Paper Chase - Canvas options

Last issue we discussed the notion of low-key portraiture and at the same time completed our initial discussions into the use of Giclée varnishes. It seemed timely therefore to concentrate for this part of Paper Chase on the options for real canvas as a material for placing an image upon. The options fall into two camps, wet photographic and inkjet. We will deal with them separately. If a canvas print is to be stretch mounted then there are a number of precautions that have to be taken at the shooting stage. This is of sufficient importance to justify its own page so take a look at the call out box before you get the camera out and put film into it!

Canvas - the material

It is amazing what you learn editing Professional Imagemaker. As soon as we started to do macro photography on the surfaces it became apparent that they were radically different. Off to the web then and a few phone calls to some mates from Lancashire mill towns. Canvas may be made with a variety of substrate fibres varying from the coarse materials typical of military regalia right through to the fine cotton weaves used by artists and painting backgrounds. They are typified by simple weaves, that is the warps and wefts are single or at most 4 threads combined. For those members not resident in Lancashire the weft threads run across the width of the cloth and the warps run down the length. From here on things as ever get a little more complex. For example Twill weave has more fibres in the warp direction, Oxford weave has two warps threads per weft, satin weave passes 4 warps fibres over each weft. If you are wondering what this has to do with photography it is that the look of the canvas depends upon the underlying weave and the first 5 inkjet canvases we looked at were all totally different - so much for us imagining that some of them were rebrands of identical materials!

As an illustration we show you some macro shots to compare Permajet Belgian Linen and Fuji Hunt Artist Canvas. The Belgian linen is made from a single fine warp with a single, soft, coarse weft. When this is coated and the surface slightly compressed the effect appears as a diamond, slanting pattern in some light and as a stronger horizontal pattern in others. If the coated surface is examined closely the softer, fluffy warp threads can be distinguished bound into the coating. It is this dynamic shift in properties, which gives a canvas print a lot of its charm.

By contrast the Fuji Artist Canvas is an Oxford weave utilising twin warp fibres. These are smaller and harder than the weft fibre but because the two of them are about equal in size to the weft, the overall patterning is more even and non-directional. You should be able to note also from the pictures that the Fuji is more matte than the Permajet.

The strength and directional properties of the canvas are important when it comes to framing and stretching a canvas. One of the problems that the framer has is the higher elasticity of the photographic materials compared to oil painting canvasses. Inkjet canvas is often lighter and stretchier and requires a little more care during the mounting process.

Paper chase Having chosen or identified the base weave the characterisation is far from complete. All inkjet media is coated with an ink receptive layer - we spoke of this at some length in the introductory article to Paper Case some months ago. For paper substrates the coating is usually arranged so as not to influence the texture of the substrate. With a canvas the coating is far thicker and probably has also to be far more flexible. The surface effects are therefore subtle and distinguished (in the positive sense of the words). Even when the coating has been sloshed on things remain complex. The final finishing effects the way the canvas looks; the surface morphology (detailed structure at the particle level) effects the diffusion rates of the different inks and the gloss effects the depth of the black that is measured and (sometimes) observed. The final complication is the use of optical brightening agents (OBAs) in the surface mix. OBAs absorb ultra violet light rays, fluoresce and emit rays of a different colour. Usually they produce a crisper, cooler look to a print and a cooler grey (i.e. more blue). In our test regime, the Monaco profiling software is set up to be clever enough to ignore the effect of the fluorescence and to place the colour of the grey scale so that it matches the underlying base tone, particularly at the highlight end. A good profile therefore clusters the grey tones tightly around the base hue, not a strictly colormetric neutral.

The combined effects of all the parameters above determines the maximum density that the paper/ink combination can generate. If the ink absorbs deep into the surface its effect is lessened and if a surface is matte it inherently diffuses light and causes the black to look weaker. The undulations in the canvas complicate the matter yet further.

