “What on Earth was I thinking, and how do I salvage this because I don’t like it now?” But going back to that “near-far effect.” One of the marvelous things about shooting that way, is if you have one subject of interest in the foreground, and one subject in the background, it creates the illusion of depth. Of course, we’re working in a two dimensional medium, but if you can make it look like it’s a three dimensional thing, that can be a really marvelous way to compose your images so that you end up with these lovely, lovely compositions that draw the viewer in and hold them. If somebody’s gone to the huge amount of trouble that photographers go to to create an image, I always want to look at it and give it full consideration. But it’s a lot easier to do that if they’ve actively composed it in such a way that it’s very hard for me to take my eyes away from it. Justin: Yeah, definitely. How do you normally add depth? Does that come from larger and smaller objects in the foreground or background, blurriness, and stuff like that? Kevin: That’s a good start. I spend a lot of time, becuase I live in a rural part of California, I’ve spent a lot of time on horseback photographing cattle round-ups for various ranchers in the area. And one of the easiest ways to show a photo with depth is to have the action for the roundup or the branding or whatever going on in the foreground, and then the pastures or the hills and mountains out in the background, and you see this whole story of this action that’s happening in the context of a very Western-looking scene. Justin: Right, so some of it’s in the actual content, rather than how in-focus something is or how big or small. Kevin: You’ll also notice that depth will change, in terms of its appearance, to a certain degree, depending on the paper that you choose to print the image on. Justin: That’s an interesting thought. Kevin: You can make a comparison – image that you shot this beautiful scenic where there’s something interesting in the foreground, and then as you go back you have the classic layers of hills that are getting progressively softer because the atmosphere is softening the dark tones so that the things furthest off are grey. Depending on which substrate you’re printing on – for example, some of the beautiful matte papers that we can choose, are going to make that image look softer and less contrasty. And it’s not going to feel quite as much depth as if you were to print that on something – a coated paper, not necessarily gloss, but a photo luster paper – you’ll see a very different feel to the depth between the two papers. Justin: Yeah, that makes sense. It’s an interesting thing to consider when you’re going to choose your media I guess. Kevin: I’m going to bet that a lot of people don’t think about that, but I think they should. Justin: I would agree with you. I mean, the fact that we get this call day in and out at Breathing Color, “What’s your favorite type of paper to print on?” It’s like, well you should really consider the subject that you’re printing onto the paper. That should be your first consideration, I would think, rather than asking the person that’s selling the media what their favorite thing to print on is. Just seems like a really odd question, it always has, when you start to consider these things that you’re talking about – it makes a lot more sense to just understand the image that you’re working with and the different aspects of it when you’re deciding your paper. Kevin: Well, as with so many important questions in life, the two-word answer, “It depends,” is a really good one. Justin: [laughs] Yeah, that always works really well, let me tell you. Kevin: Yeah, I’ll bet. [laughs]. But let’s explore images with balance or lack of balance and see what we come up with, shall we? Justin: Let’s. Kevin: So let’s pick on Yosemite again. You’ll see a lot of images that are composed in Yosemite or other national parks, where you’ll see a range of mountains, then you’ll see some trees, then you’ll see some water, and then you’ll see all of what’s at the top reflected in the bottom. So, is this good balance or is it not? Justin: That’s a good question. Kevin: I would suggest that it’s dangerous, because it looks easy, and you get excited about the reflection, “Oh, I got the reflection! It looks gorgeous, I’m going to be able to make that print beautifully. It’s a little bit darker than in real life in the top part of the frame that’s reflecting, but I can balance that anyway I wanted in Photoshop or Lightroom, so I’m going to make this a really amazing image.” And people get lost in that part and forget that it still needs to be visually interesting, in and of it’s own right, not just because you got a good reflection. Justin: Yeah, I could see that. Kevin: One of the easiest ways to do that is to experiment with shooting a vertical image instead of a horizontal. Simply because it forces the eye to look at the reflection differently. So many of these images are shot horizontally that I can hear the voice of my instructor in the background saying, “Oh, another locked elbow shot.” Justin: Yeah that is a really good point, it’s certainly more common to see landscape-oriented images. Kevin: It’s, of course, important to say that some of this is personal aesthetic preference. And when you take your images into have a critique done, it’s fascinating to watch how different people respond to the critiques of their work. Some people hear the critique, understand it, and learn from it. Other people hear it, understand it, and they’re very comfortable saying, “I understand your point, but that wasn’t quite what I was going for, and here’s why.” And then of course there are always a few people who get very defensive and cannot stand to be told, “This is the most boring photo you’ve ever shown us.” Justin: Those people probably don’t belong at a photo critique session, you know? Kevin: Well, this comes back to my point about composition, and that is – it’s easy to get so wrapped up in your own style of doing things that you get too comfortable and you don’t learn. And then it’s time to go join a camera club or, if you’re a member of a professional group, to enter a competition, or to go to the monthly critiques if they offer such a thing. It never hurts to hear what other people think when they respond to your image, because people are so different – they’ll respond very differently. Justin: Yeah, totally. It seems extremely beneficial to hear all those different perspectives – take it for what you will, but seems beneficial nonetheless. Kevin: So with that in mind, let’s talk about balance again, because that was what prompted the initial thought for this podcast. Balance can be thought of mentally sometimes as having a fulcrum in the center with a balance beam across it. And if you do that, then you start to think about, “well something that is heavier on one side needs to be counterbalanced on the other side. How are we going to do that?” So you might, for example, see an image of a rock on the beach, and you put that according to the rule of thirds, at the right side of the frame, and what’s going to fill in on the left side? Well maybe you’re fortunate enough to see a couple of rocks out in the ocean that are balancing against this rock, and you can compose the scene so that they’re on the left rule of thirds vertical line, while the big rock is closer to the camera and on the right. And there’s a dynamic tension there, which you can capitalize on by playing with the frame, moving things around, balancing across the horizontal divide, as well as the vertical divide. And I think most of our listeners are going to be comfortable enough playing around with this that they will find something that works very well for them. I see an awful lot of images like this because I live near the coast, and so many of the stores that are targeting visitors are going to be offering these kinds of images for people to buy and take home, wishing they lived here as well. And, as you can imagine, there is a wide range of quality in how these images are composed, how they are cropped, and for that matter how they are printed and displayed. Justin: Right, I can imagine. Kevin: And I should point out, however, in talking about something like this, that we’re talking primarily as though the photos are going to be used to be on the wall. And the reason I make that distinction is, you’ll find that if you’re shooting stock photography that you want to sell to somebody who wants to use it for a particular need, a lot of times they want you to leave extra room because they’re going to put in an object that will balance against your image. Justin: Hmm, really good point. Kevin: Imagine, please, that you have an image of a landscape – and knowing you’d shoot that horizontal and you look at it and your stock company needs you to shoot that vertically and leave a lot of sky at the otp bea use that’s where the text is going to go or the photo of the product plus its name and the brand of the company so that they can build this up by licensing your image to promote their product. We’re still talking about balance, but we’ve left the scene wide open at the top so that they can put other things in. Or, if we’re talking about horizontal composition, we’ve put our image at the bottom of it or at the left or right side, but we’re still leaving open space for them to drop something in on top. Justin: Right. I can imagine that gets pretty tough when you have to start considering objects that don’t even yet exist. I guess if you have a general idea of where they need to go then it’s not so bad. Kevin: It’s a pretty easy thing to do once you get comfortable with it, but like so many things, practice makes you better at doing these things pretty quickly. You go shoot, you give yourself an assignment, “today I’m going to work on balance and composition.” And you bring those images back, you look at them and say, “Okay, which ones are well-balanced, which ones can I crop to make better balanced, which ones suffer from locked elbows, locked knees, and bulls eye vision that I don’t want to ever again?” Justin: How long do you think it would take for someone to be able to understand that theory and be able to compose an image relatively quickly? Obviously it’s going to vary greatly depending on how many photos you take per week or whatever it might be, but what do you think is like a general, decent estimate? A couple of years doing somewhat serious photography? A couple of months? Kevin: I think it’s a very hard question to answer. The reason I say that, is people start in different spaces, people have different amounts of time to invest. One interesting thing that has come up several times in discussion in the last few years is that people who are musicians who do photography, often have more a innate and better sense of balance right away. Justin: Yeah, I could see that. Any artistic person, really, right? Kevin: Ansel Adams, for example, seriously considered being a concert pianist as a professional career before he became a photographer. Justin: I didn’t know that. Kevin: And he’s not the only one. It’s a fascinating thing to think about – well, of course it depends to a certain extent on the type of music. A lot of music that Ansel was playing was very classical composition with a lot of balance built into the compositions. I’m not sure if you were necessarily doing certain other types of music that you would have as good a sense of balance. Justin: I don’t know, heavy metal and photography… Kevin: well, one never knows. Heavy metal has a wide variety of compositional styles in it once you start digging into it. Interestingly enough, rappers may end up being one of the better people for having an innate sense of balance in photography because they have an innate sense of balance in words when you’re really doing a good rap that rhymes and has good rhythm, there’s an inherent balance to that that may transfer over to photography. Justin: Yeah, that’s interesting to think about. Kevin: It’d be interesting to try, wouldn’t it? Justin: [laughs] It would. That’s not how you made your start is it? Kevin: I assure you. [laughs] When I started, rap hadn’t been invented. So, it’s important to be clear that a photo doesn’t have to be symmetrical to be balanced and, in fact, when it’s symmetrical it’s more often boring than not. So composition looks at what attracts the eye. What things are going to draw us in. The first thing to note is that the eye goes immediately to the brightest parts of an image. One of the best ways to evaluate your composition – this is hard to do with a display, but with a print you can do this – make a test print and hold it upside down. Where does the eye go first. If the eye goes first to this bright area that has nothing to do with what you’re trying to say in the photo, at that point we say, “Houston, we have a problem.” Justin: Right, that’s a cool way to look at it. Kevin: The next thing we look at is, the eye goes to the warmest tones in a photo, assuming that you are printing in color. So the warmer end of the spectrum, the eye usually goes there first if those things are in the photo. This is one of the reasons why, for many reasons, all National Geographic photographers were rumored to be carrying red umbrellas in their equipment kit, and if they didn’t have enough of a little spot of interest somewhere in the frame, they would add it simply by having someone hold the red umbrella in it. Justin: Really? Just hold the red umbrella there, that’s awesome. Kevin: When you start looking into composition, one of the other things that is really critical is to look at items that are in focus as opposed to things that are not in focus. This seems pretty obvious when you think about it, but it’s often overlooked in the excitement of capturing the moment. Where’s the focus? That’s so critical. For example in a portrait, when we are composing a portrait, we beautifully set it up so that that person is not bullseye center, maybe we’ve rotated the camera so we’re taking a vertical of this person, and they’re along the right third of the rule of thirds, and then suddenly we get the image into the computer and we’re looking closely and the ears are sharp but the eyes are not. That’s a really unfortunate thing, and auto-focus doesn’t always manage to catch the eyes sharp. As long as there are sharp eyelashes and sharp pupils to the eyes, the rest of the image can be softer, but if those things are soft and something else is sharp, for example someone’s chin, someone’s ears, even if you’re using a very shallow lens their eyebrows are sharp and their eyelashes are soft, that’s not going to be considered a good composition unless you’re doing it for a very specific reason. Unfortunately there are very few specific reasons you can get away using as an excuse for that one. Justin: It seems like one of those basic, pretty basic rules of photography, make sure the eyes are in focus in a portrait, but extremely important obviously. Kevin: If the eyes really are the windows of the soul, and the eyes are out of focus, what statement are you making about your subject? Justin: [laughs] That’s a good point. Kevin: So when you’re looking at a scene and trying to figure out how to add balance into the scene to compose it correctly, one of the sort of basic rules of thumb is you divide the image into four quadrants and you look first at the left and the right halves of the frame, and then you look at the top and the bottom halves of the frame. When you look at this, you can sort of count in your mind, in each one of those four areas, how much is there that’s important? Then you start asking yourself, how do I balance against it? If you put something that’s not terrible important very close to the edge of the frame, it assumes greater weight the closer it is to the edge. Our eyes are trained to notice things right at the edges of photos. And so we’re often taught in photo classes not to get things too close, because you don’t want to draw the eye over there when what’s really important is happening somewhere else in the frame. Justin: That’s a great point. Kevin: It becomes more challenging when we’re photographing more complex scenes. And as we mentioned when we talked about Yosemite or other landscape photography a little while ago, it’s pretty easy to do a balanced picture when you’re just photographing a mirror reflection. But when you start deliberately trying to change that to be more visually interesting, one of the best images I ever saw of Yosemite was shot by someone who waded out into the stream in which the reflection was happening and found a large rock that she put in the bottom left corner, and the reflection was still there, but because she used a very wide angle lens, the rock became an element that she balanced against the actual scene, and it introduced just enough tension that it was much more visually interesting than if she’d used a longer lens and just shot the classic, “here’s my horizontal landscape, here’s my reflection of the horizontal landscape in the bottom half of the photo, this is like hundreds of other photos of Yosemite that we’ve seen before.” Justin: Yeah, that’s pretty darn creative. Kevin: It was a very cold day, and she talked later on about how her legs turned bright blue by the time she was done, but she got a great shot. Justin: that’s dedication right there. Kevin: As Michelangelo used to say, “For great art, great sacrifice.” Justin: That’s awesome. Kevin: So, I’m not sure what else we should say about balance here, but I suspect you may have a few questions you want to ask – or do you think we’ve gotten to a point where we should tidy it up and not make this one too long? Justin: Yeah, I think we’ve wrapped the subject up pretty well. Maybe we could just go back and hit on bullet points some of the things we’ve talked about. So you talked about kind of like first steps to consider when you’re looking at a subject that you want to shoot – you mentioned that fulcrum idea as a tool to consider balance, and you also mentioned the quadrants idea. What else am I missing aside from those two things? Of course we discussed rule of thirds a number of times, so you want to consider that, but as far as first things that pop into your mind when you look at the subject when considering balance. Kevin: I’m not sure that there’s a rule necessarily, but there are some other things that we talk about in terms of elements that have visual weight. So we start, when we keep our image balanced by compensating so that each element has a counterweight that is another element in the frame. Then we look at balancing colors, balancing warmth and cool, balancing contrast, some parts of the scene may be very contrasty, some may be very non-contrasty, and finally subject positions. So all of these go together in such a way that we end up with either something balanced, or not. There’s so much to say about this, but really the best thing that I recommend people do is they get out and shoot and then figure out the balance in the computer, don’t be afraid to crop, and have their work looked at by other people who have some experience doing this as well. When they do that, they’ll find that very often, even though it can be painful at first, having somebody else who’s skilled critique your work ends up being a very useful learning tool. Justin: Yeah, I like that as a final thought, just get out there and take tons of pictures and review them after the fact and just kind of learn from that what you can, whether that be from your own evaluation of the photos or someone else’s, or both. I think that’s an awesome take-away. Lots of things to consider, we talked about stuff that never even crossed my mind to look at, when we talk about evaluating a “good or bad” photo. So, definitely interesting, I think. Anything else you wanted to tag on here at the end, or is that pretty much it? We talked about quite a lot today. Kevin: I’ll wish people happy shooting, we’ll encourage them to have well-balanced, well-composed pictures, with enough dynamic tension to make them interesting, and to remember that all of us, even those of us that have been doing this for a very long time, the best of us still consider ourselves students, were always learning. Justin: I like that. Well thanks for joining us again, Kevin. I appreciate you stopping by, it’s always good to have you on and I’m sure we’ll talk to you again soon in an episode coming up. Kevin: Thank you very much, it’s a pleasure to be here. Alright guys, that’s it for today’s show. Thank you so much for tuning in. Obviously, composition is a huge, massive topic and we could probably do ten or more episodes on it, but I hope today’s discussion added a little bit to your thought process when composing your images. If you’d like to continue this conversation, you can add your own comments over on the show notes page. Kevin and I will be hanging out there to respond to any additional questions you guys have. If you enjoyed the show today, my one favor to ask of you for this episode is to rate and review our podcast on iTunes. It’s really simple and quick, just open iTunes, go to the podcast store, search for AskBC, and leave us some feedback there. Those reviews really help us climb the charts on the iTunes store and, as I always say, the bigger the show gets, the more fun and valuable things we can do with it. To be alerted when the next episode of this show is released, subscribe on iTunes and opt in to the mailing list on the BC Blog. There’s a big blue button on the left hand side of the site that says “Subscribe Now” – that’s the one you want. We send the mailing list a quick message when we release new content – 1 or 2 times a week – along with the occasional exclusive discount on Breathing Color products. So that’s a great way to stay in the loop with all the stuff we’re doing around here. Thanks for your support, and I’ll talk to you soon on another episode of AskBC, take care.   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post The Fundamentals of Composition appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Professional photographer Kevin O’Connor gives his lightweight tripod recommendations and talks about how to buy the perfect tripod for bird photography, landscapes, and more outdoor uses. Picking out and buying a tripod that will last a lifetime is a serious investment. The two mistakes that are typically made by new and even professional photographers when it comes to tripods are to purchase too cheap, or too light. We found many of our listeners are looking for strong, lightweight tripods that’ll work for outdoor use, support all the weight of their camera and accessories, and not break the bank. The question is: does this even exist? Sort of. Professional photographer Kevin O’Connor joins the show this week to talk about the benefits of top of the line tripods, and how to get them for less than top of the line prices. Why tripods are such an important investment Ways to get more tripod for your money How and where to buy used tripods More ideas to get a great deal on a top of the line tripod How to evaluate a tripod’s weight rating vs. your needs Think ahead – what’s your heaviest lens? Ball head vs. gimbal head vs. geared head Recommendations of great tripod brands How to get the most out of a visit to a photography supply store Weight vs. Cost – you have to pay for lightweight material Much more! Listen in to learn about lightweight tripod recommendations Show Notes This episode featured questions from Aziz and Michael. For more on choosing the right tripod for your needs, check out Kevin’s excellent article on the subject. Kevin has also written extensively on how to shoot sharper images. Tripod brands mentioned in this episode: Really Right Stuff, Gitzo, Induro Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the text transcription for Episode 36. Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here In this episode we talk about tripods and recommend some affordable equipment for outdoor use. Hey everybody and welcome to AskBC. I’m your host Justin from Breathing Color, and today I’m going to be talking to photographer Kevin O’Connor. Kevin is a frequent contributor to the Breathing Color Blog, and this episode is going to be an extension of a blog post of his that we published last November called “How to Buy the Right Tripod for Your Needs” In that article, Kevin covered all sorts of things to consider when shopping for a tripod – from how high you need your tripod to go, to what kind of legs it should have. Every month since we published that blog post, we get two or three questions from AskBC listeners that are looking for a more specific recommendation from Kevin on a tripod that will be perfect for them. Most of these questions are from photographers looking for the same thing – an awesome, completely stable, professional tripod that’s affordable and great for outdoor use. Does such a tripod exist in the “affordable” price range? And what’s your best bet for a lightweight, versatile tripod that’s travel-ready? Today we’re here to find out. Stay tuned as we jump into my conversation with Kevin O’Connor. Justin: Hey Kevin, thank you so much for joining the show today, for coming back with us. How are you doing? Kevin: It’s a great day. I’ve been out shooting, things are gorgeous, it’s California, so we are having an early Spring and all sorts of things are blooming and looking gorgeous. Justin: Yeah, same here actually. We have some California weather out there, which I wish I could get out there and enjoy. Maybe after we get done recording here? So, the topic of today’s show started with your blog post last year on tripods. And since then, we’ve gotten a lot of people asking for your personal recommendations of a specific tripod that’ll fulfill their needs, that also fits within their price range. The trend among these listeners seem to be that they’re mostly all looking for the smae type of tripod, and that’s something lightweight and good for outdoor use. Here’s what a listener named Aziz wrote in with, he asks, Aziz asks, “I’m a beginner photographer who has just bought a Canon camera, and I’m looking for tripod. Can you suggest a tripod that is practical and will last a long time within my budget of $250 to $400? I see myself tending to shoot birds in the future, so I would prefer a very sturdy and lightweight tripod with an easy-to-move, smooth head.” So, kind of a long wish list there, for a pretty moderate price I would say. I’m not super-savvy with tripods, but what are your thoughts? Kevin: Well, golly, there’s so much there. It’s hard to know where to start. But let’s take a stab at it, and you’ll tell me if I leave anything out that we should talk about. The first thing that I think is really important is that Aziz is looking forward to the future, and because he knows that he wants to do a specific type of photography, and he knows that there are some special requirements for it, he’s being really smart by starting with that and saying, “Well, this is where I want to go – what should I do to invest wisely?” That’s the good news. Now, the not-so-good-news, is that his budget is a little modest for top-end gear for this particular type of photography. And by that, I mean we should imagine that, at least the people I know that are serious bird photographers, start out using an 80-200mm zoom lens, or somewhere in that range. And they quickly discover it’s not long enough. And then, depending on their budget, they graduate to longer lenses, for example, I heard some very nice things about this new Sigma – the 150-600mm lens. And a lot of people who are birders have a lot of interest in this lens. And the longer your lens, the more important it is that your tripod be absolutely sturdy and supported well. And that takes some testing and some research to start. In the article that I wrote about tripods, I talked about a formula that I recommend people use as a starting point where you get the weight of everything that you’re going to put on top of the tripod, and you add up the total weight and then compare that total to the rated weight that the tripod manufacturer says the tripod will support. Justin: Makes sense. Kevin: This is not an absolute perfect guideline, but it’s a starting point for discussion. In general, what you’ll find is that there are brackets in terms of what tripods are rated to support, and sometimes if you know what you’re doing, you can go a little under those weights, or a little over them rather, to get what you want and still not break the bank. But that’s where I tell people to start, always. If you know that you have your eyes on a long lens, then try to look at the ones that you think you might be wanting to get in the future, even if you don’t plan on buying them right now. And check out how much those weigh, and factor that into the total load that your camera and your lens and whatever else you’re going to hang on that, need to be considered in terms of their total weight put on the tripod. Now, when you add up all these weights of the things you want to stack on your tripod, as I outlined in the blog post you may find that the weight you want is not considered to be acceptable by the manufacturer. And then you have to make a choice, either buy a bigger tripod which is more expensive but heavier duty, and also weighs more, or you have to learn some tricks about how to keep sharpness going when you have a lighter tripod than perhaps you would like to be carrying. So, when you do that sort of analysis, sometimes you end up buying a tripod, trying it out, and finding it doesn’t do what you want. But other times, what you can do is, do an awful lot of online research – and there’s a whole series of hits when you research “inexpensive tripods” as a Google search. And you’ll find that when you do this, people have a lot of really strong opinions about what makes a good tripod. Whether or not this is of value…you end up doing a lot of reading, but you want to do it right the first time and not find that you’ve bought a tripod that you don’t like and you wish you hadn’t bought. Justin: I feel like in this information age, you can literally just Google “what’s the best tripod for birding” and find a ton of articles on that specific use, if you’re so sure that’s going to be ninety percent of what you’re using it for, you know? Kevin: Well, I think the challenge here is to find an inexpensive tripod that’s going to work for birding, and those tend to be sort of opposite purposes. Justin: Right, few and far between. Kevin: Exactly. So that’s why it becomes really important to master technique for maximum sharpness with your images, which is another blog post that I wrote some time ago, and there’s some good tips in there. The first is that using a remote release whenever possible tends to add sharpness to your images. And when you can’t use a remote release, learning how to very gently tap the shutter button instead of getting all excited and punching it like you’re hitting a slot machine is a really good idea, because you introduce shake and vibration. The next thing that we should say is that if you’re going to be birding, some people use tripods and some people try and photograph birds solely with handheld cameras and lenses, relying on the image stabilization built into either the camera body or in the specific lens, depending on the manufacturer. Not being an expert in birding myself to the degree I would like to be, I talked to a friend who does an awful lot of birding photography in prepration for this podcast, and one of his comments that was really revealing was that he finds one of his biggest problems in birding is that when he has his camera on a tripod, which does not like the image stabilization, in fact, most manufacturers will tell you if your camera is on a tripod you must turn image stabilization off or it’ll make your images worse instead of better. But one of his biggest problems is when hitting a broad lens when the wind is coming against it, introducing shake because of the wind hitting the lens acting as a sail. And so his point is that you need to always be conscious of the wind if you’re using a tripod, and stand in such a way that you block the wind from shaking both your tripod and your lens. Justin: That’s an interesting point. Kevin: It’s true for any kind of outdoor photography. If you’re just doing standard landscape photography, it’s really important not to let shake be introduced. And of course, some of the things we’ve already talked about and written about include using a good tripod that’s sturdy, and setting it up on firm ground where there isn’t going to be vibration, such as from a roadway that’s right next to you. Using a cable release or a remote release of some kind os that you’re not introducing shake with your hand. But it all starts and ends with making sure your tripod is sturdy enough, and that’s where the compromising has to come in. Because the three factors in Aziz’s question- he wants it to be sturdy enough for birding, he wants it to be lightweight (because if it’s too heavy he isn’t going to want to carry it when he goes out to photograph birds), and he wants it to fit in his budget. And that leads me to suggest a couple of possibilities – I would suggest that he start by figuring out where he would like to go in terms of the total weight on top of the camera. And then he should start looking at specifications, and then he might consider purchasing either a demo unit from his local camera store if they’ve got one available, or if he’s not near a professional camera store selling good tripods, I’m a firm believer in buying things on Craigslist and eBay. And in California, where I live, there are some photo schools and a lot of people who go to school and then sell some of their gear because they’ve decided they want something else, or they decided they can’t make a living in photography so they’re closing their studio and they’re selling their gear. Lot’s of reason why good photo gear ends up on Craigslist or on eBay. I just did a quick search on Craigslist this morning for the state of California, using the statewide list, I just typed in “tripod,” and there’s a huge number of listings. Now, if you’re going to buy used, you need to be able to test it. So you should show up with your camera and try it out, and that should be a condition for the sale. You should show up with your heaviest lens on it, and if you’re uncomfortable going to meet a total stranger, it’s probably smart to take somebody else with you to help with doing the test and at the same time, they can call 911 if it turns out the person is a [unintelligible] of some kind. Now that’s never happened to me, but you always want to be prudent. Justin: You never know. Kevin: So, the best possible way to do this, I think, is to figure out what you want, and then be patient and wait for it to be listed. One of the sad things about photography right now, is a huge number of people who thought they were going to make a living with it have gone out of the business and continue to go out of the business, so there’s an awful lot of used gear available for sale. And a lot of it was bought to be very good professional gear and is available for sale at buyer sale price. It’s entirely possible you can find this absolutely perfect tripod of your dreams within your budget. That leads me to talking about the fact that when you’re buying a professional level tripod to do quality image shoots, you don’t just talk about buying the tripod, but it’s the tripod and the head that sits on top of the tripod. We should probably take a minute to talk about those two pieces, because if either one of them is not up to the task, it doesn’t matter how good the other piece is, you’ll never get the quality that you’re looking for. