Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: gr82bart on November 26, 2006, 06:38:24 am

Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: gr82bart on November 26, 2006, 06:38:24 am
OK, so let's have a print exchange!

I've organized these exchanges on several other sites, so I thought, it would be another great way to interact with each other on this site. Here's how it works....

The basic process is:  
1. Sign up by posting a message in this thread that you are interested in participating. The sign up period will end December 31, 2006.

2. After the sign up deadline, I will organize everyone into groups of 4 or 5 participants. I will post the groups in another thread called "Print Exchange Groups and Status".

3. Send a Private Message (PM) to all the other members of your group your real name and postal address.

4. Make enough prints to send to only the other members of your group. This should be no more than 3 to 4 prints.

5. Mail your prints to the other members of your group. Post a message that you have sent your print in the "Print Exchange Groups and Status" thread. The deadline to make and mail your print will be February 28, 2007.

6. Enjoy the prints you receive, post a message thanking the other member for sending a print, provide feedback if you wish.

Some FAQs:  
- Make the best print you can with the best materials you can afford. It does not have to be museum quality, but there shouldn't be spilled coffee on it too!
- Although you don't need to mount/mat your print, a lot of people do. It's up to you. I highly recommend it.
- Your print can be any size, but a decent 8x10 is the most common size.
- Say something about your print. I'd encourage everyone to add a note with some basic information about the print:
* Camera
* Exposure settings
* If film, which one, what paper and developer, etc...
* If digital, which printer, which paper, any PS techniques used, etc...
* Location
* Other pertinent info
- Inkjet or traditional prints are acceptable
- Any subject is acceptable, but this a 'landscape' site so let's try to stick to landscapes, street scenes, architecture, places, nature, etc...

What will the organizer do?  
1. Establish the rules and deadline dates (via opinions, etc...)
2. Call for participants.
3. Organize the participants into groups.
4. Publish updates regularly.
5. Send reminder PMs up to 3 months after the due dates have passed.

What about packaging?  
Here are some known methods that people have been sending their prints:
1. flat, sandwiched in between two stiff cardboards, in a flat cardboard mailer or a soft bubble wrap mailer <--very good for unmounted prints, OK for mounted prints
2. flat, loose with popcorn, bubble wrap, newspaper or other soft materail in a cardboard box mailer <--good for mounted prints
3. rolled in a cardboard tube <--very not good for mounted prints
4. hand delivered <--now that's dedication!

International Nature of Print Exchanges  
Just a note that since the folks who participate in this exchange are international, please be prepared, if you want to participate, to mail your print internationally since you may get someone overseas.

Sending goods internationally requires some extra thought. Do not set the cost of your images over $25USD when declaring the cost as the receiver may have to pay duty.

Postage?  
Most people in the US send their prints using the good old US Postal Service using Priority Service. Cost is about $4-5USD per shipment. The box packaging if free and USPS will deliver the packaging to your door for free too. Goto http://www.usps.com/ (http://www.usps.com/) and order the boxes online.

In other exchanges I have participated in, most people outside the US sent their packages via their regular international mail service.

Cost of Participation  
This is a high end estimate based on the following assumptions:
- 4 sheets of 8x10 HP Premium Plus Photo Paper - $5USD
- 11x14 pre-cut matt and board with 8x10 window from Neilson Bainbridge - $40USD
- USPS Priority postage assuming 3 domestics and 1 international (box packaging is free) - $25SD
- Miscellaneous labels, ink, tape etc... - $5USD
TOTAL: $75USD

And here is a low/mid end estimate:
- 4 sheets of 8x10 Epson Advanced Glossy Paper - $2USD
- 11x14 pre-cut matt and board with 8x10 window from Pearl art supplies - $12USD
- Packaging materials and labels from Staples - $6USD
- USPS regular airmail postage assuming 3 domestics and 1 international - $20USD
TOTAL: $40USD

Remember that YMMV, but do make an effort to make the best prints you can with the best materials you can afford.