The good news to all this is that despite the complexity of what is going on, the end result is a gloriously sumptuous texture to the final print, which invariably brings a positive comment from the viewer. You are getting the best of both worlds - photographic fidelity with painterly emotions!

Plan you image

More care is need before you shoot for an intended canvas mounted print. Articulated stretcher frames are only available in imperial sizes and you should bear the following points in mind:

1. You need a 2" border of blank canvas around your image, which can be dragged around the stretcher. If you are using a desktop inkjet printer this will limit your image size to 4" less that the throat of the printer.

2. The process of stretching is not as precise as other forms of mounting and you should allow about ½" of "dead space" which is part of the image but not vital to the composition. This gives the framer some leeway when pinning the canvas onto the stretcher frame.

3. Stretcher frames are available in the imperial sizes 10x8; 12x10; 16x12; 11x14; 20x16 and 20x24.There are others but check first with your framer.Your image planning should take account of the fact that the aspect ratio of a 10x8 is quite different to that of a 35mm frame and different again to most digital detectors.

4. Your image design should also allow for the fact that the rabbet inside the stretcher frame loses you an additional 10mm (1/4 to 3/8 of an inch). You composition might look dynamic with a subject close to the frame edge but all the bets are off if it disappears behind the rabbet!

Setting up in Photoshop

If you are going to print your image on your own inkjet you have the ability to plan it out with the correct image dimensions and place guides so you can judge the composition more accurately. Here is a typical set of instructions

1. A nominal image size of 16x12 inches is assumed. Paper Chase

2. Make an RGB file at 200 ppi, 20" high and 16" wide, using the RGB workspace profile of your choice (usually sRGB or Adobe RGB 1998 - ask your lab if it is to be printed there).

3. Click View>Rulers then right click within the ruler bar and choose "inches" for your units.

4. Click View>New Guide and make a vertical guide at 2" then another at 14".Then make a horizontal guide at 2" and then another at 18"

5. Place another set of guides inside the first set by the rabbet width. TIP: If the rabbet width is metric (ours was) change the units to mm and move the origin to the intersections of the corners. We set ours 10mm inside the first set. This inner set now shows the actual window into which the image will eventually show.

6. To simplify your guides you could now delete the outer four guides using the Move tool to drag them off the screen. If you cannot perform this move click View then uncheck the Lock Guides tab.

7. Now place guides ¼" outside and ¼" inside those which define the aperture of the swept frame. The ½" space between them is the "dead space" which has to have image on it but be unimportant to the composition.

8. Now save your file and call it 20x16 port template.psd (or some other name just be sure you know which it is).

9. In Windows Explorer, right click on the icon of the newly saved file, click "Properties" and check the "Read only" box, then Apply. This means that you cannot save over the file and you will be prompted to to give your template a new name each time you use it. You don't have to do this bit but it will help in the long run.

10. Open your original image file and Shift drag it with the Move tool to place it centrally onto your template image. If you need to move or adjust the image size either use the move Tool or hit Ctrl-T and rescale the image with the shift key held down to constrain the proportions.

11. To make the final adjustments drag the Rectangular Marquee around the outer guides then hit the Make Layer Mask icon in the layers palette. Now uncheck the chain icon between the Layer Mask and the Layer image icon in the Layers Palette the click on the image icon so that a brush is showing alongside the visibility eye. With the Move Tool you can now make final adjustments to the position of the image within the frame. If you want to see how the image might look from within the window of the swept frame drag the marquee around the inner guides and make a mask from that.

12. If you are very particular, you could also make a template which has a picture of your swept frame and place the image within that for your final look. This device can also be used as a selling aid to when showing your client their portraits.

13. Ensure when you print that you have the "centre image" box checked on your Epson printer or the image will not be central on the media.

