Totally in love with Japanese Washi Paper and the effect it produces

[traderjay]

I took this picture way back in 2008 with the Canon 1D Mark III and the EF 24-70 F2.8L when I first got started with DSLR and manual shooting. So please forgive me if the composition and capture is not up standards vs many of the pros here This is Canada's Sauble Beach. However, this is one of my better pictures to test out the fine nuances of different paper types.



I then use three types of paper and printed them on the Canon Pro 1000 with each having its custom ICC profile in place.

Ilford Smooth Pearl
The Ilford Smooth Pearl (luster type finish) produces the best contrast and the sun rays are faithfully reproduced. The dark rendition is excellent but I find the dark clouds on the top of the image a bit harsh vs original or real life. The water is really sharp and you can "feel" the reflected rays.


Red River Polar Matte
This paper has rather poor contrast rendition and most of the rays are lost and could not reach the water at the horizon. The dark cloud seems to be suffering from black crush and the very fine tonality and transition between the dark vs light cloud is lost.


Moab Monekopi Unryu 55
This is a very thin paper with natural mulberry tree bark and weighs only 55 gsm. The results blew me away and I am surprised at the excellent contrast this paper can produce and the very smooth and natural looking effect of the final printed image. The clouds and light rays in this picture looks the most natural. Despite not having the best contrast vs the first paper, the Unryu 55 is able to balance contrast vs color rendition the best. The translucent effect of the paper makes the sunset looks almost surreal.



I will be doing more testing and prints using the Awagami Kozo and the epson japanese kozo paper thin in the future.

[donbga]

Thanks for the update about the paper.

FWIW, IT Supplies sell sample packs of the Moab Moenkopi Washi, 8.3x11.7/A4. 2 110gms & 55gms for $7.95.

Don Bryant

[Mark D Segal]

Review-special papers

[traderjay]

Review-special papers

Mark - I've read your excellent reviews and always a pleasure to read, especially the empirical testing. I have a roll of epson japanese kozo paper thin coming my way and I am wondering if you want a few sheets to test them out? Gary Wornell the creator of this paper says this version of Kozo produces superior tonal ranges, blacks and color vs the Awagami.

[Mark D Segal]

Thanks for asking. I also have a roll of it. I intend to test it later on - no specific time in mind just now. I'm up to my eyeballs in a couple of other forthcoming reviews, but I'll get to it eventually.

[traderjay]

Thanks for asking. I also have a roll of it. I intend to test it later on - no specific time in mind just now. I'm up to my eyeballs in a couple of other forthcoming reviews, but I'll get to it eventually.

Looking forward to that Mark! Once I get the roll I will do a sample print using the standard printer evaluation image and compare it against the other Japanese paper types - http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi048/essay.html
This paper is  bargain on ebay - a 17 inch by 10M roll is about EURO 80.