Deadbeats  
I hate to bring this up, but it's experience from other exchanges that approximately 5% of participants will fail to honour their commitment without a reasonable explanation after they have signed up and received prints from others. Whether a group will have a deadbeat in their midst is crap shoot. There is no prediction who will not honour their commitment - it ranges from well known active posters/subscribers to lurking newbies.

So as the organizer, I will make every effort to contact senders via PM after the deadlines have passed. But, after 3 months past the deadline without a reasonable explanation from the sender, there isn't more I can do. So, if you participate, you may have a deadbeat in your group and there's nothing more that can be done about it.

Therefore it is important that participants post a message that they have sent/received their prints. It is also important for anyone that cannot honour their commitment to PM the organizer and the rest their group.

Anyway, that's all I can think of right now. I hope we can get a lot of people participating in this print exchange. If it's popular, we can do this several times a year!

Regards, Art.
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: nicknugent on December 20, 2006, 11:44:03 pm
Hello Art,

Thanks for taking the initiative in organizing the print exchange.

After purchasing my first Epson Stylus IIs I began a long journey to find [my] best method for making digital prints. I feel now I'm at a point where I'd like to do a reality check and see how far I've come. A web search for "print exchange" brought me to this forum.

So please count me in.

Thanks,
--nick
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: gr82bart on December 31, 2006, 10:28:50 am
Quote
So please count me in.
Hmmm...not a lot of interest here like in other forum/sites, where there are usually 40-50 participants. Looks like it just you and me Nick. PM sent.

Regards, Art.
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: nicknugent on January 02, 2007, 03:25:52 pm
Quote
Hmmm...not a lot of interest here like in other forum/sites, where there are usually 40-50 participants. Looks like it just you and me Nick. PM sent.

Regards, Art.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=93030\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

OK. I'll send a PM so we can get something going.

It's become such an obsession for me to find a reliable way to put my digital files in prints and I kept running into brickwalls after adopting one printing technologies to the next, from numerous Epsons to HPs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed here but currently I'm happy with an HP Designjet 30 and an EyeOne Photo profiling package printing through Wasatch RIP. Part of the journey was a couple years of working on a acrylic polymer coating technique to protect my prints be they Epson pigment on fineart or HP dye on swellable prints. Lots of headache. But now I think I'm reasonably happy.

So I'm looking forward to this opportunity to compare my prints with others with the hope of improving my prints further as a result. I will send you one of my favorite prints but to help me measure my print quality perhaps we should both print from the same image which has very wide dynamic range with details in both highlights and shadows. Do you have like a favorite test/calibration/benchmark type image to check your workflow? I hope we both can make prints of this same image so at least I can learn from the experience.

So again, thanks Art for starting this thread.

--nick
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: gr82bart on January 04, 2007, 11:33:33 pm
Quote
Do you have like a favorite test/calibration/benchmark type image to check your workflow?
Hi Nick,

Nope. I join/organize print exchanges more for the 'exchange' itself - basically to see what others are doing with their tools and techniques to enable their artistic vision.

Quote
I hope we both can make prints of this same image so at least I can learn from the experience.
I know an exchange that you'd be interested in: http://www.hybridphoto.com (http://www.hybridphoto.com) Check out their ink jet print exchange. I think you'll get a lot from that one.

I'll mail out my print this weekend. Details of my workflow will be included with the print. This print is made on Ilford's new Digital Fibre paper on a Lambda printer. It's available in only in 4 high end professional labs in the world - in London, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles. This image was printed in Toronto, but is an image of Chicago. Hope you like it.

Regards, Art.
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: nicknugent on January 06, 2007, 03:48:14 am
Quote
Nope. I join/organize print exchanges more for the 'exchange' itself - basically to see what others are doing with their tools and techniques to enable their artistic vision.
Yes. I understand.

Quote
I know an exchange that you'd be interested in: http://www.hybridphoto.com (http://www.hybridphoto.com) Check out their ink jet print exchange. I think you'll get a lot from that one.
Thanks.

