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Creating a masterpiece
Photographer, Tim Flach, is a great fan of Epson equipment. Renowned for his stylized animal portraits, Tim has produced a book, Equus, in an exclusive collectors carbro edition featuring a fine leather case designed and made by Asprey.
To highlight the book, Tim teamed up with Epson to produce a large, 60in print of one of his images included in the book. The print was mounted on aluminium and hung in Asprey's New Bond Street store in April. Tim said: "While the print is not viewed close up, it is still important that the fine detail of the Horse Mountain image is visible. Epson's Stylus Pro 11880 has given me the quality and detail I demand. I also used Epson's printer, the Stylus Pro 7900, because of its astonishingly accurate colour reproduction, to output the proof prints for the carbro edition."
The latest additions to Epson large format range are the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900. These models incorporate a new printer mechanism, said to deliver perfectly spherical dots with high precision dot placement at 2880dpi. This makes them ideal for high quality fine art and photographic applications.
The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and Stylus Pro 9900 also utilise a new fifth generation pigment ink, which is key to the quality of print output. Epson UltraChrome high dynamic range (HDR) ink is an 11-colour ink set consisting of Pk, Mk, Lk, LLK, C, VM, Y, Lc, VLm, Or and Gr. This expands on Epson's UltraChrome K3 with vivid magenta by adding orange and green inks, increasing the range of colours that can be achieved, especially bright green to yellow and yellow to red.
Senior product manager for Epson, Martin Johns, said: "Artists and photographers require high reproduction standards and these sectors set the bar for quality and durability. Epson has always been active in the photographic and fine art markets.
"It's a combination of the quality and accuracy of Epson large format printers that produces stunning results. With the latest UltraChrome HDR inks you can produce everything from subtle grayscales to the vibrant colours and gradients of airbrush fine art. By working with, and learning from, photographers, artists and museums around the world, Epson constantly pushes the boundaries of imaging technology, which benefits everyone."
It all adds up
As we'll as the obvious benefits to be gained from top quality reproductions, large format print offers a fantastic added-revenue stream to photographers and artists. LFP product manager, Canon UK, Shane Burchett, said: "We have seen a significant increase in interest for LFPs from photography studios as a way of cutting print outsourcing costs, while adding new solutions which add value to a business. Our customers can see the potential added revenue they could achieve from printing their own images and realised that it is more cost-effective to bring this work in-house.
"With the current economic climate still proving challenging, it is important for businesses to streamline their practices. Bringing large format printing in-house is one way of doing this."
One photographer reaping the benefits is David Boni, a photographer and commercials director who set up The Picture House UK photographic studio in Scotland and recently set up an on-line venture to unite eight of Scotland's best photographers. David has also won a pitch against five competitors to shoot the first limited edition Scottish Widows calendar with images shot on location in Sutherland and Caithness.
Seeking digital resolution
Until recently, David was using only film, but when market pressures meant he was often shooting digitally, he opted for the top of the range Canon Digital SLR.
He explained: "At first I felt like a fraud, but now I am enjoying the creative advantages. You can shoot on the fly, which captures moments you would have missed before and there are shots I simply wouldn't have been able to achieve physically. The Scottish Widows picture ‘The Knee' would have been impossible without scaffolding and a safety harness, but with this camera I can just lean out and shoot with one hand."
Although David was thrilled with his Canon digital camera he was hesitant when it came to digitally printing his work. "Some of my contemporaries were using non Canon printers but I wasn't impressed with the results. They looked flat and dull, with too much black with a digital feel to them, rather than photographic. I wanted to sell my own prints from my web shop, but didn't want to compromise on quality, so I bought Canon's A2+ 12 colour printer."
"Like many photographers I shoot 16 bit raw images and play around with them. Often when you come to print them you lose the detail, but this printer uses an Adobe PhotoShop print plug in which preserves the smooth tonal graduation and shadow detail."
The plug in converts the 16 bit images to the 10 bit format required by the printer, enhancing quality without the use of a RIP.
David concluded: "The prints were stunning - the output was genuinely photographic. Suddenly I feel like I'm back in the dark room - only with no chemicals and I can work in the light."
Furthermore, the inks are lightfast for 120 years so any print David sells will literally last a lifetime.
And finally
Everyone wants to own a work of art and over the past few years the sophistication of digital technology has allowed this to happen. With more and more artists and photographers going down the digital route it is clear that we can expect to this trend continue with exceptional results.
