Print Quality: Nailing the Performance
Ansel Adams, the famous American landscape photographer, liked to think of his negative film captures as musical scores. But the physical print was the performance.
As someone who spends a great deal of time in the field, trying to capture the right moments in the right places and at the right times, I want to make sure the print does the capture justice.
The physical print – the performance – deserves the same level of energy, thought and time, spent obsessing nuance and getting all the finer details right, as the capture itself.
For my own work, I use two primary papers to help achieve the best results:
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Baryta Fine Art Paper
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"Sheaves of Incense" printed on Baryta (Open Edition)
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Open Edition prints (both small and large sizes) are always printed on baryta (or similar) fine art paper with archival inks, for great contrast, detail, color and longevity. Baryta papers, specifically, help to produce deep blacks and bright whites, along with an exceptional tonal range, resulting in fantastic print quality for both color and black & white images.
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Fujiflex Crystal Archive
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"Sheaves of Incense" printed on Fujiflex (Limited Edition)
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Limited Edition prints are always printed on a specific version of Fujiflex Crystal Archive. I consider Fujiflex to be a “magical” paper of sorts, due to the layer of crystals embedded in the print surface itself and the way light interacts with the image. Fujiflex is used by many of the highest end print shops in the world, and found in museums and galleries alike. For photography work, specifically, you can get an almost three-dimensional quality at times, and realism, to go with vibrant colors, deep blacks, bright whites, and exceptional detail. Prints have a high gloss finish.
_I can look at a fine art photograph and sometimes I can hear music.
-Ansel Adams
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For photo examples of both Baryta (Open Edition) and Fujiflex (Limited Edition) paper, explore gallery images below.
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