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good point. And like I said, I’m not super-savvy with tripods, but the more top of the line ones, aren’t they typically sold as separate units? You buy the head separate from the body, or whatever the proper term is? Kevin: Yeah, let’s call it the head and legs, shall we? Technically we have the tripod legs, and then the tripod head sits on top of it. And we want both of those to be really good quality. Now if money were no object, one of the best manufacturers of tripods and heads in the world is right in my hometown of San Luis Obispo – the company called Really Right Stuff. When you’re the best, just like Bentley, you do not sell at discount prices. And Really Right Stuff is a serious investment, but if you buy it once, you’ll never need to buy it again. So I always encourage people to look at their website, look at their information about how to choose a tripod, there’s even a pretty interesting image of the owner of the company suspending himself upside down on a fairly light weight Really Right Stuff carbon fiber tripod to show that the weight ratings are extremely conservative. Justin: Yeah, that’s impressive. Surely that’s in the $250-400 range, right? Kevin: No! [laughs] Not at all. But if you were to pick one of theirs and one of their ball heads, or many birders like to use what you call a gimbal head, because it lets them track a bird more easily and more quickly, both of those would be things that you would pick out and then attempt to buy used, because that’s going to bring it closer down to your price range which you’ve mentioned in your question. Now, one of the things i think we should probably mention in here, is that regardless of the brand that you buy, any tripod where the head and legs are one unit where you can’t swap them out, is almost certainly not going to be worth buying for the kind of serious birding photography that Aziz is talking about. They just don’t tend to be made that way very often. It’s possible there are exceptions, but I haven’t ever seen one myself, and I’ve seen and evaluated an awful amount of tripods. Now one of the tripods that I use myself is an Induro model, and I got it because it is carbon fiber, and thus very lightweight, and it is also fairly sturdy. And on top of that, I have a series of different heads that I put depending on the type of work that I do. When I’m doing tabletop work, I tend to be inclined to use a geared head that lets me do very small adjustments so that I can compose the shot very precisely. When I’m shooting something that requires action, a gimbal head tends to be a little bit easier for me to swing something around, especially a big, long lens. If I’m looking for an all-purpose travel head, a lot of times I’ll take a ball head with me, because the ball heads tend to be best at meeting varied needs when you’re on the road or in the field, as opposed to the more specialized nature of some of the other types of heads. Justin: Right, kind of like an all around good solution. Kevin: So one of the other things that Aziz might look at to use, is, every now and then manufacturers will be closing one model out to make room for another. And that doesn’t’ mean the old one wasn’t any good, it just means they’ve added some new refinement they think they need to offer and not offer the old one anymore. A lot of times, if you can catch those, and those pop up every now and then in various places online and sometimes by subscription you can catch photo deals about that sort of offering. When you do those sorts of purchases, you’re getting a new unit at a closeout price, you can really score some good deals every now and then. But don’t be afraid of buying used at the high end of the market, because those tripods are made to be incredibly rugged. I know several people who have happily purchased used Gitzos online that were fairly old, and they have never failed to deliver exactly what the purchasers hoped they would get from them. Gitzo of course is one of the top names, as is Really Right Stuff. Induro tends to be more affordable, but they’re still not a cheap date. For example, the legs that I purchased to go with an existing head cost about $450. And that of course is the entire budget that Aziz has put into what he wants to do. So the best way to approach this, I think, is to set aside a special piggy bank and be prepared to buy something that you don’t have to replace because it’s dissatisfying fairly shortly. You can get a lighter tripod and a lighter weight tripod and it may serve you for a while, but when you put that long birding lens on it, which will be a serious investment in itself, you may not want to have to buy a new tripod right after you do that. Justin: Right, it would make more sense just to invest the money upfront for something that continues to work for you for the next ten years or whatever it might be. Kevin: People who shop only on price as opposed to value very often they’re disappointed. Of course that’s very easy for me to say, and I understand that the reality is that budgets sometimes don’t accommodate everything we would like. If that were true, and we got what we wanted, we’d be driving Ferraris. Justin: [laughs] So true. You don’t drive a Ferrari? Kevin: Pity, pity. But you know, there’s not a lot of room for the camera gear in the trunk. Justin: [laughs] That’s a good point. So it sounds like your ultimate recommendation for Aziz is maybe to give it some more time and save up a bit more money and purchase some stuff used. Kevin: Well I think that’s one recommendation, but one of the things that I always tell people is, if they have any possibility at all of establishing a relationship with a professional camera store, I encourage them to do so. Because, although they’re a vanishing breed, these people live and breathe and love photography, and they want to help you make a really good choice. One of the stores that I always encourage people to go and visit is called Keeble & Shuchat and it’s in Palo Alto, California. And the man who is sort of the tripod master there will ask you what your requirements are and what your budget is, and then he’ll tell you one of three things. “You don’t need to spend that much money.” That rarely happens. “I can show you some options in your price range that will meet your needs.” Which he’s usually pretty good at. Or, “Your needs and your budget are in conflict, and I can’t do what you want, but I may have something that’s a floor model that you should look at, or I will have one that’s a floor model, and you should check this out.” And that’s a really good relationship to cultivate. The sad thing is, that people go into these stores, pick their brains, and then go order it on Amazon for twenty dollars less. Which is unfortunate, and also somewhat tacky. Because you just have taken advantage of people and if you don’t keep supporting people who have all this knowledge, when we need them they’re going to be closed up and gone away, because nobody was willing to spend the extra twenty dollars for the personal advice and experience. Justin: Yep, good point. Kevin: Very important to support these stores, and I’ve found that the serious stores are very competitive in their pricing. So while you may save a little bit, you don’t save enough to be not only slightly dishonorable in doing it this way, but also not supporting a valuable resource that the community needs to keep alive and keep going. So that being said, a personal relationship like that is of great value, but as these stores dry up and blow away, it’s very hard to find those sometimes. And that’s when we’re back to eBay, we’re back to Craigslist, we’re back to garage sales sometimes. Justin: Yeah, and a lot of online research. Kevin: A lot of research. It’s surprising some of the treasures you can find in garage sales every now and then, and people who are not aware of what they have – therefore pricing for next-to-nothing. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good point. Kind of a diamond in the rough. I’m sure that happens a lot less often. Kevin: Well, people sometimes get in a hurry after they’re cleaning out a house to get rid of stuff, or they’re cleaning out a house after a family member died, and they’re not into photography but their dad was just really inot it, so he had all this great gear, and they don’t take the time to find the model numbers and find what the going market is, so they just mark it down so they don’t have to pack it up and bring it to Goodwill. Justin: Right, check those garage sales. Kevin: Well, I even know somebody that found a great tripod at Goodwill once, but I don’t recommend it as a first line of attack. Justin: [laughs] Awesome, well any other suggestions for Aziz on this question? Kevin: Lots of research, figure out some models that he would like, build his piggy bank, and watch for special deals, and see if he can score something that will meet his budget, or if that doesn’t work, if he doesn’t meet his budget, then I think one of the other things that he can probably do is buy something that will meet his immediate needs, preferably used with an eye towards continuing to build his bank so that when he does get his long lens for birding, that he ends up with adequate support for the long lens. Justin: Yep, good options, I think. Michael asks, “What kind of geared tripod head would you recommend? I am looking for something for travel (I have plenty in the studio) and prefer the lightest I can get that still gives great stability.” So, geared head tripod, what do you think? Kevin: Well, I use a couple different geared head tripods myself. ANd neither one of them are as light as I would wish. Justin: What is a geared head tripod exactly? I’m not familiar with that term exactly. You mentioned before that it lets you make really fine adjustments? Kevin: A geared head tripod has two sets of controls, and the first set lets you make a big adjustment so that you can turn the way the camera is facing on the tripod from, say, left to right. Now, once you do that, and you get it close, there are knobs that you can turn that then let you get it perfect. So one is a major adjustment, one is minor, fine-tuning adjustments. Several manufacturers make these, and some of them make several models, which are going to be heavier or lighter. The earlier ones were made out of a cast iron, and they were pretty close to boat anchors. Quite heavy. And one of the best things to come along in the photographic market, has been this emphasis on finding things that are new materials that can be used to make photographic gear that’s lighter to schlep around. So when you see some of the pictures that Ansel Adams, in the early part of the last century, where he’s got a mule to carry all the gear that he needs to carry in order to be able to get the images he wants to create. There’s Ansel with his mule! You look at these photos and you think, “I don’t see myself with a mule anytime soon trying to make this work.” So what do you do next? Well, it turns out that some of the manufacturers – Manfrotto, for example, or Dito, have heads that they have come up with that are geared heads, but they’re made out of special alloys or they’re made out of magnesium, which is a very light material. I don’t think that I’ve seen any that are made out of carbon fiber yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if those come along very soon as we learn more and more about how to shape carbon fiber and make it work well for our needs. Once again though, it’s important to review – the idea of this gear, in general the lighter it is, the heavier the price. So in the article that I posted on the blog about choosing a tripod, I put in this wonderful image that shows tripods that were first made of wood, then they were made of, in some cases cast iron, then they were made of aluminum, and then they’re made of carbon fiber. And you can still buy all four kinds of those, both new and used, today. But as you might imagine, the lighter they are in general, the bigger the price. These heads, these geared heads that you want to give you this wonderful capability to compose to very precise, quickly and easily, while being as light as a feather in your backpack or your carry-on bag. Those are an item for which you budget, unless you have a large amount of discretionary income. So, have I answered the question sufficiently or should I say something else about this? Justin: yeah, I think you’ve pretty much covered it all – named some brands and stuff like that. That’s perfect! Kevin: Yeah, they’re cool tools to use, and they – especially when you’re doing micro work, they can be very handy to be able to compose correctly. Justin: Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever worked with one of those. I guess I’ve only worked with pretty low-budgeted tripods myself, you know, off the shelf just cheap stuff – probably a ball head. What was the other one you said, the one that birders typically use? Kevin: It’s called a gimbal head. Justin: Gimbal, yeah, I’ve heard that. Just not exactly sure what it looks like or what it does. Kevin: If you picture…a gimbal head attaches to the tripod at the same point – it’ll screw right into the center of the three legs, but generally they come over, out from that horizontally, and then drop down on a long arm, and the camera sits on the base that is attached to that long arm. And then you can pivot it and turn it around. I’ll send you a link to a couple of good ones, so you can have a picture of it in your mind. Justin: Yeah, that’ll be cool. Maybe we’ll throw a photo of it in this article as well, for somebody that may or may not be familiar with this. That was actually the last question that we have today. Kevin, I appreciate you joining us for today’s episode. If people want to find out more about you, where can they get that information – do you have any social media, website, stuff like that? Kevin: I don’t have a lot of presence right now, I’m working on rebuilding some stuff that I took down because I didn’t like. So, stay tuned, and some things will appear shortly that will show me off to better advantage. Justin: Perfect, well, we’ll put it on the show notes page as soon as that becomes available. We’ll backlog all of these episodes that way everybody can find out more about you once that’s ready to go. But like I said, I appreciate you joining the show, and we will catch you next time. Kevin: Thank you very much. That’s our show for today. Thanks for listening in, and I hope we were able to help out any photographers looking for advice on buying a tripod. For Kevin’s more in-depth written article on tripods, just hit the Breathing Color blog at breathingcolor.com/blog and search for Tripods. The link will also be added into the show notes for this episode. Have a question of your own for the show? Our inbox is always open. Submit a question by going to ask-bc.com and filling out the question form there. Thanks again for listening in today, and we’ll see you next time!   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Lightweight Tripod Recommendations for Outdoor Photography appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Keep your wide format printer running longer with our ongoing printer maintenance tips – how to prevent head strikes, avoid breakdowns, and more. Many people who make their own prints are unaware of the fact that, like cars, printers need routine maintenance and cleaning. Professional photographer and printmaker Renee Besta joins us on this episode to address these issues and the myriad of problems that may otherwise result. Some of these tips can be done by anyone, while others may require a service technician. It depends on how mechanically inclined you are. However, most of the cleaning procedures mentioned in this episode can be performed without an expensive service call. And, in fact, will prevent one. Don’t have time to listen to the entire episode? Check the show notes (below) for a PDF download you’ll be interested in. Beware of bad (non-professional) advice on the internet Why completing regular printer maintenance is important Why it’s crucial to use your printer every week no matter what Firmware updates – they matter Environmental concerns (especially if you’re printing from your garage) A better way than a nozzle check to monitor color accuracy Ink quality and clogged nozzles – a tip to maintain pigments inks Keeping your printhead moist An overview of how wide format printers work and which points need to be cleaned regularly Recommendations for good cleaning solutions Things to look out for when printing on thick third party papers Much more! Listen in to learn about ongoing printer maintenance tips Show Notes Want to dive deeper into Renee’s printer maintenance tips? She has provided us with a PDF with additional resources and information including YouTube videos on maintenance and an extensive written list of her best tips. ? CLICK HERE to download. Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Ongoing Printer Maintenance Tips appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

How to use archival mounting strips to avoid permanently affixing art to boards and mats, plus a discussion on common issues that arise when printing on heavy cotton papers. Mounting your art doesn’t have to mean permanently losing the ability to uncouple your print, window mat, and/or backing board. With archival-quality mounting strips, no adhesive touches the print itself – meaning when you or your customer wants to swap mats, you’re not out of luck. Plus, a discussion on some of the common issues that can arise when working with heavy cotton papers. Head height problems, and how to get rid of those pesky fiber particles. How archival mounting strips work Permanent vs. removable mounting methods Removable mounting practices save you money An unexpected tool to remove particles and fibers from prints on cotton paper The dangers of leaving particles on paper before printing Head height issues when printing on thick papers Much more! Listen in to learn about archival mounting strips and printing on heavy cotton papers Show Notes Want to dive deeper into the subjects discussed in this episode? Here are the notes Renee provided us on archival mounting strips and working with heavy cotton papers. Question #1: Archival Mounting Strips For conservation-grade mats and mounting and framing supplies, Renee recommends UniversityProducts and Lineco. They are widely available online – from Amazon to Dick Blick to B&H. They may also be found at your local Aaron Brothers art store. The mylar strips mentioned in the episode are available for purchase here. This linen tape is great for hinging window mats to mounting board using the classic T-Hinge (pictured below). But Renee still prefers the strips for mounting prints, as no adhesive comes into contact with the print. For holding prints in place while mounting and matting them, check out the Leather Print and Paper Weight from Frame Destination. Question #2: Problems with Heavy Cotton Paper For more on how to configure your printer settings to use third party papers, you’ll definitely want to take a close look at Renee’s in-depth article on the subject. Here is the page from the Canon Pro 100 online manual on printing tips and how to access the printer utility custom settings menu. (Check the ‘prevent paper abrasion’ box for thicker papers to widen the head height/platen gap) Renee suggests the unscented Swiffer Duster to remove fibers before printing – a tip she picked up from Jon Cone. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 34 of #AskBC! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here Hey guys, this is your host Justin. Today we’re going to be talking to professional printmaker Renee Besta about mounting and printing on special paper types. [Music break] Hi everyone and welcome to our first episode of 2016! We’re back! We’ll be doing our best to release weekly episodes of AskBC for you throughout the year featuring your favorite guest experts as well as hopefully introducing you to a few new ones. Along with new episodes of this podcast, we’re also excited to announce the relaunching of the Breathing Color blog. If you haven’t checked it out yet, the blog is where our industry experts post in-depth written articles on things like printmaking and photography. Last year, a few of our most popular posts included “How to Configure Printer Settings for Third Party Papers,” “Shooting Sharp Images,” and a guide on how to get started making your own prints. We also put up show notes for every AskBC episode filled with extra links and information. The blog is really easy to access, just go to breathingcolor.com/blog to check it out. And if you want to be the first to know when we release new content, hit that button on the sidebar that says “Subscribe Now” and you’ll be added to our mailing list and receive our new content the moment it’s published. It’s 2 emails a week and you can unsubscribe at any time. So, like I said, this is our first episode of 2016, and I’m excited to get back to answering your printmaking questions. In a minute, I’m going to be joined by Renee Besta to talk about a few issues listeners have had with fine art papers and mounting photo papers, but first I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about myself as the host of this show and also AskBC and who Breathing Color is. So I’ve been with Breathing Color for about three years now. I actually started right when Breathing Color began their move from Gardena, California to where we currently reside, which is in Austin, Texas. I was the first technical support employee on staff after that move, and since then I’ve built this awesome team of tech support people. These guys are fantastic to work with, we easily have the most knowledgeable technical support staff that I’ve ever worked with in the industry. So, a huge benefit of working with Breathing Color is our support, which is fantastic. I’ve worked with tens of thousands of people at this point with a huge range of issues in this printmaking space, so it’s cool to start this platform, this AskBC show, where we handle this Q&A and we kind of just have these discussions around the printmaking industry, because it allows me to not only share my knowledge that I’ve gained over the years, and address some of the questions I see day in and day out by people like yourselves, it also allows me to connect with industry experts like Renee who have been in the industry for way longer than I have – you know, ten, fifteen, twenty years. Just so fantastic to be able to bring that type of experience to the table and share it with people that have similar interests and start up these conversations, which are just so content-rich, and so important, you know. A lot of people run across a lot of the same questions, and to be able to address them in one centralized place like this is – it really is just fantastic. If you’re not familiar with Breathing Color as a company – maybe you found the podcast on iTunes or from a web search or something, like I said, we’re an Austin-based company, and we have distributors throughout the world internationally and we also sell through B&H and Adorama up in the Northeast Coast. Breathing Color – we’re a great company. When I started here three years ago I quickly began to realize that our primary focuses are really improving print quality within the industry. Innovating new products that – just better and better, the prints that you can get from these digital inkjet printers, you know, making 10% print quality increases through our custom inkjet coatings – is just so interesting to see how much chemistry and science goes into these things, and how much work we put into innovating these products. I was really blown away by this when I first started here, it took me a while to wrap my head around just how much technical knowledge goes into developing these coatings and, you know, making these small advancements year after year. So, really cool to see a company put that kind of effort into things like, you know, print quality and print permanence. Print longevity. Really cool, I kind of had no idea that these kind of things were supposed to be considered when you talk about buying a print. Just such a cool learning experience, and, like I said, so cool to know that companies are out there that really, really care about the products that they’re putting out. So, just a little bit about us, there. We do this podcast to help you guys become better printmakers at the end of the day, as well as have some fun troubleshooting the kinds of unique problems you’re bound to run into as an artist, printer, or photographer, whatever you might be into. Most of these problems aren’t new – you know, they’ve been addressed before, so, like I said, to be able to centralize them in this location and kind of database these problems where you can search and find answers to these problems is such a cool thing. The same types of problems two of our listeners recently had, actually. So let’s jump into my interview with Renee Besta and see if we can offer some solutions for them. Justin: Hey Renee, thanks for joining the show today, it’s great to have you back here again in 2016, finally, for our first episode of 2016, actually. How’s it going? How have you been? Renee: It’s going great, I’m really thrilled to be back. Missed ya! Justin: Yeah, we missed you too. Been dying to get another episode on the books, so I’m glad we’re finally here today. So, today we’re going to be helping out a couple of folks who are having trouble with mounting, and another guy who has some issues with some head strikes on a small format Canon printer. The first question comes from Mary Alice Valvoda from MavZPixPhotoRestoration.com. Mary asks, “What would you recommend as a good way to mount metallic papers? I’ve seen some dry mounted and they look “mottled.” I have tried using only mylar tabs, but then the print does not lie flat. Please help!” Have you mounted metallic papers in the past? What do you think Mary’s problem is here? Renee: That’s what I was going to say. I have certainly done that – mounted all kinds of papers. Whether it’s fine art cotton or metallic, and used those mylar tabs, and I’ll talk about that in a little bit. So, it doesn’t really matr. Let’s just look at some potential reasons for the problems she may be having with the mylar tabs, and I’ll get into what those are. I use products from Lineco – you may be familiar with those. They make a lot of – it’s a great company for archival supplies, for framing, and mounting and matting. And I’ll get into that in a bit. But, first of all, in terms of why the prints not lying flat – before I get into the meat of it…you know, the prints have to fully dry before you mount – so that could be causing the print to curl or not lie flat – especially if she’s in a humid environment. We’ve talked about this before in other podcasts – the need to allow the print to outgas in our prior episode. So I would let the print first of all dry for at least 24 hours before attempting to mount it. I allow 48, and I’m in a dry environment. And if you’re using roll paper – and she didn’t say whether these are sheets or coming off a roll – you may want to invest in a device such as the D Roller (that we did talk about in prior podcasts). So if you’re using these mylar strips – and what they basically are…Lineco is this great company in Massachusetts as I mentioned. It has very archival-quality, or, I would say conservation-quality materials, and they have these great, clear polyester strips and they’re basically come in a box – they’re about four inches long, so it’s clear archival polyester, and it’s attached to two-ply conservation board with an adhesive backing, and you can cut them to size as you need. So basically only the polyester strip – which is see-through – is going to touch the print itself. So that makes it really archival, and holds it in place. And I’ll discuss advantages and disadvantages of different mounting types in a minute. So, have you never heard of the mylar strips? Justin: Yeah, I haven’t actually, no. So it’s actually affixed to a rigid substrate already? Renee: Yes, it is! The top piece of see-through archival polyester, and half of it is attached to actual conservation board, like mat board. And the bottom of that has adhesive and you peel a sticker away. So this is just the coolest method ever. I’ve tried everything under the sun for mounting prints and this is just the best thing because nothing touches the print itself, which is the best method to use. I’ll get into that in a second, but if you’re using those strips, I would say be sure that adhesive portion – you want it to be up against the edge of the print, and then the polyester portion will, you know, cover the edge, or the border. I’ll send some pictures in the show notes so people will understand if they haven’t seen these. Justin: Yeah, that would be good. Renee: But if you have it pressed a little too firmly against all four dimensions of a print, that can cause it to sort of not lie flat and maybe bend a little. So you want it up against the edge, but you don’t want to be pressing really hard on it. That can cause it to bend upward, and the artwork needs to breathe. So these work great. And I’ve just had wonderful success with them, but you may also – if you’re using the mylar – not be using enough strips, or strips that are long enough on each side of the print. So I don’t know how she’s cutting them – their boxes I think they have the four inch are the most common. I’m looking at them right now. They’re called “see-through archival mounting strips.” They come in a box of sixty and they’re four-inches long – you just cut them as you need them. If you’re doing a tiny print, maybe you want to cut one inch. You may want to do two inch strips. It depends on the weight of the paper. So, I don’t know how many she’s using on each dimension. I usually put two on each dimension for most prints. Depends on the weight and thickness of the paper. But the metallic is, you know, it’s really light weight. Justin: Yeah, light and pretty thin. Renee: So that should be pretty simple. And you want to be sure when you’re mounting it – I can’t really tell because she’s saying she’s seen some that are dry mounted. I don’t know if she’s trying to dry mount. Hopefully not, and I’ll get into that in a second. There is a good reason why that’s going to look mottled. But, when you’re trying to use a window mat, or what they call an over-mat, you want to be sure the print is weighted down with something. And if you go to framer shops, they have weights or particular types of bean bags. Not the standard thing you’re going to find at Toys”R”Us or something. They’re set specifically to hold a print in place so you can position it, pull down the over-mat, and have it perfectly centered the way that you want it. If you have that to hold it in place so that the print is flat, that’s what I do. Then attach those strips, because otherwise it can be moving around while you’re putting them on another section if that makes sense. I’ll try to send some pictures to explain it. So examine the print closely before putting those mounting strips in place. So let’s just talk about the two basic methods of mounting. Or categories. There’s what’s called permanent, and what’s called removable. I know this can be controversial – people are going to have opinions on what they think works best. I see a lot of people online still doing either cold mounting or dry mounting – which we used in the dark room days. But it’s really best for conservation purposes to use a method where the print can be removed later and remounted if necessary. And that’s really what is recommended by, you know, museum staff and art experts. That’s really for best practices. What you have to remember is that by permanently sticking something to something else, you’re going to ultimately diminish its value. Permanent mounting, such as the dry mounts, cold mounting, anything that uses the adhesive – that’s it. It’s permanent. That should be reserved, you know, for items with little perspective long-term value. And I know there’s going to be, again, people that will argue that point. But I don’t recommend dry or cold mounting because it’s best to not place adhesives in contact with the print. Justin: Right. Renee: And then it’s stuck. So, why does that matter? Well, the option is fantastic to be able to remove a print from the mat. Let’s just say, you know, I need the mat to mount and frame a different image. First of all, if you get good, conservation-grade mat board, it’s very expensive. I buy the top of the line, 100% cotton mat board. I get mine from a company called Readymat here in California mainly because it’s one of the few companies that make window mats with pre-cut openings that are absolutely perfect for this 3:2 aspect ratio, which is the standard ratio for a digital SLR. So in other words, you go to standard art supply stores and you’ve got your 8x10s, your 11×14, etcetera. That doesn’t work. We need 8×12, 12×18, 16×24. Readymat is fantastic – it’s in Northern California. They have sets with the backing board and the pre-cut window mat. They’re pre-hinged. Pull it out of the package – they sell it in packages. There’s three different grades – they do have an inexpensive grade. They have alpha cellulose, which is pigment and acid-free, and then the all-cotton conservation board. But these are expensive. The last thing I want to do – I’d rather pull my eyeballs out than have to cut mat. Justin: [laughs] That seems a little extreme. Renee: It is a little extreme, but that just shows you much I don’t – and I know there’s people that love doing that, you know. Your other option of course is to buy the big boards and take them to a framing shop and have them cut them down to size and cut window mats for you. That’s a lot cheaper than buying the mat from them. But the mat is expensive. So let’s just say I’ve got stuff I’ve already got mounted, or maybe mounted and framed. For instance, I had material left-over when I left my local gallery here in Paso Robles – it’s Studios on the Park. So what am I going to do with what has not sold? Obviously you have inventory left. Well, somebody orders something else, I can take that mat, open it up and pop that print right out and pop another one in. So that’s another good reason to use the mylar strips, or these Lineco strips. They’re great. Or perhaps I edited my image – did something a little different, I want to reprint it. Maybe I want to print it on a different paper. The most important thing that museums and galleries look at is what if somehow, eventually, you’re selling something to a buyer – the mat gets damaged. Anything can happen. The glass breaks on the frame. It damages the mat. The client maybe, “I don’t like this frame, I want to reframe it.” Maybe they want a colored mat, not an off-white mat. Your piece is stuck to that board forever. So that’s another thing to consider. So this way you can just pop that print right out. It just slips right out from under the mounting strips – the little flap, it’s like a little flap, just holds it in place. And then you can take that print, store it safely in an archival box. Slip the new one in. The only thing you have to watch out for is that the print you put back in has the exact same border size. By that I mean the white space around the image. Pop it right back in, you’re done. I love it. Justin: So cool. Renee: So I’ve taken a lot of – I used to have things, like most artists, in bins that were just matted and mounted in a clear bag. Then you have your framed work. So all of the inventory I had in the bins – that’s expensive mat board. And because I use these strips, thank goodness, they just pop right out. Justin: Yeah that’s awesome. Super cost effective as well. Renee: So, I mean, the decision really is whether she wants to actually float the print and buy that – there’s three different methods. There’s a float method – the backing board shows through the window mat, and you can just see the print it kind of looks like it’s floating. That you’ll have to use like a dry or cold mount to do that. Because you’re not, you know, alternatively people use large archival photo corners. Like one on each end. That, to me, is where I start to see the print maybe bending a little, so i don’t really like to use them. I used to buy some from LightImpressions, which is no longer in business, but the strips work great. The photo corners are quite a bit awkward. So, just depends on what you want to do. But alternately, the other way you can do it is to leave a nice white border – white space on the paper, around the image. And then make sure the window mat just covers the white space. You can still see, you know, white around the image. You can do it that way. And then the window mat will cover the strips. Also, Lineco makes a great self-adhesive linen hinging tape. So there’s other ways besides the mylar strips. The self-adhesive hinging tape works fantastic. You can do the classic T-mount hinge. I’ll just go ahead and provide you some links. It’s very difficult to describe in talking about it. But that’s another way to do it. Just depends on whether or not you want to show the full…you know, like if you have a fancy paper with the deckled edge, you’re going to want to show the edge. So that’s a whole different technique than using a window mat and having the image covered up to the border or the actual edge of the image. You know, different tastes. But basically, the removable method is best for conservation purposes, and I know I’ll probably get a lot of flack – “Oh now, I still dry mount.” I mean, framer shops love their dry mounts. It’s great, it makes the print lie perfectly flat if you’ve got a good professional machine. They love it. But you have adhesives in contact with the print. So we go through a lot of trouble to have the best printers, inks, profiles, papers – I don’t want any adhesive in contact and then it’s permanently stuck. Justin: Right. Renee: So that’s it. I’ll send you – actually, you can go to Lineco.com – they sell a lot of Lineco products at Aaron Brothers – you probably won’t find them at Michaels. But Amazon has them. Or, you know, the art supplies stores like Dick Blicks and others. They’re not expensive, but I love those strips. Justin: Yeah they seem pretty cost effective. Renee: Yeah I hope that’s helpful for her. I think maybe the print is either not dry, or she’s pressing the strips, like I said, to close against the edge of the print – that may cause a little bending. Or maybe not using enough strips or they’re not in the right position. That’s all I can think of, because I have – and I will take pictures, I’ll go ahead and do that, because I’ve got metal prints – or, prints on metallic paper, that are mounted and matted. I can just flip one open and take a quick shot, and I’ll include it in the shownotes as to what it looks like. I’ve never had a problem with it. You know, the metallic papers always pretty thin. Justin: Right. Yeah, it shouldn’t be very difficult. Hopefully some of those recommendations help her out. I had never even heard of those mylar tabs so that’s a cool thing to be able to recommend to customers, for sure. Renee: Yeah, I used to use the self adhesive linen tape, and then one somebody told me about these I was like, “Wow! How does that work?” But it really does hold the print in place, and it leaves it with enough room to breathe, you just don’t want to be pushing it. But the great part is, it’s conservation-board attached to archival polyester, and it’s two-ply in its thickness. So yeah, highly recommend the removable method. Justin: Cool, let’s move on to the second question. This one comes from Bob Belas from Bob Belas Photography. He wrote to us asking, “I have a devil of the time getting perfect prints on heavy cotton fiber rag paper with my Canon Pixma Pro-100 printer. My two problems are: (1) the print head often slightly hits the leading and trailing edge leaving a thin streak of ink. And (2) I like this type of paper, but find it very difficult to remove paper fibers and paper dust from its surface. These, if left, leave tiny white marks where the ink sprayed on the dust which then fell off the prints.” So let’s start with that second issue, the fibers that are sticking to the surface. Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with that? Renee: Definitely. And I also want to talk about what that will do over time to the printhead and other printer parts. One of the things you should always do is dust the paper before you feed it into the printer. Justin: Yeah. Renee: Especially the cotton papers. You can either use a very high-quality drafting brush that has very soft bristles – be careful, you don’t want to use hard ones that can scuff the print – but one of the tips I read online that I hadn’t considered – and this came from Jon Cone’s website, he uses a Swiffer Duster. And I thought, “What? A Swiffer Duster?” And it’s actually great! It isn’t gonna scuff your print, and it, via electrostatic attraction, it removes those cotton fibers. So I went out and said, “Hot dang!” and got some of those and it works wonders. Justin: That’s pretty cool. Renee: So that’s great to dust the paper off. It’s really cool, I read his blogs and he’s got great articles on his website. So the Swiffer Duster. Or, I used to use a drafter brush, I found one with the softest bristles I could get, but, you know, if you’re using a glossy paper and then you run more of a risk that you’re going to scuff, you know, the surface of the print. So the Swiffer, get a Swiffer Duster. I don’t mean to be a commercial here. Justin: [Laughs] Yeah, are you making money off this? Renee: Yeah, I’m making money off Swiffer. And we’ll talk a little bit about what that can do. But that’s what I’d say for that. So let’s talk about this printer a little bit. This is for people that don’t know – it’s a 13” wide 8-color dye ink printer. Okay? So one thing I want to start with off the top, for people that are considering buying a printer, is that you have to understand there are many differences between the – what we call “enthusiast-level” photo printer models, and true professional inkjet printers. Now, the pro lines, we consider those that start at 24” wide and up, there’s actually a vacuum suction mechanism in place, and you can set the paper suction that will hold the paper flat as it’s fed through the printer, and that really helps prevent head strikes. This is not an option on even 17” models like the venerable Epson 3880 or even the newer SureColor P800, the P600 – you don’t get that. So there is no such function on these smaller-format printers. This Canon is a sub-$500 printer, so it’s going to have far fewer features and you have to remember with certain printers, you may be limited as to what papers you can print on. So you really should consider how thick do you want to go? Perhaps that make and model printer can’t accept papers of great thickness. For instance, you remember last year when you posted an article on the 3880 – I think you did a podcast on that as well, but there was an article on how to feed canvas into the back – the manual-feed mechanism on the 3880 by using a leader strip because it’s not meant for that. It doesn’t take roll paper. The p800, you have the option to add that on. But it’s hard, because it usually gets rejected because of the thickness, so there’s a way to try to trick it, but it wasn’t built for that. So that’s what I’m saying – think about what you want to print on before buying it. I mean, the OEM – they make marketing claims to the contrary – it can do everything, you know, slice and dice, make your sandwich, whatever. So, anyway, I have some questions – I wish Bob had given a little more details. And I’m going to ask some questions here and give some possible answers, but I invite him to leave some comments on Disqus when this is up, and let us know what paper he’s using and address other questions, and I’ll get back and answer him. So he didn’t tell us, first of all, what paper he’s trying to print on, he just says it’s a heavy cotton paper. I don’t know its weight or thickness. Is it a Canon OEM paper? Don’t know. If it is a Canon paper, then he’s going to have an ICC profile available and all of the settings in the printer driver would be automatically configured including the media type. And what’s most important that we talk about many times is, on a Canon, what we call the “head height” or the “Platen gap” on the Epson, and that’s the distance between the bottom of the printhead and the surface of the paper. So if you have an ICC profile and an OEM paper, that’s going to be set automatically for the paper. That distance is critical. Sort of like Goldilocks – you don’t want it to close and not too far away. So, but if it’s a third party paper, the media type you selected is important, and we’ve gone over this before – both in articles and podcasts – on where to find this information on the Breathing Color website. What media type is he using? I have a feeling it’s not a Canon paper. I could be completely off, but just the impression I get since he’s having these strike problems. So, what we need to know is – did he adjust the head height for that to allow more space between the bottom of the printhead and the surface of the paper for thicker papers to compensate. You know, head strikes are very dangerous, they can completely ruin your print head or damage it severely. I did post an article last year on how to configure printer settings for third party papers, which talks about how to set a media type – and then you may have to go in and manually widen the platen gap or head height. Justin: Yep, that’s pretty common for third party papers. Renee: Yeah, it’s pretty common. But one thing that may really help him – I wanted to point out – I did download the manual for this printer. Every printer is different of course and has all these strange settings in the driver menu. Under the maintenance tab in the menu there, for this printer there is a custom settings menu button. It’s kind of hidden at the bottom right. If you click on that, you get another window and there’s an option that says, “Prevent paper abrasion.” And so if you actually read through the whole Canon manual, it says, “turn this option on when you use heavy or specialty media.” And it’s recommended to use that feature with any paper over 12mm-thickness. Well, that would definitely be any heavy cotton paper. Justin: Yeah and like any photo paper. Renee: Some of these get up to like – you have Elegance Velvet, that’s a 23mil paper. Justin: Right. Renee: That I would recommend he check the “Prevent paper abrasion” box. So, question is, I presume he’s using the manual feed tray – not the single sheet tray. There is a rear-feed, but you can stack paper in and then with this printer there’s a manual feed through the rear. But one thing I do want to say when he’s talking about the problems with the leading and the trailing edge, this is really common and it depends on the border you’ve allowed around the image. And sometimes people will, let’s just say, you want to make a 12×18” print and you’re using a 13×19” paper. If it’s glossy luster, metallic, pretty easy, because basically it’s a pretty thin paper. You get a really heavy cotton paper, and what happens is – especially the trailing edge – as the papers fed through the printer, obviously there’s rollers that move it through. When you get to the end, there’s no longer rollers in place to hold the paper down as it’s starting to come out of the printer on the trailing edge, and that’s where you risk the head strike. But in the Canon manual it does say that if you’re using non-Canon specialty type media or fine art, the printer driver will force a 1.18” margin to the top and bottom of the prints. The left and the right aren’t so important. Now that is done to minimize possible head strikes at the beginning and end of the print. But, here’s the caveat. This is why the question is so important – which paper is he using. If it’s third party. Again, when third party paper companies like Breathing Color, could be anyone, make a profile for their paper, they will tell you what media type to select. Of course that option – you have to have an option that’s available in the OEM driver. But, for instance, there is one company whom I will not name, that for their cotton paper, says “Pick the matte photo paper media setting”. Well, what does that mean? That matte photo paper, if you look at it’s thickness for this company, it’s half as thick as a regular heavy cotton paper, so what you’re doing, in essence, is giving instructions to that Canon printer, “Oh, I’m going to run a 12mil paper.” That’s what to expect. So it’s setting the head height based on those instructions, but, actually, you’re running something twice as thick. So that’s where you’re getting the head strike. And again, I don’t want to get into it too much, it’s all in the article that I wrote, but that’s where people run into problems. The reason that this company picks matte photo paper is they can therefor get around this size and margin constraint – and Canon put that margin constraint there for a reason. If you leave, this is why people get these streaks and these problems. Have you ever had this problem where you’re cursing, the print comes out, it looks perfect, it gets to the very, very, very end and “Boom” you’ve got this issue or streak on it. Justin: Totally. Renee: It’s because you’re not – for one thing, there’s not enough white border. If you’re trying to print up to the very, very, very edge, you know, on a cotton paper, that’s problematic. So this is the issue – here they’re making your ICC profile, and it has to be based on a media type – it’s got to do with the ink throttling and other things, but they’re trying to subvert what Canon put there to begin with. So again, I don’t know where he’s buying from. He could buy Hahnemuhle, he could be buying Canson or Ilford paper, I have no concept. But it could be trying to subvert, based on the media type, this size and margin constraints. Justin: Yeah, I’d imagine so. It’s frustrating, those margins are killer. Renee: Yeah, so I would always leave adequate margins. Because especially the trailing edge, and when he’s talking about the leading edge of the paper. You should always examine your paper. Not just dust it off, but take a look at it. Over time, depending on your environment, what if you’re in a humid environment, they may already have a curl to them. It’s always recommended to take the leading edge and slightly and carefully bend it upwards in the opposite direction so that when it’s fed in your’e not going to get a paper skew error. That it’s fed properly or it’s flat. If it’s not flat, get a deroller. There’s a number of things you can do to flatten it. It’s really important it’s flat. It’s important there’s enough border around the edge of the image – that will prevent the head strikes. So be careful with that. But this Canon user manual states that for that manual feed tray it’ll take up to a 23mil paper. So that’s pretty thick. So it should be able to take it. But again, if it’s third party and you’re using a different media setting, it will not configure the head height properly. So that’s important. What I wanted to mention is what can happen – what we’re wanting to do next is to do a podcast on routine printer maintenance issues. And I kind of thought this was the perfect segue to do that. What a lot of people don’t know, with head strikes, and with these fibers – they do tend to, they’re going to collect on the bottom of the print head over time and that can cause multiple issues. These fibers can get dislodged from the print head and drag across the surface of the print leaving marks as you see. If they’re not removed in the first place, ink cannot be laid down you’re just going to get a white glob. Or they get dislodged later, same thing can happen on a subsequent print, and you can either get fully clogged or partially clogged nozzles due to the fibers. So that can lead to banding, it can also lead to nozzle deflection. There’s a difference between a nozzle that’s completely clogged, and one that can be partially clogged. If you’ve ever seen – if you’ve put your finger over the end of a faucet, how the water can spray straight in your face. It’s kind of like that when you think of the ink spraying if that nozzle is not totally, completely clear, the ink will deflect. So then your color is going to be off, you can have spraying on the print, all kinds of issues. But, you know, the head strikes really are dangerous because it can also knock your printhead out of alignment and ruin it. But, there’s other issues people don’t think about. What happens if you have not increased that gap for a fine art cotton paper. It’s going to do much more than cause streaks. That ink is going to collect on the bottom of the printhead just like the fibers if they haven’t been dusted off, it will eventually dry on the bottom, because it’s too close to the surface, so you’ve got the same subsequent problems. If you’re using, especially pigment ink, that stuff’s going to dry and they’re like little pieces of sand is the best way I can describe it. So subsequent prints as the printhead moves across those, there may be scratching or scuffing. That material can fall off, the dried ink, and you just have this residue on there over time. And as they get dislodged, you can just – if you’ve ever noticed on a print all of a sudden you’ve got some blotch of something, like ink “Where’d that come from?” well, that’s dried particles. Justin: Definitely. Renee: So, you basically, what we will be talking about next with printer maintenance, what people also are probably not aware of unless they’re opening the cover and trying to do some routine maintenance – you can eventually get your capping station contaminated with this material. That is where the printhead is parked on the right side of the printer. There’s a pad and it keeps the printhead from drying out. There’s usually a suction device under the capping station that will suck any extra ink that’s left after the print is made, but, you know, you want to keep it moist and dry. But, if you have white cotton fibers, or dried ink on the bottom of the printhead, that’s going to end up on that capping station, so the next time the printhead goes it picks some more stuff up and drags it across the next print. So it gets deposited because it gets dislodged. And then of course that will affect wiper blades, so that’s something else – cleaning capping stations – we’ll be talking about with the routine printer maintenance. And there are wiper blades. THink of them sort of like on your car, so as the printhead goes back into place to be parked, blades wipe off the bottom, that’s to get rid of excess ink, then it gets parked on the capping station, those blades need to be cleaned too. But the more you have fibers and the more you have extra ink due to your head height or platen gap not being properly set, it’s too close, those will get contaminated and cause subsequent problems. And basically, on a final note, I would just recommend that people stay away from printers with dye inks, and quite frankly I’m really surprised – this printer came out in 2012, and I’m really surprised Canon was still releasing printers with dye inks. Pigment inks are the gold standard if you’re concerned about print permanence and longevity and these values, as to how long a print is going to last, basically, there’s all kinds of claims from manufacturers – I read an article where a company was reviewing this printer, and the product manager from Canon was saying, “Oh, these dyes are special and they’re going to last 300 years!” And I was like, “300 years? Are you kidding me?” Justin: Yeah, not in the real world. Renee: I don’t think so in the real world, I don’t know where they came from. But the problem is, once that’s in a review, that becomes part of the common thought and still – no matter what – still, inkjet-based dye inks they do have more longevity than the type of dyes that are used in your chromogenic prints. That’s for reasons I don’t want to get into with dyed couplers and things like that, but nonetheless there’s no comparison to pigment inks. You know, what do you think? Justin: I don’t understand their decision on that either, because it’s, you know, the printer’s price range is so low that it makes sense to save a hundred dollars or something just to get those dye based inks, it’s not like you’re saving a bunch of money. You can upgrade to the Pro-10 or whatever and it’s slightly more expensive and it comes with the pigment inks. Just kind of , it’s strange decision on their part I think. Renee: It really is, it used to be a course in the early years of inkjet printing – there was a huge difference in the gamut. Dye inks were obviously had a wide gamut and were saturated, it’s not so. I can sit here and show you ICC profiles for pigment versus dye inks, and I guarantee you you’re going to get the best gamut and the best longevity from pigment inks. And again, this all goes into what I said at the beginning. Research printers carefully. I would recommend a 17” minimum because you’re going to have cheaper costs for ink, be able to take more papers that will have other features – the 13” do not. That’s just my recommendation. But, anyway, I invite Bob to answer my questions on Disqus like what paper was this, how thick is it, is it a Canon paper? And address these things. And I’m wondering, how are his nozzle checks coming out, and is the color good on the print? Justin: Yeah, it’s always interesting to get people’s feedback on the show notes page on the comments. Renee: Yeah, but it’s a perfect set of questions to talk about printer maintenance because head strikes are definitely not something you want to have. Justin: Yeah, obviously a lot to cover ont hat podcast. I’m excited to do that on this next episode. Awesome, well that wraps up the questions we have for today, actually, so I just wanted to thank you again for stopping by, we always appreciate you taking the time. Renee: Thanks for having me back. Happy New Year, even though it’s February, Happy New Year. Justin: That’s how it works sometimes, it takes a while. But we’re back now so hopefully it’ll be a regular thing now. Thank you so much and we’ll talk to you soon. Renee: Alright thanks Justin! That’s our show for today. I hope you enjoyed my discussion with Renee Besta. You can find out more about her and check out her awesome photography by visiting renmarphoto.com. Next time on the show, Renee will be back to offer some tips on ongoing printer maintenance that will help keep your printer running, so look out for that show by joining our mailing list or subscribing to AskBC on iTunes. Want to help out the show? There’s a couple of super easy ways you can do that. First, leave us a review on iTunes! Just open iTunes, go to the store, search for AskBC, and click “Leave a Review” on the show page. Your reviews help us improve the show, and increase our visibility on the iTunes podcast charts. If you enjoyed today’s episode, another simple way you can help us out is to tell a friend about our podcast and blog! Maybe a friend or colleague that would also benefit from the content we release. The idea is that the bigger the show gets, the more resources and experts we can bring to it for you guys. And as always, if you want to hear your printmaking question featured on the show, just head to ask-bc.com and fill out the question form there. Don’t forget to leave your business or website name so that we can plug it on the air. Thanks for listening today, and we’ll see you next time to talk about how to regularly maintain your wide format printers.   Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Archival Mounting Strips & Problems with Heavy Cotton Papers appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Justin talks about ink expiration and covers listener questions on the Epson 3880 in this Q&A episode of AskBC. The Epson 3880 is a popular machine – many of our listeners print on it, and in 2012, PC Mag featured it in their round-up, “8 Great Large-Format Printers”. We receive a lot of questions about using, maintaining, and repairing the 3880, so we thought we’d use this episode as our answer to some of the most popular inquiries. Things like, “What’s the best way to feed canvas sheets to the 3880?” (check show notes below for a great downloadable PDF on this) and “How do I turn off the auto-shutoff setting?” Listen in for Justin’s tips and tricks on these topics, as well as his thoughts on printing with expired ink. Should you do it? What are the risks? How important is a manufacturer’s recommendation to swap cartridges six months after installation regardless of expiry date? Keep the Epson 3880 on all the time, or auto-shutoff? Accessing the 3880’s maintenance menu Standby Mode Attaching a paper strip to canvas to make printing on canvas easier Using your hands to help the rollers catch canvas sheets Matte paper on the 3880 – which is best for vivid colors? Some general thoughts on matte vs. glossy papers Ink expiration – how serious is it? A huge customer support issue that resulted from using expired inks Swap inks every 6 months? Quick monthly step to take to keep pigments properly mixed Much more! Listen in to learn about troubleshooting Epson 3880 common issues Show Notes This episode featured questions from Richard, Robert, Gary, and Don. If you have a printmaking question for the show, submit it here. BONUS: Need help setting a custom paper size on your 3880? We have you covered. Click here for our free how-to guide on setting a user-defined paper size. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 33 of #AskBC! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin. For today’s show, I picked out some various listener questions that are related to the Epson 3880. We talk about the auto-off function, expired inks, and the best paper. [Music] Welcome to Episode 33 of the #AskBC podcast! I’m excited to get into it today. The Epson 3880, as you probably know, is kind of a hallmark and a work horse for our photography and fine art space. Let’s go ahead and get into the show! Announcer: Richard asks, “I own an Epson 3880. I watched YouTube videos where B&H and Epson recommended leaving the printer on all the time. My printer automatically shuts off. If I’m away for a few weeks, I want to let QImage print an unclog pattern every three days.” Justin: Good question, Richard, thank you. With the Epson 3880, it’s got an auto-timer, basically. It comes from the factory with this auto-timer set to a specific time. I think there are options like 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, a day, 2 days, etc. where you can have the printer go into this “auto-off” state. And to change that you actually have to go into the maintenance mode of the 3880, which is pretty simple — you just make sure the machine is turned off, and then hold down the “cancel” button whilst pressing the power button to power it on. I usually just keep the cancel button held down until it powers all the way up, and then you will be booted up in maintenance mode and you should see a “power off timer” option right there on the main menu. You can go within that menu and there should be an “Off” option that you can set it to. And then to get back out of maintenance mode, pretty simple, again, just power the printer down and then power it back on as usual. That will keep the printer basically being on all the time. You know, I’ve heard mixed reviews – or mixed thoughts and theories on whether the printer should be on all the time or should be allowed to be powered off or be powered off manually after you’re done printing. Some models go into a stand-by mode, various different things like this. I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from anyone as to, like, “this is the best option, 100%.” In my experience, we basically just leave the printers as they come from the factory, just assuming that the people that are manufacturing the machine know best regarding what state it’s best left in, essentially. So we use a Canon iPF8400 that – I don’t know what time exactly, but I know that it does go into its standby mode. I think it runs some automatic cleanings periodically – pretty infrequently I would say. Maybe once a week or something like that I’ll hear it running an automatic cleaning from the standby state – which doesn’t seem excessive to me so I’m not worried about it wasting too much ink. We’re not using it in a production environment over here, so definitely it going through a cleaning once and awhile seems like a good thing to keep the heads unclogged as much as possible. We also have an Epson 9900, again, just left at factory default settings. It also goes into a standby mode. It doesn’t power off completely, goes into a standby mode and, you know, you just press any button on the printer and it kind of wakes itself back up. I think, you know, I’ve heard it’s important to keep it at least in a standby mode this way, not powering it all the way off. Because it keeps the heads charged, and it may do that just by having the printer plugged in, period. I’m not 100% sure on that from a hardware perspective, but I’m pretty sure that keeping it in the standby mode is definitely a good thing. You know, every printer has a capping assembly that the printhead sits on top of and the cap kind of moves up to seal the printhead completely, so that’s obviously an important step in making sure that the nozzles don’t get dried out. So as long as that’s happening you’re probably pretty safe, but, anyway, that’s how to turn off that auto-off timer on an Epson 3880. Hope that helps, and I appreciate you sending over the question! Announcer: Robert asks, “Breathing Color advises to add a paper strip to the Lyve canvas so that the 3880 will grab it. This works well, but you lose the amount of canvas that you used for the added paper. Do you know of a way to compensate for this, such that you print on the entire canvas?” Justin: Thanks for the question, Robert. In case anyone’s unclear – the Epson 3880 is kind of known to not feed canvas very well. For whatever reason, the little rubber rollers that kind of pull the paper – the media in can’t get a very good grip of the textured backside of canvas. So, Robert is referring to an article that we wrote (that I’ll go ahead and throw in the show notes in case you haven’t seen that and it’s of use to you) – it’s an article that we wrote that talks about adding a leader – it’s a one inch paper leader – to the canvas and, you know, the rubber rollers within the 3880 can grab this normal paper a little bit easier and help it get started to be pulled through. Seems like it’s only that leading edge that needs to get in there and once it pulls a little bit of it, it doesn’t have a problem feeding the rest of the sheet. So, what I typically do. Well, I have two answers for this. What I typically do when adding the leader, or if I need to add the leader, is I’ll actually put it right on top of the canvas itself. What I think Robert is doing is he’s extending the canvas by an inch, rather than putting it on the backside of the canvas. So if he’s printing a 13×19” sheet, I think he’s adding that one inch leader to the edge and making it like a 13×20”. What you can actually do is just put it on part of the sheet, like instead of butting it right up against the edge of the sheet just adhere it to the back of the sheet itself, that way the sheet remains 13×19” – you don’t have to adjust the file. So, that’s part of the answer, and then the second way you could handle it is, you can add it kind of butted-up to make the sheet 13”x20” for this example. And then just modify your file, right? So you can just add an inch of blank white space to your canvas size in Photoshop, so make what you’re printing 13×20” instead of 13×19” and make that extra inch white space so it’ll match up with the white space you want to see when it’s coming out of the printer. Hopefuly that makes sense, it’s kind of hard to explain without showing you a diagram or something, but yeah that’s kind of your second option. ANd then I want to just mention that a lot of people seem to have this problem with feeding the canvas, and maybe it’s specific and worse on some 3880s than others. I’m not really sure…we do have a 3880 here in the office, and honestly I don’t find it that necessary to add this strip. What I normally do to feed the canvas instead is I just kind of spread my fingers out across the width of the canvas, with my hands upside down. Again, this is kind of hard to explain without showing you a video or something or a photo. But spread my fingers across the width of the canvas and get my fingers as far down close to the rubber rollers as possible, into the printer, and just put some even pressure down towards the printer, down on top of the sheet, and kind of help it when it’s trying to feed, when those rubber rollers are spinning, this is when you want to press down and force it in a bit. This tends to work pretty well, just pushing it down giving it that equal pressure along the sheet with your fingers – tends to have the printer grab the sheet of canvas. This is way easier, obviously, than trying to cut one inch leader strips and adhere them to the back of the canvas, tape them to the canvas, or whatever. So, if you can get it to work that way, skips a couple of steps and this works 99% of the time for me it seems like. So, yeah, hopefully that’s something you haven’t tried out. if you have any other thoughts or suggestions, anyone that’s listening, feel free to post your comments to the show notes page, which I’ll give you a link for at the end of the podcast. I’d love to hear any other creative solutions you guys may have come up with for this common difficulty on this 3880. Announcer: Gary asks, “I’m not a heavy user of my Epson 3880. I just noticed this morning that a few of my inks have expiration dates of July 2014 and July 2015. Do I need to replace them at their expiration? Similarly, Epson says replace after six months of installing. Is this important?” Justin: Hey Gary, good question, thanks for asking. In general with ink expirations, I’d definitely lean towards following the manufacturer’s recommendations. All manufacturers pretty much have the same expiration dates on their ink. I’m pretty sure this is a valid thing to follow. I have dealt with, from a support standpoint, here at Breathing Color, I have dealt with at least one – I think two different instances where a customer called in using an Epson or a Canon (I’m not really sure specifically), using a wide format printer, and they’re having some trouble getting the proper color, and we couldn’t really figure out why – they were using the proper ICC profile, all the proper settings, it was an image that they’d used before so they were pretty sure they knew exactly what it was supposed to look like when it was done, on a calibrated display, etc. And in the end, after a ton of troubleshooting, I failed to ask the basic question about ink and it ended up being that, I think two or three of the cartridges were actually just barely beyond expiration. So we thought to swap those out, obviously not an inexpensive test, we thought to swap those out and see if that did anything and at first it didn’t. It didn’t fix the problem. So it was kind of discouraging. And then the client, the customer, ended up running a cleaning cycle just because I thought, you know, the remainder of that expired ink within the ink system – within the ink lines – was still in there, so we pushed that through first at least to give it a fair troubleshooting test. So they ran a cleaning cycle or a couple of cleaning cycles and retried the print again and it literally made a night and day difference without any other changes, so the only thing I could attribute to is to the expired inks. So that’s an immediate, noticeable downside of using an expired ink. I mean, who knows what other potential problems you get into when using expired ink, I mean does that stuff coagulate inside of the printer? Will it be a problem if you try to send that through the ink system, will that clog up the printhead or clog the line somewhere just resulting in, potentially, some massive repair bills or a lot of time spent fixing it yourself, or something like that? Just seems better to me to stick with what the manufacturer recommends. On the six month replacement deal, I’m not too sure I buy into that. I’d say as long as it’s within…again, I’m not an expert on the hardware side of things. I’m not a chemist with these inks or anything like that, so these are just my opinions, my thoughts, my experience on this stuff – so yeah, I don’t really buy into the six month swap-out thing. What I will do, I mean, especially if the printer is sitting there for quite a while without being used, I’ll take the cartridge out and invert it a few times just in case any kind of settling of pigment or anything else inside of the ink has happened. That’s probably a good thing to do every month or two if you’re not using the printer very much, but yeah I would think you’re perfectly fine using it up until its expiration date regardless of installing it, you know, seven months prior or something like that. Just my thoughts, I appreciate you asking – again, if anybody has anything to add, definitely post that to the show notes. If you know more than I do on this, let’s talk about it. Announcer: Don asks, “Which matte paper will give me the most vivid colors and deepest blacks for landscape images on an Epson 3880 printer?” Justin: Hey Don, great question. Thanks for taking the time to submit, hopefully some of my opinions and thoughts here will help you along your new paper-choosing journey. So I’m not sure if you’re familiar with printing on like a luster or glossy photo papers, or kind of what background you come from. Also, I don’t know why you’re choosing matte paper, you know, a lot of things that are missing. But my thoughts on matte paper as it relates to any other finish of paper, is that – you’ve probably seen this if you’ve done much printing on matte paper – is that of course your densities – color densities, black densities – they’re going to be lower when you print on a matte paper. It’s just the nature of this type of paper. You know, ink is absorbed a little bit differently with this paper technology and this coating technology than it is like on a photo paper of a much different paper base. So when you ask, “Which paper will give you the most vivid colors and deepest blacks?” When you’re kind of confined to a matte paper, I would definitely stick to something that’s pretty white. You know, this is always going to give you colors that tend to pop. The whiter paper you print on the better you’re going to be in terms of contrast, in terms of vivid color, deep blacks, this will definitely help on that as well. When it comes to – you didn’t mention if you’re looking for something smooth or textured – first thing comes to mind to me is just going with a smooth, bright white, matte paper. So, look at something like our – Breathing Color makes something one called Optica One. It’s got an amazing white point, amazing whiteness, looks great – it’s really smooth, lends itself really well to landscape imagery. So yeah, that’s kind of my thought on the subject. If it were me, I’d probably stray more towards a Baryta paper – you know, it’s still thick, gives it that nice feel that a fine art paper has. But it doesn’t have the completely matte surface. Often you’ll see like a luster type of surface, something that’s semi-gloss. So again, that’s pretty preferential when it comes to paper, a lot of different things come in to making a decision, and a lot of that’s personal preference. I think Renee Besta and I have talked about this in great detail before on a previous podcast, as far as “which is the best paper for my image?” Like, “Which specific paper is the best for my image?” – I hear this question constantly, and, you know, 75-80% of it is, well, what do you like to see your print done on? It’s something that, to a certain extent, something that you can’t be advised on, you know? Do a lot of different prints of this image on a lot of different medias and kind of see what you think lends itself well for this specific image, or for your specific tastes. That’s really all you can do when it comes down to it. So pick up a sample pack from somebody, or multiple somebodies. Print as much as you can, do as many different prints as you can and see what looks the best to you. Hope that helps! Not the most straightforward answer, but that’s the reality. So thanks again, Don. Justin: Alright guys, that is it for today’s episode! Thank you so much for joining in on the discussion, for submitting your questions, for being a part of the show. Really means alot to me. If you have thoughts on the subjects that we talked about today, do be sure to leave your comments, your thoughts, anything really on the show notes page. You know, I encourage you guys to have discussion on these show notes pages – it’s really beneficial to everybody. I love talking about this stuff, so let’s get some stuff going. For the show notes link, pretty simple – you can visit ask-bc.com/episode33. Thanks again for listening and for being a part of the show, if you enjoyed this show today, I would really appreciate it if you left us an iTunes review and a rating. It’s pretty simple, takes no more than two minutes really. If you just open up iTunes, search for the AskBC podcast, go ahead and go in the podcast, and just, like I said, takes a couple of minutes, leave us a quick rating and a couple of words about what you think. This feedback is super helpful to us, you know, it’s really the only way I can know if we’re going in the right direction. What you like to hear…so I’d really appreciate it if you took the time to do that. And if you’d like to ask a question for the show, that’s pretty simple as well. Just visit ask-bc.com, you’ll see a contact form there, just fill that out – a couple of quick lines. Submit your question, and if we choose your question to be featured on the show, we will mention your business name right in the episode – give you a nice little shout out. Thanks guys, until next time! Take care [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Ink Expiration and Troubleshooting the Epson 3880 appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

