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Aluminum Prints

RomanJohnston

New member
Well, been working with the City Of Portland's Water Bureau to provide them with some art that they can use. They stuck their neck out and ordered some prints on my reccomendation from Bay Photo with their new process of printing directly on aluminum. We ran a small (16" x 24") trial proof and liked it.

Well, they just hung the resulting large prints and allowed me to take some pictures of the end peices in place.

This work I do for them is donated as the City has been amazing to me. This was a "pay it forward" kind of project.

Hope you enjoy and maybe even try printing on aluminum...I was truly impressed and will offer it for my own customers now that I see how nice they have ended up being.

The following are all exclusive pictures shot in the City of Portland's closed access watershed.






Roman
 

emr

Member
Interesting. What does a print like that look like if you watch it very close? Like is the white in a photograph white on aluminium or does is it look metallic? Also, what's the aproximate price level of prints like that?
 

Terry

New member
Is it printed on Aluminum or mounted on a thin piece of aluminum. I'm about to get some prints mounted on it.
 

ecsh

New member
Bob
He mentioned Bay Photo, do not know where that is.
I have seen these advertised in several spots, but have never heard from a "real" person who actually tried them out.
 

Diane B

New member
Not aluminum but I've been considering trying this Red River metallic paper for some prints though it won't work with pigmented inks so I'd be limited in size with my non-pigmented printer.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/silver-metallic-inkjet-paper.html

There is also aluminum substrate available from Booksmart Studio
http://www.booksmartstudio.com/
As well as Inkaid and coatings from Inkaid--which allow for pigmented printing but add their own complexity to the printing process
http://www.inkaid1.com/products/fine-art-metals/
 
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kdphotography

Well-known member
Bay Photo's Main "Pro-Lab" is located in the Santa Cruz, CA area. Excellent customer service.

The Metal prints are actually printed on metal itself with a thermal/heat process. It is not Kodak's Endura Metallic paper. It is a very unique product.

One caveat: be aware that in the thermal process to bond the inks, there is a slight loss in detail (and no, you can't bring it back by sharpening). Those that are familiar with medium format detail may be disappointed slightly (I was), although removing your nose away from the print makes everything beautiful again. :rolleyes:

The metal prints look great "floating" off the wall with Bay Photo's hanger...several finishes to choose from as well. Frankly, I'd like to see how a Kodak metallic print (details!) would hold up mounted instead on a aluminum sheet.... Haven't gotten there yet (too busy) but working on a image gallery wrap using fine art papers and metallic paper on stretchers...

Congratulations, Roman---display looks great!

ken
 

jonpaul

New member
I have heard many positive reviews about the process. It can be striking when lit properly (examples above look beautiful). I have stayed away due to the lack of "archival" information. This is a sublimation process and noone knows how long they will last. Hopefully it will be positive.
 

Terry

New member
terry:

let me know what they use to adhere the print.

jm
John I was going to use General Graphics in San Francisco. They mount it on aluminum and then apply a coating over the shot. It is generally done on Epson Luster but they may be able to use other papers (we were also discussing face mount acrylic - which definitely uses luster paper). Duggal in NY does this work but they insisted on using C prints for the acrylics.

I just looked at the website for the aluminum printing would be sort of cool to give one of these a try.
 

RomanJohnston

New member
Bob – Thanks, They were done at Bay Photo, just Google the name.

Emr – The whites look white, but the interesting part is the inks seem to have a translucence to them. When you bounce light into them they seem to glow like their sorta back lit.

Daniel – Thanks!!!!

Terry – Printed directly on the aluminum.

Diane B – VERY different than the metallic paper. These are ready to hang. The colors are very forgiving as well. They do have profiles to soft proof to.

Ken – You are right, about the detail, but it seems to be pronounced on the smaller prints (I am calling smaller 12” x 18” and 16” x 24”) but in the really big prints, sharpening seems to have a good effect (better than I thought) and as we all know a well shot, well exposed, solid compelling composition often draws the viewer’s vision in to the point of overlooking the minute “nose to the print” problems.

