LongLensPhotography
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Just because I simply can't accept many things at face value I just had to get too deep into this trying to find a nicer non-standard paper and obviously save over Hahnemuhle digital rippoff costs. If I want simple I just load baryta in and am done.
So I am quite happy to report many of the uncoated watercolours (aquarelles) are perfectly fine for printing pigment ink for black and white, portraits and many pastel-coloured landscapes. There are some really nice papers and the tiny bit of bleeding actually helps some images, or where you just don't have amazing resolution. And they are pretty cheap. Also you can do mix media projects and basically overpaint some aquarelle for a fine art effect as desired.
Printer profiles for respective or similar "digital" papers seem to do a pretty good job. The likes of Canson Aquarelle / Montval / Torchon and a few others from Hahnemuhle and Winsor and Newman range have some nice qualities.
On the other hand they are absolutely no good for the more colourful images. They are just a little too faint or toned down - at least without varnish. So you need coating for those.
Option A. Canson, Hahnemuhle and others have several of their watercolors in digital form. They get stupid expensive though. These are their most expensive papers. The output is lovely, but I'd still say they require varnishing.
Plan B. The coatings appear to be little more than some mix of basically chalk or clay or TiO2 with some resin. That at least on paper seems to be exactly the same as Acrylic Gesso for acrylic painting. I wonder if anyone already tried and found a good match? I'd want to have a bit of jumpstart here.
The benefit would be primarily that you can use just about any of the very fancy papers not available in digital form or even other media - so uniqueness, single print runs, fine artiness BS, etc; and secondly the cost.
I remember in the last The Photography Show Illford demoed a fancy DIY coating applicator for those arty one-off prints on all sorts of strange things - all at absolutely ridiculous cost. I suspect there was nothing expensive in that bottle and that sort of formula would be ideal. You can sand it down for smooth surface, but personally I'd just leave some of that texture in.
Then varnishing. What works and what doesn't? Spray form I guess is preferred for simplicity of application.
I have the little cans from Ghiant on order so we will see what it does but I'm not expecting class leading results. What about acrylic media varnishes, or even car laquer sprays (for cheaper every day prints)? Then aqueous varnishes vs organic solvent based, keeping in mind some of the papers would be non-primed.
So I am quite happy to report many of the uncoated watercolours (aquarelles) are perfectly fine for printing pigment ink for black and white, portraits and many pastel-coloured landscapes. There are some really nice papers and the tiny bit of bleeding actually helps some images, or where you just don't have amazing resolution. And they are pretty cheap. Also you can do mix media projects and basically overpaint some aquarelle for a fine art effect as desired.
Printer profiles for respective or similar "digital" papers seem to do a pretty good job. The likes of Canson Aquarelle / Montval / Torchon and a few others from Hahnemuhle and Winsor and Newman range have some nice qualities.
On the other hand they are absolutely no good for the more colourful images. They are just a little too faint or toned down - at least without varnish. So you need coating for those.
Option A. Canson, Hahnemuhle and others have several of their watercolors in digital form. They get stupid expensive though. These are their most expensive papers. The output is lovely, but I'd still say they require varnishing.
Plan B. The coatings appear to be little more than some mix of basically chalk or clay or TiO2 with some resin. That at least on paper seems to be exactly the same as Acrylic Gesso for acrylic painting. I wonder if anyone already tried and found a good match? I'd want to have a bit of jumpstart here.
The benefit would be primarily that you can use just about any of the very fancy papers not available in digital form or even other media - so uniqueness, single print runs, fine artiness BS, etc; and secondly the cost.
I remember in the last The Photography Show Illford demoed a fancy DIY coating applicator for those arty one-off prints on all sorts of strange things - all at absolutely ridiculous cost. I suspect there was nothing expensive in that bottle and that sort of formula would be ideal. You can sand it down for smooth surface, but personally I'd just leave some of that texture in.
Then varnishing. What works and what doesn't? Spray form I guess is preferred for simplicity of application.
I have the little cans from Ghiant on order so we will see what it does but I'm not expecting class leading results. What about acrylic media varnishes, or even car laquer sprays (for cheaper every day prints)? Then aqueous varnishes vs organic solvent based, keeping in mind some of the papers would be non-primed.