{"id":1370,"date":"2012-09-30T17:29:53","date_gmt":"2012-09-30T17:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafal.net\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2020-06-18T19:34:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T19:34:33","slug":"its-all-about-the-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/2012\/09\/its-all-about-the-print\/","title":{"rendered":"It's All About the Print"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

<\/a>

A framed, mat\u00adted, and dry-moun\u00adted print. It is miss\u00ading my sig\u00adna\u00adture in the lower-right corner of the open\u00ading, because this is a work-in-pro\u00adgress print (the blacks are too deep for my liking).<\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps I am old-fash\u00adioned, but I think a phys\u00adic\u00adal print, some\u00adthing tan\u00adgible, that you can put on a wall, gift to someone, handle, or just share with friends, is a more power\u00adful form of visu\u00adal art than an eph\u00adem\u00ader\u00adal digit\u00adal file, or a slide show. There is abso\u00adlutely noth\u00ading wrong, inferi\u00ador, or super\u00adi\u00ador about digit\u00adal pho\u00adto\u00adgraphy, and I enjoy it very much. With tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal, ana\u00adlogue pho\u00adto\u00adgraphy, the primary way to share a pho\u00adto\u00adgraph has always been a print. I admire digit\u00adal even more, when it has been prin\u00adted and presen\u00adted well. However, I feel that the art of simple, under\u00adstated print present\u00ada\u00adtion is get\u00adting lost in the sea of gigant\u00adic prints, affixed to oddest sur\u00adfaces, rarely adding to the express\u00adive power of an image. I prefer the import\u00adant detail of a print to be in front<\/em> of me, rather than stretched onto the sides,<\/em> or even the backs, of a frame\u2026<\/p>\n

Not all tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal prints were equal. For hun\u00addred thou\u00adsands of those made by 1<\/span>\u2011hour photo labs there were just a few lovely ones, often those slowly made by hand. While today\u2019s digit\u00adal pho\u00adto\u00adgraphs seem bet\u00adter than the 1<\/span>\u2011hour photo ones, I don\u2019t think we have yet any\u00adthing that exceeds the qual\u00adity, and the sen\u00adsu\u00adal pres\u00adence, of a hand-made, sil\u00adver-gelat\u00adin, black-and-white print. I guess I am biased.<\/p>\n

A well-made sil\u00adver-gelat\u00adin print has a subtly three-dimen\u00adsion\u00adal feel, even though it is not a 3<\/span>D<\/span> cre\u00adation. It it lus\u00adcious, with juicy, deep blacks, that just have a hint of a tone. I like the faintest hint of a chocol\u00adate-plum, which sel\u00aden\u00adi\u00adum ton\u00ading offers for my present choice of paper. Unless really war\u00adran\u00adted, it is not a flat graph\u00adite black, or a dull grey, or even, good\u00adness for\u00adbid, that green\u00adish blue that looks dif\u00adfer\u00adent in dif\u00adfer\u00adent light\u00ading, or from dif\u00adfer\u00adent view\u00ading angles, that many inkjets pro\u00adduce. I believe today\u2019s digit\u00adal inkjet (aka gicl\u00e9e) print\u00ading bene\u00adfits the more for\u00adgiv\u00ading, full, sat\u00adur\u00adated col\u00adour out\u00adput, than the subtler black-and-white, where pre\u00adci\u00adsion is paramount.<\/p>\n

A fine print has all the tones it needs, with their con\u00adtrast, espe\u00adcially in the middle val\u00adues, under the con\u00adtrol of the print\u00ader (a per\u00adson). It does not look real,<\/em> but it looks the way the spir\u00adit of the object, or of the place, that it por\u00adtrays, seemed to the pho\u00adto\u00adgraph\u00ader. Unless heav\u00adily manip\u00adu\u00adlated to look arti\u00adfi\u00adcial, digit\u00adal pic\u00adtures can eas\u00adily look too real\u00adist\u00adic<\/em>, and per\u00adhaps that is one of the reas\u00adons why some digit\u00adal prints bene\u00adfit from an addi\u00adtion of arti\u00adfi\u00adcial grain, tex\u00adture, or the very pop\u00adu\u00adlar vign\u00adette\u2009\u2014\u2009side-effects, some\u00adtimes unwanted, of tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal photography.<\/p>\n

When I walk past a fine print, it brings a smile to my face. It feels like an afford\u00adable treasure.<\/p>\n