It's A Frame-up Gov'

Canvas prints may be mounted up in exactly the same way as an oil painting. This usually involves a special type of frame called a stretcher within the display frame which is often a moulded, swept design. The stretcher frame is fitted with tightening wedges so that the canvas may be stretched tight across the frame like a drum skin. The canvas is attached to the stretcher by means of cotton lacing, ball point stainless steel pins or staples (in reducing order of cost). Lacing is the conservation approved method for valuable prints as it is reversible, however it is time consuming, and therefore more costly. When the stretched canvas is fitted to its articulated frame the two are place into the swept frame and secured using Z-clips. We took ourselves off to see specialist framer, Dave Davies, of Liverpool, who patiently framed an image slowly enough for us to keep stopping him to take pictures. The whole process is shown in the call out box.

The current fashion is the use of "Canvas Wrap" as a method of presenting an image. Here the image is printed onto photographic media and then bonded to canvas. This is then carefully wrapped around a fairly thick support (up to 60mm deep) so that the image wraps around and can be seen from the sides. Essentially then it is a frameless method of presentation. Loxley Colour charge £100 for a 20x16, Leach Colour have introduced Deep Stretched Canvas blocks which are 60mm deep. Chris Kay of Loxley Colour is very upbeat about canvas wrap. It has proved a very popular line for them and selling prices in the studios are ranging from £350-£400 for 20x16’s and up to £800 for the larger sizes giving a good margin on the costs to the photographer.

You could of course stretch your own ink jet-on-canvas print over an MDF block but it is a job best performed by a professional framer unless you want to waste time and media learning the trade! For limited edition prints, mounting on MDF would not be considered an archival solution because of the residual acid in the substrate.

Canvas Frame-up

We called to see specialist framer, Dave Davies at his facility in the Liverpool Docklands to learn about framing up a canvas print. Dave is able to frame at museum and archival quality and is often entrusted with reframing pieces of art.Making a demonstration piece for us was relatively straightforward and he patiently slowed the process down so we could take pictures as he did it. Dave Davies can be contacted on 0151 707 9100. Framing

1. The stretcher frame has "loose" joints which slide together but can move to accommodate the stretching process when the wedges are knocked home. The assembly can thus be re-tightened or dismantled at a later stage which can be important for collectable works of art.

2. The canvas print is stapled at one end and then stretched taut with special tongs before the compressed air staple gun is used to pin the other end.

3. The canvas is evenly stretched in all directions but the corners are not pinned so that the fancy mitre fold can be arranged,

4&5 The mitre fold is completed, the stretched and pinned.

6. The wedges are knocked home to tighten and solidify the stretcher frame. Framed

7. Dave Davies trial fits the stretcher frame into a swept frame.

8. The Z-clips are pressed home to hold the stretcher frame in place.

9. The assembly is wired for hanging.

Testing the Media

Media Testing We followed the overall scheme set out in the first part of Paper Chase. he test printer was an Epson 7600 loaded with Matte Black ink. Each material was profiled using Monaco Profiler and an X-Rite DTP 41, set to reject fluorescence and match the greys to the base white of the paper. A 17 bit, 729-swatch target was made at 1440dpi and Textured Fine Art Paper as the media choice. Super X dithering was set to "on" but we left "Finest Detail" off to prevent system hangs (more of that another time). A perceptual rendering intent was specified.

An audit target was then made using the bespoke profile and the data analysed and collated. In addition to this, separate measurements were made using a DTP 22 X-Rite Digital Swatch Book for black density and the spectral power distribution of the base paper. Each canvas was then photographed under glancing light at about 4x fill size so that the coating structure and the weave characteristic could be shown.

Finally coating trials were carried out to test the water resistance of the coating. The prints were assessed visually in D65 lighting conditions and under ultra violet light.

