Matt prits with glass?????

I use to print my photos on semi lustre or pearl papers, and they look decent to me. Then I tried fibre (photographic) paper at my friend’s darkroom, and my eyes opened. I went to Pd/Pt printing black and white photos and this too looks wonderful in hand. Then I exchange few prints with Guy Tal and he sends me colour prints on matt fine art inkjet paper. They look . Well, a wrench-in-the-wheel was when I tried to frame some of these beautiful prints: it is almost imposible to separate Pd/Pt print from fibre-paper print or inkjet lustre print. Now I face a dilemma: either quit using matt fine art inkjet papers, because colour gamut of shiny lustre papers is much bigger, or find alternative for framing. I know that oil paintings are framed without glass, but this brig up another question: dust. Or how to keep photographs clean, and how to protect them from fading away (even pigment ones suppose to fade away rapidly without protection).

I'm corious to hear your experiences.

Marko

If I remember correctly Guy is using Moab Entrada natural paper. This is the same paper I use, except I chose the Bright White instead of Natural. I haven't noticed any drop off in quality perception because of glass, in fact I greatly prefer matte over gloss or satin behind glass. Could it possibly be the type of glass you're using?

Thanks for the compliment, Marko. And yes - these were made on Entrada (Natural).

I frame my own prints behind non-glare glass or plexi (Acrylite). I still feel the matte prints look better in this presentation since the lighting is more even. The non-glare glass/plexy ensures there are no specular reflectrions from the glass itself but a reflective print surface can still show some glare (only the outer side of the glass has the non-glare etching).

Yes, coated papers may have a better dMax but my personal preference is to see the entire print evenly-lit with as few reflections as possible.

I know others who mount the print directly to acrylic or sintra, sometimes with lamination, and display them with no glass. I haven't tried it yet myself.

Guy

I have framed both matted papers and Epson's Premium Glossy paper and will take a matte paper behind glass any time. The reflective surface of the glossy (or lustre, semigloss, etc) adds additional glare to the print and I find that to be very distracting to the image. Behind glass, the matte papers seem to take on a life of their own and look far better than handheld.

Having said that, for hand holding of prints, say family vacation pictures or for cube display, I prefer the shinier papers. My current favorite is the Epson Premium Luster.

i will throw this out there... you might try doing a matte inkjet print with a nice matte or luster laminate over the top of that... i've had great results for that. i dont think i would do that for anything i was selling (i'd let the customer decide how they want to frame it)... but for my own stuff for my own walls, i find that matte paper with a artic luster laminate framed with no glass looks really really nice....

just a thought.

I stay with matte papers too. Like Guy I like how they become evenly lit when viewed because of little or no reflection.

I find glossy papers a pain because they scratch so easily. I have rarely managed to make a perfect print with glossy papers.

I have been using Tru Vue non glare and really like the look it gives a print. It's an etched glass and gives a diffuse look.

Have used it on Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art and Crane Museo Silver Rag. Seems like it would soften a glossy print and make it appear more like matte paper.