In this episode of our printmaking podcast, we tackle the big format debate: C-Prints vs. Inkjet Prints – pros and cons to each, plus some crucial myths and false claims to be aware of. When it comes to the differences between chromogenic prints (digital c-prints) and fine art inkjet prints, it can be tough to find honest answers amidst all the noise. There’s passionate defenders on either side, outdated information, and even false claims. To set the record straight, we invited photographer and printmaker Renée Besta to the show to carefully lay out the pros and cons of these very different printing processes from A to Z. We hit all the categories that you’ll want to consider when making a choice between chromogenic and inkjet prints – price, production speed, customer support quality, image size, accepted file formats, paper selection, longevity, gallery-acceptance, and even environmental concerns. With this episode, equip yourself with knowledge of both printing processes so that you can feel confident in making the right decision for your work. Misinformation, myths, and false claims How to tell if a prints on demand website offers c-prints or inkjet Defining “chromogenic/c-prints” and “inkjet/pigment” prints C-Prints vs. Inkjet Prints – There’s pros and cons to each Price, production speed, customer support, image size, accepted file formats, paper selection, longevity, museum/gallery-acceptance, environmental concerns How longevity is calculated What percent faded do colors need to be on a print before the average person can tell? What about the average artist/photographer? Much more! Listen in to learn about Digital C-prints vs. Inkjet Prints Show Notes This episode didn’t feature any listener questions, but we’re still accepting them! If you have a printmaking question for the show, submit it here. For a more in-depth conversation on the differences between sRGB and the larger color spaces such as ProPhoto RGB, listen to Episode 23. Check out Renee’s website at RenMarPhoto.com. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 32 of #AskBC! Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin, today we talk about which is better: digital c-prints (also known as chromogenic prints) or inkjet prints? [Music] Welcome to episode 32 of the #AskBC podcast! It’s good to be back, we’ve been on a little bit of a hiatus since the last episode, which you may or may not have noticed. Sorry about that, I appreciate you guys being back with us joining and listening today. It’s been a crazy time of year, you know, the end of the year is our busiest time and I hope the same is true for you guys out there listening, running your printmaking business. Let me know! Comment on the show notes and let me know how business is going, I’d love to hear from you guys. So we’re here, again, with Renee Besta talking about digital c-prints vs. inkjet prints, let’s go ahead and jump into the show! Justin: Hey Renee, it’s been awhile since we’ve been on a show together, it’s great to have you back! Good to talk to you again, thanks for joining us. Renee: Thanks Justin, good afternoon. It’s been awhile and I’m really glad to be back, thanks for having me. Justin: Yes, definitely. So, just so our listeners know, we’re kind of jumping into this podcast in a different format than we have historically. Instead of taking a question and answer format from our listeners, we are going to focus on one specific topic and kind of just have a conversation about that more or less. And today, we are going to talk about digital c-prints vs. inkjet prints. Kind of review their pros and cons, and just discuss which is better for selling fine art photographer. We’ll go over the benefits and drawbacks of each. A lengthy list each, I think. So is their any certain point where you wanted to start this conversation, Renee? Renee: Yeah, I’d just like to say first of all, I’m gonna be using a couple terms to keep things simple and when I use the term “photo lab,” I’m talking about those establishments who are producing the digital “c-prints,” which also means “chromogenic print,” it generally refers to the lab that’s using traditional chemicals and a wet process method. And when I say “fine art print studio,” I’m referring to those places that make inkjet pigment prints. So, otherwise it gets really confusing. Justin: Yes. Renee: Really the reason I want to do this — I continue to get a lot of questions from my students and through my website because of a podcast I’ve done for you, and there’s been people on prior podcasts that I’ve guested on that have raised some of these questions. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and marketing buzz. And really one of the major problems is that, believe it or not, there are a lot of photographers that have no idea as to the differences between these two processes, and especially people that are younger. They may have never shot film; they may be completely unaware how traditional dark room prints were made. And they’re really surprised to learn that the digital c-prints are produced in a similar fashion using a wet chemical process. They go, “What?! I didn’t know that! Chemicals are still used today?” Yes. Or they’ll say, “there’s yes in those Kodak and Fuji papers?” Yes. And, you know, there’s a lot of marketing buzz and misinformation. You know how people can be defensive, and you’ve got factions on both sides spewing, “this is the best” or “that’s the best,” and you really have to kind of pull back and look at the facts. The other reason that I wanted to discuss it, is that I personally, recently partnered with Art Storefronts, it’s an eCommerce platform to sell your art or photography, and I wanted to research various affiliated print vendors to find one to do my fulfillment. I mean, I can only print so big; I don’t like doing canvas gallery wraps, those various reasons. And in doing this research, it was a pretty eye-opening experience, because I called 27 – either photo labs or fine art print studios – there was just so much misinformation. And I just wanted to dispel some of those myths and false claims, and just give people some facts so they can make the right decision for themselves. Justin: Yeah, that makes sense. So I would imagine a lot of people just go into buying a print and not really knowing there’s a difference. So how does one determine, on a website or whatever, which type of – whether it’s a lab or a fine art print studio – that they’re looking at? What are the steps to determining that? Renee: It’s really pretty simple. Basically, they are defined as either a “photo print” – when they say “photo print” and you look at the price they’re much less expensive, and if you go to like Bay Photos site, they’ll say something like “fine art printing.” Other places will say “pigment printing,” when they generally say “fine art” or “pigment” it’s generally a fine art print, if it just says “photo print,” you pull up the price list and look at the papers and it says “Fuji Crystal Archive,” or “Kodak Endura” paper, or “Fuji Matte” paper. That’s a clue right there it’s a chromogenic print, and also they’re much, much less expensive. And you’ll see these very odd sizes that generally do not match aspect ratios of the normal full frame digital SLR – it doesn’t even match 35mm film. So that’s another issue to discuss later. But I recently had a friend call me that was trying to sell a print to a client – a guy was out hangliding and wanted a really large print, and she was on Bay Photo saying “he wants this big print, can you help me, and what do I use to re-upsize?” And I was like, “What type of print are you making and on what paper?” Like, “What do you mean?” [And she said,] “I’m on Bay Photo! Aren’t they inkjet prints?” I’m like, “No, the standard thing you see when you go to the main page when you see “photo prints,” they’re generally talking the lab print or the wet process print.” And she was really shocked, and this is a person that’s an extremely talented and knowledgeable photographer. So again, if you just never shot film…I worked in the dark room for many years. They’re just not aware of that process. So generally they’ll distinguish it, again, by saying, “fine art printing,” or they’ll have “canvas and fine art paper,” it may say that. For that printing under “services” or “products,” under that category there’s a dropdown menu – when it says “photo prints,” that’s what they generally mean – the digital c-print. Justin: That makes sense. Renee: And I also wanted to say one other thing before I get started, because I’m going to cover – we’re just gonna shoot through these different factors like price and production speed, available sizes, acceptable file formats, color gamuts, paper selection, longevity, etc. and hit through that. But one thing that really kind of disturbs me, and I see this on the net all the time, and I don’t want people to necessarily be susceptible to these claims…a lot of photo lab personnel will claim that the only “true” photograph is a chromogenic print. They swear digital c-prints are the only “true” photographic print, not an inkjet print, because an inkjet print sprays droplets of ink on paper whereas the chromogenic print is a true continuous tone print, which I’ll talk about in a second, but you have hardcore fans that say, “well, it’s an inkjet print, it’s not a real photograph” and they market that way. It’s really a bunch of B.S. and I’ll get into the reason or that in a little bit. Justin: Sounds good. Renee: But first of all I’m going to quickly define what a chromogenic print or a digital c-print is. It’s just, basically, the less expensive photo lab prints made on papers such as Fuji Chrystal Archive or Kodak Endura. They use machines such as a Fuji Frontier, an [unintelligible], a Chromira or a Lightjet or a Lambda printers. So basically, it’s pretty much similar to the dark room process. They’re using lasers or LEDs to expose photosensitive papers, and these are silver halide just like the dark room days. Which are then coupled with dyes. So, they’re really the same as a conventional photographic dark room print in that the paper is exposed to light and then chemically processed. The only difference is that instead of light coming from a traditional enlaraging lamp in the dark room, it’s coming from a laser or an LED. So you could call it “digital c,” “c-print,” “laser chromogenic,” “digital RA4,” you’re going to see all these terms – it’s another area of confusion – it’s the same thing. It’s a digital front-end exposing or scanning the paper which is then fed into wet chemistry, just like the old days. And you have the two basic flavors – there are digital mini-labs like the Fuji Frontier, and then the wide-format, which are generally higher quality such as a Lightjet, a Lambda, or a Chromira. The LightJets basically are pretty much superior. Lasers are sharper than LEDs, and the way that the Lightjet is configured allows for more edge-to-edge sharpness. So let’s just go into – I’m sure you’ve heard the terminology “contone vs. halftone prints”? Justin: Right. Renee: Do you ever get questions about that from customers? Justin: Not very often, actually. Once and a while. Renee: Okay. So the chromogenic printing, of course, is a totally different process. And they do have a different look and feel that is very appealing to certain people. And they are continuous tone, unlike inkjet prints, of course they are a halftone print. So let’s talk about that difference, because the contone terminology is used often by the labs to promote that type of print. That continuous tone simply means there is absolutely no break in the paper – these are dye based. So it’s a photochemical process. The resulting dyes blend into one another so there’s no spacing in between “dots,” which is the opposite of inkjet. Inkjets, you have thousands of really minute droplets. They vary in size and spacing, and they kind of give the illusion from afar of a continuous tone, so it’s like tricking the eye. But, you know, basically with today’s modern printers – only at a microscopic level could you see spaces between those droplets. So that advantage, basically, has been eliminated, but there is a completely different look and feel – I’ve seen some absolutely spectacular LightJet prints. And they do have that old-world dark room look that you can’t simulate with an inkjet, so it depends on what you’re looking for. Justin: Definitely. Renee: So would you like to go through some of the factors to consider? The differences between them. Justin: Yeah, certainly. For somebody looking to determine which kind of process is best for what they need. Renee: Exactly, it depends on “What is your goal? Which market do you serve? Are you a wedding or portrait or event photographer?” If so, that’s the primary business for the digital chromogenic print. They’re fast, they’re inexpensive, people aren’t looking necessarily at the best papers with the most print permanence, they’re just trying to crank them out and get them to the customer. However, you’ll see a lot of wedding and portrait photographers marketing maybe a canvas gallery wrap. And explaining the advantages of that. And again, and I’ve said this before, we’ve talked about it on prior podcasts and people had written in saying, “I don’t understand, I’m on PhotoShelter or Fine Art America, why do they only take sRGBs and sRGB JPEGs? Why can’t I work in Camera RAW? Why can’t I submit a ProPhoto or AdobeRGB?” Well, we’ll get into that. There’s reasons. First of all, that’s just sheer necessity by the way the digital chromogenic prints are made. The ProPhoto or even Adobe RGB is like way outside that space. And, in fact, on the show notes for the last podcast we did on dark prints, I showed a ColorSync pro plot. The sRGB colorspace compared to a profile sourced directly from a minilab. On a glossy Fuji Chrystal paper, and you probably remember that, Justin, just how much smaller that color space was. Justin: Yeah, tiny in comparison. Renee: Right! And again, it depends. Not all images – even for a landscape image – have colors that even go beyond sRGB. It depends, as in many things. So I’m not trying to make a judgement – it depends on what you are photographer. So I’m just going to quickly run down these pros and cons – various factors. Let’s start with price. Advantage goes to the photo minilabs, obviously, over an inkjet print. Although I have to say the LightJet prints can be much more costly than an inkjet print on a premium cotton paper. Justin: Yeah, if you’re looking for something cheap, c-prints are the way to go. Renee: Yeah and you’ll notice immediately, you take a look at the prices…and the other thing is you’ll see these tiny wallet sizes when you pull up the list under the dropdown menu, so that’s definitely an advantage. And again, LightJet prints can be very, very beautiful if they’re well-made and well-profiled. Depends on the color gamut that you need. And what you’re looking for in terms of print permanence. Let’s look at production speed. Advantage again to the photolabs. They’re geared to heavy output, and again, like I said, it’s great for wedding, portrait, and event photographers who need the fast turn-around time for their clients. Whereas people that are ordering inkjet prints are more concerned with other factors that we’re gonna talk about. And they’re not – they’re shooting images that require wider color gamuts. Let’s quickly go through technical support and getting some good information. One of the things I’ve seen a lot on the online printing forums, of which there are many, is the frustration people have in trying to reach a knowledgeable person at the average photo minilab. As opposed to a fine art print studio where you can probably get through to the master printmaker and explain what your needs are and develop a long-term relationship, and work with them – which is a huge advantage. It’s like going to Walgreens, going to Costco – are you going to be able to do that? As I said to Albert Jones from the UK when he was having dark print problems with the photo minilab, I mean, good luck trying to do that – the machines basically are automated, and like I said, they can end up – the business is for portraiture. Weddings and portraits. So they want to make sure the skin tone is accurate and there’s enough detail in the facial features, so that’s kind of how they’re set up. The priority goes for that, not for landscape photographs. So you can end up, you know, really doing what they call an autocorrect feature is what I’m saying. So that’s an issue. I like having a relationship I can develop with someone. So let’s also look at available sizes – a huge complaint. Well, the advantage would go to inkjet prints. You can print in any size and when you order them from a print studio, they will allow you to respect your aspect ratio. Whereas with the lab prints, more often than not you’re going to be forced to crop your image to fit specific paper sizes. Justin: Yep. Renee: In other words, normally for photography – with both digital SLRs, and I know there’s other formats, 4:3 and others, but even with 35mm film, it was still 3:2 or 1.5:1. That means an 8×12, not an 8×10. It means a 10×15, not an 11×14. Etc. So, who wants to do that? You go through…basically I’m cropping in camera. A lot of people are using the zoom lens. So that’s another pain you’re going to have to go through before sending the file off. It kind of ruins your composition and disrespects the camera native aspect ratio. And you’ve heard, we’ve had people write in about that as well — it’s discussed in prior podcasts. Justin: For sure. Renee: Which leads to the next issue – what are the acceptable file formats, bit depth, and color spaces? Well, we all know about that – I mean Breathing Color is a manufacturer of fine art inkjet media. We know for Lightroom and for Photoshop Camera RAW the default colorspace is ProPhoto RGB and for a good reason – we’re in 2015. Adobe RGB was developed in what, 1998. So it’s really where the rubber meets the road – the advantage is for inkjet prints. Labs will always want, in most cases, sRGB JPEGs – although some will accept an 8-bit TIFF, and that’s because it’s just out of sheer necessity. As I showed in the ColorSync diagram, you take an output profile on a given Kodak or Fuji paper, it is swallowed up by sRGB – so if you’re going to send something that has a greater color space, you’re not going to get good results. So they have good reason for doing that. As someone wrote in a Discus comment on, I think, an article Kevin O’Connor wrote, and he wrote “Please don’t disparage sRGB because we need it.” And then people have written, you know, regarding their print-on-demand services, whether it’s Photo Shelter, Fine Art America, Zenpholio, SmugMug, or whatever – they all want sRGBs for uploading, and I think it’s another area of confusion, so people think maybe the customers are ordering an inkjet print, but now the thinking is that most customers are going to order the inexpensive prints which are going to be the chromogenic prints or the lab prints, and so you’re not going to be able to upload two separate file types for each image. One that’s a 16-bit TIFF in ProPhoto, and another an sRGB JPEG. You know, that’s not allowed. So, as I said before, what’s optimal for the inkjet is going to be sacrificed for the c-print. And now I’m going to add this, and people are going to have to do their own research. Even if you’re outsourcing your inkjet prints, like I’ve found with partnering with Art Storefronts, you still may find it difficult to get a fine art print studio to accept a file in ProPhoto RGB. In fact, I just started a discussion thread on “why is that?” Oh my gosh, I don’t even want to get into some of the comments that came back at me. People just dance around this issue, and you don’t really need it – it is not necessary, it doesn’t have any more colors, they’re just going off in all these directions, and we just know that’s not true. We’ve known – and I’ve shown this. Back in 2011, when I did my three part series on HDR photography and printing, I included a diagram from an Adobe white paper from Jeff Schewe and the late Bruce Frasier, showing the three color spaces – sRGB, Adobe, and ProPhoto – and I had a plot for an old Epson 2200 on matte paper – a profile for that. Matte, not photo paper. Guess what? It had colors that went beyond Adobe RGB, and that was back in 2003 or ’04. So, you know, think what we have today. Justin: I wonder why it is then, why don’t they allow it? Renee: I think it has to do with size. Justin: Yeah, file size. Renee: And people just don’t know what they’re doing. That’s what I was told by some printmakers, you know, “a lot of people don’t have the good wide gamut display, they have the consumer display, they can’t see that many colors so they don’t really know what they’re editing. And then it’s a tech-support nightmare because the customer complains, ‘oh the colors off or the prints too dark.’“ So that’s one issue – they think most people don’t really know what they’re doing and don’t have the right equipment or don’t calibrate the display or have a good one. The other is the size. A lot of people don’t know that to work in ProPhoto RGB, you really need to keep the file in 16-bit. If you go down to 8-bit it can’t really hold all that color and tonal information. So, you know, even if you’re in Lightroom and that is the default space, if you export as a TIFF and then downgrade it to 8-bit, you’ve lost some things there. So that’s something some people aren’t aware of. But it’s quite frustrating, and I’ll keep you updated on what happens, but I’ve gotten into a rather lengthy discussion on Art Storefronts on this issue. Justin: Yeah I can imagine, people defending… Renee: Although there are some studios, and there is one particular studio I have partnered with that will – it has a separate service for larger files – they recognize that. So when people claim there’s just no difference in the quality…again, it just depends on the image. Some images you can’t see any…I take a picture of my cat, it’s not going to make any difference, leave it in sRGB. Some landscape in nature photographs really matter. And I would think, what amazes me, as the “fine art print studio,” they’ve been more geared to art reproduction. So somebody photographing an artist’s work to sell, which I’ve done myself, they’re very particular about the colors. Now if you’re a pastel painter that’s a little different than someone that does oil or acrylics. As you may know, some of these colors really pop out and can be very out there in terms of the color space. So I would think that just for that business alone you would want to keep it in ProPhoto, especially…people basically challenged me on this and said “Show me a profile that can extend beyond Adobe RGB” and it was actually shocking. I mean, how can you not know if you’re doing inkjet printing that modern day printers can go beyond Adobe RGB? It’s just absolutely shocking. Justin: Yeah, that’s kind of scary actually. Renee: You know it really is scary. So, I’m just saying, this is one of the reasons I’m having this discussion – I get these questions a lot from students and then people that contact me. Justin: Yeah, it’s all about the education. Renee: And then a lot of these studios will just say, “Hey, Joe Schmo says this or that.” And they get this information from a different lab, and they say “Correct,” so we have to re-educate, but it’s not always accurate. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there are some absolutely excellent, professional high-end fine art print studios that do things with best practices. But there is also a lot of people, just like with the photo minilabs, that have gotten into the business because it’s profitable and it’s more based on money versus quality. And you see that all the time on online forums, people just pulling their hair out to get correct answers or get through to somebody that they can actually work with. Justin: Yeah, support can definitely be a nightmare. Renee: Yeah, absolutely. So basically, again, for file formats, color spaces, and bit depth, that would be inkjet prints with the caveat if you can get one to accept a ProPhoto file. But that’s a topic for another podcast. Justin: Yeah we actually covered the whole sRGB vs. the other color spaces that are much larger in another podcast, so let’s link up to that in the show notes, and people can listen if that’s interesting to them. I think that was a pretty lengthy one, so a lot of good information in there. Renee: Yeah, and I think that was the “Navigating the Color Spaces” and it had to do with the monitors because that is a very important thing. But basically, let’s look at color gamut. Again, advantage pigment prints, or inkjet prints. There’s no doubt they can reproduce colors well beyond Adobe RGB into ProPhoto territory. That doesn’t mean that pixels way out in Pluto. Obviously that’s way beyond the visible range of light, but, I think I mentioned to you, I recently purchased ColorThink Pro and it’s really a lot of fun, and one of the great things it enables you to do is open an image and it will plot each pixel as the color that it is in 3D in a lab space, and you can then plot that against any printing profile to see what paper it may print best on. Is it inside? Which color space does it fall within? It’s just a really great program. Justin: Yeah, that’s a color feature. I’ve seen that. Renee: Yeah, it’s very, very cool. If you look again at the profile for most of the minilabs, as I did on the last dark prints podcast, they’re smaller than an sRGB. So again, depends on what are you shooting? So let’s look at a big issue: paper selection. Advantage pigment prints. There is a nearly overwhelming selection of absolutely fantastic inkjet papers on the market today. That’s not so for the lab prints. You’re stuck with your basic Fuji glossy or Fuji matte paper, Kodak has a metallic paper. You just don’t have it. I mean, look, Breathing Color has just released what was equivalent to Hanemuhle sugar cane – your Pura Bagasse paper – which is awesome. Cotton papers, and, god, we had rice papers, Baryta papers and everything in between. The selection has never been better. Justin: Right. Renee: So I think that wraps that one up. And then we have the use of dyes versus pigments. And I think a lot of people are aware, even if they’ve only done inkjet printing, that dyes are much more susceptible to fading due to light and heat, than pigments. That’s why professional pigment printers now, you know, use pigment inks and not the dyes as when they first came out early on. Although dyes are much cheaper and much less prone to clogging nozzles, they have absolute superior longevity. So that segues into what is really, really important here. What I would say is color quality and the color gamut, and your print permanence. Of course, advantage pigment prints. C-prints, as I said at the beginning of the podcast, are dye-based. And we’ve talked about this on another podcast. And let’s just look at some data here. I talked about this on another podcast regarding the claims of the print permanence of Fuji Crystal “Archive” paper based on revised studies and data. Now the marketing claims out there, you’ll see this all over the web, “c-prints last 70-100 years.” Okay, well that may be true if the prints are in dark storage and they’re not on display. Or they’re displayed in extremely dim light. And again, based on the initial studies done by Wilhelm Imaging with Henry Wilhelm, and I think everybody’s familiar with Mr. Wilhelm’s work – things change based on the criteria. As they learn more, they change how they do these measurements. We know dyes are more susceptible to breaking down, exposed to heat and light, whereas pigment ink prints, they’re gonna last maybe even over 200 years if they’re displayed in frames with a UV filter in dark storage. But let’s just talk about these revised studies. The longevity and light fastness for the Fuji Crystal Archive paper was done by Mark McCormick-Goodhart of Aardenburg Imaging and Archives, and I’ll link up to his website. So he used to work with Henry Wilhelm at WIR, and he’s furthered many of those tests by using better criteria as well as test-evaluation targets. And the initial rating of that paper, the Fuji Crystal Archive, of 60-70 years is now estimated at 30-40, just due to changes in the test criteria. Justin: Wow, cut in half. Renee: And so they change the failure criteria and that dropped the longevity rating from the 60-70 to 30-40. And I know several months ago I was discussing that. So here’s one thing I do want to mention – a lot of people don’t know when you say Epson or Canon, the OEM, they’ll say “our prints are estimated to not fade for 100 years using this ink or media combination. It has this longevity rating. And what you have to understand is that when you say 100 years, what does that mean? It won’t fade for 100 years. How do you determine that? Well, what that actually means is that at 100 years, the print will have so badly faded to an approximate 35% loss of color that the average Joe Schmo can easily detect or see that there is fading. Like, the average Walmart greeter can say “Oh, I can see there’s a difference in these colors.” Whereas we – artists, photographers, printmakers, people like you or me – can see fading, and studies have been done on this, at 5% or less. Which is a huge difference from the 35%, that’s a giant gap. So the term “easily detected fade” describing that end-point that the OEMs are using, that’s their industry standard, but we can see fading at much less. So, let’s just say a person like Jon Cone, and you can read essays on how he’s determined this. I know we had a post – there’s been a lot of articles on the Breathing Color Blog saying “don’t ever, ever, ever,” by certain people, “use third party inks.” And I’ve come back and defended Jon Cone’s products, I’ve used the carbon pigment inks to do black and white, I’ve purchased the ConeColor Pro inks, and somebody came back to me in a comment and said, “Well where are the studies on this?” Well, he’s done his own, and, actually, to much more stringent criteria using what I just referenced, saying fading at less than 5% versus the 35%. So that’s something to keep in mind because these are just estimates, and it depends obviously on your display conditions, and have you varnished your print? Is it behind UV-protected glass? Yada, yada. Nonetheless, you can’t deny that for print permanence, the advantage goes to inkjet prints. Justin: Right, clearly superior. Yeah definitely. Renee: The only other thing that I can think of with the chromogenic prints, they might have an advantage – they are more sturdy and less fragile or susceptible to scuffing than inkjet prints, which depends on the paper that’s used. So here’s two other things that I want to talk about: museum and gallery acceptance, and environmental considerations, and then I’ll conclude this. In the early days of inkjet printing, it was a lot more difficult to get those types of prints accepted in a museum or a gallery. They preferred the chromogenic prints as they were closest to the traditional dark room print, which they were really familiar with. And inkjet prints kind of had a negative connotation, and that was in the early stages and you can see why – they were dye-based, didn’t have the same resolution or color gamut that they do now, or the longevity. Therefor, the digital c-prints were accepted as the standard for color fine art prints. Now that advantage has diminished as technology and education has improved, so now the inkjet prints – don’t let someone tell you that they’re not widely accepted. But here’s the real rub that I can’t understand, and I mentioned this briefly on a prior podcast. These c-prints have been used by some very renowned fine art photographers, including Cindy Sherman and most recently Peter Lik AKA the multi-million dollar man who supposedly sold one of his prints of Antelope Canyon for six and a half million dollars, they’re c-prints! I think I mentioned that, it’s like how could you do that? Somebody that is paying over a million dollars and you’re going to give them a chromogenic print? Now with the rise of the fine art photography market, prices for the fine art prints are soaring. But even, as I said, the most recent Fuji c-prints only have a longevity of around 40 years displayed under glass. So when a collector has paid that much money, it’s going to have a disastrous problem. So I think it’s kind of a sign of the times that famous fine art photographers can sell these types of prints at that price. And again, look at the marketing buzz or myth that must go around that. How do you convince someone? It just shows there’s an uneducated buyers market out there. And some of the prints like Cindy Sherman’s – and this has been discussed on a lot of online forums – they are already showing signs of fading. And I guess that’s trendy, the more it fades…that’s cool. I can’t understand that, why a collector would want to see that. Justin: [laughs] Pay millions for that. Yeah. Renee: And then Peter Lik’s, I’ve recently read a few essays – there’s a good article in the New York Times actually, on these investors that have paid these outrageous prices trying to resell them. They want to get rid of them and sell them, and they can’t. It’s like they lose value so immediately sort of like driving a new car off the lot. But they can’t even recoup part of their money, and he says “Well I never guaranteed that,” and yet he’s promoting that they’re so great – how does that happen? And what I’m saying is the same kind of marketing you convince somebody to spend this money, I mean I’ve seen – there’s so much fabulous work that you can find on the web for art and photography, how does one person convince people…that’s probably a topic for another podcast…that their work is so much better? So those aren’t increasing in value, they’re only decreasing. So I say it’s a shame that they’re not at least a nice pigment print. Justin: Yeah, definitely something important to consider. Renee: Isn’t that amazing? So, you know, that’s why we have great papers like from Breathing Color – your wonderful OBA-free all cotton papers, no cheap wood-pulp papers. They’re gonna last a really long time. And then, finally, we’ve got these environmental considerations. Well there’s no debate on that, advantage pigment prints, I mean the use of hazardous chemicals and their disposal requirements means inkjet prints are better for the environment, but be sure to recycle your spent cartridges. So, other than that, can you think of any other factors to go back and forth with? And then I will conclude. Justin: Um, honestly I don’t have anything else; I think you covered it pretty darn well actually. Renee: Yeah, we always get new questions coming in, but again, the conclusion I have to say is what is your goal, who are you marketing to, what types of images do you shoot, fine art or commercial? Someone’s looking to produce some prints for the family, or decorate your house, or you’re a wedding or portrait photographer, you’re going to go with the lab prints. They have value, they have quality. But somebody comes to me and says they want to get the best fine art print possible for a show or a competition, it’s an inkjet print. So I mean, pigment-based inkjet prints are the future of photographic imaging, there’s just no question. They’re not even the future, they’re here now, so, image permanence is really the key ingredient, and the quality of the image to producing a beautiful piece of artwork. And only archival inkjet media and pigment-based inks are going to deliver that quality and permanence. Expect it by the top