The Base Whites

The base white tone controls the overall perception of the finished image. There are special ways for measuring the white of paper but these were not followed in this review - we do not have the equipment. We limited ourselves to checking for optical brighteners and measuring the base reflectance and colour. These are presented graphically and vary widely - all tastes are catered for! It was noted that the highlight tones were not as well differentiated when printed on all canvas medias. This is an optical effect because the very fine patterning of the 3 or 4% ink, at that level of highlight, is obscured by the patterning of the weave. The wedding specialists might like to think about getting a bit more ink into the highlights if they wish to show more detail in a bride's dress. In his own experiments, Tom Lee reports that he is also adding a touch of additional saturation to his low key images intended for canvas printing.

The DCP and Ilford materials stood out as being bluer and brighter than their peers, indeed the lift at the 430nm wavelengths took both papers over 100% reflectance. Both these canvasses produce a cool bright image, essentially a more modern look. The other media were in the yellow/cream part of the spectrum, the Permajet Belgian Linen standing out as by far the most creamy and traditional looking. The Fuji Hunt Artist Canvas, the Hahnemühle products had close to identical SPD's. They certainly do not have the same properties in other areas of the analysis but may be an identical mix of filler.

Other than for colour, the look and feel of the canvas is governed by weave structure and the type of thread. They behave differently under the scalpel (all are quite tough to cut in fact) and had different flexibilities and stretchiness. Difficult to quantify even if it is easy to feel the difference! We show pictures and attempt to describe these characteristics with each separate report.

Left: The Ilford and DCP canvasses stand out as being the coolest. The Permajet and the Folajet are the most cream. The Epson is a more neutral cream and the others are all closer to neutral.

Base whites

Right: The spectral power distribution reveals the presence of optical brighteners in the DCP and Ilford materials. It also provides clues as to which materials might have the same coating base filler.

Paper chase

The Blacks

The maximum depth of the black has great bearing on the way an image looks (its depth) as well as the colour error statistics. The maximum black achieved was typically around 20 to 26% brightness value with the exception of the Hahnemühle Semi Gloss, which stood out (as it did in every measurement we made) at 16.5%.The black density of the "waterproof" materials could be improved by the application of a Giclée varnish.

In general the canvas medias generate lower Dmax values, typically around 1.5, which compares to a matte silver halide paper. With coating this could be extended up towards 2.0. The variation between readings is also higher on a canvas media, up to 17 times higher in some of our data. This in fact is part of the charm of real canvas, the image changes as the light and viewing angle are changed. We partially solved the problem by taking and averaging multiple readings from the maximum black swatch in the test target.

The depth of the black has quite an influence upon the gamut volume measured from the profiles. Obviously if a longer range of deep tones is available this puts more volume into the bottom of the gamut. We confirmed this mathematically by plotting the two effects - they are indeed loosely related.

The Colours

With the warmer cream of many of the papers the skin tone quality is slightly enhanced. The gamut volume is an absolute measure of how many colours a given media can support. Putting the Hahnemühle Semi Gloss to one side, the gamut volumes of the canvas medias averaged around 450,000.This compares to an average for art paper materials (11 papers from the same mill) of 500,000 and high values reaching 700,000 to 800,000 for high gloss paper materials. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that 450,000 is only half as good as 800,000 - it does not quite work like that. However it does provide an objective measure of gamut size. The Hahnemühle Semi Gloss occupied pole position on its own at 600,000.

Paper Chase Overall the colour precision for canvas averaged around 4 to 5, which is inferior to the 3.5 averages for art papers and around 3.0 for quality gloss and satin papers. The record values that we have measured are around 2.5 for a satin paper. Hahnemühle Semi Gloss stood out above all other materials and got very close to the error values achieved by the best gloss/satin papers and better than many.

