Product Review: Metallic Paper

Here at Vancouver on Canvas we have been printing on metallic paper for a while. It is a great product with a unique effect that has become popular with professional photographers. Since it is a relatively new paper for the inkjet process, we thought our other customers could benefit from knowing a little more about it.

This innovative product from Lexjet (maker's of last week's Satin Cloth, go Lexjet!), when printed with pro-quality pigment based inks, gives the final print a deep metallic sheen that is unlike any other photo paper. It works amazingly well for textures like satin, chrome, and glossy skin, and gives prints the sense of luxury that those materials imply.

Until the development of Lexjet Photo Metallic paper, results like these where only available to photographers using chemical photo-processing equipment. This Lexjet product makes the process of getting stunning metallic prints simpler and more environmentally friendly. At Vancouver on Canvas we can print directly from digital files from your camera onto metallic paper, giving your pictures that extra 'pop' that catches the eye.

What others are saying:

Photo bloggers are have posted some rave reviews of this paper. Ron Martinsen of Ronmart.Blogspot.com raves about this paper in an article with the provocative title “This Paper Sells Prints”. He makes the point that a beautiful, eye-catching print is more likely to attract attention that an image on a hard-drive. Brian Hampton told the Lexjet blogger that the paper gave him the best of both worlds -durability and excellent detail, such as he had not found in other products.

Photo by Mario Werder, via Flikr

TIPS: Which images to try

Not all images benefit from this paper, and from what I have read there is no hard and fast rules about what works and what doesn't, but here are a few tips on what images to try, based on my experience and discussion forums by those far more experienced that me.

-try black and white images, the metallic paper gives them a silvery sheen

-images of naturally glossy or shiny things, like satin, water, or new cars.

-images with a lot of high-impact reds and oranges (like sunsets)

-High-contrast images with deep colours.

-Very sharp images.

We invite you to try out your images on the Lexjet Metallic Paper available at Vancouver on Canvas. You just might love what you see!

photo by Shadowgate Via Flickr

Why Choose Water Resistant Satin Cloth?

Satin cloth is a new material developed for the Giclee process. It has many of the advantages of canvas, and offers new possibilities for displaying your art.

-Satin cloth can be sewn, stretched or hung like canvas

-It's water resistance makes it more suitable for outdoors

-Satin Fabric has a very smooth texture which does not conflict with the fine detail in your image

-Bright whites give it superior colour response

-Translucency allows for highly creative and beautiful mounting options.

attributes	Lexjet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth Giclee	Canvas Giclee
texture	Smooth texture, good for capturing fine detail and sharpness. Vellum-like feel	Woven texture, good for softening images and masking defects, traditional canvas feel
Colour response	Excellent. Accepts high levels of ink saturation. PreLume technology provides brighter white points.	Excellent. High levels of ink saturation and bright white point.
opacity	90% (translucent)	Greater that 99%
weight	Very light-weigh (130g per sq meter)	Heavy (410 g per sq meter)
Stretch-mounting?	yes	yes
Water resistance	Very high	High

Mounting Options:

Lexjet water-resistant satin cloth is stretchable like canvas, and can be mounted for wall-hanging. This option shows the material's fine texture and the detail of your image.

Other mounting options offer the possibility of taking advantage of the material's transparency. Mounting using back-lighting works very well with this material, because the smooth weave of Satin Cloth acts as a natural diffuser, making the whole image glow with light.

Window Display:

One simple option is to use poster hangers to create a banner that hangs in front of a source of light, like a window or a indirect light source. This could be done by using poster hangers like these:

or these,

OR by sewing a pocket into the top and bottom of the cloth, and inserting a dowel to suspend the banner from.

The satin cloth is water resistant, so consider using it in outdoor applications as well. Here is story from the Lexjet web page that attests to the durability of this material

“ [the artist] took the [satin cloth] screen down to the beach for a marketing shoot, he placed it in the water and shot it. Then, the screen tipped over into the surf and was soaked with salt water. He took it home, rinsed it off with a garden hose and left it standing outdoors exposed to the elements for two months. The colours remained totally colourfast.”

Commercial Banner Display

Another mounting option is using a commercial banner displays like these, which can be back-lit, or use the ambient light in the room or outdoor area to show off the Satin Cloth's transparency. Displays like these are available here.

Ligh-boxes

A very beautiful and original option for displaying your Satin Cloth print is to create a light-box. [pic] A light-box is a framed box that with light mounted inside, and a translucent image on the front. They are often used commercially and by professional artists, but Satin Cloth printing allows them to be created affordably for home decor.

A Light-box turns your image into a creative ambient lighting solution, as well as highlighting the particular beauty of your image. Back-lighting increases the presence and richness of saturated colours, it lends an ethereal quality to soft or misty images, and it makes skin really glow in portraits.

Cost comparison: Satin Cloth Mounting Options

for a 20x30 print ($61 printing cost)

mounting	Do we do it?	Cost	Advantage
Stretch mounting	yes	$62.00	Finished and, ready to hang. Beautifully textured fine wall art.
Poster Hangers	no	$16.95	Simple to order and install, can be hung on wall or window for natural light back-lit effect.
Commercial banners	no	$49.00	Professional displays for trade shows or point of sale displays
Light Boxes	No right now: check back soon	$250-300	Original and beautiful wall are and lighting solution. Makes any photo come alive.

Google Art project

Here is something really new and exiting, although really it is just the logical extension of an already existing idea. The Art Project, powered by Google takes the street view technology of Google Earth, and uses it to create virtual walking tours of famous museums.

“A unique collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art museums to enable people to discover and view more than a thousand artworks online in extraordinary detail.”

This is the next step in virtual tourism, and it really is pretty cool. It is interesting that the very first “virtual tour” was done by a museum, and they are used by museums everywhere to give visitors an opportunity to have a guided tour of the artwork.

Google's virtual tour includes the Artwork View feature:

“ discover featured artworks at high resolution and use the custom viewer to zoom into paintings. Expanding the info panel allows you to read more about an artwork, find more works by that artist and watch related YouTube videos.”

That high resolution is really high, you can see the brushstrokes and cracking in the old oil paint. The info panel (click on the (>>i) icon to get it, it's not obvious) has historical information, links to you tube curator discussions and viewing notes.

Another feature allows you to create your own collection:

“the ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ feature allows you to save specific views of any of the 1000+ artworks and build your own personalised collection. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family.”

I am not sure how useful this feature is, but I like the idea of it, because it lets users achieve some kind of ownership over these masterworks. Art has always appealed to our acquisitive instinct, so if the Google art project offers users a sense of virtual ownership, they are much more likely to take an interest in the preservation of their 'property'.

I would love to see this project expand, and I am sure it will (the folks at Google are good at that). It includes a good selection of galleries from around the world, but the collection on display are limited. All of the art seems to be paintings on canvas. I for one would like to see this 360-degree street view technology used to get a look at some sculpture.