Paper Chase - Mike McNamee - Lumijet Preservation and Portfolio

Made by Hahnemühle, these papers have now been made available in the UK (they were formerly a USA-only product). They comprise two ranges: the Preservation Series and the Portfolio Series, totalling nine papers in all, one of which is a canvas.

The Preservation Series is optimised for pigment ink, with the aim of longevity; the Portfolio Series is intended for commercial applications and are generally light in both weight and calliper. Four of them are double sided (ie coated on both sides).

TESTING

We measured the baseline properties of colour, OBA activity, thickness, Dmax and metamerism. These data are grouped for easier comparison. The daylight image shows the texture of the papers, all are reasonably smooth except the Parchment, which carries the trademark Hahnemühle undulating surface. The Natural Art and Master’s Canvas stand out in the uv booth because they are optically dead (ie no OBAs). The Matt Two Sided and Ultra Gloss are very active under uv, the Parchment is in between. All are slightly cool (the Ultra Gloss much more so).

Paper Chase

Each media was bespoke profiled using a 343-patch target and Monaco Profiler. A higher resolution colour profile target would have been preferred but we were short on samples and time (it would have needed more than 40 prints). The gamut volumes are tabled. They are typical for the class of materials, the Matt 2-sided was the lowest, the Ultra Gloss the highest. Based on gamut volume, the Radiant White and the Classic Velour were the pick of the art papers, but only by a small amount. The Ultra Gloss, at almost 850,000, was comparable to the Epson Premium Luster (855,000).

Colour Performance

All the papers performed well. The OBAs dragged the errors down a little (but improved the blues) but that is the price you pay for an image with a bit more sparkle. We chose to use Epson PhotoBlack ink in the Epson 4800 printer (K3 inks) recognising that the density of the blacks would be slightly compromised. In previous testing the difference between MatteBlack and PhotoBlack was about 35% on the ƒ¢E 2000 average colour error (nominally from 4.3 down to 2.7 with most of the improvement being in the lightness component of the error). The hue and saturation errors of the Lumijet materials were much the same as those obtained for Hahnemuhle Photo Rag . the baseline standard we use for all our art paper testing.

Monochrome Performance

Although we do not normally concentrate on monochrome reproduction characteristics, in view of the theme of this issue of Professional Imagemaker we report a slightly closer look. To some extent this is a test of the profiling and measuring equipment.

The grey linearity graph (above to right) shows little measurable difference between the media with the exception of Ultra Gloss, which reaches a really deep 2.38 on Dmax – that’s a lot more than some silver halide prints.

Metamerism is low for all the media with the exception of the Classic Velour, which turned in a value of 4.1ÄE Lab. At the other end of the scale, the Matt 2-sided is as low a value as we have ever measured.

There is no detectable tonal cross-over along the greyscale, none of them drifts more than 2 ƒ¢E points. The Classic Velour for example starts on the cream side of neutral, wanders a couple of points more yellow before returning to a paper match for the mid-tones and ends up just on the yellow side of neutral for the . tones and shadows. It is never more than 2 Lab points from the base neutral of the paper.

Paper Chase

Book Making

Hahnemühle produces the Lumijet papers pierced, with binding holes, so that they may be made up into “albums”. These are not intended for the wedding album market but are an excellent and professional way for a photographer to present their portfolio. They could also be used to present a more lasting collection of commercial photographs for say a building-progress project, if you were trying to create a good impression with your client. The kit is thoughtfully provided with a few sheets of testing papers so that you can organise your printing and learn the direction that you should turn the paper to feed it to the printer for the reverse image. (see advert to the right)

Overall

Paper Chase

These papers sit in a rather anomalous position in the Hahnemühle paper range. They are not much less expensive than the other papers in their range but are light in weight. While this might be an advantage if you have to lug a big portfolio about, most users would prefer the meatier 300gsm variants from the actual Hahnemühle range. However, for some applications the ability to auto feed sheet paper into a printer may be significant, especially if you have a lot of prints to make. The ability to do this without compromising the colour quality of the print may place the Lumijet range higher in your order of preferences than it might otherwise be. Apart from the slight translucency of the thinner paper you do not have to compromise on quality at all.

What happened to the canvas?

If you are wondering what happened to the canvas we spoke of earlier, we did attempt to make some test prints. However, sheet canvas and some printers are not a happy combination. The problem is the almost inevitable curl on the leading edge of a cut sheet. Sometimes this catches the print heads, resulting in smearing across the first couple of centimetres of the print. At its worst, the first pass of the print head causes lifting and (in our case) the second pass brings the head to a clattering standstill. It was such a bad crash in our case that we did not attempt any more printing. The problem is not confined to a particular product, we have had similar issues with other cut sheet and canvas. If the grain of the paper has been poorly oriented with the lay of the sheet you are in trouble, as the whole box will be a problem. It does mean that you should always store your paper flat (ie horizontal) as vertical or slanted storage will cause the weight of the paper to buckle it slightly. Gently bending the sheets back on themselves is a possible solution but not ideal as you should keep your greasy dabs off ink-jet surfaces as a matter of principle!

The SWPP 2008 Convention was an outstanding success,
we have 193 days to get ready for the 2009 convention - which starts on January 14, 2009

Photo Quote: It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators. - Ansel Adams