artist and their collectors, unless you’re Peter Lik or Cindy. Justin: [Laughs] …then you can do whatever you want. Renee: I think the only remaining advantage of the c-print is that large photo labs can produce huge quantities of prints faster and more cheaply. And again, with these beautiful, and I mean there are some very, very beautiful LightJet, Lambda, and Chromira prints. And I’m gonna distinguish those from the minilab prints. Totally different look. Can be very, very beautiful. Even in black and white, they do have, if you’ve – I don’t know, it depends on your age. If you’ve ever had traditional dark room prints developed for yourself, they’re just – they just have a different look and feel. So for short-term commercial applications, you can go with c-prints. For fine art photography I don’t think there’s any questions. The working fine art photographers, the top people in the field today, they’re aghast that some of these photographers are selling in that price range and still giving to the customer the c-print. It doesn’t make sense. But they all make their own prints or source them out and they’re inkjet pigment prints. Justin: Right, it’s all about educating yourself. Renee: So I hope that clarifies, because when you call certain establishments, you’re going to get different stories, you’re going to get told, “You don’t need this color space, this doesn’t matter. We can’t produce a profile that would cover it.” Not true. I just posted a couple plots on the forum for Art Storefronts showing that, and one of the guys came back and said, “Oh, this is a false comparative.” Saying that Adobe RGB was my output space. I’m like, “What? That’s a working space.” The output space would be your ICC profile for the printer and paper that it’s going to get converted to. So it’s like, and this is a, quote, “professional lab” or printmaker that does both. You’re going to find a lot that do both, they’ll offer inkjet prints and the digital c-prints. But, I’m just saying beware. Justin: Yep, beware and know that you’re talking to the right person. Renee: And educate yourself. Don’t believe in this thing that it’s not a true photograph. I’m gonna send you the link to this essay by a guy in New York City that runs a lab, makes the LightJet prints. And he even claims it’s not necessary to edit in 16-bit, that it’s just overkill. Justin: Oh, wow. Renee: I just think it’s interesting. People need to read these things to understand the types of statements that are being put out there. Justin: Yeah, some misconceptions. Renee: And that’s just absolutely, so not true. As you may know. Justin: Yeah, certainly. Well I think we put together a nice pro and con list for people. Like you said, the most important thing is to educate yourself and know what market you’re selling into and use the process that makes the most sense for that market considering your budget and quality and longevity needs. I appreciate you joining us to help educate our listeners of this stuff, I hope everybody enjoyed it, and we will catch you again next time. Renee: Alright thanks so much Justin, it’s a pleasure. Justin: Thanks Renee! Alright guys, that is it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for joining the discussion, and if you have thoughts on this subject – do be sure to leave your comments on the show notes page. I’d love to interact with you guys there and get some discussion going on this. For the show notes link, it’s pretty simple – just visit ask-bc.com/episode32. Thanks again for listening and for being a part of the show. So we’ve compiled a massive PDF with all of Renee’s content – that’s podcast episodes, blog posts, everything. If you’d like to get your hands on this PDF, just take your phone out right now and text the word “RBESTA” to 33444 and we will shoot you over that PDF free of charge of course. If you enjoyed this show today, also I would love to see an iTunes review from you – it’s so simple, it takes like 90 seconds to do. Just go into iTunes, search for the AskBC podcast, and leave us a rating and review, that would be so awesome, I would really appreciate that. And if you want to ask a question for the show I would love to hear from you and potentially feature your question on the show, just visit ask-bc.com and you’ll see a contact form listed there where you can do so. If we end up featuring your question, we’ll mention your business name right on the show. Thanks so much for listening, guys! Until next time. [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Digital C-Prints vs. Inkjet Prints – Pros, Cons, & Myths appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Take the mystery and headache out of dark prints with this in-depth investigation of the lab and inkjet printing processes and the points at which mistakes are made that lead to prints coming out too dark. Prints too dark? This is one of the most common issues we hear from our customers, and it’s a tough one to troubleshoot because of the variety of factors that can cause it. As such, we want to devote some time to educating our blog readers on the many missteps in the formatting, proofing, and printing processes that can lead to prints coming out too dark. In this episode, professional printmaker Renee Besta walks through the printing process from start to end, noting the key points that could lead to dark prints – first for digital c-prints ordered from a lab, and then for inkjet prints done at home. Also be sure to download Renee’s additional resources PDF – find it in the show notes below! What looking at a lab’s ICC profile can tell you about the quality of prints they produce Paying attention to your viewing environment Troubleshooting dark photos in Windows Photo Viewer Changing the default ICC Profiles Version from 4.0 to 2.0 ColorMunki Profiles Media settings and prints that are too dark Setting display luminance (brightness) value correctly Paper types and prints that are too dark Checking the histogram Much more! Listen in to learn about why lab and inkjet prints can come out too dark Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include Albert from K & D Photography, and Chuck. For a bit of bonus talk on dark prints, we also covered the issue on Episode 16 of #AskBC. For Renee’s additional resources and information from this episode, including a checklist for troubleshooting dark prints and a visual demonstration of the ICC profile mentioned in Question #1, click here. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 31 of #AskBC Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin. Today we talk about images appearing dark through Windows Photo Viewer, choosing a responsible print lab, and brightness settings on your monitor. [Music] Welcome to Episode 31 of the AskBC podcast. We have back with us today, a special guest. Renee Besta joins us, from renmarphoto.com, and we are going to mainly today be discussing dark prints. Let’s go ahead and jump into the show. Justin: Hey Renee, thank you so much for joining us again today. We’re recording this on a Friday, so happy Friday to you! How is it going today? Renee: It’s going great! Good morning and happy Friday to you, too, thanks for having me back, I appreciate it. Justin: Thank you, always good to have you here. Let’s go ahead and jump into the first question. This one comes from a gentleman named Albert. He’s with KND Photography. Albert asks, “Why after editing my images in Photoshop, and saving the images to my print folder, do they look darker when viewed in Windows Photo Viewer?” He says, “My monitor is a top of the line Eizo and is calibrated with the ColorMunki, yet when I send them to a lab for printing, they come back too dark despite having soft proofed the images using the lab’s profile and in the sRGB colorspace that they demand.” So obviously this is a pretty loaded question from Albert here, it’s got a few different parts. We went ahead and reached out to Albert via email to see if we could get a few more details, and Albert mentioned having used this lab before. I guess his group uses this lab regularly, and it’s pretty common to get dark prints back from this lab, you know, as compared to the files that they’re viewing on their own displays, so that’s one piece of the — some more detail we got. He also said that he printed on an inkjet printer in-house and that the photos looked fine in terms of darkness, so that’s kind of interesting. So I asked him to send me over one of these files that he sent out to the lab that came back with the dark print, and he sent over one of those files, so, Renee, you’ve had a chance to look at all of these details and the file and everything, what are your thoughts on this? Renee: Okay, lots of thoughts on it. First of all, thank you very much Albert for being willing to provide us with one of your images to take a look at, and actually giving the information that enabled me to do some online research and find out which minilab you were using to source those dark prints out to. So there’s like several questions and issues here to be addressed, and I’d just like to say, today’s podcast’s whole theme is kind of the dark print. Because we have two questions and this question we’re going to focus on dark chromogenic prints – so-called “digital c-prints,” and in the next one will be for dark inkjet prints. So there’s a lot of issues within this question, and I’ll first start with the images appearing darker in the Windows Photo Viewer and then start drilling our way down the list. Should be helpful. SO let’s just start with the Windows Photo Viewer application. First of all, I would just say I recommend always viewing your images, preferentially either in Lightroom or Bridge, unless Alberts using an older boxed version of Photoshop, as you probably know, Adobe products are now cloud subscription-based. So the photography package automatically includes both Photoshop and Lightroom. I really prefer lightroom for almost everything. It’s just a great way, easy way to view and rank your images. So, let me just say the Windows Photo Viewer application is fully color-managed, however it is somewhat notorious for its inability to display certain display profiles correctly. The problem is definitely not Photoshop. The problem is that the Windows Photo Viewer is displaying the image incorrectly, as it cannot properly interpret the display profile. So instead, it more or less chokes on it. And this is kind of common. So first of all, Albert should check and see what display profile is selected in his Windows Color Management device settings. There’s a device tab under “Color Management.” Sometimes, for whatever reason, that will default to some generic monitor profile. So it may not be the ColorMunki profile he made for the Eizo display, so he needs to check that that most recent profile he made is showing up under “Device Settings” in Windows Color Management. So when making that display profile, I would always advise to save it with a custom name. Some people don’t, they just click, you know, click “Enter.” include the date so you know which profile you’re using, because you’re going to continue to recalibrate it over time. THe problem is ordinarily always that display profile. So that’s one issue – check and make sure it’s on the ColorMunki profile he made. Something that really kind of gave me a clue, was when he said “ColorMunki,” because I’ve used a ColorMunki. Now I don’t know if he’s using just the ColorMunki display device, or the ColorMunki Photo, which is a more complete solution for making paper profiles as well, but you have to be forewarned that ColorMunki itself defaults to using the most recent ICC version for profiles, which is, I think, version 4.2.something-or-the-other. It is really best to set the ColorMunki to make ICC version 2 profiles, not version 4. Version 4, unfortunately, even though it’s been out for a very long time, I think it was around 2001 or 2002 when it came out – seems like a really long time ago. Version 4 has many known issues with various applications and operating systems. INcludes problems with display profiles, with printer profiles, a lot of things. So you would think, “Gosh, it’s been out fourteen-or-so years!” But color management in general in the industry kind of moves at a glacial pace, so I’ve had these problems when I first – years ago – got a ColorMunki Photo when it first came out to make custom profiles for my older 3880, I thought, “What the heck is going on?” I would make prints and I would see this light gray border all around the image. The image was perfect, it printed perfectly fine, but I’d look around the outer edge, there’d be a light gray. I’d be like, “What’s going on?” I’d go to x ray and then I first started getting a clue that there were a clue with this version 4, and this started in Snow Leopard on the Mac. So what you basically have to do is make sure he is downloaded the latest software for the ColorMunki, that will enable you to choose, under your preference settings, to make ICC version 2 profiles and not version 4. So again, I don’t know if he’s doing version 4 or not, but definitely the Windows Photo Viewer will choke on ICC version 4 display profiles. It just – other applications may be able to interpret them, but it can’t, and I can also send you a link to the international color consortium ‘s website, which is just color.org – there actually is a test image on there that will show you whether your display is version 4 compatibile or ready or not. Or just version 2, or not at all. So, that’s a good thing to do. Justin: That’s handy. Renee: So anyway, that should resolve that. Again, like I said, check his Windows Color Managmeent device settings, make sure its set for the ColorMunki profile he made for the Eizo, and then I would remake it and make sure it’s set to version 2. But that still might not even work. It just depends on his operating system, but again i would view it in Lightroom or Bridge. So then, let’s go to the Eizo display calibration. When people always say all the time, and I get these questions from students, “but I calibrated my display!” But then you have to ask, “Hello? What did you set the luminance target for?” and they’re like, “Well, what do you mean?” They just think this device just fixes everything to some industry standard – there are many different industry standards. We have a standard white point of d-50 for prepress and graphics professionals that’s been used forever, that’s why most viewing booths are set to d-50, you know, it’s been known for a long time that it’s preferential for photography to set that white point at d-65. D-50 is generally, for most people, and I’m not saying every photographer does this, is a little too warm for most people to edit their images in. But basically when you’re talking dark prints, one of the number one issues, whether you’re talking inkjet or chromogenic prints, would be what people call the “brightness” setting – it’s actually the luminance. So on the monitor, when you get these monitors from the factory, they are set way, way, way too bright. So again, I don’t know. Here’s the issue – even on a ColorMunki you can choose the easy method for doing the calibration, which is basically “boom,” you press a button and it does its thing, or advanced options. And I would always choose the advanced, because then you can specify, you know, your prefered luminance target, white point, the gamma. The gamma, which is really the tonal response curve, should be set for 2.2. But basically, I don’t know. Now with an Eizo, thank god, out of the box, that’s going to be at a relatively good starting point in terms of the candela value. Most people add it somewhere between 90 and 120, I think maybe some people are up to 140, I’ve seen some people say, “I’m at 85.” You’re going to need to determine that by your viewing environment, but it’s still important to have a target value that matches your working environment. So he didn’t say how that is set, but since he does inkjet prints as well, you know, it is really important. He may also want to look at, because he’s using an Eizo, it’s a very high-end, the highest end – the Cadillac of monitors – you probably remember, Justin, we did a podcast on monitors before, and people were asking how can they get an inexpensive or entry-level wide color gamut type of display, which there really is no such thing, and it’s basically NEC or Eizo. But we did talk about, in that podcast, that NEC makes their own device for calibrating their display, along with the SpectreView software – it enables you to assess the internal LUT or look-up table, within the monitor, such that, you’re not really, you know, the software is controlling all of these things. You don’t have to press buttons on the monitor to set luminance, to set anything, it does it. Otherwise, you’re calibrating through your computer’s video card, and we talked about that. So, I don’t know about Eizo, I mean, I can’t afford one. I have an NEC PA series, which I love. And their device and SpectreView software. So maybe Eizo, I don’t know, do they make a device, the ColorMunki will not do justice to a piece of equipment like that, so that’s just something as an aside you might want to look into. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good thought. I’m not sure whether they do or not, I imagine they probably do. Renee: Yeah, they may well make their own software, otherwise how do assess the internal LUT, I don’t know, I haven’t checked on their website, so it’s worth looking into. So, let’s get into the meat of this – why are minilab prints most likely too dark? So basically, and again, thank you Albert, based on the additional information you sent on your photographic society and you clued me in on that website was information on ordering prints from your local minilab. Just doing some online research, I found what lab that is and went ot that lab’s website, went to their technical support section where you can download and take a look at their provided ICC profiles for the three Fuji papers that they offer. Doing so was highly illuminating and enlightening, and the results of that, you know, it speaks volumes and it really explains why the prints for that lab come out pretty poorly, so I’ll go over some of these points. First of all, the profile for the Fuji glossy paper was made way back in 2008. I mean, you can see, when you open up a program like ColorThink by Chromix, or if you’re working on a Mac there’s a built-in wonderful utility called ColorSync, which I mentioned before in other podcasts. Totally free, you can see all of this data in there. This is not a custom profile made by that lab, so I say, shame on them, more or less. It’s a canned profile most likely provided by Fuji. You have to understand, whether you’re doing inkjet prints or chromogenic prints, paper manufacturers will still provide profiles, just like Breathing Color does for their papers. But, is that optimal? If you’re in business, and you’re a big commercial lab, you should be making your own custom profiles for your machines, your work environment, your chemistry, your situation. So this is gonna hold true whether or not, you know, you’re talking about inkjet prints or chromogenic prints. And they’re not, I mean we’re in 2015 – that’s seven years old. What does that say? And I’m like, “Oh my gosh,” and then I did a gamut plot looking at all three profiles, comparing it to sRGB – which, as we know, is a very small color gamut – it was, you know, developed for the web, and for monitors, and it’s much, much smaller than Adobe RGB let alone ProPhoto RGB, but you would think, and I’ve looked at a lot of these profiles from various labs that produce chromogenic prints, and most of them will encompass close to the entire sRGB color gamut. The ones I downloaded, these were significantly smaller, and it was really quite surprised when I saw this. I mean, I don’t know, I’m not really in that industry, I prefer inkjet prints for many reasons, but for this lab, they were much, much smaller than sRGB. So when you continue to reduce your gamut, your color and tonal values are going to get compressed, and informations going ot get thrown out that will lead to color shifts, and certainly, potentially, darker prints. So I’m gonna provide an example of a couple of these plots in the show notes and you can see what I’m talking about. You can look at, these are LAB plots, so you have luminance scale on an A and B, which represents the hues, and you can see in various regions where it’s bright or dark, how far the gamut extends, and if you can’t extend the colors into the lighter ranges, what does that tell you? You’re going to get dark prints. So it kind of explains it. And this is specific for this lab, of course, not everybody’s lab. So, I’m just gonna back up and say, when you’re dealing with photo labs in general, you have to keep quite a few things in mind. And there’s a lot of very, very good ones, no question about it. What you have to understand is there are a lot of them that are really not so good. There’s a lot of people that have gone into the minilab print business, as it’s very profitable, just as there are people that have gone into the inkjet printing business because it’s profitable, it doesn’t mean that everybody is of equal quality or cares deeply about the quality of the prints. So, the dark print problem is the number one issue that I’ve seen with everybody i know, even locally, whatever, with minilab prints. They’re at the top of the complaint list. Even people I know that use my local Costco, it’s the number one issue. So you have to understand why is that, I mean, nothing is going to be custom produced unless you ask for it and pay for it, and they may not even allow that. This printing process is just like in the days when we shot film, and if I was shooting transparencies or professional color or black and white film, that went to a custom lab. If I’m just shooting my snapshots, that just went to a regular lab, same type of thing. It’s all automated for the masses. It’s mass-process. The pricing reflects that. So I’m sure, like you’re probably aware, that they have their machines set on an autocorrect feature, just like in the dark room days, and it’s really intended to release blown-out highlights. Now that’s going to be really important for people shots, portraits, and that’s a large chunk of the business. But then, that auto-correction feature has the effect of blocking up your shadow areas in the image, so what does that do? You have to dark of a print, if that makes sense to you. Justin: I didn’t realize that, I’d never heard of that before. Renee: Well, you’re too young to probably remember photobooths. With a photobooth, I mean when we did our general snapshots – family events, just friends, people shots, I’m not gonna take it to a custom lab to get an enlargement, we just got the standard four by sixes or whatever, wallet sized prints, and they’re all run through a booth. They’re so cheap, and it’s not going to be custom done. Hopefully, again, it’s very common in that industry -they don’t have a lot of people, they don’t have, as you’ve just seen from my comments, high quality profiles. And they’re using canned profiles, so therefor think about what happens when someone like Albert is trying to soft proof his image using a profile like this. I mean, you’re mucking up – you’re changing pixels in your image to get them to match this profile, which is a canned profile, it’s a 2008 profile, which isn’t custom-made for their machine, you know, expectations – they’re not gonna come out very well. Other thing to keep in mind, not all these labs calibrate their printers regularly. Some of them are awesome about it, and do it routinely. Maybe they don’t change the chemistry. This is still live process, it may not be changed frequently enough. So if you’re looking at the archivability of a print, the degree to which it is archival is very reliant on that chemistry, just like in the dark room days. So, you know, maybe they don’t remake the profiles often enough, they’re just using canned profiles. I’ve actually seen profiles, from labs I will not name, very large, commercial labs, that are dated back to like 2003. That’s just absolutely incredible, so, again, that explains a lot of that. And people should keep that in mind and be asking these questions, and if it doesn’t work for you -take your business somewhere else. THere is no excuse for using generic, canned profiles when you’re in business commercially! To produce prints for other people. If you don’t have anyone in house you hire someone like a Scott Martin or any other color management expert to do these for you. At least provide that for the customer because if you’re soft proofing based on that, you can imagine, you know. Justin: Yeah, we see it right here, you know. Renee: You can see it right here. So then finally, I think his final question is, “gee, if my Eizo display is calibrated to industry standards, then how can my prints be so underexposed at this minilab?” Well, the monitor is only one part of the pipeline, and it’s basically kind of irrelevant to the minilabs output if the lab is not properly calibrating their machines and they’re using canned profiles, and the profiles aren’t so good, and they aren’t maybe using fresh chemistry….color management chain is broken. Period. So, you know, and again, how do you define industry standards when you speak of your display? I went over that earlier. What are your settings in terms of your luminance value, the quote “brightness” setting, your white point, the tonal response curve. Everybody uses something different depending on what their goal is, and what is there environment. And I can guarantee that lab isn’t using an Eizo. It’s a completely different process than inkjet printing. Therefor, it gets calibrated differently. So they’re not even editing images on a screen, they’re just using a screen to run the machine, and it’s not monitor-dependent. So…anything else you can think of that I didn’t cover? Because I think that’s about it for these questions. Justin: yeah, I think that’s about it. I think you covered a majority of it for Albert. Renee: Yeah, and I’m really grateful, again, thank you very much for giving me the additional information and sending your image over, I really appreciate it. It was really helpful, and as you saw, your inkjet printer prints the image fine, and sending it to a different minilab gave you good results, so again, find the good ones. Just be aware that these things can happen. Justin: Yeah, being able to ask the right questions. I think that’s an important bit you touched on. You know, know what to ask. Renee: Yeah, you’ve got to go down in tech support, sometimes people don’t want to talk to you. If they don’t, find another lab. Justin: right, yeah that’s a bad sign, if someone doesn’t want to talk to you or they’re not knowledgable about what’s going on in their own lab. Renee: Happens all the time. Justin: Yeah, yeah. I can imagine it does. Alright, let’s go ahead and jump on to question 2 of this episode. THis one comes from a gentleman named Chuck. Chuck says, “The biggest issue I have is prints coming out too dark on paper. I understand the difference between viewing an image versus on paper, but I haven’t found a reliable way to match the two.” He says his screen is calibrated with the DataColor SpyderPRO 4, he uses Photoshop and Lightroom, he’s open to any suggestions that might work. He says, “In the old days, I would do test strips.” and he says he still does, “to get lower values than dodge, burn, and mask.” So, Chuck doesn’t mention what kind of display he’s using, along withs ome other details. We tried to reach out to him, but we haven’t heard back yet, so, with the details we have in front of us, what are your thoughts, Renee? Renee: Yeah, again, thanks Chuck for even sending in a question, and, as Justin said, we did reach out, in fact I came up with this idea – “Hey, this would be really great.” Because I know people get frustrated, because often you read in printing forums or books or when you ask these questions, you seem to get these same answers, in a way – “Did you do this, this, and this?” and people get frustrated. Justin: Right, generic. Renee: I am really willing to have someone email to me a sample image that they say printed too dark. Again, don’t know if he’s talking about inkjet prints or sending out to a lab like Albert, I’m presuming inkjet, and I’m gonna answer it that way, because I’ve already gone over the minilab potential issues. But I’d be very happy to make some prints on my printer and see how they come out and snap some photos and send them back to you, but we haven’t heard back yet. As much information as possible, again, anybody that wants to send in a question. Please do so. Or leave comments, providing different information underneath the podcast where the Discus comments are displayed. But, let’s just…I’m just going to go over the top reasons why inkjet prints come out too dark. First of all, as I’ve discussed previously, you gotta talk about your monitor luminance, or so-called “Brightness” setting. I don’t know what make and model display he’s using – is it a wide gamut display? Again, out of the box, most monitors come at extremely high luminance values. Sometimes 300 nits or higher! In fact, I just did a podcast that hasn’t aired with someone asking my opinion on Apple’s new 5K retina iMac. Gorgeous display, but even if you read Apple’s specs on that, they say, “Oh, the brightness can go over 400 nits!” Justin: Jeez! For what! Renee: Jesus, I mean they really are set at over 300. You need to be at less than half of that to do proper photo editing. So that’s an issue. And again, I just can’t emphasize that enough, and he hasn’t said, so basically what happens – if your luminance is set too high on the monitor, you’re making your image-editing decisions based on those viewing conditions. So the image is gonna appear brighter than it really is. It’s going to look like the shadows are open and there’s some detail in there, but in fact there isn’t. The print will come out too dark. Well, you know, what’s the fastest way to check that? People always forget this, I mean I’ve taught a lot of classes in printing and Lightroom and other things, it’s just amazing to me even though histogram is readily available, people always – or, quite often, I should say – forget to check that histogram throughout the editing process. You need to be sure your blacks and shadow areas aren’t blocked up or clipped, the same as your highlights and the whites. Sometimes in Photoshop people have the navigator tab selected at the top of the pane there, instead of the histogram. I always make sure that isn’t. It’s one reason I love Lightroom, it’s there always. Doesn’t matter where you are in what module. So if you look at it, and you’re seeing that you’ve got blocked up areas or clipping, or it’s shifted to the left, that’s a big clue right there it’s gonna print dark, period. No matter what you do and how your monitor is set. So if it looks really good, you know, on the monitor, make sure you look at the histogram that it has good tonal distribution. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good note. I’d say that’s the most common reason for prints coming out “too dark,” as they’re compared to the displays is that people have their displays way too bright. Maybe like 80% of people that call in, tech support calls like that, it’s always the displays too bright. When I tell them…especially if they’re on an iMac or something, I tell them that their brightness probably needs to be set around like 30-50% of it’s capabilities, they freak out, like “that’s impossible,” well, believe it or not it’s the truth. Renee: Right, I mean it makes people’s hair stand on end, it’s just like “how can this be, I’m spending so much money, surely Apple wouldn’t do that to me.” It’s just like this 5K display – as I said, you want to genuflect walking into the room, it is beautiful, no question for watching videos and browsing the web and doing your day-to-day stuff, I mean it’s awesome for that. But again, they’re highly reflective. I’ve gone over those issues. I find it very hard, I feel like I have to pull my weight to get to the image, but they’re just set that way because that’s what most people are doing – they’re not making high end inkjet prints, or whatnot. There is just this thing that has to do with what you’re paying for something versus what it should be, like set to some standard. And again, when I just touched on with Albert, with the DataColor Spyder, and I’ve even watched YouTubes on… video…I just like researching this stuff even before the podcast, when I’d get any information. These calibration methods, again, there’s an easy sort of automated calibration method, and an advanced method. And sometimes they don’t even have you input your luminance, I mean that’s just like incredible. So yes it will profile the monitor, so it’s going to, you know, display different color catches and take measurements of those and then make a profile based on the color, but when you go to the lookup table these are the actual numerical values or the tristimulus values, here’s the difference and you make an adjustment for the color, but if you’re not starting with the proper luminance value, then you’re probably going to get dark prints. All out of the box, most all monitors except for the high end Eizo and NEC, are going to come set that way. So I don’t know what he’s using, it’s really important. The next number one issues for dark prints, is the print viewing conditions. And people just totally seem to gloss over that point or don’t understand that. They could be working kind of in a dim room, and what they’ll do is take the print when it comes out of the inkjet printer, and hold it right up against the monitor, and say “Gosh that’s too dark!” Well think about it, it’s like viewing your print under candle light. Would you do that? Is that gonna work? Nine times out of ten I guarantee when you really look at it under a proper light source, people would agree the print really isn’t too dark, they just think it is under initial examination. So take that print out of the room you’re working in, place it under other illuminance. Go outdoors, look at it under daylight. Go into your kitchen, look somewhere else. But of course, the optimal solution would be to invest in an industry standard viewing booth like a GTI that’s set up adjacent to your display that is set to a target wavepoint that’s appropriate for the display conditions. Now I know those are expensive, but there’s a lot of more economical solutions like SoLux lamps and Phelix lamps and other products, and in fact I’m working on an article on dark prints – I’ll be included those solutions for viewing, but basically readjust your eyes. Just go into your living room or somewhere and look at that print, or, you know – the cheapest solution you can do is get some of these other lamps. You can have them set to – you know, purchase them, that are set to different wavepoints. So basically, you may find they’re really not too dark. I mean if they’re way off that’s one thing, but it’s usually the print viewing conditions. People sometimes think, “I really should be able to completely match the print to the screen.” You’ll never be able to do it. Your monitor is transmitting light, the print is reflecting light. And even though he acknowledges there is that difference, I don’t know what he’s doing – he didn’t give me enough detail to say is he just holding up against the monitor, does he have a viewing booth or a SoLux or some other solutions for looking at it. So nine times out of ten, they’re gonna find out it’s the way people are viewing it – it really isn’t too dark. So then the other thing to keep in mind when you’re, you know, preparing an image for printing, printed images have a much lower contrast ratio than when viewed on your display. Displays have very large contrast ratios. Now especially those printed on matte papers or so-called watercolor cotton papers versus photo papers that take photo black ink like a glossy luster, a pearl paper, a baryta. There’s a huge reduction in that contrast ratio going from monitor to a paper print. So in particular, the matte papers have a lower d-max, which is the deepest black that it can print compared to the photo papers. So when you’re editing for print, you almost always have to bump up the contrast. You do that when soft proofing against a profile that you’re gonna use. But, increasing the clarity, and I mentioned this before in another podcast, I can’t remember which one right one, but increasing the clarity is very helpful, as that slider affects the midtone areas which suffer the most from tonal compression when printed. So that’s a good thing to bump up, very easy to do in Camera RAW or Lightroom. And there’s always going to be some loss of shadow detail when printing, so you should be sure to open those up, again, check the histogram, you don’t’ want to move it over too far, but you may have to compensate in the soft proof for that. And then when you do all those, see if it really is printing too dark.. The other issue is that the printer media settings are sometimes incorrectly set, and I went over this, again, we recorded a podcast, someone was having problems with Pura Smooth which is 100% cotton non-OBA paper made by Breathing Color. Smooth paper, a hot press paper. And was having this issue of the colors being off and other things, but I did mention these same sort of bullet points. I’ve seen this