Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: neile on January 21, 2011, 10:11:42 am
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I finally got around last night to writing up a little tour through my new print studio. My wife and I remodeled our house over the last three months, and one of the projects was finding dedicated space for my printing and folio cover business.
I figured people here might be interested in seeing how it turned out, and some of the solutions I came up with for lighting, print viewing, and storage.
http://www.ronmartblog.com/2011/01/tour-of-neils-print-studio.html
Enjoy!
Neil
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Neil,
Very nice,thanks for sharing.
You know this is how it starts. Before you know it you are knocking out walls and building out the back. ;)
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That's a beautiful workspace. You are so lucky to have something like that where you probably spend a lot of time. Really like the galvanized steel with magenets print viewer. Very cool.
I would suggest getting a miele expresso machine in there also and a small fridge :D
Just wondering why you are using 4700 K lights ?
Thanks for posting , it's nice to see other people workspaces. Will post mine too soon.
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There's a Keurig downstairs for coffee (although I don't drink it that much) and a full fridge in the kitchen. That's one of the advantages of having the studio be in the house :)
I'm running 4700k lights because they're "D50" according to Solux, similar to what you find in the high-end print viewing booths that I can't afford!
Neil
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Great looking little space, Neil. Isn't it fun to actually design the space to fit your needs rather than make do with a hodge-podge of legacy cabinets, multi-height tables and dubious light fixtures?
Although I like my sheet metal hanging wall, when I decide I can make do without it for a week, I think I'll take it down and have one side sand blasted and maybe powder coat the other side. Both options should cost about $50 each and will greatly help the glare. Finger prints, too, become a problem after a while with the raw steel.
I like your pin magnets. The only ones I found were multi-colored, so your link to Mr. Super Magnet Man is a good find. Although I'm more than happy with my little magnetic B-Bs; they win for unobtrusive cuteness!
I tried the Solux 4700K lights but decided the look was too cold for my gallery and opted for the 3500K bulbs, instead. Did you read the Solux "White paper" on bulb temperature and people's response to viewing artwork? Of course, since I have a goodly amount of north light coming into my studio, that and the warmer Solux bulbs probably average out to around 4700K...
Hope the 8300 is worth the real estate it occupies. I certainly love mine. My old Cibachrome lab is just a dim memory and that's fine by me.
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Enjoyed the walkthrough...
On a somewhat unrelated note, just wondering inf 11x14 portfolio covers are still out of the question due to limitations of the embossing/cutting machine you contract out to???
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Although I like my sheet metal hanging wall, when I decide I can make do without it for a week, I think I'll take it down and have one side sand blasted and maybe powder coat the other side. Both options should cost about $50 each and will greatly help the glare. Finger prints, too, become a problem after a while with the raw steel.
I'm considering something similar, but I was just going to take it down and hit it with a couple of cans of Rustoleum in a neutral colour. Glare is definitely a bit of an issue, as can you can tell from the photos.
I tried the Solux 4700K lights but decided the look was too cold for my gallery and opted for the 3500K bulbs, instead. Did you read the Solux "White paper" on bulb temperature and people's response to viewing artwork? Of course, since I have a goodly amount of north light coming into my studio, that and the warmer Solux bulbs probably average out to around 4700K...
I have some 3500k bulbs as well, from the previous lighting setup in the room. I may very well swap out to them, I'm trying both to see which I prefer.
Neil
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On a somewhat unrelated note, just wondering inf 11x14 portfolio covers are still out of the question due to limitations of the embossing/cutting machine you contract out to???
The machine can handle it but I'm still not sure if I can find parent sheets big enough to hold the layout. Will need to do some digging!
Neil
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I have some 3500k bulbs as well, from the previous lighting setup in the room. I may very well swap out to them, I'm trying both to see which I prefer.
I've also seen 4300K recommended. I'm curious to see what you settle on, so please update the thread when you've made a decision.
You put together a great room. Thanks for taking the time to document it all.
Terry.
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Here are some images from my printstudio (http://jalbum.net/browse/user/album/876702/) at the
other end of the pond, in Stockholm, Sweden. Maybe a little bit bigger, but we have build all by ourselves.
Talking about light; we use JustNormlicht 5000K calibrated tubes, but also some Solux at our desks.
And of course a magnetic board ! You can see it to the left in the third image.
/Sven
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Of course you realize that you are making all of us who are consigned to a corner of a family room and a utility room jealous with envy! :D Anyway both yours and Swen's rooms look great. Now if I can only convince my wife that I need the entire downstairs for a print room!!!