Quote
I'll mail out my print this weekend. Details of my workflow will be included with the print. This print is made on Ilford's new Digital Fibre paper on a Lambda printer. It's available in only in 4 high end professional labs in the world - in London, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles. This image was printed in Toronto, but is an image of Chicago. Hope you like it.
Awsome. I'll be looking forward to your print. I will start looking through my archive to find a favorite photo to share with you.

Thanks,
--nick
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: nicknugent on January 07, 2007, 05:42:52 am
Hi Art,

I selected a photo which I took of the view of the street from inside the Boudin Bakery at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco during a family outing.

The print was made from an HP Designjet 30 on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag then coated with Liquitex Gloss Medium & Varnish using an HVLP sprayer. This is my first attempt at printing on this fineart media using an HP printer. It took me a long time to arrive at what I think is probably an ideal Wasatch SoftRIP configuration for this media, and many like it, from which I created the best printer profile I could to make this print for our first print exchange.

I could go the safest route of printing on HP's own Premium Plus swellable media for maximum gamut and contrast but for some reason I have not developed a liking for either one of their glossy or satin surfaces.

The image was taken by my wife's point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot A75 at 1/50th second exposure, F-Stop=4.8, in sRGB color space. I did very little in Photoshop to enhance the image: added a very mild S curve to improve an already very nice digital capture, added some motion blur to the two men and the minivan in the foreground, and crop it into an 8x8 aspect ratio. That's it.

I've printed some of my work on a lightjet but a print from a durst lambda ... I've never seen one before.  It's considered one of the best printers in the world.

More later,
--nick
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: to-mas on January 13, 2007, 05:16:46 pm
Quote
Hmmm...not a lot of interest here like in other forum/sites, where there are usually 40-50 participants. Looks like it just you and me Nick. PM sent.

Regards, Art.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=93030\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I am interested, but I dont have mostly time.and printer.

Later on.on the end of the year.

enjoy exchange
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: picnic on January 13, 2007, 08:02:51 pm
Quote
I am interested, but I dont have mostly time.and printer.

Later on.on the end of the year.

enjoy exchange
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=95566\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

you might actually get more response in the printer forum.  Not sure, but its a possibility.

Diane
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: nicknugent on January 26, 2007, 02:26:02 am
Art,

My print is on its way to your address via USPS first class mail. It's the best printmaking approach I feel I can afford and the best one I came up with after many frustrating years dealing mostly with inkjet clogging and profiling challenges. I hope to receive your print soon so I can get a feel of how far I've come.

It's been a long time since I use my Logan mat cutter again and I managed to mess up a few 11x14 sized mats   ... dull blade and poor technique.

Regards,
--nick
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: nicknugent on February 16, 2007, 04:23:44 pm
Art,

I got your print a couple days ago but I'm in the middle of a major transfer of my website to another hosting company so things are kind of hectic. Your print is very beautiful. Was this one done on the new Ilford Digital Fibre on a Lambda machine? Can you elaborate on how you took this shot and prepared it for printing?

And thanks for a very nice print as it will occupy a prominent place in my office.

--nick
Title: Want to particpate in a Print Exchange?
Post by: gr82bart on February 17, 2007, 12:55:54 pm
Hi Nick,

Thanks for the kind words. After I sent the image, I realized I didn't include the write up that I normally include with my prints. I will send it to you via mail.

The image is of Chicago as I was walking around one day. I take a lot of street photography and have a tendency to just take my camera out and shoot images that I see. The camera was a Hasselblad 503CW with an 80 mm CFE lens. Film was Kodak Ektachrome V100.

The image was scanned with an Imacon 646 scanner. Some minor adjustments and corrections in Photoshop. Printed on the new Ilford Digital Fibre Cibrachrome paper. Processed on a Durst Lambda in Toronto at Elevator Digital (http://elevatordigital.ca/). The owner of Elevator is one of two premier master printers in Canada - Bob Carnie. He would be one of the finest printers in the world IMO.

You have one of 5 prints I have of this image. Another one is at a juried show here in New England and one is in a travelling portfolio of 25 selected images.

Regards, Art.