Paper Chase - Fuji Film - Baryte Canvas HD and Museum Soft Papers

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Coating

As with all previous tests, the Dmax, gamut and print ‘vibrancy’ were improved with a couple of coats of DCP Giclée varnish. The print was warmed from its cool white to spectrally neutral (within 0.6 Lab points) and much of the lift produced by the OBAs had been lopped off. The error on the skin tone was reduced threefold by the coating. The overall error across the Macbeth Chart was reduced from 5.83 to 3.26 ΔE2000 by coating. This begs the question about using a ‘bright’ media and then eliminating the effect by using a varnish. You can pay your money and take your choice. You can have high Dmax and vibrancy or a brighter base.

At one stage we were conned into thinking that HD stood for high definition and embarked on a chase to test if this were so. In terms of detail retention we found the Artist Canvas to be slightly better. The macro shot of the two surfaces shows up the different morphologies which are a reflection of the underlying weave structure.

The coarser, single weft, runs left to right and the twin warp threads run top to bottom. The gaps are more heavily filled in the Artist Canvas’ coating. In practical terms this means that when detail corresponds to a whole thread, (eg the eye of a person in a group shot), it can be quite distorted. In a real print this means that a head about 15mm tall in a print could have ‘sunken’ eyes. In our tests our model had whites in her eyes on the Artist Canvas but none on the HD. To some extent this is a comment on the suitability of canvas for group shots in which the figures are small – canvas does not do detail!

Fine Art Museum Rag

This is a 300gsm, 100% Cotton Rag, fine art paper. It has a smooth surface and a light-cream base colour. It is barely distinguishable from Fine Art Museum Rough which is just a few microns thicker (45 cf 50 microns).

The surface is a natural, soft-texture which changes slightly when flooded with ink, in that the long fibres become more prominent. This is also true when you cut the paper either with scissors or a scalpel; you have to take care to complete the cut or the stronger, long fibres are left sticking out. A less welcome characteristic is that the surface coating tends to become patchy when coated with solid areas of colour in the form of variable density.

Colour Performance

In common with other papers of this class, the Dmax is reduced (1.55, 20% Lab brightness) but the warmth of the base generates excellent skin tone accuracy. Monochrome fine art specialists will like the absence of OBAs (but not the patchiness). The overall colour error in a profiled print was 6.3 ΔE Lab/3.96 ΔE2000 with a predominance of the error lying in the lightness component. The gamut volume was 478,850 and the metamerism was 1.3 ΔE (D65 to Tungsten at 50% grey). Testing was carried out on an Epson 3800 using Matte Black ink. The base paper and coating had no evidence whatever of brighteners with a totally flat response in the blue part of the spectrum.

Cost and Availability

See table below

Conclusion

These are useful additions to the FujiFilm range. We remain impressed by the Baryte type of papers, the canvas will no doubt build a following. The Smooth Rag we are uncertain of unless we could profile our way out of trouble with the patchy finish.

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Photo Quote: The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking. - Brooks Anderson