The range of photographic media for photo-art reproduction has grown apace in recent years. For serious and occasional collectors alike, it pays to understand the differences in methodology, and the potential effect of acquisition prices and the investment value for the years ahead. Here are some key terms and the processes which apply to them

C-Type Prints

Darkroom/wet prints made from color negatives or transparencies. Before digital technology, these were the prints we all received from the pharmacies from our holiday films. They were also produced in larger sizes for exhibitions. C-type prints are now archival and are still preferred by some photographers and collectors to digital art prints.

Fine-art digital prints, aka Giclee, Iris or Art inkjet prints

The most common way of producing collectible prints in the digital age, is by scanning the original negative, or balancing a digital file from a digital camera, and out-putting the image, usually retouched, on various media types using archival inks. The advantage is that very fine quality coated papers can be used to make delicate, beautiful prints. Rockarchive’s Edition 100 is made in this way in various sizes without any loss of quality.

Lamda or Lightjet

This mode of printing contains elements of both traditional darkroom printing and digital technology. The original negative is scanned, or a digital image adjusted, and the resulting image is outputted onto photographic paper by means of laser light. The prints have the same archival value as traditional photographic RC prints or C-type prints on plastic based papers, with the advantage to some collectors of being called ‘photographic prints’.

Lenticular

Lenticular printing is a multi-step process consisting of creating an image from at least two existing images, and combining it with a special lens. This process can be used to create various frames of animation (for a motion effect), or simply to show a set of alternate images which may appear to transform into each other.

The combined lenticular print will show two or more different images simply by changing the angle from which the print is viewed.

Other Print types

There are an array of differing print methods now available using both traditional and contemporary techniques.

Silk screen

A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric (originally silk, but typically made of polyester since the 1940s) stretched over a frame of aluminum or wood. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material to form a stencil, which is a negative of the image to be printed; that is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear.

The screen is placed atop a substrate such as papyrus or fabric. Ink is placed on top of the screen, and a fill bar (also known as a flood bar) is used to fill the mesh openings with ink. The operator begins with the fill bar at the rear of the screen and behind a reservoir of ink. The operator lifts the screen to prevent contact with the substrate and then using a slight amount of downward force pulls the fill bar to the front of the screen. This effectively fills the mesh openings with ink and moves the ink reservoir to the front of the screen. The operator then uses a squeegee (rubber blade) to move the mesh down to the substrate and pushes the squeegee to the rear of the screen. The ink that is in the mesh opening is transferred by capillary action to the substrate in a controlled and prescribed amount, i.e. the wet ink deposit is equal to the thickness of the stencil. As the squeegee moves toward the rear of the screen the tension of the mesh pulls the mesh up away from the substrate leaving the ink upon the substrate surface.

Silver Gelatin fiber prints

Prints made from an original black & white negative in the darkroom using chemicals and fiber papers are known as silver gelatin fiber prints. These are the most valuable to collectors, particularly as this now historic method of print making, combined with the fragility of old negatives, mean the prints will be rare. One of the characteristics to these prints is that they do not always dry completely flat and may look a little “wavy” when framed due to the process in which they are made. They are also particularly sensitive to dampness in the air and need to be treated with extra care.

Silver Gelatin RC prints

A silver gelatin RC print refers to an image made on resin-coated paper. These prints are also made from negatives in the darkroom using chemicals, but on plastic-based papers which are easier than fiber papers to work with. They also have the added benefit of drying flat. However, RC prints can be less ‘rich’ in terms of tone and texture than traditional fiber prints.

By: Penny Church

Choosing the right photo editing software is very important and since there are several editing softwares out there it is important to research them all and through this research choose the one you see will benefit you most.

Adobe is one of the best Photo editing software in the market. Adobe has a variety of software’s for editing which cover video, photos, PDF files and audio. The adobe software for editing photos is called Photoshop and is used the world over when it comes to making the pictures look better than they were before. If you are not so good at editing with Photoshop there is a tutorial which will guide you but it will be better to get someone to teach you how to use it and also start with an older version of Photoshop even though the new one has some added features.

Other great photo editing software’s out there include Corel Photo Paint which is actually one of the easiest to learn with. There is also JASC Paint shop which I haven’t used but heard good things about it. Ulead Photo Impact is another big contender when it comes to top leading editing software and let’s not forget, Corel Painter and ACDSee which are commonly used in the industry today.

Now is your chance to create a masterpiece out of a simple photograph. You can change the lighting and hue to your preference, making sure that people do not look like they were out of place. With today’s software’s anything is possible and you can always see the impossible come to life.

By: Peter Gitundu

Digital photography is very popular nowadays. It has become one of the major professions of those who love art to the utmost. In addition, there are some who are fond of just taking pictures using digital technology and storing them into their computers or other devices. Because of the rise in popularity, digital photography is something that is taken seriously especially by those who want to make a living out of it. When it comes to performing a photo comparison, there are now pieces of software that can be used in order for an individual to carry out the task. These programs make it simpler and easier for one to have a complete understanding regarding what he should do and how he can fulfill his job without any difficulty. Expect however that most of these programs require huge amount of disk space as well as a good system.

Professional photographers or even those who simply take photography seriously will normally spend several hours doing photo comparison and photo review. Most of the time, when they have uploaded new sets go images in their computer, they will try to spot those that are needed to be kept or deleted. One thing is for sure: only the best will stay on the hard drive. This is an important matter particularly for the photographers. More often than not, there are a number of professionals that encounter problems with their software as this will slow their computer down. There are also others who do not go for such applications and instead they will just look for online tools because they do not want to download and install such. Generally, this will cost a lot of hours spent in searching for the right online tool.

Photo comparison is much needed when you are in this kind of industry. Thus, you need a good image comparer. Even professionals take bad pictures. There are times when they take blurred and poorly exposed photos or perhaps they just did not capture the right moment for the shot. This is why comparing each and every photo that has been taken is essential. For non professionals, usually they copy pictures which will result to duplicates in your computer with different filenames, formats and sizes.

Finding good photo comparer software is hard but it can be very beneficial. This is a great solution to the problems of those who want to perform such task without any concerns. Typically, these programs allow the user to compare photos that are alike. They will search and locate the files that are duplicated and the user has the choice to keep them or delete them. One can also use this to compare the quality and the overall form of the picture so that he can decide which among them will be in his next photo showcase.

These programs are great due to the fact that they are not focused on just one or two types of file formats. They can handle almost every single one and one can do the task with several photos to compare simultaneously.

By: Sam Miller