The Print

We recently invested in new printing technology which enables us to create our own prints, in-house, but to standards previously only produced by fine art print shops. The array of inks and papers available to us today allows us to create prints of unprecedented longevity - much greater than traditional photographic print techniques.

You'll hear the term Giclée printing used interchangeably with ink-jet printing.  Its a term coined by someone, possibly French, to describe the method of laying down ink on paper to create a photograph.  I believe the literal translation is 'to spurt', which of course is what ink-jet printers to - spurt or squirt out ink.  Some circles believe this to be a higher form of ink-jet printing, but some don't agree. Whatever you call it, the quality that's available now if far superior to anything we've been able to produce in the past. 

At the core of this new technology is the ink set we use in our large format professional printer. They call it UltraChrome HDR and it is an 11 colour ink set that is made with pigments rather than dyes. The advantage of pigment ink is that it's very stable and less prone to fading than the typical dye-based inks found in consumer quality ink-jet printers.  A whole new technology of printer equipment needed to develop to take advantage of these inks.  Not only are the colours richer and brighter than ever before, but the new set includes varying shades of black to create incredibly rich detail in Black & White photography. 

Ink is no good without some sort of medium to print it on. Paper has been around for thousands of years, but the selection available for Fine Art Printing, especially of photography, has never been better.  My favourite paper for printing Fine Art Photography is Epson's Cold Press Natural Signature Worthy Paper.  It has a textured matte finish that is 100% cotton fibre, pH buffered and acid free for incredible longevity.  Up until now, matte papers didn't have the vibrance that more traditional types of glossy papers had to reproduce the subtle changes of colour in photographs.  The ability for this paper to get a deep, rich black, also know as DMax, is unprecedented.  And the natural white tone of the paper is pleasing for many styles of photography, including landscapes, portraiture (we use this paper for our Fine Art Portraits) and a beautiful, slightly warm-tone Black & White.

Of course there are other papers available and as we experiment with them we'll add them to our répertoire.  One that we're quite excited about is the Epson's Hot Press Natural, which has the same characteristics as the Cold Press, but with a very smooth, rather than textured, finish.

Ink and paper alone can't create a print. As mentioned above, we invested a substantial amount into new printing technology to create the quality of prints we are producing. The printer is the Epson Stylus Pro 4900 large format printer. This printer, along with the ink set already discussed and the Epson Signature Worthy papers make a complete Fine Art printing system. It's their most advanced printing system to date. The 4900 allows us to produce prints up to 17" wide and virtually any length.  I recently printed a panorama that was 4 1/2 feet long!  The printer also allows us to print on other media, such as Fine Art Canvas.  We'll have samples of this as we find ones we're excited about.

Oh, and if you want a larger print, we have access to the 44" wide printers as well, although not at our studio.  

All of our prints are available three ways.  The print itself, the print with mat, or matted and framed.  The prints we have on display at our gallery are priced with the frame they are in.  However, we do have a fairly large selection of other frames available to suite your tastes and decor.  You can find more information about our framing service here.