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I have found the Solux 3500 degree bulbs work best for me, as all other bulbs are not warm enough. The 4700 is scorching white to my eyes, but then again I am trying to match other light sources in my environment (table lamps).
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Here is my studio. When this second bedroom needs to be used, the printer is taken out and put into another room (aka the basement aka the cellar).
(http://g3.img-dpreview.com/C155D955BC9B418FB9198B83D80E38C4.jpg)
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I love it Aristoc! Thanks for sharing.
Neil
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Here is my studio. When this second bedroom needs to be used, the printer is taken out and put into another room (aka the basement aka the cellar).
And moving even futher down the food chain, here's mine. ;) (At least I never have to put the printer in the garage)
(http://www.nolonemo.com/files/booth.jpg)
To the OP, beautiful studio, it must be a real pleasure to have such a space to work in.
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I have to admit, you have a very nice window out to the yard! Mine looks out over the neighbours, who have cars up on cement blocks...
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Neile, it look real nice. I do like a machine whore like Dan Berg who is like me, buy every machine made!
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Very nice studio, Neil - thanks for sharing (and to the others who are sharing, too!)
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I just noticed....Is that a sword with a pull cord hanging right over the kitchen sink ? Who does the dishes ? ;D
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This used to be my old darkroom :-)
(http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/content_images/8300/printer.jpg)
Not where I take clients ;-)
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I'm considering something similar, but I was just going to take it down and hit it with a couple of cans of Rustoleum in a neutral colour.
Neil
Very nice studio! I have a very similar arrangement for print viewing. I couldn't find spray paint that was spectrally neutral gray , so I took one of my gray reference cards down to the paint store and had them match it. Worked great, though I had to brush it on rather than spray.
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I enjoyed this studio thread... Hope its resurrection doesn't annoy anyone.
Here's my studio ~err.. mancave.
The fluorescent lights are horrible; there is some dust and cobwebs in the corners; the only window is partially blocked with a piece of cardboard; there's some dog barf stains on the floor.
I keep the Epson 11880 covered in its shipping plastic and its now a little more than a year old. It's loaded up with the IJ Technologies 64 inch canvas that I'd asked about in a previous thread. There's also gallon of their Black Diamond Eclipse Satin -spray-on topcoat in a box just to the left of the printer. I used this combo for a recent job completing 2 64x64 inch gallery wrap canvases of a client's photo montages --originally provided to me as very low-resolution jpegs. I sprayed the large canvases using a Wagner PowerMax (and advice from @Fetish) in a small unused bedroom upstairs from this spot... Wife was not happy.
There's a Cintiq 21ux (rev 2) tablet and a Benq lcd that are driven by a home built Win 7/64, i7/930, ssd, and GTX 465 video, with CS5 production prem, and LR3, with on one's perfect photo suite. A Colormunki Design is under the desk or, I'm not sure where it is. There's another home built Mac hackintosh, in the background running 10.6.7 (not going to lion) with a similar config for audio and video editing. And there's a linux virtualization server just out of picture for web and file services.
There's a box of empty starter ink carts and a broken/disassembled Colormunki Photo in the shelf above the printer.
There's a pair of Technics 1200 Mk 2's, a Tascam 38 multitrack reel deck, some rack effects, Pioneer DJM500 mixer, Akai APC20 Ableton and Numark controllers and a soundcraft EPM 6 for audio, mixing, and horsing around.
Im planning on cleaning and re-arranging some things to get a bit more work surface.
I hadn't really planned on doing large-format prints, but was left with some advice from my late mother to print my father's artwork -- he paints landscapes, and working on the reproductions together has brought us a bit closer together since our loss.
Over the past year I've closely followed (lurked) the Lula printing/paper/ink threads and paid close attention to advice from posters Wayne Fox, Bill T, Dan Berg, Neil E, the LL canvas print video and others who escape me at the moment, point being they've provided very useful, practical knowledge as well as some inspiration to go beyond hobbyist printing and consider fine art printing as a profession, or at least to offer as a service to other, much more talented photographers.
It's been a very gratifying learning process... Thanks!
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That's a slick outfeed table yo have going there, very nice!
My sister is coming to visit in a few weeks so my studio is going to be transformed into a guest bedroom. I'm trying to figure out if I should warn her about the printer waking up to do auto-agitation of the inks, or just let her be surprised the first time it happens :D
Neil