I feel pas\u00adsion\u00adate about fine prints. I am on a per\u00adson\u00adal quest to reach that 0<\/span>.0001<\/span>% level of rare excel\u00adlence in tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal print\u00admak\u00ading, and I real\u00adise the road ahead of me is a long one. At present, to get a reas\u00adon\u00adable work print (not a fine one), it takes me about 3<\/span>\u2009\u2013\u20094<\/span> days of work in the dark\u00adroom. I like to mount it, over\u00admat it, and place it in a tem\u00adpor\u00adary frame (see pic\u00adtures on the right) and I put it in my house, so that I try to live with it for a while, per\u00adhaps for a few weeks. If it still man\u00adages to impress, and it looks good, then I am ready to go back to the dark\u00adroom to improve it, based on the notes, and the feel\u00adings, that I have col\u00adlec\u00adted over the weeks it sat on my mantlepiece. For example, the print you see above, did not pass the tests, the deep-black win\u00addow area needed light\u00aden\u00ading. A few weeks later, and some 4<\/span>\u2009\u2013\u20095<\/span> days of dark\u00adroom work, I emerge with a couple, maybe six prints, which I hope rep\u00adres\u00adent the finest, at this stage of my pho\u00adto\u00adgraph\u00adic devel\u00adop\u00adment. Unfortunately, as I keep learn\u00ading, and work\u00ading on my craft, a time comes when I no longer think my older prints were fine enough, and I decide to reprint them again\u2026 Indeed, this is exactly what I am cur\u00adrently doing with some of the (Be)Longing<\/em> land\u00adscapes which I exhib\u00adited last year. I am adding more ton\u00adal\u00adity to them, lessen\u00ading some con\u00adtrasts, and gen\u00ader\u00adally mak\u00ading them subtler\u2009\u2014\u2009I hope.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Unframed print, with a bevel-cut over\u00admat, moun\u00adted. This is the form in which I prefer to sell my prints, so they only need to be framed by the buyer.<\/p><\/div>\n

I yet have to see a bet\u00adter form of print present\u00ada\u00adtion than the time-tested, simple approach of dry-mount\u00ading it to a 4<\/span>\u2011ply (1<\/span>.5<\/span> mm) acid-free, museum-qual\u00adity neut\u00adral-white mount board. Dry mount\u00ading is a bit of a craft in itself, requir\u00ading some skill, and a bit of luck. It uses heat, delivered by a press, to bind a trimmed print to the mount board, by means of a dry-mount\u00ading tis\u00adsue, a stable adhes\u00adive that melts in the press. All the mas\u00adters of pho\u00adto\u00adgraphy used this tech\u00adnique dec\u00adades ago, and it seems to be the most archiv\u00adal, with the dis\u00adad\u00advant\u00adage\u2009\u2014\u2009to some\u2009\u2014\u2009of being rather per\u00adman\u00adent: once moun\u00adted, the print can\u00adnot be removed from the mount\u00adboard eas\u00adily. That suits me, as I feel the print with the mount\u00adboard should be an insep\u00adar\u00adable couple, designed and destined for each oth\u00ader, unless the buy\u00ader has made altern\u00adat\u00adive present\u00ada\u00adtion arrange\u00adments. The mount makes the print per\u00adfectly flat and pristine look\u00ading, while giv\u00ading it a pre-meas\u00adured amount of breath\u00ading space around it.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Overmat is attached to the mount\u00adboard with acid-free, gummed lin\u00aden tape, keep\u00ading the pack\u00adage together.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>

My stamp, on the back of the mount\u00adboard, that shows on fin\u00adished prints.<\/p><\/div>\n

To fin\u00adish a moun\u00adted print, I like to mat it with a bevel-cut (angled) open\u00ading win\u00addow mat, cut from the same stock as the mount board. The win\u00addow is slightly lar\u00adger than the print, so it is pos\u00adsible to see the entire pho\u00adto\u00adgraph, with no edges lost\u2009\u2014\u2009some refer to this approach as float\u00ading a win\u00addow<\/a> with a well around the print. Striving for a per\u00adfect open\u00ading with no over\u00adcuts, I have only recently star\u00adted cut\u00adting my own over\u00admats. It can still frus\u00adtrate me on occa\u00adsion, but the present\u00ada\u00adtion is amaz\u00ading, when it comes togeth\u00ader. The over\u00admat is attached to the mount\u00adboard with an acid-free, archiv\u00adal gummed lin\u00aden tape, keep\u00ading the two togeth\u00ader, ready for me to sign the over\u00admat, just under the print, and stamp it on the back. All that remains is to frame it, and to put it under a good glass, or acryl\u00adic, for addi\u00adtion\u00adal pro\u00adtec\u00adtion. I prefer to leave the fram\u00ading to the buy\u00ader, as it is per\u00adson\u00adal, and it needs to match the loc\u00ada\u00adtion, but I am happy to recom\u00admend simple, alu\u00admini\u00adum pro\u00adfiles, when in doubt, such as Nielsen pro\u00adfile 3<\/span>, in col\u00adours 10<\/span> or 154<\/span>.<\/p>\n

So what is left at the end of the pro\u00adcess? A pleas\u00ading, joy-bring\u00ading, hand-made object, that has an express\u00adive, lumin\u00adous qual\u00adity, and a very spe\u00adcial pres\u00adence, wherever its home may be. It is a happy print, lucky in a way, as it made it into the real world, born out of a film neg\u00adat\u00adive, and even luck\u00adi\u00ader than the bil\u00adlions of vir\u00adtu\u00adal, digit\u00adal ones, which might only get an occa\u00adsion\u00adal glimpse, but which are con\u00adfined to a life of nev\u00ader being touched, or seen, even from the very moment they have been taken.<\/p>\n

I wish your pho\u00adto\u00adgraphs have a chance to live a full life.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps I am old-fash\u00adioned, but I think a phys\u00adic\u00adal print, some\u00adthing tan\u00adgible, that you can put on a wall, gift to someone, handle, or just share with friends, is a more power\u00adful form of visu\u00adal art than an eph\u00adem\u00ader\u00adal digit\u00adal file, or a slide show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[12,54,13,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions\/1840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafal.net\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}