Stephen Grote Photography

A lot of people are interested in getting great prints from inkjet printers. One of the most important factors is the media used (or what surface you decide to print on). There are three basic choices: glossy, semi-gloss (similar surfaces are pearl or luster) or matt. Glossy surfaces offer the most contrast while matt surfaces give the least contrast. Some glossy surfaces such as the metallic offerings even give a sense of depth in the photograph. Inkjet printers, proper printing profiles and consistent workflow also play a major roles in producing quality prints.

I personally prefer a semi-gloss or matte surface printing paper for most of my work. What it really boils down to for me is that there is no annoying glare on the image (especially from overhead lighting), the feel of the paper (I love the texture, weight and overall feel of the paper as I turn the prints) and the ability to capture the essence of the photograph. I have also noted that there is generally less metamarism (color shifts when viewed in different light sources) on matte papers. We all have to make up our own minds by printing our images on several different media to see what works best for us. I am giving several recommendations on media and printers as starting points. Remember that every paper and printer combination will yield a slightly different result, partly because printer manufacturers have substantially different ink formulations and ink sets. To learn more about printing please see the Digital Darkroom class in the Courses section and read some of the handouts. I’d also like to put in a plug for Dry Creek Photo for their great digital photographic resources.

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White 310

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Satin 310

William Turner 310

Bergger PN32 Smooth Photo Rag

Bergger PN32 Fine Art Smooth

Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper

Epson Smooth Fine Art

Epson Velvet Fine Art

Epson Enhanced Matte or Heavyweight Matte

Epson Semi-Gloss

Epson Luster

Ilford Smooth Pearl – 50% cheaper than the Epson Luster or Epson Semi-Gloss, but beware of metamarism (color shifts in different lighting conditions)

Oriental Graphica Fiber Double Weight 320

Moab Entrada Fine Art Bright 300

Moab Kayenta Bright White 205

Innova Photo Smooth Cotton 215 or 315

Innova Photo FibaPrint Ultra Smooth

For printing photographs the lead is currently held by Epson, closely followed by Canon and HP. I highly suggest that if you plan to print a lot then you strongly consider a 17-inch wide printer (considered a large format printer) that has larger ink vessels. The printer manufacturers make their money on ink refills and the price of the printer is quickly recovered by not having to continually feed the printer ink. Larger format printers are also made better (tighter manufacturer tolerance on quality control) and have more professional features for print head alignment, print head cleaning, paper feeds, etc.

Photographic Printers (InkJet)

Epson 1400 – up to 13-inches

Epson 2880 – up to 13-inches

Epson R1900 – up to 13-inches

Epson 3800 – up to 17-inches

Epson 4880 – up to 17-inches

Epson 7900 – up to 24-inches

Canon PIXMA 9500 – up to 13-inches

Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5100 – up to 17-inches

Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6200 – up to 24-inches

HP DesignJet 90 – up to 18-inches

HP DesignJet 130 – up to 24-inches

HP PhotoSmart Pro B9180 – up to 13-inches

Recommended places for buying photographic supplies, photographic printers and/or inkjet papers are:

Calumet Photographic – several stores around the U.S. and starting to catch on in Europe

LexJet

InkJet Mall

Freestyle

B&H – low prices, but the service is debatable, great store in New York City

Color Correction is a large part of being a photographer. It crosses over into many other fields as well (graphic design/graphic arts, gaming, etc.). I am a huge proponent of having everyone color correct their computer monitor for the best possible output and most color consistency across platforms (between computers no matter what the brand, make or model). It makes a big difference in the everyday use of your computer, a difference that is hardly noticeable until you start using the color correction profiles.

I am platform agnostic and really do not care whether you use a PC or an Apple MAC, both have their advantages. As the Adobe representative puts it… get which ever computer suits you best or you think sucks the least at the time. Most major software titles are written to have the same features and similar interface on both platforms.

The latest update in the field of color correction come at a time when consolidation of companies is the norm. Xrite announced a merger with GretagMacbeth in early 2006 and the two largest companies in the color correction field finalized everything in October 2006. A majority of the Xrite color correction solutions have been discontinued or phased out in favor of the GretagMacbeth products. Both brands are now sold under the Xrite label and are marketed by MAC (Mamiya America Corporation) or MAC Group US. MAC has a student/educator program that is arguably the best in the photographic industry. They provide incredible support for schools, students and educators as well as the professionals that buy their products.

That being said, there are other solutions you should also consider. Please take a look under the Links section under the Photography – Color Correction heading for more information and links to color correction information and product information web sites.

Correcting a monitor is fairly simple as far as the end-user process goes and the packages can be purchased for a reasonable price with a colorimeter hardware/software package. The solutions I recommend are for the amateur and professional alike. The cost ranges from $100 to approximately $400 for a monitor correction solution. The overall best monitor solution is Color Eyes by Integrated Color Corporation. A close runner-up at lower price point is the Xrite/GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display 2. The Eye-One Display LT is also a good choice, but is does not allow for dual monitors or some of the more robust features of the Display 2 unit. If you are a student or on a budget then the GretagMacbeth solutions are probably the best choice. Color Vision has a very good monitor correction solution in their Spyder2 series of products.

One caveat to doing monitor color correction is the quality of your video card and monitor. Every piece of hardware is slightly different so every profile will be different. However, some video cards and monitors and more adjustable than others. All MAC Pro and most iMac video cards support color correction (as they cater to the creative markets of photography, graphic design, etc.). All PC video cards do not support true hardware adjustments. Most upper level ATI/AMD and Nvidia video cards work well. At last look ATI (now AMD) and Nvidia supported native color correction in all their video cards over the $190 price mark. Most of the consumer level entry video cards will not do hardware level color correction. As far as monitors go, you have to be very careful when looking at the specifications. Make sure to get a minimum of 16.7 million colors supported (8-bit color level), good refresh rate of 75 or better at native resolution for LCD monitors (the resolution may vary for different sizes and different manufacturers), and the ability to adjust white point, brightness and contrast. If you have any questions or need pointing in the right direction on a video card, monitor or color correction package please feel free to contact me on the contact page of the site.

The settings most often used for color correcting monitors (now industry standards to keep everyone on the same page and make things as consistent as possible) are a color temperature of 6500 degrees kelvin and gamma of 2.2.

If you intend to do printer calibration then you have to step up to a different series of products. The only strong recommendation I can give is for the Xrite and GretagMacbeth series of products. Print calibration products require a spectrophotometer instead of a colorimeter. Print calibration requires many more mathematical algorithims and is overall a more time consuming process. It makes a huge difference in the print quality over a variety of media (papers, fabrics, etc.), but the entry price is usually around $1,000 for a mediocre solution up to $5,000+ for a top notch solution that allows control over more ink, paper and printing options.