Preferred matboard for warmtone prints?

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi there,

My go-to for selenium toned Ilford MGFB paper has been White Rising Museum Board, but find the warm whites of the paper I'm now using get overpowered and seem dull with this mat board.

I'm leaning towards Medium Grey Rising Museum Board. What matboard do you use, or have you seen used successfully, with warmtone prints?

100% cotton preferred.

 

[Vaughn]

There was a 'Natural White" that Light Impressions had that I liked with warm prints. Just a touch of warmth to it -- the antique whites tend to be too warm. Have not seen anything quite like it for awhile.

I tried gray mats decades ago...did not like them.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

There was a 'Natural White" that Light Impressions had that I liked with warm prints. Just a touch of warmth to it -- the antique whites tend to be too warm. Have not seen anything quite like it for awhile.

I tried gray mats decades ago...did not like them.

Thanks for that.

Rising has an Olde White that might work....if it's a bit lower value than the 'pure white' I'm getting in the prints. Also haven't platinum toned any yet to compare with the palladium toned prints I've made, so there will be print/mat colouration relationship as well.

Hopefully a few people will chime in with their choices; then I'll order samples to compare.

 

[Vaughn]

Good luck. I prefer 8-ply, so the choices tend to be less.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Good luck. I prefer 8-ply, so the choices tend to be less.

Archival Methods has a good website that uses the same warmtone B&W image for comparisons. Hardly accurate, but better than driving for 8 hours: https://www.archivalmethods.com/product/natural-white-museum-board-4-ply

Pearl white https://www.archivalmethods.com/pro...kWXYQs1-jlWp-O6WRoElbK4_Z5Ae6mk3Fucj5XKX0NNij

Natural white https://www.archivalmethods.com/product/natural-white-museum-board-4-ply

Warm white https://www.archivalmethods.com/product/warm-white-4-ply-100-cotton-museum-board

 

[RalphLambrecht]

There was a 'Natural White" that Light Impressions had that I liked with warm prints. Just a touch of warmth to it -- the antique whites tend to be too warm. Have not seen anything quite like it for awhile.

I tried gray mats decades ago...did not like them.

ditto; went back to plain white; gray interferred with tones in the B&W print too much

 

[GregY]

Murray, In 16x20 precut...
i've used this one from B&H

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1303064-REG/lineco_709_4462_25_4_ply_alpha_cellulose_museum.html

In full sheets, I don't have the # handy, but i went to Calgraphics with some prints and matched a neutral white.
I don't care for any other....greys etc. I find they detract from the image

 

[Taylor K Nankervis]

Crescent 8P rag mat (100% cotton) in virgin white, off-white or bone white (the differences between virgin white and bone white are subtle but detectable in appropriate lighting), never anything in the grey or black spectrum. This is all I have ever used for any and all prints produced over almost 40 years now. The rule I have for any print, colour or black and white, is to let the print speak for itself and never be upstaged nor overpowered by coloured mats or a "shouting" frame. I have been to a few exhibitions where beautiful photographic prints — colour and monochrome, have been patently screwed by untamed, outlandishly overbearing mat and frame jobs.

 

[Vaughn]

Sometimes black...

"Under a Raven Sky"
5x7 Photogram, Carbon Print

PS...most places will sell you samples...that's the best bet.

 

[CreationBear]

That’s a great treatment, Vaughn—I’ve seen some “plum” toned salt prints that looked great in dark mats as well. What size is the mat here for your 5x7?

 

[Vaughn]

That’s a great treatment, Vaughn—I’ve seen some “plum” toned salt prints that looked great in dark mats as well. What size is the mat here for your 5x7?

Mat is 10x12. There is an 8 ply window-mat under the black mat to float it. No glass. The piece was put together for a juried Halloween multi-media show at one of our local art organizations.

Unfortunately the iPhone image shows much more of the feathers than can be seen with the eye...especially the lower feathers that are seen mostly as sunken relief.

 

[CreationBear]

Excellent, thank you kindly…that might be a print I’d take off the wall to examine more closely, though I’d probably get my knuckles rapped with a ruler.