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Searching for perfection
Professional photographer Karel Noppé is using HP’s Designjet Z2100 Photo Printer to produce a range of photographic and fine art works
Wedding photographers will tell you they are always asked to slightly modify the final pictures: touching up grey hairs or removing unfortunate relatives. The fact they can do this is testament to today’s equipment. However, with digital photo printing taking off it isn’t just wedding photographers who are benefiting
by Tracey Rushton-Thorpe
What makes digital photo printing stand out from other methods is system flexibility and the ease with which final pictures are available. It is this which companies bringing new machines to market are striving to achieve.
Durst has always been a popular choice in this market but with the addition of two new models during the year (Theta 76R and Theta 76BW) the models list now provides solutions for a range of different requirements for small and medium sized labs in the portrait, wedding, studio and minilab environment.
The digital lab systems are designed to offer unrivalled image quality and productivity but it is the flexibility that helps provide new, exciting and profitable photo products while handling existing business more efficiently. These features are fast becoming recognised in the industry as sales of the Theta 76 have exceeded 200 units since its launch two-years ago.
The Theta 76R is a digital roll-to-roll photo printer which replaces the Durst Epsilon and, like all models in the 76 range, uses Durst’s propriety fibre-optic LED printing technology. It features continuous printing on roll media up to 762mm (30in) wide and up to 85m (279ft) long.
The second new model this year is the Theta 76BW, claimed to be the world’s first digital lab system for true black and white on Ilford photo black and white media. It offers the same print size flexibility as other models in the range - from 90 by 130mm (3.5 by 5in) to 762mm (30in) wide by any length up to 4m (13ft), providing another profitable imaging solution.
Peak Imaging, one of the UK’s leading mail order photographic companies, recently installed a Theta CS HS to help it maintain a competitive edge.
Managing Director, Wayne Gledhill, said: “We have of course seen a dramatic change in our business from conventional D&P to digital. This has meant not just keeping up with the technology but applying it to make us more competitive through improved efficiency and service. The mail order side of the business has also changed. It is now just as likely to be used by professional photographers as it is by enthusiasts and amateurs. For example, many wedding photographers now use mail order.
“The internet has also influenced business. Many customers now upload their pictures for printing. We provide a free software package called Peak Online created by our in-house computer software company, which guides customers through the ordering process as well as informing them of what quality to expect. This computer expertise has also enabled us to create highly efficient production processing packages while ensuring all our equipment is networked throughout the company.
“We were very pleased with our Durst Epsilon but with the dramatic growth of digital photography, we soon outgrew its capacity. We eventually settled for the brand new Theta CS HS. A printer processor with cutter and sorter and an output speed that is up to 10 times faster than our old machine. And the quality is fantastic. The Theta now handles all the digital files that we receive whilst our four Fuji Frontiers handle the D&P side of the business. We now also have three Durst Print Terminals, which are fully integrated into our network and a Durst Sigma Plus Scanner.
“We can see further increases in automation, with more computerisation and even faster print speeds. We also provide value added products such as our very popular wrap-mounted prints and the recently introduced exclusive Perspective acrylic mounted prints. However, we believe that there will always be a place for high quality photographic images and for this reason we will continue to strive to be a leader in both the professional and mail order sides of the business.”
Taking charge
Another excellent machine for the digital photography market is the HP Designjet Z2100, an eight ink printing system with an embedded spectrophotometer to ensure accurate and consistent colours through the generation of fast, automatic ICC profiles.
According to HP this machine lets users create beautiful, large format colour and black and white exhibition prints and portfolios: but what happens when it is really put to the test?
Professional photographer Karel Noppé studied fine art photography in Barcelona and in 2000 set up shop as kn fotografia in Blanes, a laid-back tourist town on the picturesque Costa Bravo.
Although there’s no shortage of wedding and portrait work in the area, he has diversified his services to include advertising and commercial photography and has also mounted several exhibitions of his own fine art work.
Products that Karel typically delivers following a wedding include a complete photo album (digital or traditional-style, depending on individual tastes), poster-size enlargements framed (for display in the newly weds’ home), loose individual prints (many sold to guests who attended the wedding), and sometimes two smaller versions of the album for the couple’s parents. Prior to the big day he often creates the actual invitations, incorporating his own graphic designs and photography.
During the first three-years business all kn fotografia’s large-format digital print production was outsourced to photo labs in the nearby city of Girona. However, in 2006 he became one of the first people to test the HP Designjet Z2100 Photo Printer; HP’s new large format printer with eight HP Vivero pigment inks (including three blacks) and a revolutionary embedded spectrophotometer that automates media profiling.
Karol conducted a three-month trial and described the results: “Now I’m making my own prints with fabulous quality in both colour and in black and white. My clients are taken aback by how stunning the prints are and the clarity of detail. And when they hear that the colours will last over 200-years they are very appreciative.”
Karol obtains accurate and consistent colours on his choice of papers. For printing enlargements of wedding photographs, including panorama group shots, he has a penchant for HP HahnemUhle Textured Fine Art Paper. Karol said: “This paper doesn’t have a shine on it and in addition I mount and frame the prints without glass so they look good on people’s living-room walls and don’t reflect the lights.”
For digital albums he uses another paper (HP Premium Instant-dry Gloss Photo Paper), laminating the prints and then pairing them off back-to-back with a double-sided adhesive film. For loose, individual photographs he prints on various HP and other commercially available photo papers. Karol explained: “Now colour profiling is a no-brainer because the printer does it for me. Within a complete set of wedding prints (digital album, framed enlargements and loose photographs) the colours all match, even when I’ve used three papers, each with very different properties. Before, it would have taken me hours to get that far.”
The only limitation that Karol found with the trial printer was its maximum width. The HP Designjet Z2 comes in two sizes and it was the smaller, 24in model, that he was using. Since some of his clients request panorama enlargements 1m high, he decided he would invest instead in the larger 44in model.
Karol concluded: “The larger width will be useful for my next exhibition which will take the form of one long print continuing around all four walls of the gallery, interrupted only at the entrance. This continuous print will merge photographs of children between 11-months and eight-years old.”
Karol has already mounted eight exhibitions of his own fine-art photography, not for the purpose of selling his work but to gain wider recognition for himself and his business. This will be another chance to show what he and his HP Z2100 can really do.
And finally
It isn’t just wedding photographers who need to make changes to pictures: everyone does, and that part of the process is becoming easier. The real art is now in the printing and the fact that we have the right technology just
makes the job easier. The images which we work with on a daily basis deserve the best technology and we are lucky that we have such a fantastic range to choose from.
