Tag: pigment printing

Announcing Dot Editions’ first print workshop

Posted by doteditions on October 16, 2009

teaching1Weekend of November 21 – 22, 2009. $400 plus $100 materials fee (workshop will be limited to a small group of students)

In this two-day, intensive workshop, students will receive hands-on instruction on how to finesse an image in Photoshop to achieve the optimal print. This class is ideal for photographers with at least a strong intermediate understanding of Photoshop who want to take their digital printing skills to the next level. Students will focus on one of their images that has been troublesome to print. Students will be asked to bring a RAW file or piece of film (one 150mb, 16 bit scan of film included in price of class, a $150 value), plus the original layered file and the best print they have been able to make. Students will leave the workshop with their image printed up to 30×40 on their choice of our Premium Archival papers (a $400 value).

If you are interested in this or other upcoming workshops, please subscribe to our  newsletter by visiting this link.

For more info, visit Dot Editions website  or email contact@doteditions.com

Apples to apples: pigment prints vs. C prints

Posted by doteditions on October 7, 2009

printers1

When it comes time to producing digital prints for a portfolio or exhibition, a likely first question is: “what kind of print should I make?”

Good question. Here is some information to help make the choice, much of it gathered from Dot Editions’ testing, research and experience:

Digital C prints (also referred to as a Chromira, Lambda, or LightJet prints) are digitally exposed on photographic paper with red, green, and blue lasers or LED’s, then run through the same type of machine as a traditional C print. They look almost undistinguishable from a traditional C print, depending on the integrity of the digital file. There are slight differences between the types of digital C prints in sharpness and print quality. The longevity of a digital C prints is estimated at 50 to 100 years, and depends in large part on the condition and replenishment of the lab’s chemistry. Digital C print paper surfaces can easily be face-mounted or laminated, and C prints tend to be less expensive than pigment prints.

Archival pigment prints (inkjet or Giclée prints) are incredibly stable, archival for up to hundreds of years if stored properly. Because of the nature of printing in RGB and the nature of the pigment printing process, the color gamut available in inkjet prints is much broader than other types of printing. While certain vibrant colors go muddy and dull in digital C prints, pigment prints can reproduce a much wider range of colors and incredible detail, from the highlight to the shadow areas. Because the base color of C print paper is not white, C prints tend to look duller and less sharp than pigment prints. When it comes to printing in black in white, pigment prints can look better than even a traditional silver halide print because of the incredibly wide gamut available.

The papers available for archival printing are similar in feel to fiber-based paper in traditional silver printing. They reproduce images with a deep richness that is superior over resin-coated C print paper. From the range of glossy, luster, and matte surfaces available, inkjet papers provide a velvety, lustrous black and white or color print.

Dot Editions will occasionally make test pigment prints to compare to other types of printing in order to help you make your decision.  Please contact Dot Editions for more information.