The data were split into 4 categories for analysis, the Macbeth Colours, the greys, the skin tones and the landscape colours. Both Lab Delta E and Delta E 2000 are quoted. The results track our general findings, namely that skin tones come out most accurate and the landscape set the least accurate. This is a feature of the colour sets rather than an inherent capability of the printer/0 paper combination. In common with every data set we have for the Epson Ultrachrome ink set, the least accurate colour is the Paper Chase spectral blue which is right on the margins of the gamut. This is a bit of a statistical thing as the blues usually look OK in a print. We were beginning to think it was something about the profiling software until we did a Fuji Pictography recently and this was much better in the blues (it is an RGB device after all!). Paper Chase

Above Top: The average error for a 24 swatch

Macbeth Chart is shown for the Lab and
DE2000 units. For comparison the normal range for

contract proof standard (4-7 in
Lab units) is shown as a marked out rectangle.Most skin tones are better than this
standard.
Above bottom: The gamut volume is a measure of the number and breadth of colour a
material is capable of delivering with a particular ink - see notes in text.

Inkjet Production Costs

Paper Chase

Cost
For heavy users, the cost of the media is important,
although compared to what you should be charging
for a finished, canvas mounted print the media costs
should be a small fraction. We have chosen to base our
costs on the price of a 24" roll and factored it for a 10"x8"
finished print (i.e. on a 14"x12" piece of canvas) and for a
16"x20" finished print (i.e. on a 20"x24" piece of canvas).
The prices vary from about £5 to about £10 for a 16"x20"
nominal print size.

Commentary on Individual Media

At this point we lapse into subjective mode rather than objective and try to describe how each product looks and feels. All of the media tested will perform well, but some are better than others and some are better for specific types of image style and presentation. The image above is a compilation of macro shots of the front and back of each media at exactly the same magnification.

Fuji Hunt Artist Canvas

This is a media with quite a matte finish and a characteristic Oxford weave pattern which survives the application of the ink receptive layer. This produces an even criss-cross pattern to the surface. The coating is one of the most neutral of the group the tone of which just lies in the yellow-green part of the Lab space. The appearance is best described as "clean" making it a good all rounder, particularly in view of its very competitive pricing. Its colour gamut is slightly up on the average of the group and it produced the greatest increase in depth of black when varnished which lifted the Dmax above 2, the only paper to achieve this, even though the Hahnemühle 100% Artist Cotton was only four hundredths of a point behind. To put perspective on this value, it is only a tiny bit behind a silver halide monochrome print for black depth after it has been varnished.

Ilford Studio Canvas

This media is only available to users of the Ilford Studio System, which consists of an Epson 4000, 7600 or 9600 printer equipped with a PC based RIP and a superb set of profiles. The media is optically brightened and can best be described as cool bright white. It is a mixed cotton polyester weave made with almost equal sized warp and weft threads. The weft threads are quite soft so that the impressed matte coating takes on a characteristic pattern which is best examined in the photographs - it is a loose combination of irregular octagons which have a repeating pattern to them. The material has a soft feel to it, presumably because of the soft weft. Some slight streaking occurred when we varnished this media within an hour of printing. The images were very neutral and the flesh tones were amongst the best of the group. This is one of the more competitively priced medias in the group.

DCP Canvas

This is a brand new material made for wide format specialists DCP, whose varnish is featured in this test. This media is out on its own in terms of white brightness and coolness being heavily optically brightened. The Oxford weave has a softer, larger weft, which, in combination with the slight glaze to the coating, creates a directional pattern for a realistic painter's canvas effect. The gamut volume was the lowest of the group although the colour quality of the prints looked OK. Overall this is a canvas most suited to reproducing modern styles (paintings or portraits) where the extra zip of the brighteners would be welcome. It would be a poorer choice if you were chasing an "Old Master" feel to your low key portraiture, although there is an argument that the slight yellowing produced by varnishing could counteract the blueness.

Epson Canvas

Other than the Permajet Belgian Linen and the Folajet canvas, this is one of the more creamy finishes. It also has a slight glaze to it which accentuates the painterly look as the canvas is moved about in the light. There were occasional dropped stitches in the weave which added to the charm of the media. One comment worth making about canvas such as this one, with more character to their weave is that fine detail is disrupted sometimes with unfortunate effect. In our Audit Image one of the model's eyes were just in the wrong place giving them a slightly spooky look. The moral is obvious, make sure that your image scale and look is not dependant on reproduction of fine detail. It is arguable whether a large portrait group would better avoided onto a media such as this. The Epson media is not water resistant, indeed the image disintegrated when varnished with the DCP water based varnish. However, the slight glaze reduces the need to varnish to achieve an oil painting look and there is also the option of framing behind glass.