happen, when you’re using, and again he didn’t tell me – it’s really useful, please give as much detail as possible – is it dark prints on all papers? Photo papers and matte papers? Or are they OEM papers? Canon or Epson? Or your Breathing Color papers? What paper gives you the most problem? You could be using completely the incorrect black ink for the type of paper. One thing that has driven me crazy about Epson’s drivers is even if you are, let’s just say I have it set so that matte black is the predominant black ink. When I go by default to the printer driver, it defaults to a media type of luster paper. Why? Why would it do such a thing? And you really need to check that. If you don’t check it, if you switch it to a matte paper or a photo paper it’ll then change that. You have to make sure, especially with third party papers, you’re selecting the correct media or paper type. In other words if you have an Epson or Canon printer, it’s not going to give you Breathing Color papers as a selection in the media type. So again, we talked about this on the last podcast and I wrote an article on printing with third party papers. You really have to go in and manually change some things. So the manufacturer will tell you. For instance with Pura Smooth or any cotton paper for Breathing Color, what you want to do for an Epson is select “watercolor paper radiant white” for the media type. With Canon, it’s “extra heavy weight art paper.” There is no, like I said, OEM paper selection for third party. If you don’t pick that you’re going to get a poor print, and this really can affect the shadows, so you can end up with a dark print if that’s incorrect. I don’t know if you’ve encountered that a lot with technical support, but I see that all the time with students, they’ll just say, “Oh! I picked a profile from Breathing Color for my printer and their paper.” And I say, “Oh, what media type did you select?” and it’s like, “What do you mean?” Well you have to pick an OEM media type. “Oh!” And it’s just not selected, but you’ve done the profile based on that. So that profile will not work unless you pick the appropriate OEM media type that the paper manufacturer suggests. You know, with [unintelligible] it’s going to be one thing, [unintelligible] – something else. Museo, something different. They will tell you – this is what we base our profiles on. And then again, to summarize, you know, as you know, making your own custom profiles or having them made for you is always the optimal solution for printing. Period. Whether it’s inkjet or minilab prints, it bests reflects your work environment, your hardware and software. Even with the same make and model of printer you’re going to have differences. They’re not exactly, 100% identical. So if you don’t want to invest in a device and don’t have time to make them, hire one of the – there’s a lot of great industry consultants that’ll make them for 100 to 150 bucks a piece. Just hone down on one matte paper you really like, one photo paper you really like, pay for it. It’ll be optimized, and it’ll work, you won’t have this problem. Justin: Yep, just one piece of the puzzle. Renee: Exactly. So, again, Chuck is welcome to write back and give me more details and, actually, to send an image that he says prints dark and I’ll make some prints here on different papers, and provide more information in the comments section. Justin: Yeah, what a fantastic offer. Renee; Yeah, I mean it’s fun to do that. I like solving problems. And I don’t want people going away saying, “Well I heard to calibrate and I calibrated” because then you get into “what did you calibrate at?” Justin: Hey, be careful what you wish for, you might get like 40 or 50 emails from listeners with a bunch of images like, “hey check this out!” Renee: [laughs] Yeah but a lot of times I just open it up in lightroom or Photoshop and look at that histogram, and “whoops” because the monitor is set to such a high luminance value and people don’t check the histogram, they don’t realize. And I’m gonna include some screen shots in my article where I’ve done exactly that – taken an underexposed image and cranked up the luminance on my monitor, and you can just see “Oh, it looks like it’s not so underexposed. Magical, mystical.” Justin: That’s awesome, it’s a good illustration I think. Such a common problem. Renee: Right, it is. So anything else I missed with this question or Albert’s question? Justin: I don’t think so, you know, unless they have a piece of the puzzle that they left out of the question that might give us some more insight, like you said already, go ahead and post that in the comments. If you guys, Chuck or Albert, have that, we would be happy to get back to you and respond. Other than that, I think we covered it pretty well, so we’ll include all those details in the show notes that we’ve talked about. That’s the last question we have for today’s show actually, so I appreciate you coming on the show again, Renee, it’s awesome having you, and I’m sure we’ll revisit this “Prints are too dark” topic before too long. Renee: Yeah I’m sure, thank you so much for having me, it’s my pleasure. As always. Justin: Yep, definitely. Well I appreciate it, I hope you have a great weekend. Renee: You too, thank you so much. Justin: Well guys, that’s it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for listening and for being a part of the show. For the shownotes for this episode, you can visit ask-bc.com/episode31. Thanks again for all the questions, and for being a part of the show. So we put together this massive PDF, which basically contains all the content that Renee has ever given us. All the podcast episodes that she’s been featured on, all of the blog articles, everything. We’ve taken it and compiled it into one easy-to-digest PDF. If you’d like to receive that PDF straight to your email, it’s super simple, just take your phone out right now and text the word “RBESTA” to 33444. If you enjoyed today’s show, open up iTunes, find the AskBC page, and leave us a rating and a review. This is super helpful for us. We love hearing your feedback, helps us know that we’re headed in the right direction with the show. If you would like to ask a question to be featured on the AskBC podcast, it’s super quick and easy – just visit ask-bc.com, we’d love to hear from you. And if we choose to feature your question on the show, we’ll mention your business name right in the episode. Thanks guys, and we’ll talk with you next time. [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Investigating Lab and Inkjet Prints That Come Out Too Dark appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

The qualities and limitations of matte media, a full description of the various matte papers Breathing Color offers, and a discussion of printing canvas on DTG printers. Cold pressed? Hot pressed? Loss of shadow detail? On this episode of #AskBC, Justin talks about what to expect out of printing on matte papers in terms of mid tone and shadow detail. He also runs down available matte media from Breathing Color including hot and cold pressed options. Later in the show, Justin covers listener questions on choosing a RIP for use on a wide-format Epson and Windows operating system, and producing canvas prints on direct to garment printers. Is reduced midtone and shadow detail inherent to matte media? Defining hot pressed and cold pressed papers A run down on what matte papers Breathing Color offers and the differences between them RIPs that work well with Windows A reminder of reasons to use a RIP (getting automatically better-looking prints isn’t one of them!) Direct to garment (DTG) printer technology Printing to canvas on DTG – possible, but not easy Much more! Listen in to learn about matte media and canvas prints on DTG printers Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include Mike from mfreyimages.smugmug.com, Rick from Gifts from the Heart, John Clide, and John from Stitch in Time. We talk about RIPs a lot! For more, check out the article “Do I Need a RIP?” and don’t miss the comment section for more discussion. RIPs also come up on a couple of #AskBC episodes, including “RIP Software and Color Management,” and “Layout Software vs. RIPs.” RIPs mentioned in this episode include QImage, ColorBurst, ImagePrint, Onyx, and Wasatch. Cold-pressed matte papers from BC: Pura Velvet, Elegance Velvet, Pura Bagasse Textured, 600MT, and 28MT. Hot-pressed matte papers from BC: Pura Smooth, Optica One, and Pura Bagasse Smooth. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 30 of #AskBC Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin, today we talk about matte inkjet paper options, RIP software for Epson printers, and direct-to-garment (or DTG printers) printing on inkjet canvas and papers. [Music] Welcome to Episode 30 of the #AskBC podcast! Got some interesting, fresh topics today, so let’s go ahead and jump right into the first question. Announcer 2: Mike with mfreyimages.smugmug.com asks, “I have used Moab Photo Matte 235 paper for some time. There have been some problems with midtones and shadows being soft, with some loss of detail. I have also used Epson matte presentation paper, which I did not like either. Which matte paper would Breathing Color recommend as a replacement for these two papers to get better midtone and shadow detail?” Justin: Mike, that’s a great question. My first thought on this is, I’m wondering what type of paper you’re used to printing on, and I’m gonna assume it’s a satin or a glossy paper, you know, matte papers just inherently have less shadow detail. You’re always going to get that softer midtones and less shadow detail on a matte paper. So if you’re used to printing on satin papers, you know, or like a baryta or satin photo paper, etcetera, it just kind of comes with the territory, unfortunately. So i wonder that, that’s kind of my first thought on this. Secondly, I wonder what printer model you’re using. Second thought on this is kind of, maybe you’re using a photo black ink – you know, I’m not too sure how severe this loss of shadow detail and soft midtones are for you, but if you use a photo black ink on a matte paper, this loss of shadow detail and the other problem with the midtones is kind of exasperated. So that’s my second thought – if you’re using photo black, do anything you can to use matte black, because your results will be greatly improved when you’re printing on matte media with matte black. Third thought on this is, I wonder if you’re using custom ICC paper profiles. Are you making your own profiles with something like a ColorMunky from X-Rite or an IO1 Pro from X-Rite? Or are you using, you know, I’ve seen people using the standard Epson profiles when they’re printing on Moab paper. Something like that, just using a profile that’s not designed for the paper at all. So that would be my third question for you. Obviously, you know, a custom profile for your printer in its environment, you know, specific for this paper, would be ideal. And it might improve some of these issues you’re seeing. If you aren’t already using that, get one made if you can. Make one yourself. Let’s see…obviously, the fourth question is – are you using all the correct settings otherwise? Media type can have a pretty big bearing. If you’re using a media type setting that’s using too much ink on this paper, you can start running into these problems that you’re talking about, so double check with the paper manufacturers, make sure you’re setting the right settings. Obviously, if you use the Epson matte presentation paper, you probably are selecting the correct setting, since that media type setting is built into the Epson driver. You don’t mention using an Epson printer, but I assume you probably are. So yeah, just make sure that all the correct print settings are being used. You probably are doing that, but I wanted to mention it anyway. So going to your question, you ask what matte paper would Breathing Color recommend as a replacement for these two papers to get better detail. We have a paper called Vibrance Photo Matte – that would probably be my recommendation if you want to stay, you know, around this paper weight and around this paper thickness – you recommend using the photo matte 235 by Moab. The Vibrance Photo Matte by Breathing Color is 230gsm, a similar thickness as well. So, Vibrance Photo Matte would fit you pretty well, I think. I’ll throw a link to that product in the show notes for this page, so stick around for the show notes link until the end of the episode. Hopefully this answers your questions, as always feel free to leave comments on the show notes page of this episode, and I’d be happy to, you know, answer any other questions you have on this. For now, let’s go ahead and move on to the next question. Announcer 2: Rick from Gifts from the Heart asks, “Is there a good RIP program that will work on the Epson 7900 and 9880 in Windows?” Justin: Rick, good question, you know, this kind of configuration is probably the most common in terms of compatibility for RIP softwares or layout softwares as I call some of them. Epson and Windows is kind of the easiest solution to find a RIP for, I think. Many of them out there, I’ve talked about this before on at least one other podcast, we have a few articles floating around on the BC Blog that talk about RIPs – so I’d urge you to check those out. I’ll include some links in the show notes to those other podcasts and articles. I know one article in particular discusses the need for a RIP in general, it’s super interesting, actually. So be sure to check it out, it’s got some deep comment history that might prove useful for you, you know, where people are kind of throwing their ideas in and some discussion happening there – I think something like 70 or more comments on that article, so be sure to check that out. I think it’s called something like “Do I really need a RIP?” or something like that. So, that’s another thing I would kind of urge you, is – for what reason are you looking into getting a RIP? Some people talk about, you know, wanting to get into RIP software for their printer for no reason other than they’ve heard that they’ll get better print results – better color, or better detail, or something like that. Which, really, in general, isn’t the case anymore. So I’d urge you to look at that first, kind of take a step back, and figure out why you need a RIP – if it’s for something like bypassing the default printable length that Epson enforces on you through the driver, that’s a totally understandable and common reason to look for a RIP. Other reasons, like needing to quickly nest files side-by-side, where it takes quite a while in Photoshop – I think this is something you can do pretty easily in Lightroom if that’s something you have available. So that might allow you to bypass the need for a RIP, if it’s strictly to nest. You don’t mention kind of what’s your price range. A RIP software, you know, not knowing what reason you need or want a RIP for – it’s a little bit difficult to recommend a RIP that would fit you really well, because the range of RIP softwares that are out there – it’s pretty drastic. All the way from allowing you to lay out your files in a certain way, to nest them, as I mentioned, all the way up to certain workflow things that allow you to, you know, print really quickly and automatically nest files based upon their size, and things like that – things that a full-fledged, large, production print-house would need. I assume that’s not something you need, looking at these printer models, but I’m not sure. So that would be my second question – what is your price range, in addition to what exactly do you want or need a RIP for. Which features are you looking for, specifically? So all that being said, a couple of recommendations come to mind for the Windows operating system and these Epson large format models that you mentioned. Something like ImagePrint – this is probably the most common one I hear. Again, I’m making these recommendations just generally, without knowing exactly what you need it for or what your price range is. But ImagePrint – it’s made by a company called ColorBite. Most definitely one of the most common ones that I hear out there that our customers use. It’s pretty nice. They provide you with a full ICC profile support, which is a big concern for people that don’t do their color management in house. So, ImagePrint, definitely one to check out. QImage is nice. QImage actually uses the printer driver – and the most important part is that it uses it for color management, so you can use ICC profiles that are supplied by paper manufacturers, you know, the same ICC profiles you would use if you were printing through Photoshop or any other printing software like Lightroom or anything that uses the printer driver. So QImage is nice, and the price point on QImage is really low – I think at eighty to a hundred dollars or something like that, so really easy to get into. ImagePrint is going to be in the higher, close to a thousand dollar, range, and it depends on the width that you use – I know that you have 24” and a 44.” I don’t have the pricing in front of me, so I’m not sure, but I know it’s going to run you $700+ dollars for ImagePrint. More serious RIPs, quote unquote “serious RIPs,” with some more functionality, definitely in terms of color management – you would look for things like Onyx, you know, Onyx Production House – super capable program, definitely one of the most common ones I hear out there for larger print shops that are running high volume production – Onyx, Onyx RIP. ColorBurst is another one, you know, that’s going to be similar to Onyx – along the same lines. A quote unquote “serious RIP.” Shiraz is another prevalent one out there that i hear about sometimes. Wasatch is another one. So again, it kind of depends on your needs here, I think, and a lot of these have demos, so I would urge you to download a demo of one – most have 30 or 40 day trials. See how it works for you. I definitely know ImagePrint and QImage offer that, so I’d urge you to start there. And like I said, check out these links that I’m gonna include in the show notes, because it’ll talk a little bit more about RIPs. I think we have a couple of PDFs that you can download that expand upon the capabilities of each RIP a little bit more. So that’s a good place to start, definitely leave some comments on this episode’s show notes page. We’d be happy to reply to you and answer any other questions you have, and hopefully form a discussion. You know, other people can put their input in there as well. Let’s go ahead and move on to the next question. Announcer 2: Question number 3 comes from John Clide. John asks, “Which of the BC matte papers are hot press, and which are cold press?” Justin: So, Breathing Color offers quite a few different art papers – matte art papers. So cold-pressed ones would include Pura Velvet, Elegance Velvet, Pura Bagasse Textured, 600NT, and 28NT. I’ll include all of these in a kind of detailed manner in the shownotes if you want to check them out, along with links to the product pages, but Pura Velvet – anything with the name “Pura” in it essentially indicates that it’s an OBA-free and archival media, which is nice if that’s what you’re looking for. Out of all the options that I’ve listed here, what do I have 5 different papers that I’ve listed here that are cold-pressed – cold-pressed is essentially just meaning that it has a texture to the base paper. Out of these five options, 600NT is going to be your most pronounced texture – so if you’re looking for something like a heavy watercolor texture, definitely go look at the 600NT option. 28NT being kind of a lighter version of 600NT, so that one’s next in terms of amount of texture, you know, depth of the texture. So, just kind of depends on what you’re looking for there. In terms of hot press, or smooth papers, we have the Pura Smooth, the Optica 1, and the Pura Bagasse Smooth. Again, the ones starting with pura indicate that they are optical brightener additive, or OBA, free and archival. If you’re unfamiliar, the Pura Bagasse is actually a new product – the Pura Bagasse textured or smooth, whichever flavor you go for. This is a new product for us, it’s actually made partially – 70% or 75% from sugar cane (the base of the paper is, I mean). So 70 or 75% sugar cane pulp, and the rest of percentage with recycled cotton, so it’s got that green element, which is kind of cool. It’s printable on both sides, so it’s generally a pretty cool paper to check out, so I urge you to take a look of those. Hopefully that answers your question. If you have anymore, definitely post a comment on the show notes page, and, like I said, take a look there also for links to some of these products I’m talking about if you want some more detail. Let’s go ahead and move on to question four for today’s show. Announcer 2: This one comes from John at Stitch in Time. John asks, “I have an embroidery business with a frame shop and a viper DTG, or direct to garment, printer. We frame our embroidery as farewell items for our military. I do shirts with the DTG printer and would like to start using it for canvas printing. What would be the best canvas or paper products to use with this printer system?” Justin: John, that’s a great question. Sounds like you have a pretty awesome business there as well supporting our military with these types of framed embroidered prints. That’s super, super cool. To answer your question, or, I guess, to give these listeners a little bit of context when I throw out terms like “DTG.” Basically, DTG stands for direct-to-garment. Generally used for t-shirts and other textiles, where you can just pop a t-shirt right in the printer and print a single t-shirt, you know, with whatever graphics you have loaded up. So it’s a pretty cool alternative to the old screen printing process where you have to – it’s a much larger preparation process, and you generally run many more than just one-off prints. So DTG is kind of coming up recently, and it’s a pretty cool technology. I’ll be honest, I don’t know a ton about this technology – it’s kind of a separate market from what Breathing Color is in, you know, in the high end fine art reproduction space. But I do know that DTG inks are water-based pigments, so I know a couple of customers of ours actually have these printers, a couple of sales reps of mine have talked to them and confirmed that they’ll pretty much print on any canvas. You know, you want to have a canvas that is coated with an inkjet-receptive coating. This just means that it’s coated with a coating that’s designed to accept inks, essentially. Inkjet inks. And to look really nice. And you can go buy like an artist’s canvas and just print directly to that – it’ll work, but it won’t receive the inks very well without that inkjet receptive coating, or that IRC as we typically abbreviate it, or acronym-it. So make sure it’s something like Breathing Color sells – all of Breathing Color’s canvases are designed for inkjet printing, so basically any of our line will work fine with a DTG printer. So, you know, things like Lyve canvas – which is archival and optical brightener free, would be a good option. We have things like 800M canvas, which is, you know, it’s not archival, it’s kind of designed more for the decor or the hospitality space. So, depending on the market you’re looking into, pretty much any canvas will work. So you can give our sales staff a call if you have any questions on what’s best for your specific target market, but yeah, the good news is – the majority of our line will be perfectly fine. Same goes for paper. I just talked in question three about the different fine art papers, so any of those will work just fine. Hopefully that answers your question on that. Profiling may be a challenge. We won’t have ICC profiles provided for this type of printer, it’s a little bit different than, like I said, the market we usually serve are using HP or Canon or Epson printers. So like a Viper DTG we wouldn’t offer profiles for. So ideally you’d have like an in-house profiling solution or you know someone that does color management profiling for a living. Get them in there and they can probably profile it for you. I imagine you probably run a Viper DTG printer through some kind of RIP software, so color management expert or you would need to be familiar with the color management that happens through that RIP specifically. So yeah, just thinking out loud, hopefully those things help you out a little bit. Like I said, always feel free to comment on the show notes page with any additional details you have or any questions you have, we’d be happy to address them more in detail there, or just give us a call. Alright guys, that is it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of the show. For the show notes for today’s episode, as always, you can visit the following site: ask-bc.com/episode30. Thank you again for all the questions and for being a part of this show, we really appreciate it. If you enjoyed the show today, definitely open up iTunes, find the #AskBC podcast page, and leave us a rating and a review. We love to hear your feedback, and honestly we read every one of these reviews that comes in. We appreciate you taking the 60-90 seconds it takes to do this, it really helps us know that we are going in the right direction or any ways that we can improve. So definitely leave us an iTunes rating and review. If you’d like to ask a question for the show, it is super simple, just visit ask-bc.com, fill out the quick form there, and if we choose your question to be featured on the show, we will mention your business name right in the episode. Thanks guys and we will talk with you next time. [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Matte Media Overview and Printing Canvas on DTG Machines appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Learn how to troubleshoot print errors in this in-depth case study that tracks a professional printmaker’s thought process to identify and resolve a print color issue. We’d love if every single print job you do comes out perfectly, but sometimes things just go wrong. When a print doesn’t look like you expect, where do you start? Workflow pro Rene?e Besta is here to demonstrate the troubleshooting process with a case study on diagnosing a print with poor color results. Rene?e works through the hardware and software methodically to isolate which component in the complex printing process may be triggering inaccurate color. Third party paper, custom profile, poor color output – What’s to blame? Checking that correct media settings are in place Media type mismatch Decoding information ICC profiles provide in the file name How to tell which stock media type you must use with a given ICC profile (it matters!) When a print color issue isn’t actually an error, but the result of inexperienced expectations Much more! Listen in to learn about troubleshooting print color issues Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include C?hristopher Kates from ThePaintedPixel.com.? For more on printing on third party papers, read Renee’s article H?ow to Configure Printer Settings for Third­ Party Papers.? Download Renee’s additional information and resources from this episode including links to popular printer evaluation images by clicking here. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 29 of #AskBC Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin, welcome to episode 29 of the AskBC podcast! Special guest Renee Besta joins us today to talk about trouble shooting color print issues, the on-board spectrophotometers of HP Z-Series printers, and more. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Renee’s website at renmarphoto.com. And you can also use the BC blog search bar to find other articles and podcasts by Renee. She’s got a ton of knowledge, so be sure to check those out if you haven’t already. Without further adieu, let’s go ahead and jump into the show. Announcer 2: This question comes from Christopher Kates…he’s from ThePaintedPixel.com. Christopher asks, “I’m following your instructions very closely…” I assume he’s talking about the instructions on our website. “…to print on Pura Smooth fine art paper with matte black.” He says he’s also using our custom profile from the website. He says, “The color just isn’t right. It’s too saturated and very warm. The reds are especially saturated and warm to the point of turning orange. He has tried some Epson canned profiles on the Pura Smooth, and they look even worse. I tried playing with the rendering intents. I sent both ProPhoto RGB and Adobe RGB files. At this point I can only use the Epson for media that uses photo black ink. I use my printers a lot for printing art reproductions that I’ve created for customers. If I go into changing color for these images, they won’t print as nicely when other businesses print for them.” So essentially he doesn’t want to modify on a file-by-file basis just to get it to come out good on the printer. He says, “All the test prints I’ve done so far were photographs from a DSLR, and I’m printing directly from Photoshop CS6 on a Mac.” Justin: Jeez, I’ll have to take a breath after that one, it’s a pretty loaded question, I think. A lot of details. Renee: Absolutely. Justin: What kind of thoughts do you have on that? Renee: I have a lot of thoughts on that. First of all, good morning to you Justin and thank you so much for having me back, I appreciate it. Justin: Morning, thank you. Renee: This is just a great question, it’s a common problem I’ve seen a lot of printing students deal with, and I have many, many possibilities as to why Christopher is having printing issues, and I think in this case it’s more than likely due to either improper printer or media settings in the printing workflow. It’s not going to be due to the profile. So, just bear with me, because some of these possible pitfalls may sound [unintelligible] – you think, “Oh, nobody’s going to do that.” but it does happen, and I’ve made those mistakes myself. Others are not so obvious. So I’m just going to kind of go through these. First of all, he did not say what printer he is using. I presume it’s Epson, as he’s discussing Epson canned profiles. And so if the printer is an Epson, is it an older model where he needs to physically swap out the photo black ink with matte black ink carts for printing on matte or cotton papers such as Pura Smooth? The reason I ask that, it’s important, and I will get to that. I have myself used the Breathing Color profile and the Pura Smooth paper and I”ve gotten phenomenal results. And I also, before this podcast, I examined several different Pura Smooth profiles for different printers, both Epson and Canon, in my Mac’s ColorSync utility, which allows you to [unintelligible] lab plot of the profile, you can take a look at it. It looks excellent. It’s large, it has great gamut. I’ve compared it to Epson’s profiles for a similar paper, which would be a hot press natural, and they’re very equivalent. So it’s not the profile that has got a problem, unless something went wrong in the installation when he downloaded and installed it. Maybe you want to re-do it. Something could have gotten corrupt that way. But really with these types of severe problems – the saturation, the colors being off, it’s very warm…It’s got to be an issue, again, with the printer or media settings or something in the printing workflow, beginning with Photoshop. So let me go through some possibilities that people may or may not consider: First of all, you always have to ask – did you run a nozzle check on the printer to ensure all of the nozzles are firing properly and none of them are clogged? Has he done a head alignment lately? I mean, there could be an issue with that. Sometimes with these nozzles, it’s very much image-dependent. On certain images, you might not notice that there’s a problem, with others it’s going to result in a disastrous print. Then I would say it sounds like he’s doing more printing on photo-type papers, and not matte black. So the question therefore is, how old is your matte black ink? If you’re not using it that much, perhaps it’s expired? I mean, there is a shelf life to these, and I would definitely pull out that cartridge if you’ve not printed with the matte black ink in a while and check the expiration date. Also, when something sits for a long time, the pigments will settle. They’re not soluble, more or less, they’re held in solution but they do start to settle. And I always do this before I do a lot of printing jobs. I take out every one of my cartridges and rock them back and forth and reinsert them, just because of that issue. It’s just something you should always do. So that could be an issue in printing on a matte type of paper. And I have to say, because I’ve seen people do this, did you download the correct ICC profile for Pura Smooth for your printer make and model? And I don’t know, he may be extremely experienced. I’ve seen people, they’re going through this big, giant list, and they pick one or select one and it’s for an Epson 3880 when they’re printing on a 9800, which is a totally different printer, which obviously – I mean these are common mistakes, and I’m not saying he’s doing this, but I’ve made this mistake myself in a rush, and I would definitely try to reinstall it and be sure it’s the correct one for your printer. I would also check, when he says he’s having these reds and oranges, you know, check your histogram – that is something a lot of people really gloss over whether it’s Photoshop or Lightroom, and it’s particularly easy to do in Photoshop because, depending on how you’ve got your palettes set up, you could have the default tab selected for the navigator, and not the histogram. Whereas in Lightroom, the histogram is always showing – one of the many reasons I like Lightroom. You know, and click on the different channels. Are you seeing something really weird? Something clipping with the reds or the oranges in a particular image? Is this happening on all images, or is it just a particular image? Look at your histogram. Is it balanced in terms of the tones, you know, from blacks to whites? Make sure, of course, you’re letting Photoshop manage colors in the print dialogue box, and that you’re disabling printer color management so that you’re not doing double color management. Of course, because he says he’s on a Mac, that’s automatically done, whereas on Windows you have to actually go in and disable the printer color management, or you’re going to get double color management. And I only mention that for the benefit of other people. And what I really think is going on here, is that he may well be not printing on the correct recommended media type. And if you’re not doing that, the printer may well be using photo black ink to print on a cotton paper instead, which is going to give you – i’ve seen these types of results using photo instead of matte black ink. Well how can that happen? Well, pretty easily. A lot of people, they make printer instructions, and I’ve printed them out before and mentioned them in articles and podcasts, there’s a section that asks a question – what media type do I use? And there’s a hyperlink under the media type, which takes you out to another page, which has a chart with abbreviations, and I’ve referenced that, again, in many podcasts. And at the top, and I wish you would fix this – please fix this, Justin – it says, as an example, with Pura Smooth, it’ll say “BC” first, manufacturer, it’ll then have your printer model (this is in the name of the ICC profile) which is 9900, and it will give you the paper type and then it will say whether it’s MK or PK – matte or photo black. For Pura Smooth, you have that abbreviation listed as PK. Justin: [laughs] Renee: And I’ve pointed it out before on an article and a podcast – that should be, obviously, MK, because it’s a 100% cotton paper. So it uses matte black ink. And then after that, there is an abbreviation for a media type. Now of course, if you’re using an Epson or Canon printer, you’re not gonna find…you can’t select Pura Smooth. There’s no media type for that, because they want you to buy their papers. So the paper manufacturer will always tell you, “This is the suggested media type.” In other words, they make a decision when making the profile what is going to be the closest match to the third party paper compared to the OEM paper, and the only way to find out that information is to actually, physically look at the file name for the ICC profile. And at the very end of the filename you will see some cryptic abbreviations, which is why Breathing Color has the chart listing all those abbreviations for Canon and Epson printers. So an Epson printer on Pura Smooth, you want to select “Water color paper radiant white” as the media type. And you have to do that. If you’re not doing that, you’re going to have problems with the print, and this is what I think may be going on. I don’t know, but it is an extremely common mistake is people don’t stop to think, “Oh, I’m putting Pura Smooth paper in” but they’re just letting it default whatever paper, it could be any time of Epson Enhanced Matte or whatever. But if you don’t select “Water color paper radiant white” with the Epson (on the Canon it’s “Extra heavy weight art paper” abbreviated EHWAP) — so you can see what I’m getting at, it’s confusing. You’re not going to get good results. If you select an Epson paper instead, and it’s really critical – people forget it’s a very important step when you’re doing third party paper printing. And again, the only way to know is to look at the name of the profile. So after you install it, you’re going to have to navigate — now I don’t know where this lives in Windows, but on the Mac, you go to your Mac’s main library, then go into the folder “ColorSync,” and then there’s another folder called “Profiles,” and that’s where they all live. You just scroll down and look for that profile, and make sure it correlates to the right printer you’re using, and look at the very end where it’s got that abbreviation. Compare it to the chart, and, again, for this Pura Smooth, you want “Water color paper radiant white.” And again, I would say, read my article on how to print on third party papers, because it uses this as an example, and walks you through all the steps. The other issue, and I know this sounds extremely bizarre, but it’s happened to me. Sounds obvious…be sure you’re printing on the correct side of the paper. Most of the time, that’s very, very obvious – especially with a photo paper, that’s really obvious, which side is printable. When you get into the cotton papers that don’t have optical brightening agents, in other words they’re called “natural,” it’s a smooth, it’s not textured. You have Pura Smooth, Pura Velvet, and Elegance Velvet…the color will look the same front to back. So if you happen to pull that out, normally when you buy papers the printable side is facing up. What I always do is to dust my papers off with a drafting brush. Some people use compressed air, and that’s to get rid of all of those little, you know, loose cotton particles that are there left from the manufacturing process which can clog up the printer. And actually, if those particles are on there you can have little white spots on your print. So say I pull that out and I brush off the front, brush off the back, set the paper down, go to configure something on the paper, I walk over and say “Gee, which side, I don’t remember, is the print side down?” and I look at it under the proper light, and you can flip it back and forth, and sometimes it can be, with certain papers – usually it’s obvious – but in this case it can be hard to see which side’s coated. If you’re not printing on the coated side, you’re gonna have…that’s exactly what it looks like. Orangish red, the saturation is off. It’s just not coated. So that’s an issue with that – if that makes sense. And I don’t know if you’ve ever done that. Justin: Yeah, it’s happened to all of us, you know. Renee: I certainly have. Then the other thing you’re going to need to do, because these are third party papers – Epson’s not going to have everything programmed in to the, you know, printer driver software. You’re going to need, for Pura Smooth, to manually widen the platen gap on an Epson printer. Why? Because you’re saying choose watercolor paper radiant white as the media type, so if the paper expects to be fed that, that is a much wider paper and it’s much thinner than Pura Smooth. So you manually have to compensate for that by widening the platen gap on the Canon, as you know that’s the head height, and again, I discussed all that and went through it on my article on third party printer settings. So if you don’t, that’s going to cause problems whether it’s too wide – ink can dry on the way down, you’ll get poor dmax. If it’s too narrow you can end up with head strikes, there’s just all kind of issues you can have with that. And also then, with the Epson, there’s a way to manually configure the thickness settings in millimeters. And I put in a whole conversion table in my article and explained how to do that, so you’re going to have to calculate what that should be and make sure that’s set. And so the other thing I would do, since he’s not printing very much on matte papers. My question is: is he having this problem on an Epson type of matte paper, using Epson’s profiles? Or is this just for Pura Smooth. Run a test, try Epson’s enhanced matte, something cheap, using Epson’s profile – does that come out okay? That gives you a lot of valuable information. