Re: Question for those selling there photography...

[David H. Bebbington]

Archival qualities aside, the best prints on fiber-based paper look much better than the best prints on RC paper. However good you are as a printer, your work will look better on fiber than it will on plastic across the board.

A more important point, perhaps, is the pride one takes in one's work. If a photographer is proud of his/her work, and believes in presenting the best craft possible as a means of artistic expression, then that work deserves the best possible presentation -- and that is on quality, fiber-based paper, well-printed, and archivally processed.

Dublin is a long way from Broadstairs in Kent, so we may very well never meet. If we were to do so, I would bet that I could show you some of my prints in glazed frames which you could not say were FB or RC. I am a member of a group of very experienced professionals and exhibit with them regularly - I fool them every time. My choice of RC or FB depends mainly on the factors I described in a previous post - the level of professional pride I invest in my work is constant and not dependent on the base of my printing paper!

 

[mmcclellan]

Dublin is a long way from Broadstairs in Kent, so we may very well never meet. If we were to do so, I would bet that I could show you some of my prints in glazed frames which you could not say were FB or RC. I am a member of a group of very experienced professionals and exhibit with them regularly - I fool them every time. My choice of RC or FB depends mainly on the factors I described in a previous post - the level of professional pride I invest in my work is constant and not dependent on the base of my printing paper!

David,

I suppose if you "hide" RC prints behind glass, it might be a bit more difficult, but in the clear, unfiltered light of day the differences are blazingly obvious -- at least if the FB prints are good. Good RC vs. poor FB is no contest; but in good against good, FB will win out hands down every time.

I wish Kent were closer -- I'd bet you a fish and chips I could tell the difference! )

 

[David H. Bebbington]

David,

I suppose if you "hide" RC prints behind glass, it might be a bit more difficult, but in the clear, unfiltered light of day the differences are blazingly obvious -- at least if the FB prints are good. Good RC vs. poor FB is no contest; but in good against good, FB will win out hands down every time.

I wish Kent were closer -- I'd bet you a fish and chips I could tell the difference! )

I entirely agree - but given today's atmospheric pollution conditions, I'd be wary of giving a guarantee of archival permanence on ANY print (FB or RC silver gelatin, pigment-based inkjet, or anything else) unless it WAS behind glass - I wouldn't say this was hiding it, I'd call it vital protection!

Regards,

David