43. CHOOSING A PAPER—LIKE WINE PAIRING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTOGRAPHY IS ALL about collecting stuff, whether it be the perfect lens or the perfect camera bag or the perfect filter. You’d be surprised by how much stuff you can accumulate in the process of trying to make great pictures. This translates completely when you start talking about making a print, and opens up new ways for you to express yourself with your work.

Ansel Adams once said, “the negative is the score and the print is the performance,” so how you create a print can be very different from picture to picture. The material you print on can also vary greatly—from glossy to matte papers, or canvas to metallic papers.

Deciding on the type of paper to use for the image you’re printing is almost like pairing wine with a meal. Yes, there are some general rules regarding when you should serve white wine or red wine, but to be honest with you, I never really know when I’m supposed to drink one or the other, and I kind of just go at it alone after trying a bunch of different things. I’ll share a couple of the places I go to when I’m looking for paper.

Before you start any journey to find the best paper for your images, do not discount the paper from your printer manufacturer. This could be a great way for you to experiment with papers getting out of the gate. Canon and Epson are probably the two biggest companies on the print side, and their paper selection has gotten incredibly good over the last couple of years (Figures 43.1 and 43.2).

If I’m using my Canon Pro-1000 printer, I often like to use their premium Pro Luster Photo Paper. It’s a good, middle-of-the-road photo paper that has a nice feel and the colors look really good.

On the Epson side, I’m a huge fan of their Exhibition Fiber Paper. It’s a little bit heavier than a premium luster paper, but it still has the same type of sheen—which is a very soft sheen—and I think it reproduces colors extremely well. While you’re there, I would also take a look at their Hot Press Bright paper, which is a beautiful matte paper that has a really nice feel.

Red River Paper is another company to consider (Figure 43.3). Some of my favorites produced by them are the 75lb Arctic Polar Luster and the 80lb RR Luster Duo double-sided paper. The Luster Duo is a heavier paper—at 80lbs, it’s about 300 GSM, so this is going to be a good bet.

One of the things I love about all of these companies is that they often sell a sampler pack of all of the different types of papers they produce, or they will send you sample images that have been printed on different papers. This allows you to experiment with different papers and decide for yourself which one gives you the results you want for a specific image.

When it comes to photo paper, there is no right or wrong; that’s the beautiful part about it.

If you’ve been looking at Ilford, my favorite paper they’ve made is the 310 GSM Gold Fibre Silk (Figure 43.4). This paper has a really nice tonal range and beautiful colors because of its baryta properties (barium sulfate).

Figure 43.1

Figure 43.2

Figure 43.3

Figure 43.4

Next up are the folks at Canson. They produce a beautiful paper called Infinity Platine Fibre Rag 310 GSM (Figure 43.5). You’re probably noticing a pattern here: I like heavier papers. When you print on these papers, it gives the print a certain amount of seriousness that you feel when you’re holding it. The color reproduction is also beautiful, so a print on this paper is definitely going to make an impression.

The paper company that I keep coming back to time after time has to be Hahnemühle (Figure 43.6). They make some of the world’s best papers and they have a great range for you to experiment with—from thin, glossy papers to really thick, matte papers; canvas; bamboo; you name it. My favorite is the William Turner 310 GSM paper—just beautiful.

You’ve probably recognized that I have a specific leaning: I like soft papers, I like heavy papers. That heavy feeling of the paper and the color reproduction tends to make photographs look very artistic, and it leaves an impression with the person when they’re holding the paper. That’s very important to me, but your results will vary.

Figure 43.5

Figure 43.6