Print Medium. Metal? Acrylic? Glass?

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StarTracker50

StarTracker50

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For those of you folks that send out for your wall "keepers," do you have any preferences on which medium? Metal, or acrylic, or glass?

And do you have any data on how well these have survived time?

I used to do my best prints in metal, and these have lasted well, and kept their color. But now I see several other mediums.

Also, any recommendations of labs you have used would be helpful.
 
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As for longevity, I assume any professional lab will use materials that will last any of our lifetimes if they are displayed in decent conditions. By decent I mean in a climate controlled house and not exposed to direct sunlight.

As for preference, that is highly personal and what you like may not be what I like. I already know this is true because you have been doing prints on metal which is not my cup of tea. A lot of people are doing metal - it seems to be the current fad - but I don't get the appeal myself. Prints on acrylic I like better if you want an image with a lot of pop (like metal) but a more realistic look (since they are printed on photo paper). The problem with these is glare and weight. I don't think anyone prints directly to glass, so when you say that maybe you mean a traditional framed print behind glass? What I like and do, which may or may not be what you like, is a traditional framed print but without glass. I have it mounted on gatorfoam and framed in a thin metal frame usually (though I have one very large framed piece in wood). The advantage of gatorfoam and no glass is it is lightweight and relatively easy to hang, plus there is no glare. You can have a protective coating sprayed on the print which I have done on all my current home prints but will stop doing in the future because you can see banding at certain angles where the spray was applied in streaks. Here is a shot of my living room to give an idea.
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I agree with Karen, it greatly depends on the situation. Another thing I consider is how likely I will be to swap the image with another and when. I may be happy to keep a landscape up for a long time, but maybe a bird for a shorter period of time. In that case, I would choose metal, acrylic, canvas for the landscape and paper for the bird as it is cheaper and easier to store when swapped.
 
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A very personal expression at a minimum. Whether one chooses metal, acrylic, glass, wood, canvas, traditional paper, etc. is highly subjective and is dependent on one's personal preferences. If one is aiming for longevity, then traditional paper or a high quality acrylic (using a traditional paper) employing pigment inks would be your best bet. Even with paper, there are so many ways to display it that it is a topic by itself.
 
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StarTracker50 said:
For those of you folks that send out for your wall "keepers," do you have any preferences on which medium? Metal, or acrylic, or glass?

And do you have any data on how well these have survived time?

I used to do my best prints in metal, and these have lasted well, and kept their color. But now I see several other mediums.

Also, any recommendations of labs you have used would be helpful.
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To me the choice of print medium depends a lot on the image. I really like metal for images with bright colors and specular highlights that really shine on metal prints. I use it for things like astro work and for wildlife or even landscape images that have a lot of bright colors. That said I like printing more traditional scenics and a lot of work with more neutral tones on acrylic or traditional photo papers and then mat and frame them.

In terms of durability I have framed prints that are over 30 years old that have held up just fine, I suspect my oldest direct metal prints are maybe ten years old (don't really remember) and they've held up fine as well. The prints on paper all have been framed and have either archival glass or acrylic to help preserve them.

Lot's of good labs, but Bay Photo, WhiteHouse Custom Color and WhiteWall are three labs I've used with good results.
 
I like them all. Depending on the image. I think in general the more blacks and shadows are important the less glossy I want the wall hanger. This is on the theory that I don't want room light bouncing off the blacks and making them seem lighter. I guess I am most partial to face-mounted acrylic. This is a paper print which can be of best quality permanently mounted behind acrylic/Plexiglas. You can get it nonglare and can add a aluminum/composite backing and built in hanging hardware. My second overall would be fine art paper prints. There are many paper choices each with their own base color and texture. These are not that costly until you add framing costs. Third I'd say gallery wrapped canvas. No frame needed and the print can be either printed directly on the canvas or a paper print can be pressure fused to the canvas.
 
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Like folks who posted above, I have used metal and acrylic in addition to paper (no canvas to date), but one observation I will mention is that acrylic can be noticeably more expensive than metal. In many cases it can be worth it depending of he subject and location of the image, but I would not order a large piece without first trying out something smaller. Also, some of the labs used to offer sample metal prints in the various finishes. If that is an option, I would recommend it. Bay Photo or WHCC sent me a sample kit many years ago, and it was helpful to see how the finishes looked in comparison to each other.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
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I find it interesting that some people are employing a variety of methods; not bad, not wrong, just interesting. I personally like to have a consistent look throughout my condominium. FOR ME, it seems having a metal print and then a traditional paper framed print would clash, but that may be because I am a minimalist. (Note the conspicuous absence of a television in my living room and there is not one anywhere else in my home).

As someone mentioned, places like Bay Photo will do sample packs (or at the very least inexpensive 8x10 inch prints). Since I know I like paper prints I ordered their two inexpensive sample packets showing traditional developed papers and fine art inkjet papers. Since the local lab I used (and previously worked at) went out of business at the beginning of this year, I have started using Bay Photo, but there are several good labs out there.
 
