Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down

Author Topic: do you spray your paper prints?  (Read 23329 times)

Sven W

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 514
Re: do you spray your paper prints?
« Reply #20 on: March 06, 2011, 12:53:47 pm »

I had the opportunity last week to run a print job on a Epson GS 6000 printer.
The solvent ink type. A beast at 110 inch and almost 500 lb.

The mission was a 25 x 9 feet wall decoration, printed on a smooth "non-woven", PVC-free wallpaper. Beautiful performance!
We also discussed canvas printing and the elimination of post-coating. The canvas prints I saw, was very very scratch resistant.
According to WIR, this combo also gives a very good display ratings. It would be nice to have a smaller 24 - 44 inch solvent
printer with that image quality.

/Sven
Logged
Stockholm, Sweden

bill t.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3011
    • http://www.unit16.net
Re: do you spray your paper prints?
« Reply #21 on: March 06, 2011, 02:12:44 pm »

OK, I'm just temporarily turning the archival button to the OFF position.

Did some experiments coating Epson Enhanced Matte with both Krylon "Preserve It!" and Krylon "UV-Resistant Clear" acrylic coatings.

Two generous coats of each on separate prints.  The surfaces dried to a moderately hard finish that resists hard wiping with a water-wet Scott Shop Towel, and is moderately resistant to fingernail scratches.  Both paints look identical as to surface quality, which is visually neutral.  But it took at least a week for the surfaces to truly harden, wouldn't recommend mounting or handling before then.

That is the closest I have seen yet to a treatment capable of being framed without glazing.  From a purely mechanical point of view, of course.

Went with canvas instead.

Returning the archival button the ON position.
Logged

Alan Goldhammer

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4344
    • A Goldhammer Photography
Re: do you spray your paper prints?
« Reply #22 on: March 06, 2011, 02:49:28 pm »

Well, what you're saying about the limited impact of 'normal' light on print degradation seems at odds with what Mark is indicating, Alan. 

No, I don't think I am.  The energy of visible light is much lower than that of UV light and the distance from the light source also is important (the energy drops as a function of the distance squared).  Clearly if you put a print in front of a normal light source with a distance of six inches, one would see degradation of the print quicker than if it were five feet away.  Fading will be much quicker with a UV light source that is the same distance away from the print versus an incandescent one.
Logged

ednazarko

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 42
Re: do you spray your paper prints?
« Reply #23 on: March 07, 2011, 09:28:48 am »

I do spray my prints, mostly for protecting the surface of the paper during handling.  I seem to have a love for papers with delicate surfaces, and since I use flat print storage drawers, even with interleaves I've had handling cause surface damage to un-sprayed prints.  I also love how the spray gives a last little pop to colors and blacks - I re-did my soft proofing profiles so that I take the impact of the spray into account.  I spray whether putting a print under glass or plexi or not.  In my own house and studio, I display without glass, but I haven't had a buyer yet who didn't use glass or plexi.

I use the Desert Varnish/Hahnemuhle/Premiere Art sprays pretty much interchangeably.   I hate the toxic smells, even in a large bathroom with two large industrial cooking fans for venting, the smell travels everywhere.

I have had miserable experiences with the Krylon sprays.  They're a lot more likely to puddle, run, and I had visible (and audible) variations in spray output when using.  After trashing a few prints that cost $125 just for the paper alone (huge panoramas) the Krylon is never allowed to cross my threshold again.

I'd love to move to the more eco-friendly coatings, but every time I read "brush on or roll on" I shiver with fear.  I can't help but imagine risks.
Logged

Ken

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 188
    • http://kenschuster.com
Re: do you spray your paper prints?
« Reply #24 on: March 07, 2011, 11:36:07 am »

I have had miserable experiences with the Krylon sprays.  They're a lot more likely to puddle, run, and I had visible (and audible) variations in spray output when using.

I had the same experience with Krylon.

I'd love to move to the more eco-friendly coatings, but every time I read "brush on or roll on" I shiver with fear.  I can't help but imagine risks.

A customer's request got me started with printing on canvas, and that definitely requires coating. I tried a variety of brushes and rollers and different techniques and wasn't happy with any of them... although applying a coat of Hahnemühle spray before using a roller did work, but it was too labor intensive. Then after lots of helpful advice on this forum about it, I bought a Fuji Mini-Mite HVLP sprayer and tried it with several coating materials. (If you admire well made machinery, the Fuji sprayer is almost worth buying just to look at.) It's much easier to use and maintain than I had anticipated. Although there's a lot less spray floating in the air than with aerosols, you still need to evacuate the air, and wear a protective breathing mask (which I do with aerosols too). I haven't tried it with paper, because it seems like overkill... but I'll give it a shot when the temperature warms up here in New England.
Logged

SergeyT

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 55
Re: do you spray your paper prints?
« Reply #25 on: March 14, 2011, 03:06:19 pm »

... I also love how the spray gives a last little pop to colors and blacks..

Well... not in my experience.
I have sprayed a few Color and BW z3200 prints on Canson BFK Rives and Canson Rag Photo 310 recently with a HM spray...2-3 coats with 3-5 mins between the coats. Dried for at least 24 hours.

Guess what? The spray has shifted the colors ever so slightly (and not all) and significantly reduced the contrast (DMax). Conclusion: That was the last time I've used it on the matte papers...

Works great on HM Photo Rag Baryta. Completely "healed" the GD problem on a test print printed on a z3200 with Gloss Enhancer off. But did not completely eliminate the bronzing...


...I re-did my soft proofing profiles so that I take the impact of the spray into account. 

Profiling may help to fight the slight color shift I'm seeing but I'm afraid won't help with the contrast reduction. The blacks are not just as black as they are on a non-sprayed matte papers in my case.

And plus what kind of accuracy of the "coated" profiles can we account for if the spraying is not consistant, since it is done manually and therefore the final chracteristics are unique to each print ?
Logged
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up