Permajet Belgian Linen

This and the Folajet are the most "Old Masterly" of the medias in this test.The coating is a rich cream tone set onto a fine warp combined with a quite large soft weft. This produces a characteristic diamond pattern to the surface which transforms to a horizontal structure at other angles. The coating is slightly glazed and the ink takes a little longer to dry than the other media. It is not water resistant and the image disintegrated when DCP varnish was applied. This material had the weakest Dmax but not the smallest gamut volume. It had one of the better landscape colour accuracies but was the poorest on skin tone accuracy. The skin tones were very good on saturation accuracy but rotated towards yellow in the hue parameter.

Hahnemühle Polyester Cotton Canvas

This material is not specifically targeted at the fine art market but the toughness of the Polyester Cotton backing has advantages for some applications such as making you own backdrops and exhibition signage. It seems to share the same coating as the 100% Cotton Artist Canvas as the colour data were remarkably similar in many aspects. The weave is a soft weft combined with a fine warp and the characteristic patterning of the coated surface is of even squares. If you need strength and to save a bit of cash this would be a good place to start!

Hahnemühle 100% Cotton Canvas

This was one of the top all round performers in the test having the next to highest gamut volume, a good black and consistently some of the lower colour errors. It took varnish well which dropped the brightness down to 9.7%, almost as low as the Fuji Hunt Canvas and with a Dmax of 1.96.The Oxford weave produces diamonds in some light and waves in others - this is a fine weave all round. For the record, it produced the most accurate skin tones (along with the Fuji and Hahnemühle Polyester Cotton it would be churlish to try and split them). It is the most expensive media we tested along with the 340gsm semi gloss from the same stable.

Hahnemühle 340gsm Semi Gloss Canvas

This was the champion material of this test series as well as being the most expensive. The colour gamut and black depth were superior by some way and it stood out over all comers. The overall colour precision was close to twice as good as nearest competitor and overall the media performed almost as well as a gloss or satin paper product. It topped the bill for the Macbeth colours, greys, landscape colours and skin tones. It was inside contract proof standard which is really quite remarkable although you would have to be well heeled to even think about using it to proof on!

The coating is not fully water resistant. It did not disintegrate the image the way other coatings did, but there was some drag-over from the image to the margins when we attempted to varnish it. However it already has a semi gloss finish and a moderately low Dmax so it can be used as it is. If applying a varnish is imperative Clearstar make a non-water based one which might be worth a try but there is no information as to the compatibility as yet.

In just the same way that standing behind a Hasselblad adds a certain gravitas to a photographer, outputting to Hahnemühle is the equivalent when reproducing digital art and portraiture. It is however only of benefit if you play up the fact in your sales pitch and factor your charges accordingly. This material costs almost double that of others so don't cast pearls to swine - if they can't appreciate the difference you might be better with a less expensive material!

Folajet Canvas

The Folajet Canvas is the least expensive media that we tested for this review. Folajet are based in Switzerland and are one of the biggest suppliers of paper media in the world. Much of their output is rebranded. This material performed in an identical manner to Permajet Belgian PAPER CHASE: Part 4 Commentary on Individual Media 23 Linen and the same comments apply it is a creamy based slightly more open weave and a coating that should not be varnished with a water based product.