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MrFotoFool said:
I find it interesting that some people are employing a variety of methods; not bad, not wrong, just interesting. I personally like to have a consistent look throughout my condominium.
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I do tend to keep images in a single room similar in style and print material but don't mind much if images in different rooms have a different look. Also sometimes I'll have something like a smaller book shelf or mantle image in one style and wall mounted images in different styles.

But I don't just print for my own home and between selling images, gifting images and sometimes displaying images in shops and galleries different print media can make sense for different uses. For instance most of the images I've given as gifts in recent years have been direct printed on metal either based on the type of image or simply because when it's all said and done considering matting and framing, direct metal is often less expensive and is easier to ship without the breakable glass and larger heavier frames.
 
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As others have mentioned, it’s largely a matter of taste. For a number of years I had my paper prints mounted to rigid board with nice beveled edges, then “floated” on the wall with a spacer. The float makes the print stand out from the wall creating a slight shadow behind, which helps showcase the image. However, I’ve tired of this look, and have started printing to fine art papers, then framing with (mostly wood) gallery frames, behind either TruVue museum glass or acrylic to reduce glare. I especially like printing on paper with deckled (ragged) edges, then “floating” the printed image directly on mat board in a frame. One thing I like about printing to quality paper and mounting the image in frames is that I’m able to swap out images to mix things up. Not sure about others but I get tired of looking at the same image all the time - variety being the spice and all that.

As for the printing itself, I’ve engaged a really great local printer who has lots of experience printing photographs for professional photographers. He has a great eye and always has excellent advice about what might work best for my images. I’ve tried some of the larger labs like Bay Photo and McKenna, and while they did a very good job, I like the relationship with my local vendor, who is surprisingly less expensive and also does superlative work. I consider myself very lucky to have someone so talented and experienced locally.

Printed on stretched canvas. Like the image, don’t like the medium.

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Printed on art paper with deckled edges, framed behind TruVue acrylic. Much prefer this treatment.

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Left image printed on art paper with deckled edges, framed and ”floated” behind Museum glass. Right image mounted on beveled rigid board. Like the treatment, just bored with the medium these days.

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I've seen the option of printing metal with the substrate natural aluminum rather than white. I guess in that case the white point is the color of the aluminum and specular areas would show the metal. Anyone tried It?
 
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bleirer said:
I've seen the option of printing metal with the substrate natural aluminum rather than white. I guess in that case the white point is the color of the aluminum and specular areas would show the metal. Anyone tried It?
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I have seen it often - but I opted for white metal on the recommendation of the Printers as my image contained a huge amount of white or light colours - which would not have showed off on a brushed aluminium print.
 
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StarTracker50 said:
For those of you folks that send out for your wall "keepers," do you have any preferences on which medium? Metal, or acrylic, or glass?

And do you have any data on how well these have survived time?

I used to do my best prints in metal, and these have lasted well, and kept their color. But now I see several other mediums.

Also, any recommendations of labs you have used would be helpful.
Click to expand...
My brother has been a professional conservator working on damage photos for the major museums around the country. Much of the work is dealing with prints laminated to acrylic sheets which was popular in the 1960's.

The best prints I have seen are done on Kodak Endura metalic paper with Fuji a close second. This paper is going to provide greater longevity than any dye sub or ink jet print.

Matting and framing is very expensive and so I can understand people who have ink jet prints done on metal or fabric. For most purposes whether a print lasts more than 10 years is not really all that important.

When my house was badly damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 every one of my photos that were framed and protected by museum glass were damaged when the frames fell and the glass was broken. After that I do double mats on even my small prints and not just the ones 30 inches or larger.
 
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bleirer said:
I've seen the option of printing metal with the substrate natural aluminum rather than white. I guess in that case the white point is the color of the aluminum and specular areas would show the metal. Anyone tried It?
Click to expand...
I had a sample pack of metal prints done years ago when there were less choices. I used a bright pink flower photo. The bare metal (no white substrate) was definitely a look where you wanted highlights and blown out areas to have a "look". It was not terrible, but it was not everyone's cup of tea. It probably looks better with high gloss high color images that have a lot of punch and where the photographer wants a bit more edge to the image. But this is just my opinion. The one that I really liked was the matte finish.

--Ken
 
Ii like how easy it is with acrylic to get a high quality wall hanger. Sometimes you shop around you can find different papers. Some use fujiflex, some use fine art inkjet paper, some even metal.
 
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For longevity I mount metallic prints behind glass and use a mat or double mat depending on the size of the print. These can still get damaged during an earthquake or fire or a flood. Prints on metal are the least expensive as the framing costs are usually 4 times the cost of making the print or more. If you have the digital source file it is trivial to have a new print made in the future.

My brother has worked as professional restoration specialist with many major museums and collectors and many of the damaged prints were ones attached to acrylic sheet in the 1960's when this was very popular. He worked on many prints from the Met when all their inkjet prints were damaged by the offgassing from a new floor wax used by the maintenance people. Most of the damaged prints have been mechanically damaged or damage by airborne chemicals and rarely by exposure to UV.
 
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It depends on who they are for. I mostly print canvas for gifting. I have mainly canvas in and around my home, but I have print examples on other media, including a digital frame. All have a place, but I like the features digital frames bring to the wall. One is that I don't have to mess around with hanging it perfectly to please my bride.
 
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