Protecting the photo paper

[arigram]

I am going to do the shooting of two musician friends of mine and they want the final print to be displayed as is on the restaurant they play at.
It's going to be shot with a Hassy, printed square on 30x40cm Ilford Multigrade paper with some hand writting on the white borders. Should it be RC or FB? And how can I protect further the image from being the elements and abuse? Lamination, special sprays?

 

[glbeas]

Proper framing under glass should be sufficient. Be sure the frame is sealed with tape on the back to keep fumes out. If it will be near daylight where it hangs might want to look into UV blocking glass.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Proper framing as Gary suggests and use Fibre paper for sure

 

[arigram]

I think they want to use the photo without "real" frame & glass, maybe tape it on the window of the store or on a stand. They asked specifically for photo paper for higher quality than a poster done on a local printing press. It doesn't matter if it lasts years, as long as it survives the season at the restaurant.

 

[glbeas]

In that case it may be best to mount the print on good mat board so when it is hung in the window the mat board is what will take all the handling and abuse. A laminate over the face might not be bad but you would have to consider whether the laminate will yellow or cause the print to yellow.

 

[Ole]

When I did this some years ago, I made four prints on RC. I then replaced the print when it was no longer something I'd willingly sign my name on. The clients (two lovely young girls) never noticed, they just thought my print was perfect and immune to smoke and beer

 

[DKT]

you could get them mounted to Sintra or maybe MDF, or even aluminum-- and have a lustre laminate overcoat put on them. maybe get the corners rounded as well. if you use gatorboard or especially foamcore--if the prints falls down or gets knocked over--the edges can get dinged up pretty bad. a lustre laminate is sort of a pebbly, semi-matte surface and can take handling really well. another way to do it would be to surface mount it to plexiglass. unless someone keys it, or scratches their initials into it, it's a great way to mount prints for high-traffic areas, but it can be a lighting problem as well. at any rate, if a 30x40 inch print mounted to sintra or MDF fell off an easel, it would probably break your foot and the print wouldn't have a mark on it.
even reg. prints just mounted will do okay for a few years or more but a 30x40 isn't exactly a cheap print to replace--gotta figure about 100 bucks probably. The mounting will cost about that much though, so I guess it's a toss up really....

 

[Konical]

Good Evening, Ari,

When I retired, I left behind at school a couple of dozen large RC prints which depicted the progress of a construction project our building underwent some years ago. The prints were unmounted and had been informally displayed on several occasions; they had some fingerprints and a few minor scratches, so I didn't want them any more. The librarian who succeeded me found them and ran them through a roll-type laminator, and, much to my surprise, they suffered no damage! I would never have done that, figuring that the heat would have caused some melting of the RC material, but none of the prints showed any ill effects.

Continuous-roll laminators are very common in educational institutions, at least in this country; you might try running a small sample print through one to see what happens. The laminating film is similar to that used for laminating in dry mount presses; the continuous-roll laminator just makes the work faster and easier. Once the print is laminated, it should be safe from all but deliberate damage, but I have no idea about the effect on permanence.

My prints were also on Ilford MGIV-RC.

Konical

 

[arigram]

Thank you all for the responses.
I figure that if I print the photo on Ilford MGIV WT FB it can survive gracefully in the restaurant enviroment, being a "high-class" joint. After all, it doesn't need to live that long. I thought about the lamination, but I wonder if it end taking it too much of the classy feel of the print.
Oh and btw DKT, it's 30x40 -centimeters- not inches! That's quite a difference! It's 12x16 in inches.