Bambi Cantrell, Douglas Dubler, Greg Gorman, Jay Maisel, Steve McCurry, and Jeff Schewe share their thoughts and feelings on their work and how they relate to it when it’s printed.

View my Epson video interview here.

Find out more about Epson Focal Points here.

Category: Printing, Video
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Mac Holbert and I concentrate on Fine Art Workflow in our Epson sponsored seminar today in Seattle for ASMP.

Free giveaways include Adobe CS5, NIK HDR Efex Pro, Pixel Genius Photo Kit Sharpener Pro, OnOne Plug In Suite, X-Rite Color Passport, and more.

Find out more about the event here.

View our DVD content here.
Read more in my digital printing lessons.
Learn more in my digital printing workshops.

Category: Seminar
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booksmart_fineartmetals

“Booksmart Studio’s inkjet printable fine art metal allows you to print directly on metal surfaces, the metal has a coating applied to accept most popular inkjet printer inks. These fine art printable metals are offered in aluminum and gold and provide a very durable & luminous print. Users must print with a printer that allows direct pass through for paper. The fine art metal series has an adhesive backing to make mounting an easier process, this adhesive backing is optional in certain sizes. The inkjet printable gold and aluminum allow users to create prints that are unlike any print produced on paper.

Users must overcoat the metal after printing due to then nature of ink sitting on metal, one can coat with Clearstar Coatings for a matte, semi-gloss, or gloss finish. One can also laminate the fine art metals, which is often more accurate and reliable but expensive for initial setup. Waterproof ink will run because the ink sitting on the inkjet coating, please remember to overcoat or laminate your prints.”

Prepared metals come in Satin White, Brushed Silver, Matte Silver, Satin Silver, Satin Gold.

Find out more here.

Learn more about digital printing with my online Lessons.
Learn still more in my DVD Fine Art Digital Printing.
Learn even more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Category: Printing
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epsonsignatureworthy

“Only the highest quality Epson papers receive the designation of Signature Worthy. Watch the introduction and view the complete interviews to see why these industry leaders choose Epson Signature Worthy Papers.”

Lois Greenfield, David Lynch, Matthew Jordan Smith, Vincent Versace, Art Wolfe tell you what they like best about Epson papers.

Learn more about digital printing with my online Lessons.
Learn still more in my DVD Fine Art Digital Printing.
Learn even more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Category: Printing
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proofunderglass
It’s an excellent idea to evaluate final proofs under glass (or plexiglass). This is particularly true if you’re using very thick or low grade glass. Often, when see under glass the print appears ever so slightly darker, lower contrast, and sometimes greener. There’s no ideal glass or plexiglass to evaluate proofs with. Use whatever the print will be viewed under. What you want to be able to do is adjust subsequent proofs so they look ideal in the final viewing state of the print, which is rarely bare.

Find out more with my free Lessons.
View more on my DVDs Fine Art Digital Printing and Fine Art Workflow.
Learn more in my Workshops.

Category: Printing, Technique
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My Fine Art Digital Printing DVD offers many simple solutions to common problems. Here’s one …

inksmears

Problem
I’m getting spots or streaks of ink on my print(s).

Solution
Clean the print heads, the rollers, and the inside of the printer.

Sometimes excess ink accumulates from previous printing sessions and gets smeared on the next print. This usually only happens when previous print errors have printed off the paper causing problems for the next print, even if it’s printed correctly.

Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Category: Printing, Technique
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Learn what’s unique about black & white and how to best adjust and print it.

Here’s a short excerpt from my DVD.

Learn more in my DVD Black & White Mastery.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.

Category: DVDs, r/evolution, Video
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Test Files

December 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Go beyond the limits of color management? Adopt a proofing workflow.

Here’s a short excerpt from my DVD.

Learn more in my DVD The Art of Proofing.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.

Category: DVDs, r/evolution, Video
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Signing Prints

December 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment

pigmanpen

What do you sign prints with?
I recommend …
Pencil for matte surfaces.
Pigmented in for glossy surfaces.
A word of caution, “permanent” simply means waterfast, not light fast.
Sharpee pens fade.
Try Pigma pens instead.
Make sure your signature lasts as long as your prints.