CONCLUSION

You can make your own mind up about which is the best of these products for your own particular style and budget. Given that you ought to be selling mounted 16x20 portraits for between £350 and £450 each, the media costs are not very influential. If you wish to have a well-protected finish, choose a waterproof media and varnish it. If that is not essential, the Hahnemühle stands above the crowd on most parameters and carries with it a well-respected name. At the other end of the scale the Fuji and Ilford materials will not disappoint. If you need tons of punch for a modern style or modern art repro, try the DCP. If all this is too much read on and let your laboratory take the strain!

If the previous pages are all a bit much for you either on the pocket or because you value your quality time, or because you shoot film, the better laboratories can help you out. We spoke to Chris Kay of Loxley Colour and Mathew Latto of Leach Colour. Both of them were very upbeat on the state of canvas products, which Chris Kay described as walking out of the door and Mathew Latto as a "very busy" line. Loxley Leach

Canvas wraps are a premium product which should be priced and marketed as such to your clients.They are complex to create and the lab prices reflect this. However there are plenty of photographers who are obtaining £350 to £400 for a 20x16 and £700 to £800 for the larger sizes so there is plenty of room for the studio margin. Remember you get a wrapped, ready to give to the client product back from the lab, they really are taking the strain on this one.

Loxley Colour launched their Canvas Wrap in November last year and the business has been growing ever since. They require 1 ½" all around your creation of "slack" to wrap around. Ideally this should be part of the image but not compositionally important (ie a head!). A nominal 16x20 should be imaged up at 19x23".These are true photographs, which are bonded to a real canvas backing before being stretched over a double stretcher deign leaving minimal jointing visible. The finished picture hangs flush to the wall (see below).

Visit www.loxleycolour.net

Leach Colour offer two options. The first is a "Canvas" textured laminated product from a real print, which is attached to an 18mm MDF board. They are ready to display and are quite heavy which gives them a higher perceived value. For the more traditional approach in a modern setting, Leach offer Deep Canvas Blocks which are a real bonded canvas product wrapped onto a 60mm stretcher frame. This too comes ready for flush mounting on the wall.

Loxley Canvas Bond

The canvas base used by Loxley Colour is radically different to all the other media we tested for this review. As you can see from the macro image, the weave is on a much larger scale. This is REAL canvas with a big, imposing structure! As such it it more suited to its intended destination (of portraits) than anything requiring perhaps more delicacy. The size of the weave breaks down the image detail so that an image of a large group of people would probably lose out in say the eyes of the subjects. However for the larger scale head and shoulder shots at 30x40 it would look quite magnificent.

In the spectro testing the maximum black achieved was 20% (Dmax 1.57).The greys were mapped almost perfectly to the base paper tone. There was an overall desideration of the image, amounting to about 10% in the flesh tones. However, because the actual colours were so accurate this was not too obtrusive. The coating to the canvas produces a slight veiling of the colours, which shows up as a drop in saturation even though the density values were slightly high.

Canvas Ink Jet Laboratory Services

If you don't have a wide format inkjet printer but still wish to achieve that "fine art" look to your canvas prints you could take a look at the services provided by photoartistry. If you went to Focus they were situated behind our own stand. Anne Herbert set up her business to supply the art industry but also prints for photographers. They prefer images delivered in Adobe RGB (1998), Tiff format at 300dpi, (with suitable image margins if you want the canvas wrap effect). The pigment inkjet prints can be laminated with tough, uv resistant, waterproof finishes before wrapping onto stretcher frames or block mounting onto MDF. They have an excellent interactive website which enables you to calculate the cost of your chosen size and media and also upload your image. The site is also worth looking at purely for the artists' images in the gallery - it doesn't have to be all work!

Typical prices are £31.00 plus VAT and delivery (£5 to £10 depends on size etc) for a 16x20 inch canvas wrap and £20 for the same size, unmounted on a quality fine art paper.

Visit www.photoartistry.co.uk

Telephone 01604 700608

The SWPP 2008 Convention was an outstanding success,
we have 192 days to get ready for the 2009 convention - which starts on January 14, 2009

Photo Quote: Now to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection . . . -Edward Weston