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good point. And I think Pura Smooth has kind of a warm tone anyways. Renee: Yes, it does – it has no OBAs, you know? A natural paper. When he said he tried a handful of Epson canned profile and they looked the worst of all, my question was – are you talking about using Epson profiles on Epson papers, or are you trying Epson profiles on the Pura Smooth, because you can’t use an Epson profile on a non-Epson paper. Every profile that’s made is specific for a printer, ink, and paper combination. So that begs the question: are you having, also, problems with Epson profiles on Epson matte papers? Run a test. The other thing to do, which I always recommend, in order to evaluate profiles and papers – download one of the many professional test evaluation images that are out there on the web. I gave links to them on articles and shownotes. I always use the one by the late Uwe Steinmueller – that’s sort of a hybrid between Uwe’s work and Bill Atkinson’s test evaluation image. And those are awesome, they’re very, very challenging, and that’s really a good way to evaluate your workflow and your settings and how good the profile is. Does that come out fine? So I don’t know if this is specific to just a couple images or if it’s happening on everything. If it happens on Epson matte papers, I also gave links to Keith Cooper’s Northlight Images website – the page where there are scores of these evaluation images, and they are very, very useful. And if those come out correct, and usually there are instructions on what to look for. They have ramps going from white to very dark where everything in between you should be able to see the difference. Color swatches, challenging areas where they have weird colors – weird reds and oranges and greens. They’re just awesome for that. So that’s always good, if you can get that to work. But it’s not going to be the profile. So again, trying to change the rendering intent or converting to a different color space when you’ve got these types of problems, it doesn’t surprise me, but that’s not helping. Anyways, I probably listed about 20 reasons, but they’re all valid, and they’re mistakes I have made, I’ve seen students making the mistakes. But the number one thing is not realizing with the third party paper, you have to pick an OEM media type in the printer driver. If you’re not picking the correct one, because that’s what you use to make the profile. Justin: Yeah, I see a lot of people that just print, they just assign the profile what it should be, and they’re like, “Why is my print not coming out right?” There’s another important piece. Renee: And like I said, it might not even be – you know, what I hate also about the Epson driver, no matter what you do, even if you’ve got matte black ink is the one that’s running, and you open up the printer driver, it defaults automatically to Luster paper. And it’s like, why are you doing that because you know that’s the one that’s dumb, and at that point it’s not a photo black, so why does it come up? Why doesn’t it come up on an art paper, or the enhanced matte? It drives me to distraction. I have to go in every time and change it, or obviously I try to set up pre-sets so I’m not doing that, but it depends what I’m testing out. So it could be, again, photo black ink is being applied to this paper, which will cause this problem. So I don’t know, there you have. Lot’s of reasons. Justin: It’s a good list of things to check for, yeah. That’s a good place to start – check all those things and, I don’t know, maybe write a comment back. Just put a bit more info – is it happening on different papers, what’s the deal? Cool. I was just kind of looking at this guy’s question, and it seems like he supplied a little bit more details. So I wanted to read the rest of this as well. He actually mentions just having invested in a 9900, and he also has, I guess, what he’s been using is an HP Z-series for a few years, so he’s going on to explain, and again, this is still Christopher Kates from this last question, he’s going on to explain that the 9900 prints done with photo black on photo paper look very accurate to what he sees on his display. He says he uses Epson photo paper with their supplied, canned profiles. He says, “They also match the prints that I make from an HP using the same Epson paper.” I guess the glossy photo paper from Epson. He says he uses canned profiles from HP as well – I guess HP provides canned profiles for Epson glossy paper? I’m not sure about that. Renee: I don’t think so. Justin: Yeah, I don’t think so either, so there’s some confusion on that. But he says, he also mentions that the profiles that the Z3100 makes with its built-in spectrophotometer are pretty much useless. So it’s kind of interesting, I guess he is printing on an Epson 9900 and the Pura Smooth. And he seems to get good results with photo paper, but not Pura Smooth, and we’re not sure if he’s getting good results on other matte papers or not. So that’s kind of a strange quandary, isn’t it? I mean maybe it has something to do with the display also. Renee: Yeah, it certainly could be. Justin: Because photo prints on display might look good and match, but matte – it’s a whole different ball game, right? I mean, you’ve talked about looking at images on a glossy screen, that would certainly – it would be much easier to match that to a photo print rather than a matte print. Especially if he’s unfamiliar with printing on matte paper, which it seems like that is the case. So, I don’t know, if you have any more thoughts on that or not. Renee: Yeah, well they will look very dull, and one of the issues people have – in fact, I’m working on an article on “Why are my prints too dark?” and that happens whether it’s a digital c-print or inkjet print, and there’s so many reasons for that. I don’t know what monitor he’s using, if it’s calibrated and profiled, again if you don’t have a quality monitor, it’s really difficult. But when, a lot of the times, the prints aren’t really dark – that’s what you find nine times out of ten. For instance, someone can hold the print up in a dim room against this bright monitor and of course it’s going to look dark, you’re not viewing it under proper lighting. And once you go out into another room or take it outside or view it under – maybe you don’t have one of these, you know, expensive viewing booths, but there are a number of other solutions that I’ll mention in the article. I’m wondering, to me, if the point of those latter comments concerns a sort of disappointment in the results obtained from custom profiles made on the 3100 vs. canned ones, which actually seem to be working better except for Pura Smooth. It’s kind of surprising, because custom made profiles always get results that are going to better, usually, or at least equal to generic ones – they’re gonna be specific to your hardware and software. And I’m wondering if Chris is printing with a RIP, and if so I would ask him has the printer, since it’s 8 years old, has that HP printer been linearized lately? Has the spectrophotometer been checked to be sure there’s no hardware issues? And also, you know, with this printer, it uses consumable printheads. Now Canon and HP are different in that regard vs. Epson, which is an expensive service call and you, you know, to have someone come out and put it in, it’s very, very expensive, but these printheads – they’re meant to be periodically replaced, and there’s information in the manual on that. I wonder if he’s done that. They’re very cost efficient. If not, you can get poor results making custom profiles. You may have nozzle clogs. Again, this may sound bizarre, but nozzle clogs, if you’re not checking for them, depending on your image, they may not be readily apparent, you know, unless you’re running a check and you can see there’s missing lines and whatnot. But, when you make a custom profile, that is going to be very apparent because you’re printing out hundreds or thousands of different color swatches for measurement, so it’s going to cover the whole color range, whereas in a certain image or type of image, maybe more muted, you might not notice that there is a clog. So again, you need to check that. But regarding the HP printer, I think it came out in 2008 or 9 or so, but it got really great reviews when it was released, I mean it’s a great printer with 12 pigment inks, and that feature of having a built-in spectrophotometer – the one used is the Gretagmacbeth Eye One, of course Gretagmacbeth was purchased by X-Rite. It’s a terrific spectrophotometer, so that device resides in the printer’s head assembly and allows the user to print easily on the fly and make ICC profiles for just about any paper you can ever hope to print on, and you can do it quickly almost with the press of a button. Takes about half an hour, excluding your paper drawing time. I mean, HP says, “Oh, you only need to let it sit for 5 minutes.” And I have read that in the instructions and I would, you know, take issue with that because papers – the colors tend to darken as they dry and you have outgassing and other issues. I always let stuff dry overnight. So maybe he’s not doing that. Justin: Yeah, that’s a good point. And also, maybe the media type setting. That’s kind of the biggest thing I hear about with profiles not coming out right, you know? It’s lacking the right paper type. Renee: Yeah exactly, exactly. And again, if he’s trying the Pura Smooth – but I don’t know, he’s getting results with photo black ink on photo papers, but that’s a whole different ball game than the matte papers. So again, you know, as I said before, make sure you are using the watercolor paper radiant white then for the Epson. Because again it seems more like a comment in the second part that he’s kind of frustrated with the custom profiles, but it could be any of these issues. That he’s not replaced those printheads after eight years. I mean you’re supposed to replace them, I think, after – I can’t remember how many cycles, but they’re only like $70 or something a piece. It’s less than buying one ink cartridge. So that could be doing it. But that’s awesome, and he could making his own custom profile for Pura Smooth and resolve things that way. Justin: Yeah he doesn’t really mention, I’m not sure if he’s tried Pura Smooth on the Z-Series printer or not, he doesn’t specifically mention if it looks good or bad. That’d be kind of interesting, if he was not pleased with the prints done from that printer on Pura Smooth, I think that most certainly points to some type of external issue, you know, whether it’s expectations of matte media or a display problem or something like that. I feel, my gut feeling is that it’s something along that line – like a display problem, or viewing conditions of the print, or something like that. I don’t’ know. I’d be curious for him to reply back to us and let us know, what other kinds of Epson papers have you tried to print on the Epson, and then what display are you using? Things like that. Renee: Right, and again, it’s not clear to me when he says, “Okay on the 9900 the prints done with photo black on photo paper are accurate.” Which photo paper – is it Epson’s photo paper? Is it Luster, glossy? Then he says, “They also match the prints i make on the HP using the same paper.” By same paper does he mean Epson’s paper – that exact same, specific paper, or is he talking a similar type like luster to luster, buying HP’s luster. You can’t use an Epson paper with a – I wouldn’t think you’d get good results using a Canon profile for the HP on an Epson paper. Unless, I know a lot of things come from the same paper mill, and sometimes they are re-branded and you may have luster to luster with different brands. And that’s certainly true, people just slap on a different brand name and they’re not doing, “I want these specifications for how this is to be coated” like Breathing Color does, which sets you apart from the pack. I don’t know, but some clarity on that – does he mean the exact same paper, or a similar HP paper? You know, profiles are not cross-compatible, so write back and give us some more details and we’re happy to leave some more comments. Justin: Yeah, definitely. Extend the conversation a little bit more. Awesome, well that’s actually the last question I have for this episode as well. Renee: Great, well I hope it’s helpful, I hope it’s not, you know, especially on the first questions he had with the problems with the Pura Smooth, all those sort of bullet points i went through, those are very, very common for people doing – and I’ve made those mistakes myself. But I’m really thinking, maybe he’s not selecting the correct media type, because that profile, again, it looks great opening it up and examining it, and I’ve had great luck printing on that paper with my Epsons, so I don’t think it’s a profile issue, I think it’s a settings issue. Make sure the platen gap is widened – the thickness setting is changed manually. Read, I’m not trying to promote my article, you guys have a lot of articles, it’s just that information has been completely detailed in that article on third party printer settings. Justin: Yeah that’s a great article. Renee: The printer doesn’t know, you have to pick an Epson OEM. There’s no setting for Pura Smooth, so there’s a big area of confusion, and you unfortunately have to find where your profiles are on your PC or Mac and look at the file name to get that cryptic abbreviation and compare it to the reference chart, that’s just how it is. Justin: Yeah, a lot of times you can just see that right in Photoshop or Lightroom. Renee: Yeah, that would be nice but once you start doing it you can just do a pre-set and not have to worry about it, and that just becomes second nature. But I think that may be well what’s going on, or, again, he could be printing on the wrong side of the paper. Justin: Yeah, good places to start for sure. Well I appreciate you stopping by, I always love having you on the show. Renee: I love being on it, you’re very welcome, my pleasure. Justin: We will catch you next time, thanks Renee. Alright guys, that’s it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for listening and for being a part of the show. For teh show notes for this episod,e you can visit ask-bc.com/episode29. Thank you again for submitting all of your questions, we really appreciate it. We have compiled a massive PDF with all of Renee’s content that we’ve ever gotten from her, all of her podcast episodes, Breathing Color episodes, etc. If you would like to get that PDF, it’s pretty simple. Just take out your phone right now and text “RBESTA” to the number 33444 and we will send you over that PDF. If you enjoyed today’s show, open up iTunes, find the AskBC podcast page, and leave us a rating and review. We’d love to hear your feedback, and these ratings and reviews really help us improve upon the show and know how we are doing. If you’d like to ask a question for the show, visit ask-bc.com. If we choose to feature your question, we will mention your business name right in the episode. Thanks again guys, and we will talk to you next time. [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post A Case Study in Troubleshooting Print Color Issues appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.

Reviewing the new Apple 5K display, and a tutorial on converting images to sRGB JPEGs for soft proofing. Most consumer-grade monitors won’t cut it for color-critical media editing, but expensive wide gamut monitors can be out of reach for many. So where does the Apple Retina 5K display, included with the new iMac, fit in? Professional photographer Renée Besta talks pros, cons, specs, and more on the new Apple display to pin down who would benefit from purchasing it, and who wouldn’t. Later in the show, Renée lays out a workflow to soft proof sRGB JPEGs that were originally shot in ProPhoto RGB or Adobe RGB (written tutorial with screenshot for this process available in show notes). Apple’s new 5K display – Specs, uses, pitfalls, & more Why the new iMac can be a great deal Why the new iMac can be a not so great deal Colorimetric vs. perceptual rendering intents – There’s no hard rule on which to use Why Breathing Color’s custom ICC profiles say to use perceptual, and why you can ignore this if you know what you’re doing Converting a ProPhoto or Adobe RGB file to an sRGB JPEG to send to a lab for c-prints Soft proofing – view in original color space or output color space? Soft proofing sRGB JPEGs is harder than ProPhoto Listen in to hear the Apple 5K display review and learn about soft proofing Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include Dave Singh from STM Graphics, and Bob Nardi from BobNardi.com. Full specs on the Apple 5K Display can be found here. Download Renee’s additional information and resources from this episode including tutorials for converting ProPhoto/Adobe RGB images to sRGB JPEGs and soft-proofing in Photoshop or Lightroom by clicking here. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 28 of #AskBC Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin, welcome to episode 28 of the AskBC podcast! Special guest Renee Besta joins us today to talk about color reproduction with Apple’s 5K display, paper profile rendering intents,and soft proofing best practices. Renee has made guest appearances here and on the BC blog a number of times. She is extremely knowledgable when it comes to color management, photography, and printmaking workflows and more. Be sure to check out her site at renmarphoto.com, and also you can use the BC blog search bar to find other articles by Renee if you haven’t already. Without further adieu, let’s go ahead and jump into the show. Announcer 2: Dave Singh with STM Graphics asks, “Regarding monitors, you never touched on the new 5K screen from Apple.” He asks, “How do you get an NEC monitor for an iMac?” Second part of his question is, “Also, in a previous episode regarding rendering intents, you stated that relative colorimetric is the best color space for output, however Breathing Color makes output profiles with perceptual rendering intent for Canon paper profiles.” Renee: Okay, first of all. Good morning, Justin, and thank you so much for having me back. Justin: Definitely. Renee: This is a great question. I’ve actually had a lot of people write me independently, contact me via my website, about the 5K screen since I was so pro-NEC and talking about the Eizo monitors. First of all, I’ve seen this – for people that don’t know or don’t use Macs, this is actually the new iMac that has a built-in 5K retina display. So i mean, there’s absolutely no question that this display is totally jaw-dropping when you go into the Apple store and look at it. You almost want to genuflect when you walk in the room. Everything looks very detailed, crisp, and life-like. One thing I would say is that be aware that, you know, although this display looks awesome, it’s still geared mainly for people doing non-color-critical work. So the answer is gonna be, it depends on your personal situation, and I’ll get into a little bit here on the specs and how those relate. This is a 27” display, it has in-plane switching IPS technology, the resolution is 5120×2880, now that is an absolute huge number of pixels. Justin: Crazy. Renee: So, you have to keep in mind for optimal viewing and to really take advantage of a display, the source material that you’re feeding to it needs to kind of be up to the task. And if it’s not, it’s kind of like similar to watching an HD television set with an SD signal. So, at that high of a resolution, your type size in certain applications may be really tiny, you may have to do some adjustments on your screen or in palettes of certain applications. They’re not all optimized for these types of displays, but it is, you know, an awesome display. Now according to the specs, it covers about 100%, maybe 102% of the sRGB color space. So it’s not considered a true wide gamut display. Independent test results that I’ve read show about 79% of the Adobe RGB coverage. It’s also not back-lit like an LAD display, so you can keep that in mind. But, you know, one thing, I’ve read phenomenal reviews on this, it’s a great computer. It’s a really nice display. But many of these reviewers are biased, and they usually diss all wide gamut displays as being completely unnecessary. And I understand why, it’s because most people doing image editing are usually just posting sRGB JPEGs on the web, or they’re having the more inexpensive digital chromogenic, or so-called c-prints made, sending out to a photo lab. So then you really don’t need a wide gamut display, so that’s not a judgement or anything on my part, it’s just dependent on your particular situation. So these people are not going to do editing with the goal of fine art printing, ie: inkjet pigment prints, so they don’t really care or need a wide gamut display, so it depends – what are Dave’s needs and goals? Is he making his own inkjet prints or sending them out to a lab just for c-prints? Also, that display is still a super high-gloss screen that is still not optimal for photo editing, despite improvements that have been made to reduce some of the reflections. I’ve commented before in articles that I’ve written and on podcasts, you know, with these types of displays, everything looks really super sharp and super saturated, but that does not mean the file itself is that way in reality, if that makes sense. Justin: Definitely. Renee: You know, matte screens are preferred always for color-critical work, which is why NEC and Eizo make matte screens. For instance, I’ve found it difficult to apply proper sharpening to an image on a high-gloss display, they always look super-sharp anyway. Just because of, you know, you’ve got this dense layer of high-glass gloss there, so it’s just really, really hard to determine “It looks sharp,” and then you print and it’s not so sharp, so I really don’t like, for my purposes, using it. But, you know, if your goal is just posting sRGB JPEGs to the web and you’re gonna send out to a typical photo lab, which will require an sRGB JPEG, that’s the optimal file spec for that type of printing, you know, it’s wonderful. The graphics card can also support a second display, according to Apple, up to 4840×2160 pixels, so you can certainly add an additional NEC for color-critical work, and in fact, I’ve researched a lot of printing forums and many people are doing exactly that. Because it’s a really good deal – the computer itself is awesome, and when you compare it to the cost of buying Dell’s new UltraSharp 5K display, that costs about $2,200 for the Dell, so the retina iMac starts around $2,000. It’s kind of a better buy in that you’re getting a computer along with the display, and, you know, there are obviously upgrades that can be done to that iMac. So, let me just go over some of the test results that I’ve read about this, when people have checked it out. Again, the gamut is just slightly larger than sRGB. The color-accuracy, they’re saying it’s not really great out of the box, of course it needs to be calibrated and profiled anyway. But one of the things I have noticed is that the luminance, what some people call “brightness,” uniformity, is not so great. In other words, it’s gonna be brightener in the center than at the edges, and the color-accuracy, again, when you’re looking at a delta-E rating, not so great. Again, it may be perfectly fine, I don’t mean, again, to come across as saying something negative about it – it depends on your needs and goals, but always with that type of display, that’s what you’re paying for in the really expensive NECs and the Eizos, is having color fidelity, color accuracy, the luminance being uniform corner-to-corner, top-to-bottom, left-to-right, center out to the edges. So you just, at that price point, are not gonna get that with a retina display, despite how wonderful it looks. So, basically, people see variations across the panel shifting towards yellow near the corners, and this is common. I wouldn’t mention it, except that I read this quite a bit, and some people have returned it for that reason. They did color-critical work. They enjoy how it looks, I mean obviously it’s great for videos and other applications, so, you know, again it depends on what he wants to do, but if you’re going to add an NEC, what I would definitely do is to upgrade the video card for it, so that it can drive a second display. So Apple offers – it comes with 2GB of video RAM normally, you can update it to a 4GB card that’s slightly faster. So if you’re gonna add something like an external NEC, then you’re going to probably want to upgrade the graphics card as well to drive that. So many people are doing that, I have seen people say “I bought it because it’s a great deal for the computer and the display for a lot of purposes, and then I have this external.” It could even be a Dell, one of the Dell UltraSharps, that have a great – a wider gamut. Or an NEC. And they’re doing that for the color-critical work. So it’s an option. Depends on your needs. Justin: Yeah, seems like a great solution. Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, the Apple display will cover 80% of what one might use it for, and then the 20% you invest in something, you know, a display that’s designed for color accuracy, kind of like what you were saying – if you need that. I’d say it’s a good solution. Renee: Yeah, if you need it – are you doing inkjet printing, or are you just sending to a lab where sRGB is all you’re going to use anyway, then you don’t need to worry about that. And it is beautiful and it is a great deal, I think, for the price, like I said, compared to the Dell – you’re getting a computer and everything for starting at two thousand dollars. Justin: Yeah, it’s not bad at all. [Part 2 of the question] Renee: I love these questions, because I get them all the time from students and people write me through my website. First of all, I did actually not say relative colorimetric was always the best choice to use. I said the opposite – to test both perceptual and relative colorimetric, see what looks best to your eyes. What I did say was that in most circumstances, I find relative colorimetric, for my situation, works well for me. Of course that’s because I print and I keep my files in the highest color space ProPhotoRGB 16-bit. Depends on the printer that you’re using, what its gamut is, you know, I went over – so you can relisten to that podcast what the differences are. But you have to understand with the rendering intents and which one you use, it’s going to be very, very much image dependent. I mean, some images don’t have that much color – period. They’re sort of flat. It depends on what colors are present, so it may not make any difference. It’s also very much printer and paper and profile-dependent. So the qualities of those, you know, make a difference. Maybe on a certain paper with a certain printer using a certain profile, one will work better than the other. So you really do need to test, and you can do that by soft proofing. Remember, taking a question from Otis from Indiana on the Lightroom proofing – you can just click different rendering intents and see which one looks better. Another area of confusion here, when he says “Breathing Color makes a profile with perceptual,” that’s actually not the case. Just like all paper manufacturers, people think that they’re actually saying, “Oh, we made this profile using either perceptual or relative.” And it’s just not the case, because when you make a profile, as you know, all the color management must be completely turned off. That is how profiles are made. You don’t want anything done – you’re printing out hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of target color swatches and then measuring them. You want them to print exactly as they’re going to print so you can see how they come out and then corrections are made in the profile saying, “Well it’s supposed to look like ‘this’,” because they’re comparing target numbers. Measuring how it prints, and then basically the profile is sort of a correction. That’s the best way I can put it. Justin: Yeah. Renee: So basically, the reason this is getting confusing is that in the instructions, Breathing Color and other paper manufacturers, it will say, normally, to choose perceptual. Now sometimes I’ve seen with Hahnemuhle, it’ll say relative or with Museo paper, once in a while. But normally it’ll say in the instructions, “Choose perceptual.” And I think the reason for this, that manufacturers like to say that, is they feel that rendering intent is safer to recommend because perceptual is probably less likely to result in any strange, out-of-gamut type of color mapping. Because what it does is compress everything, and, as I’ve said before, it reworks the in gamut colors, or shifts them, so that you have an overall – tries to maintain the “pleasing look,” if you will, of the image itself. Where as with relative, you’re only sort of changing the out of gamut colors and mapping them to the nearest reproducible hue. So it’s kind of like safer to just say use perceptual, it’s like likely to result in any kind of strange-looking print, so that’ll result in less technical support issues, if you will. So I think, I don’t know about you, I’m not saying that’s why you do it, I would just prefer manufacturers don’t say one way or the other, that they say “experiment – these are the two that are relevant to photo printing, relative or perceptual, test them.” And that’s it, but just because it says that in the instruction, you know, ICC profiles are aware – let’s just say they’re aware of different intents, but you can apply them, but you can not possibly do that. You can’t even turn color management off in Photoshop any longer, and that became an issue for people I think starting in CS5, that that feature was removed, which ticked people off that were trying to, you know, make these custom profiles and print target images and want to turn it off. That’s the whole point, otherwise how are you going to know how something comes out when you print target swatches? Justin: Right. Renee: So it’s not something that you can even apply if you wanted to, so feel free, basically, to use whichever. Print with both or a soft proof using both and see what works best. It is, again, very image-dependent. What works well with one image, you may want to use a different intent with a different image, or on a different paper. They come out differently. Justin: Or a different printer, yeah. All depends on the gamut right? The gamuts at play. Renee: Is there a reason – so I guess I’ll just ask you why you list perceptual in your instructions? Justin: Yeah, kind of for the same reason you explained. You know, I’ve always wanted to – or since I’ve learned enough to know what’s proper to do with rendering intents, I’ve always wanted to changed that to say, “It depends on the image, the printer, the paper.” You know, things like that. But you want to talk about a tech support nightmare, I just feel like that would definitely be one. I think we should put the podcast link to where you first talked about rendering intents right in there somewhere, you know. I think that would be a pretty cool idea. Renee: Yeah, or the show notes. It depends on what working color space your image is in. I don’t know if it’s in sRGB, ProPhoto, Adobe RGB – it’s all going to therefor have an effect on the rendering intent. It’s there to map what the printer can not reproduce and decide what it does. It’s a decision – what does it do with out of gamut colors that will not print on a given printer on a given paper with a given profile. Justin: Right, a lot of variables. Renee: Exactly. Justin: Moral of the story is soft proof with both, see what looks better. Renee: That’s right. Justin: Easy as that. Awesome. Well, he didn’t really have a question there, he was just making a statement. Seems like he misunderstood you a little bit on that last podcast, but hoepfully that provides all the information he has, if he has more questions, certainly hope he feels free to comment on the show notes page. Renee: Right absolutely, I would be happy to go in, I always address any comments or questions people have. But I think he’s just concerned because it says “BC mix output profiles with perceptual for Canon” so he’s a little concerned with, “Well, how can I use relative if you’re saying it works better?” Well don’t worry about it, they don’t actually make a profile with a rendering intent, it just doesn’t exist. Justin: Exactly. Announcer 2: Bob Nardi from BobNardi.com asks, “I am sending out a print to a lab. If you have a profile for soft proofing, should you convert the image to that profile, or convert it to sRGB when sending the file in for printing? Secondly, when soft proofing, should you view the file with the original color space or use the lab’s printer’s color space?” Renee: Okay, great question. There is a little confusion here on how to soft proof, and it is certainly a confusing process. It’s one of the most commonly asked questions, always, and it certainly can mess you up if it’s not set up correctly. People always get confused, and I remember a question from someone else on a prior podcast that said they’re receiving files from clients with embedded profiles, and I asked the question, “Well what embedded profiles?” Because I’ve seen this common mistake that people actually convert their image to the printer profile and you’re not supposed to do that. So to answer that right off the bat, no, do not ever convert your