Because I’m using the Photo Black K3 ink on my Epson 4800, I’ve been on the lookout for a paper better than, say, Epson’s Premium Luster. I like the luster paper… it looks and feels great for portraits and works just fine for my interior design photography… but I just don’t want to use it for my fine art prints. Seems wrong. I have tons of matte papers but for a few of my paying jobs, I’ve been using luster so that’s why I have that ink set in the 4800. And if you know anything about the 4800, swapping matte black for photo black runs about $40 to flush out the inks. That’s why the photo black is staying in there a while… I’ve already done it once.

Anyway, after a lot of searching, I found a box of 13×19 Hahnemuhle’s Fine Art Pearl at LexJet. FAP has gotten good reviews from Michael Reichmann’s Luminous Landscape site so I thought I’d try it out. It’s pretty new on the scene and it was hard to find… and pricey at that… $217 for 50 sheets. I downloaded the profiles from the Hahnemuhle site, loaded them, then printed out the first image in Qimage… yikes, I got smeared stuff in the middle. Tried it again. Same thing. Then realized that I had it set for Luster paper in the driver, not Luster 250. Changed the setting and… flawless. A very beautiful print. But I did waste about $10 worth of paper.

Here is my favorite image from this morning’s printing session. Printed as an 18×12, it was taken June 2005 at the College of Sante Fe’s Visual Arts Center (designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta) with a Canon 20D and a 70-200mm F4 lens. What I like about it are the minimal colors and how flat it appears. To me, it looks like it’s from a cartoon or a graphic novel. I think of the set of Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy” when I see it.

Copyright © 2006 Diana Lundin