Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: avelpavel on October 09, 2015, 04:50:50 pm

Title: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: avelpavel on October 09, 2015, 04:50:50 pm

I'm looking for an advice regarding the best fine art paper to use in a future need for scanning images.

I would like to have a collection of my best images (all digital) printed for future reference and archive in case some files or hd will be lost in time.

The best thing will be a good Dmax and color reproduction but which kind of finish? Glossy, semi-mat, mat? I will do my printing with the Epson 3880.

Anyone is doing the same archival process?

Thanks in advance!

Rob

www.pastrovicchio.com

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: TSJ1927 on October 09, 2015, 09:29:06 pm

The cost of paper and printing and your time + storage containers and you are another generation or two from the original digital file....................get several  2-4 TB hard drives.  Keep one in a bank box if additional safety/security is needed.   Nothing will ever be as good as original files.

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: avelpavel on October 13, 2015, 03:00:04 am

Thanks, I know the master file is the best thing we have but a good print on paper will last very long even if it will have a lower quality.

Rob

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: aaronchan on October 13, 2015, 10:30:41 am

Sorry
I might not be able to answer your question,
because I think the concept of your move is not right at all.

Online cloud storage, harddrives, raid, dvd, blu-ray.
Just make a few more copies.

Using print as your file backup doesn't make any sense at all, at least to me.

aaron

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: Tim Lookingbill on October 13, 2015, 03:58:53 pm

Print on 8 1/2 x 11 clear film. That way you can take advantage of Epson's wider gamut inks scanning as a transparency in the distant future.

I believe Epson has clear film but I can't be sure. I know I could get it back in '98 in a sampler packet with my Epson Photo EX inkjet. Don't know the archival quality of it though.

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: Jager on October 13, 2015, 05:23:09 pm

I'm kind of with Aaron on this... making prints so you can scan them at some future date, as a form of backup, like some sort of negative, is a cumbersome, slow and not-very-high-quality way to go.  There are lots of easier ways to save digital files.

That said, I do agree with the OP that digital files are inherently temporal.  Most digital images will inevitably be lost over time, in spite of well-meaning efforts to retain them.

With that in mind, I would certainly make physical prints of any images that one feels are important.  The difference is that I would intend those prints to be final versions of a picture, not a "negative" from which the image could later be sourced.  And with that as the intent, I would argue for using whichever paper/ink best serves each individual image.

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: avelpavel on October 14, 2015, 03:39:49 pm

Thank you Tim and the others for the reply.

Obviously I'm doing regular backups of my files, the print is one more way to have a good reproduction of the images made.

Rob

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: Tim Lookingbill on October 14, 2015, 08:45:35 pm

Just a thought, can we be so sure we'll have scanners in the distant future seeing there's fewer and fewer film processing labs around today for consumers? Maybe pro labs, but who can tell?

Not even sure movies will still be shot on film by then.

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: avelpavel on October 16, 2015, 07:14:03 am

That's another good point! But we will have 100mpx cameras for reproductions… ;)

Rob

Title: Re: Best fine art paper for future scan processing
Post by: Tim Lookingbill on October 16, 2015, 05:58:57 pm

Just FYI I found a link in this LuLa discussion...

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=104361.0

...that demonstrates 72 year archival qualities of 120 B&W negative film if kept in a fireproof steal box...

http://www.modernpictorials.com/alexander_gurtcheff_images_circa.html