Learn more in my free Lessons.

Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Category: Printing
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fragile
Let people know your work is valuable – even when you’re not there to tell them about it. Add a label. FRAGILE. Make it look official. Buy it preprinted. Or print it yourself. Or stamp it. Make it big. It’s a mandate not a disclaimer to be hidden in small text. Make it red. Red attracts attention. Put it on both sides of a package. Make sure no one can miss it.

If you want to go the extra distance, add a second label. HANDLE WITH CARE. It’s implied when you use ‘fragile’ but it never hurts to restate your case. People will pay attention. The whole point is to remind them to be considerate. It also sends a message to the people receiving your work. This is valuable.

Read more on Printing in my free Lessons.

View more in my R/Evolution DVD series.

Learn more proofing techniques in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Category: Printing, Uncategorized
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3 New DVDs !

November 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

3newdvds

3 New DVDs!

Fine Art Digital Printing

Fine Art Workflow

Extending Dynamic Range – HDR Imaging

Preorder discounts apply for a limited time only. Save $10.

Read more on Printing in my free Lessons.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Category: DVDs
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Print Aesthetics

November 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment

printaesthetics1

What do people look for in fine art photographic prints?
One of the most important things we look for is …
Detail.

What kind of detail?
At least five kinds.
Detail – Focus
Detail – Dynamic Range
Detail – Gradation
Detail – Low Signal to Noise Ratio
Detail – Flawless Surfaces

There’s are many exceptions to this rule of thumb but they are exceptions.
The best exceptions depart from the standards meaningfully.
It helps to know what to look for in fine art photographs.

Find out more in my free downloadable Lessons.
Find out more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.
Stay tuned for the announcement of my Fine Art Digital Printing DVD.

Category: Uncategorized
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Michael Morrison is fascinated with how our world works, the nature of awareness and perception, the experience of wonder and beauty, and the central role humanity now plays in Earth’s evolution—and the future of Civilization. With a scientific background, his passion lead him to earn the first degree in Earth System Science at the University of New Hampshire and serve as the Scientific Coordinator for the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2), which produced a detailed, 100,000 year history of climate—a history that revolutionized our understanding of climate. His research activities have taken him to the the South Pole, the Transantarctic Mountains, Mt. Erebus, Alaska, The Himalayas, and the highest point on the Greenland Ice Sheet. He is anticipating an ice coring expedition to the Andes in 2010.

Though he loves and values scientific discovery, he finds that the beliefs at the core of our behavior are intriguing and stubborn beasts, not always responsive to simple facts. He believes creative expression is central not only to meaning and joy in life, but to the trajectory Civilization will take moving forward from here. Following belief, creativity, circumstances, and the digital revolution in imaging, Michael now offers fine-art digital imaging and printing services in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is co-authoring a book of photographs and stories from research expeditions with Dr. Paul Mayewski, a world-class climate scientist and the Chief Scientist of GISP2.

“Graphs, tables, and didactic discourse are important, but are not fully able to reach our collective conscious on the level called for by our time in history. This is the domain of creativity—playful, beautiful, surprising, and innovative—it reaches deep into our psyches, dreams, and motivations. Into our beliefs …”

Read more here about his personal experiences, what he’s learned, and his thoughts on what we can do.

Read more

Category: climate change, environment
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Epson Print Academy – NYC

December 5, 2008 | Comments Off

The Epson Print Academy will be in NYC tomorrow.
Rodney, Schewe, Gorman, Holbert, Caponigro.
Check out this recent blog post at Photoshop Insider where we each describe our sessions.

Category: Printing, Seminar
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“There’s nothing more exciting for an artist than an exhibition showcasing new work, unless that show also features the work of an equally acclaimed and beloved spouse. Such is the story of photographer Jerry Uelsmann and artist Maggie Taylor at their recent “Just Suppose” exhibition at the University Gallery, University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, Fla.