Thanks everyone!
Roman
 

jlm

Workshop Member
Terry:
funny you mention Duggal; they have their main studios here in the Navy Yard and are sometimes a customer of mine. I went to them first, but they were unsure and suggested a 3M 77 spray mount. I did, got what looked like good bonding, some large prints, 30 x 40, on 1/8" aluminum, sprayed both surfaces and squeegeed down paper was Ilford fine art pearl

after about a month or two, almost all started to show major bubbling the size of a NY waterbug

prints do look good that way, i floated mine about 3/4" off the wall using simple bevel blocks, one bonded to the back of the aluminum, one screwed to the wall with a spacer at the bottom
 

Terry

New member
Terry:
funny you mention Duggal; they have their main studios here in the Navy Yard and are sometimes a customer of mine. I went to them first, but they were unsure and suggested a 3M 77 spray mount. I did, got what looked like good bonding, some large prints, 30 x 40, on 1/8" aluminum, sprayed both surfaces and squeegeed down paper was Ilford fine art pearl

after about a month or two, almost all started to show major bubbling the size of a NY waterbug

prints do look good that way, i floated mine about 3/4" off the wall using simple bevel blocks, one bonded to the back of the aluminum, one screwed to the wall with a spacer at the bottom
Here is the GGE info - give them a buzz or next time you are out here they have samples of each at their shop so you can see the different substrates or facemounts.

http://gge.com/03_Srvc/2_Graphics/01.html
 

Diane B

New member
They do look terrific Roman. Beautiful shots also.

Diane

Bob – Thanks, They were done at Bay Photo, just Google the name.

Emr – The whites look white, but the interesting part is the inks seem to have a translucence to them. When you bounce light into them they seem to glow like their sorta back lit.

Daniel – Thanks!!!!

Terry – Printed directly on the aluminum.

Diane B – VERY different than the metallic paper. These are ready to hang. The colors are very forgiving as well. They do have profiles to soft proof to.

Ken – You are right, about the detail, but it seems to be pronounced on the smaller prints (I am calling smaller 12” x 18” and 16” x 24”) but in the really big prints, sharpening seems to have a good effect (better than I thought) and as we all know a well shot, well exposed, solid compelling composition often draws the viewer’s vision in to the point of overlooking the minute “nose to the print” problems.

Thanks everyone!
Roman
 

scho

Well-known member
Not aluminum but I've been considering trying this Red River metallic paper for some prints though it won't work with pigmented inks so I'd be limited in size with my non-pigmented printer.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/silver-metallic-inkjet-paper.html

There is also aluminum substrate available from Booksmart Studio
http://www.booksmartstudio.com/
As well as Inkaid and coatings from Inkaid--which allow for pigmented printing but add their own complexity to the printing process
http://www.inkaid1.com/products/fine-art-metals/
Hi Diane,

Try Proofline Photochrome metallic paper from SOP. It is identical to the Red River paper (and several others) and also cheaper. Beautiful results with Epson Claria inks in an Epson 1400 (do wish there were a Claria LF printer). Also, I have a QTR profile for B&W that will produce outstanding B&W prints on this paper. Uses only the Claria K and and a small amount of LM for tonal adjustment.
 
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zonevt

New member
I have used (AluminArteTM) (http://www.imagewizards.net/about-us/) Imagewizards (North Carolina) to print aluminum prints of my work in a framed 16"x20" sample size. They print up to 4'x8' feet. I think they invented this aluminum process. I liked the gloss white version best for my specific nature photo samples. I think the brushed aluminum version would look great with night city views where there is dimensional light sources. I would like to use this product for a large installation of several 4'x8' panels in a contemporary architectural space. I find gallery wrap canvas to be more economical for every day large scale printing but this aluminum has a unique look and appeal..Tom.
 

Diane B

New member
Carl, thanks very much. I'd like to try the metallic paper but coming from a background of surface design in fiber i want to work with some different subetrates and Inkaid also. Lots of interesting options in printing

Thanks zonevt. That's pretty close to me (an hour) so i'll look into them. I had a terrific graohics group here that used to do my large 3 x 2 prints for furniture/textile industry and mounted for frameless installation but as the industries have had problems my group disappeared.
 
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