image to the lab’s profile. It’s the same as if you’re doing an inkjet print, you don’t actually convert it – you have a color working space, which is a profile, it’s a working space profile. Because when you do that, it’s going to permanently mebed that profile, and it makes it difficult to then do further edits to that image. So, those output profiles, printer profiles, whether it’s going to a lab to do chromogenic prints or an inkjet print, they’re going to be very restrictive, because you have to understand – I described it before like a funnel. You’re going from a really great, large color gamut and you go down, down, down as you go to print to a smaller one. So, they’re only to be used, those printer profiles, to edit a duplicate copy of your image in order to get the best match to your original file when you’re soft proofing for print. And again, I would refer them to a prior podcast with profile embedding problems. So I don’t really know…in camera, is Bob shooting JPEGs? Is he shooting in camera RAW? So I’d kind of like to know if he…here’s one of the problems, first of all, I have to presume that he’s making digital c-prints, because he’s talking about a lab and when you say “lab,” that’s normally what it is, so, those labs always, always want JPEGs in the sRGB space and that’s because if you use Adobe RGB or ProPhoto, the prints will come out horrible. It’s a completely different methodology. You’re using either a laser or LED to expose photosensitive materials, and they’re dye-based prints, so you can’t use that. They will have – the color gamuts smaller. So I don’t know if he’s starting, and I don’t know, first of all, the Photoshop settings, okay? How are they set up? A lot of people don’t bother to configure their Photoshop color settings optimally for how they’re printing. Is it set as a default for the RGB working space to be ProPhoto? Is it set for Adobe RGB? sRGB? When you keep going through this editing process and if you don’t have the boxes checked to warn you if what you are opening is a mismatch to your default color space, it just could go ahead and convert it back and forth to one to the other and kind of really mess you up. So that’s another thing to keep in mind. ProPhoto and Adobe are going to be optimal for inkjet printing because they have the greatest color gamut, but, again, for the digital c-prints, you’re going to ultimately have to convert it. That complicates the soft proofing, so I’ll get to that in a second. But, I kind of want to back up and say – Bob didn’t mention what monitor he is using, and whether that is both calibrated and profiled. Now, that’s very critical for image editing and soft proofing. You’re never going to get an accurate soft proof or a print without doing both, and those are two completely different processes. Calibrating is really setting the hardware to an optimal state – you’re going to set the luminance, or what people call the brightness, the white point, and the gamma (or tonal response curve), and then profiling is actually characterizing how it’s displaying particular colors. So that should be addressed first if you want to do accurate soft proofing. And I also want to say, when you’re doing it – make sure always that you make a copy of your original – duplicate the image to do any edits. So, you want to set up the screen. It’s best to…I mentioned this before with Otis’s question in Lightroom – and I don’t know whether he’s using Photoshop or Lightroom to do the soft proofing, it’s set up kind of different. But, there are ways to set up the screen so you can view your original edited image against a soft proof copy of that where you are applying the output profile, if that makes sense. And then doing it – it’s to get the two to match, because, as I mentioned before, if you just take it and apply the printer profile – and I don’t mean convert it, I mean you’re simulating it. And by doing that in Photoshop, you go to the View menu, down to Proof Setup, and over to Custom. And then it says “Device to simulate” and then you choose your destination profile, which would be the lab’s profile, that you’re going to be simulating. So that’s how it’s done. I know it’s a little complex. I can write the workflow in the shownotes, so don’t worry about that, but it will say “Device to simulate,” and that’s wheret you select it. But you want to make sure that it’s a duplicate of what your original image is, otherwise you’re going to start making these changes to it, and, you know, you can really get messed up. And it’s also like I said before, you may forget, sort of, in the proofing process, what the original image kind of looked like. So if you have that side-by-side with what you’re soft proofing, you can kind of compare and see what you need to do in terms of adjustments with the contrast, the hue saturation, luminance, you always need to open up the shadow details, so make sure you have a duplicate and view them side-by-side. So as far as the second goes, when soft proofing – he has “Do I use the original color space or the lab printer’s color space?” by that I think he means, sRGB, ProPhoto, or Adobe. Well, you have to, unfortunately, convert to sRGB, because that’s what the lab printer is going to want. So that’s why I ask – are you starting in camera RAW, starting with a JPEG, what are your Photoshop settings? Basically, let’s just assume he shoots camera RAW, and the default normally for a Lightroom, and camera RAW Photoshop is ProPhoto RGB, so that’s quite a bit different from an sRGB, so let’s just say you have it in that color space and you do a bunch of edits to your image and get it to the way you like. Unfortunately, you’re then going to have to do a “Save As” convert that to sRGB, and to a JPEG. Then use that sRGB JPEG to do the soft proofing. So that’s like an extra step versus inkjet printing if that makes sense, because with inkjet printing I don’t have to do any of that, I’m gonna keep it in ProPhoto RGB because I’m gonna print it in ProPhoto RGB. I don’t have to then downgrade it, so to speak, to sRGB and to a JPEG, I’m gonna print a TIFF, or a PSD in ProPhoto, because that’s optimal for inkjet printing. So, it’s a little confusing, because he’s gonna have ot make that extra stpe whether he uses Adobe or ProPhoto. Get those edits done the way he likes it, and then, again, duplicate the image or do a “Save As,” and it’s gonna have to be first converted to sRGB under Edit, Convert to profile, and then save it as a JPEG. Then you’re going to use the sRGB JPEG and duplicate the sRGB JPEG, if that makes sense, to soft proof side-by-side. You’re not going to then compare it to the ProPhoto version, because you’re not going to get an accurate soft proof. It’s just a little bit, it’s more steps when you’re doing digital c-prints. I mean, you may think it should be simpler, it’s just a digital c-print. But because the lab wants it in sRGB as a JPEG and you’re probably starting in ProPhoto or Adobe on a TIFF or PSD, you have to, you know, convert it to sRGB and the file format to a JPEG because JPEGs are 8-bit and there’s compression used, obviously, for a JPEG, which will throw out some color. So, if that makes sense, you can’t then take the big ProPhoto 16-bit TIFF and soft proof that because it won’t be accurate, does that make sense? Justin: Yeah, it makes sense. So if Bob is using a file that’s a TIFF that’s in ProPhoto, would it make sense for his first step to be to convert that color space over to sRGB and then do edits afterwards? Renee: Well you want to get the file the way you want it as a ProPhoto 16-bit TIFF or PSD file – looking the way you want it. Then you’re going to duplicate it, or you can do a “Save As” – just duplicate the image, convert it to sRGB and save it as a JPEG. Then, using that sRGB JPEG, you duplicate that as well, okay? Because you’re going to be making edits. And this is what I don’t like. One of the million things, and I’m sorry – I don’t mean to be in any way derogetory towards people that like to use digital chromogenic prints, but you have to do the soft proof edits on the JPEG, which means, you know what happens – depending on how many changes you make to that, you’re already working with an 8-bit compressed file in a smaller color space, so you can potentially, you know, have combing and histogram – it depends what you end up doing to it. If it was me I wouldn’t even soft proof it, that’s my opinion. I would just send that sRGB JPEG out to the lab and, in fact, what I recommend people do, because they’re such inexpensive prints, is send the sRGB JPEG that’s not been soft proofed along with one that you have, and see if there’s any difference. Because a lot fo times in the soft proofing process, it just gets to be muckety-muck, unless somebody really, really, really knows what they’re doing. And again, since it is a JPEG and it’s in a smaller color space, doing a lot of color editing on that to get it to match, you know, you can do some damage to those pixels. Whereas, you’re not going to have that problem when you’re working with 16-bits and a TIFF and a larger color space. So I’m just saying, the soft proofing process, I think, is much more complex for making chromogenic prints than it would be for inkjet prints. I mean, definitely. As you can see, you can’t just compare to applying that in soft proofing to a ProPhoto RGB, because that’s not accurate. It’s going to be a much smaller color space to get an optimal print, so you have to go through that extra step. So in my opinion, I would not even soft proof it. A lot of times what people find with this is that it doesn’t make any difference and, in fact it can make things worse. I’m sure there are people that will have other experiences if they worked with one lab for a very long time and they’re very familiar with it, but it’s a major pain. Because you’ve got to go through that step. There’s no way to get an accurate soft proofing without changing it to an sRGB JPEG, because that’s what they want. Justin: Yeah, that makes sense, I think, getting him set up on the right track in terms of the basics. I think we’ve clarified pretty well. Helps. It’s a good starting point, instead of just sending an image and not knowing what the heck’s going on. You explained it so he can understand what’s happening. Renee: Right, don’t convert to the printer profile, ever. Justin: Never do that. Renee: Never, ever, ever do it, and just convert it to sRGB – that’s question one, and number two, when you compare it, you’re not really – I think when he says “Lab printer’s color space,” I’m presuming he doesn’t mean the profile. Interpreting that as the color space they want it in which is an sRGB, so again, it has to be soft proofed sRGB. Justin: Yeah. And always check their website, I mean it sounds like he probably knows – Renee: Right! That’s why a lot of these labs are very hesitant to turn over their profiles. Some of them refuse to do it, and I can certainly understand why. It’s a big technical support headache, because a lot of people are not – and I don’t know Bob’s situation – a lot of people are not that experienced at soft proofing and start, you know, really messing around with many different things, and it can really wreak havoc. I just don’t like doing it, in fact I don’t even like doing it for inkjet prints. You know, I find if I have a really good profile and I’m doing the workflow correctly, I mean, I may take a look at it, but, you know, normally I get excellent prints – I prefer to just do a very small test hard print. Justin: Yeah, yeah, that’s a good point. Renee: So, anyway, if he has any other questions please leave comments, just ask more questions and I’ll try to clarify. I did go over the soft proofing in Lightroom in a prior podcast with Otis’s question. It’s a lot easier to soft proof in Lightroom, so if you do have that application, that’s the way I would recommend doing it. Justin: Yep, same here. You know, I was just thinking that I get a lot of emails from listeners of the show afterwards – they’ll kind of reply to the email that we send out that’s announcing the podcast or whatever, and they’ll ask questions there. It’s best always to just leave a comment on the actual show notes, and we’ll give you that link at the end of the show. Because Renee actually jumps in there and provides some insight – she’s awesome enough to do that for us. So make sure you post your comments to the show notes page. Renee: I want to make sure everythings clear to people. I love to teach, I’ve done printing for many, many years. I used to work in the dark room, done platinum palladium printing, and I did tech support in my prior career in biotech, so, you know, I understand – I’ve been through all this myself. It’s confusing to everybody when you’re starting out, and you have no idea when someone writes you, how experienced they are – and as I always was taught, never assume anything. You just can’t assume something you think you just take for granted after you’ve been doing something for fifteen years, someone else it might not be obvious to them. But it is more complicated, you know, to soft proof for digital prints for that reason – you’re gonna have to make an sRGB JPEG, as I said, and then make a copy of the sRGB JPEG to make the edits for the soft proof with the lab’s profile, and I think it’s complex. Again, they’re so inexpensive, one that’s been soft proofed and one that’s not – see if there’s a difference. Justin: Yeah, that’s a great idea. Awesome, well I think we’ve covered that question pretty well, and that’s actually the last question that I have for you for this episode, so I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us today, it’s always awesome. Renee: You’re welcome, it’s my pleasure. Thank you so much. Justin: No problem, we’ll talk to you next time. Alright guys, that’s it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for lsitening and for being a part of the show. For the show notes for today’s episodes, you can visit ask-bc.com/episode28. Thanks again for all your questions, and for joining us today. We have compiled a massive PDF with all of Renee’s content that she has ever given us. All the podcast episodes, all of her articles, etcetera. If you would like to receive this PDF, it’s pretty simple – take out your phone, and text the word “RBESTA” to the number 33444 and we will send you this massive PDF. Also, if you enjoyed this show today, open up iTunes and find the AskBC podcast page and leave us a rating and review. We’d love to hear your feedback, and this really helps us improve on the show. If you would like to ask a question for the show, we’d really appreciate it. We’re always hungry for new questions. It’s pretty simple, just visit ask-bc.com, and if we choose to answer your question on the air, we will mention your business name and website right at the beginning of the episode. Thanks guys, see you next time! [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! 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Listener questions on print length limitations, canvas that doesn’t need varnish, ICC profile installation, and more. Justin takes some time on this episode to answer a tall order of printmaking inquiries from listeners. Tune in for the answers to questions such as, “Isn’t there some way I can remotely schedule printings to prevent nozzle clogging?” “Does Breathing Color’s Silverada Metallic Canvas really not need to be varnished? What about UV light?”, and “How can I bypass the print length limit without using a RIP?” Also, a quick and simple overview to installing ICC profiles from third party paper manufacturers like Breathing Color. Changing the canvas size in Photoshop to print on canvas with a paper leader attached. Mounting a photo print to fabric. Why our Silverada Metallic Canvas doesn’t need to be varnished. How important is it, really, to protect prints from UV light? A simple explanation on ICC profile installation for the beginner printmaker. (CLICK HERE to download Justin’s Mac installation notes mentioned in the episode.) Bypassing the driver length limit with software to allow for extra long prints. Using QImage to schedule automatic printing that prevents nozzle clogs when away from your machine. Listen in to learn about no-varnish canvas, ICC profile installation, and more Show Notes Listeners featured in this episode include Robert Waldridge, Ana Espinosa Rydman, Henry Sautter, Carlos, Lawrence Beck, and Myrna. Related blog post for Question #1: How to Load Canvas Sheets in a Desktop Printer. For mounting applications like the one discussed in this episode, check out Raphael’s Miracle Muck. As mentioned in Question #4, click here to download Justin’s instructions on installing ICC profiles on a Mac running 10.7.3 (Lion) or 10.9 (Mavericks). Check out QImage. Love the show? Have some feedback for us? Leave us a review on iTunes. Using QImage to schedule automatic printings to prevent nozzle clogging. Audio Transcription Prefer to read over listen? Want to save this conversation for reference later? We transcribe all of our shows for these reasons! Download this episode’s transcription below: CLICK HERE to download the free audio transcription of Episode 27 of #AskBC Or, to view a web version of the transcript: Click Here [Music] Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts! Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin, welcome to episode 27 of the AskBC podcast! Today we talk about bypassing the driver length limit, scheduling prints to help prevent print head clogging, and the basics of using an ICC profile. Hope you guys don’t mind, but today I’m going to be jumping around a little bit. Lot of different questions to cover, and there isn’t necessarily going to be a single topic being discussed today. Hope that’s not a problem, I guess that’s one of the benefits of being the host of the show, isn’t it? Let’s go ahead and jump into the first question. This question looks like it comes from Robert Waldridge. Robert asks, “In a previous blog article, you recommend adding a paper strip to the Lyve canvas when I’m using the Epson 3880 to help grab the sheet and feed it through. This works really well, but you lose the amount of canvas for printing that you use for adding the paper strip. Do you know of any way to compensate for this, such that you can print on the entire canvas sheet? I’m just gonna give you guys a little bit of context as to what Robert is talking about. This previous blog article addresses a pretty common issue trying to feed sheets into the smaller format printers. The 17” wide printers and smaller, like the Epson 3880, the Epson 3800, 2880, and so forth. So, basically what we recommend doing, and I’ll include a link to this specific article in the show notes, that way you can have a look if you haven’t already, but basically what we recommend doing is taking a one inch leader, that is a, you know, sheet of photo paper, a sheet of some other type of paper, that the printer can grip a little bit easier than the backside of the canvas; taking that one inch leader and sticking it on, kind of butting it up to the leading edge of the canvas sheet that you’ll be printing with. And what that does, as Robert is saying here, is, you know, you’re losing that inch that you’re using for the leader – you’re kind of losing that because the printer is assuming that’s part of the canvas sheet that you’re using. This is a pretty easy fix, and I think this is in the article as well, but what you need to do after you add that inch (or two inch, or whatever size you make that leader – we recommend one inch), but all you need to do is go into the canvas size in Photoshop or whatever editing software you’re using, and change your canvas size from the length – say you’re using a 13”x19” sheet, change it from 19 inches long to 20 inches, you know, or whatever size the leader is. So take your physical sheet size and add the width of the leader that you’re using, so in this case, 19 plus one is 20, so your canvas size would then be 13”x20”, even though the sheet that you’re printing is a 13”x19”. Hope I didn’t over-explain that, hope it makes sense. But yeah, adjust your canvas size, and that should take care of this problem you’re seeing Robert. Hope that helps. Let’s go ahead and jump into the next question. This one is from Ana Espinosa Rydman, and she’s with Modern American Expressions. Anna asks, “What should I use to adhere a photo print to a fabric on a hard subsurface?” This one’s gonna be pretty short and sweet. What I’d recommend in this case is using a product called Miracle Muck, and Miracle Muck is made by a company called Raphael’s, and I’ll go ahead and include a link in the show notes for this as well. But pretty common mounting adhesive that people use to adhere prints to fabric or to rigid substrates, things of that sort. So, yeah, Raphael’s Miracle Muck works really, really well. Like i said, I’ll include a link for you guys who need that, so make sure to check the show notes. The next question today comes from Henry Sautter. Henry asks, “The information about your Silverada metallic canvas states that it does not need to be varnished, which is great. My question is, will the image be protected from UV light? This is, after all, one reason why I use a varnish. My follow-up question is, why is a varnish not needed exactly? What characteristics of this canvas make it different from other products in this respect?” That’s a great question Henry. One that we address pretty frequently, as you could imagine, when we’re selling these no-varnish canvases. People are often pretty surprised and kind of wondering how it works, you know, “how can I not use this varnish that I’ve been using for years on matte canvas?” and “Will everything be okay?” Well the answer is, “yes.” You don’t need to varnish everything, and with that being said, there’s always going to be some differences between canvas that’s not varnished and one that is. There’s always that physical layer of protection that’s going to provide some durability, that’s kind of common sense, but totally worth mentioning. So it kind of depends on what market you’re going into, you know, how you’re selling these prints, how you’re positioning them. So, that being said, when you’re talking about a no-varnish canvas, you ask, “will it still be protected from UV light?” Well, first off I should say that all of our no-varnish canvases are optical brightener-free, these optical brighteners are typically referred to as OBAs (Optical Brightener Additives). So they’re all OBA-free, and the reason I point this out is that OBAs are essentially designed to interact with UV light and fluoresce and make the media’s white point look much higher, make it look much whiter than it is when it’s not interacting with this UV light. It seems great and all, the higher the white point the better in general, right? There are some downsides to this though, one of which is that inconsistency under different lighting conditions. You always want your print to look consistent no matter where it is, right? So that’s one downside. Another is that these optical brightener additives, these OBAs, they will burn out. So once they can no longer fluoresce any more and they burn out, this is when you start seeing yellowing. So, in a media that’s OBA-free but still bright-white as the Silverada metallic canvas is that you’re mentioning, it’s not as important to block UV light since, you know, the media isn’t really affected by UV light this way. Then you go into, you know, does the ink need to be protected from UV light? ANd, you know, modern day inks are such that they have such a long life-span in a print (and this is talking about an aqueous pigmented ink, obviously), the inks are so advanced now that, their lifespan is extremely long. And this is not typically your quote-unquote “weak point,” when you’re talking about a fine art print and archivability. So inks are gonna last you 100+ years, right, when you’re using a modern ink, a modern aqueous pigment ink. They’re gonna last you 100+ years, so UV light in that respect is not that important to block. So you do away with the OBAs, you use a high quality ink that’s clearly archival, it’s not gonna be that big of a deal. You know, you say this is one of the primary reasons that you use a varnish, but that’s not typically why people use varnish. The most important reason, you know, in my opinion, and from people that I talk to, is you use varnish to add durability. These prints are gonna be hung in a hotel or something like that, a lot of people walking by. You add that physical layer of durability between the print and the elements, and that’s super important. And most commonly, varnish was developed to prevent edge cracking on canvas when you’re gallery wrapping it, right? When you’re putting it around stretcher bars. When you print on matte canvas and you try to gallery wrap it without varnish you see ink separation, you see ink cracking around the edges where tension is put around the stretcher bars. So, that varnish definitely helps protect that as well. So I’m not too concerned with the UV light on an OBA-free canvas using modern day inks. It’s not going to be a problem. So, hope that answers your questions. As always, with these answers, you can definitely feel free to leave a comment down in the comments section of the show notes page, and we can further the discussion and get some input from other people in the industry on this. So, with that being said, let’s go ahead and move on to the next question. Next one comes from Carlos. Carlos asks, “After you download your ICC profiles, what else do you have to do? Do you store them in a specific file directory? Whenever you want to use them, do you have to do something specific, or will the printer automatically choose the right one for the paper you’re using?” Interesting questions Carlos, a few different pieces here obviously. I’m gonna try to address all of them. And those of you who are listening, this might seem a little elementary or entry-level, but, you know, all kinds of listeners to this #AskBC show, so bear with me, and I’m gonna explain some of the basics for those of you who are listening who might not be as familiar with ICC profiles. You know, I get this question a lot believe it or not, so let’s talk about it. So first, Carlos, you’re asking, after you download the ICC profile, what else do you have to do? Well first, after you download it, you have to install it, obviously. So what you want to do, and this is gonna vary depending on the operating system that you’re using, whether it’s a Windows PC or a Macintosh. Pretty simple though, with a Windows PC you can just right click on it, typically, and make sure it’s not in a ZIP file or anything like that, just right click on it and then click “Install Profile” and, basically what that does, is put it in the Windows system directory where you install profiles. So it’s just like a quick way to do it rather than going into the proper file directory and copy and pasting it in there. So yeah, right click on the profile for Windows, and then click “Install Profile” and that’s pretty much all you need to do, takes 2 seconds. Very simple. If you’re curious like I am, and you wonder, “where is it putting the file? What’s that directory?” I’ll go ahead and read that out for you here. It’s in the Windows directory, the System 32 folder, “Spool,” “Drivers,” and then the “Color” directory. So this is kind of where all of the profiles that you see when you install a printer driver, they all get put into here. So all the default stuff that you have when you’re printing is all housed right in here, and when you install a new one, it gets put in here as well. And for these directories, I’ll pop these in the show notes, that way for whatever reason if you’re trying to install a profile and you’ve landed here, you have a quick way to see this directory. I know it’s hard when I’m reading it out here. So check the show notes for that. And for Mac, Mac is a little more complicated. Sometimes when you download ICC profiles from a paper manufacturer you will get it in a self-installer, the .dmg format, and they make it a little bit easy, but typically you’ll need to just drop this into the proper system directory. And basically this can change a little bit based on what Mac OS you’re using, but more or less it’s in your User Directory, and then under Library, Color Sync, and then the Profiles directory. This is where they’re housed. Some different weird things happened with 10.7.3 with Mac OS Lion, and then with 10.9 Mavericks, different folders can be hidden based on user privileges and things like that, I have this little note thing that I copy for when I’m addressing this problem in email or wherever, and I’ll go ahead and put the notes about the 10.7.3 and the 10.9 in the show notes, so if you’re having some issues finding this profiles directory in Mac, check out the show notes, and I’ll include these little caveats and how to work around them there. So hopefully that answers your question there, if not go ahead and leave a comment and I’ll be happy to expand upon that answer. Actually you had another couple parts to this question, sorry. Next you asked if they store them in a specific directory, we addressed that. Next you ask, “Whenever you want to use them, do you have to do something or will the printer automatically choose the right one for the paper you’re using?” Yeah, you definitely have to do something. Generally speaking, the software will not automatically select which ICC profile you’re using. It’s not tied in with a media type setting or anything else that you’re selecting in the driver or on the interface of the printer, so it’s a manual selection. This is kind of a loaded question, I suggest – we have some step-by-step instructions if you’re using Breathing Color media. If you go to our website and just go under the “Support” tab you’ll see an ICC Profiles and Print Instructions link. We have a lot of screenshots and things like that that show you different scenarios, you know, Mac and Windows and Photoshop and the different plugins and stuff you can use to print. It’ll show you screenshots that’ll help you select the ICC profile and select all your settings in the printer driver, so it’s kind of hard for me to address every possible situation here without knowing the details of what you’re using. But generally speaking, I’ll speak in terms of Photoshop, because this is the most common that people are using to print. Right when you click “File,” “Print,” a dialogue window pops up and you’ll see a color management section next to a print preview. And under that color management section you’ll see a “profile” drop down, and this basically, well, first I guess you’ll see a “color handling” drop down, and that drop down basically allows you to say you want the software to manage the color, you know, Photoshop to manage the color, or, alternatively, you want the printer to manage the color, and if you’re using an ICC profile, which is generally a good practice, you’ll want the software – Photoshop – to manage the color, so you’d select “Photoshop manages color,” and then there’s the drop down menu right below that that says “Printer profile,” and this is where you’re selecting the profile that you just installed. Make sure you look at the name of the profile that you’re installing and you’ll find that exact same name on here generally, so, like ours (the Breathing Color ones) start with “BC_’printermodel’” etcetera, etcetera, depending on the media that you’re using. And just look for that on this list, it’s normally alphabetized, so pretty easy to find, and then just pair that up with the proper media type and other settings that the paper manufacturer recommends. Page size and things like that. And you should be ready to print. So that, in a nutshell, so to speak, is kind of a breakdown of how you use an ICC profile. How to install them, things like that. Like I said, generally, depending on the paper that you’re using, most manufacturers have some PDFs or step-by-step walkthroughs like Breathing Color does, so definitely recommend referring here so that you get all the print settings correct and you get a good print the first time. Alright, let’s go ahead and jump into the next question. This one comes from Lawrence Beck from lawrencebeck.com. Lawrence asks, “I have an Epson 3880 and I need to make a print that’s 46″ long. The printer driver on the 3880 only allows for 37.5″ prints. Is there any free or inexpensive software that will allow longer prints than this? I have no need for a RIP, I’d just like to make longer prints. Lawrence, it actually sounds like you do have a need for a RIP, unfortunately. This may be your only need for a RIP, but yeah, a RIPs pretty handy – if you’re printing more than one image, RIPs are pretty awesome for nesting, depending on your needs. Like I said, nesting and bypassing this length limit from the printer driver are definitely the most common reasons to get into using a RIP or piece of layout software. Off the top of my head, what I would recommend in terms of a low-cost solution for this is QImage. I believe QImage does have a demo that you can download to try this out but it should let you circumvent that 37.5” length limitation on the Epson 3880. So give QImage a try. Pretty handy piece of software definitely, and try the demo, see if it works out. It’s also only about $80, so if it ends up working out for you it’s a pretty small investment in terms of printmaking. Another thing I’ve heard, and I haven’t tested this so I don’t know if it actually works, and it wasn’t on a 3880 I don’t think, I think it was a 4900 or something, but a quick thing to try, you know, it might work it might not, I’m not really sure. But I’ve heard this gentleman write about this test that he was able to do successfully on what I think was a 4900 where he simply saved the file as a PDF and opened it in Adobe Acrobat and printed it from there, and for whatever reason it, you know, made it past that driver length limitation. So yeah, try to save it as a PDF, open it in Acrobat, and send it to print. See if that works. Like I said, haven’t tried it, but if it ends up working for you that’d be fantastic. Just another possible tip there. And this next question today comes from Myrna. Myrna says, “Since I’m away from my wide format printer for six months at a time, is there a firmware or a software that will turn on my printer remotely periodically and print in order to prevent clogging from lack of regular use?” Myrna, good question, thank you for submitting it. You know, I really didn’t have a great solution for this for a long time. I wasn’t aware of any software out there that allowed you to do this. Seems like a pretty strange thing, you know, as you probably have seen, these printers, with the lack of regular use they can clog up pretty quick. Six months is a huge time in terms of printing, and if you use your printer not printing for six months you’re gonna have some big problems when you get back, no doubt about it. Even like a week I’d recommend doing prints every few days, weekly at most. So yeah, I didn’t have a solution to this for quite a while, and then recently I got an email and I threw this question on at this point in this show because we just talked about QImage and I recently got an image from Mike Chaney over at QImage and I think the subject was something like, “Get rid of Epson ink clogs for good!” and I was like “Oh wow, let’s go ahead and read that, because that’s pretty intriguing.” And you don’t’ mention in your question Myrna if you’re printing with an Epson or what type of printer you’re using, but I definitely recommend looking at QImage because they apparently have added a feature recently that does allow you to schedule certain prints at certain periods to whatever you need I guess, I’m not sure what the intervals are or if it’s totally customizable, but it allows you to schedule these print jobs and keep your printer going, keep ink going through the lines and the printhead. So this might be something you can use. As I mentioned in the previous question and answer, that QImage is pretty affordable – $79 I think, $80, and it’s got some pretty unique features and some interesting uses such as the nesting and the bypassing the length limit, obviously, as we just talked about. So, you know, if for nothing else than preventing head clogs, you know the $70 or $80 is certainly cheaper than replacing a printhead or anything like that, so definitely look into that. QImage, I’ll put the link to that in the show notes so you can have that if you’d like. Alright guys, that’s it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for listening. For the show notes, you can visit ask-bc.com/episode27. That’s ask-bc.com/episode27. Thanks so much for submitting these questions and for being a part of the show, keep them coming, and if you enjoyed this show, please, please please, leave us an iTunes review. It’s pretty simple, just launch iTunes and search for the AskBC podcast. Leave us a rating and review, helps us know how we’re doing and is super important to us. If you would like to ask a question for the show, it’s super simple, just visit ask-bc.com and if we choose your question, we’ll mention your business name right in the epiosde. Thanks guys, see you next time! [Music] [End Audio] Thanks for listening! For more free episodes of #AskBC, check out the full archive! The post Scheduling Auto-Printing, No-Varnish Canvas, & ICC Profile Installation for Beginners appeared first on Breathing Color Blog.