Although the content of their art has a similar ethereal quality, both have very different approaches. Jerry Uelsmann rose to fame in the 60′s and 70′s as a master black-and-white printer creating composite images with multiple enlargers and long hours in the traditional darkroom. In contrast, Maggie Taylor produces her dreamlike color images by scanning objects into a computer using a flatbed scanner, manipulating the images with Adobe Photoshop, and printing them in a digital workflow using Epson Stylus Pro printers.”

Find out more about the production of their new work for this exhibit here.

Read my conversation with Jerry Uelsmann here.

Find Jerry and Maggie’s books here.

Category: Artists, Printing
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“Legendary photographer Pete Turner still knows how to punch up the color and get people’s attention. The master colorist, who broke all the rules in the pre-computer era, is taking his creativity to an entirely new ground with the unprecedented control of digital technology. His photographs are best known for their blazing hues, atmospheric effects, daring perspectives and surreal landscapes.

Turner personally printed 50 of his most loved images, with colorful names like “Lifesaver, USA” and “Hot Lips,” for the recent retrospective, Pete Turner: Empowered by Color. The photographs were on view in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. at the renowned George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.”

See the short 6:33 video on Turner from Epson Focal Points here.

Category: Artists, Video
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It’s often called metamerism, but the correct term is metameric failure.
Metameric failure is the tendency of an object to change appearance under different light sources. Different light sources, even of the same color temperature, are often comprised of differing amounts of spectral frequencies (i.e. red or blue frequencies). Some objects change appearance more quickly than others; they are more highly metameric. This is true when comparing dye-based inks with pigmented inks. As pigments are made of irregular particles, they tend to refract (reflect and bend) light more strongly than uniform dye globules. The most current ink technology coats pigment particles in resin to reduce this effect. Additionally, some color pigments, typically the most saturated ones, are more prone to metamerism. By separating the file differently and using more of the less metameric ink to reproduce an image, the print’s appearance stability is increased. This is particularly important when reproducing neutrals, as small shifts in hue are quickly detected in these colors.
How can you evaluate metameric failure? Make two prints of the same image (preferably containing significant neutrals) and compare them side by side in different light sources.
What can you do to reduce metameric failure? Use the latest inksets (such as Epson’s Ultrachrome K3) and drivers (with the latest separation routines). And, when practical, standardize the light your prints are viewed under. Can metamerism be completely eliminated? No. Everything is metameric. But metameric failure in prints can be reduced to the point where it is no longer significant.

Read the rest of this article in the current issue of Photoshop User.
Learn more in my workshops.

Category: Printing, Technique
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Print Proofs To See Undisplayable Colors

November 14, 2008 | Comments Off

You softproof (constrain a monitor with an ICC profile) to see what colors are out of gamut of an ink and paper combination before you print. You proof (print) to see colors out of gamut of the monitor.

What? Yes! Today’s inksets exceed the gamut of of even the widest gamut monitors, in certain colors.

This graph shows ColorMatch (equivalent to most CRTs and LCDs), Adobe RGB 1998 (higher end LCDs), and Epson Ultrachrome HDR Ink on Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper. The new printers with the latest substrates can print more saturated yellows and oranges than even the best monitors can display. And, they can also print more saturated blues and greens than average LCDs can display. Evolution in printers is forcing an evolution in monitors.

Which monitor do I recommend? Check out my previous post here.

Check out my DVD 6 Simple Steps to Good Color Management.
Check out my DVD The Art of Proofing.

See me demonstrate this and more during the Epson Print Academy.
Learn these techniques in my workshops.

Category: Printing
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The videos for the Epson Print Academy are always rich. In the newly updated Track 2 sessions attendees get to see a 14 minute short cut of Michael Reichmann (Luminous Landscape) interviewing Henry Wilhelm (Care and Permanence of Photographs) on longevity. A lot of myths and misnomers are dispelled. It’s well worth scanning.

You can see and/or listen to the full 68 minute version here.

Find out about the next Epson Print Academy near you here.

Category: Printing, Seminar
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There are a lot of surprise giveaways during the Epson Print Academy – books, DVDs, software, posters, prints, etc. I give away posters made onsite, often during the presentation.

Find out about the next Epson Print Academy near you here.

Category: Printing, Seminar
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