It's New, but Is It Better?

"We have things to sell," the retail clerk says in demonstration of the sanctity of his store, "They're new. They're ORANGE." This line from the movie Josie and the Pussycats nearly perfectly describes the trend in digital printing right now. Orange is the new pink, after all. And in our case, K3 is the new Ultrachrome.

Now, why would we offer a product that is nothing but a passing fad? Have we resigned to peddling all of the latest digital printing trends and pandering to the love of "the new"? Well, no. There are countless printers, inks and papers out there that we could be offering, but aren't. Not to mention the endless combinations of profiles, rendering intents, media settings, etc. that could easily engulf the rest of our air-breathing days if we allowed them to. And yet, as you see from our ever growing order forms, we do offer quite a few.

So, what separates the fad from the fabulous? Sometimes it's a better black. Sometimes it's cleaner color. We usually buy/acquire the new paper/profile/printer, do 15 test prints or so, then compare it to what we currently offer and see how we respond to it. If it doesn't cut the mustard for whatever reason, we toss it. This is how we discovered the Hahnemühle profile that we now use to make beautiful prints on Photo Rag with the original Ultrachrome inks. It's also how we discovered how to get cleaner color, better blacks, and more brilliant prints than we thought possible on Fuji Crystal Archive papers. One thing we've learned, though, is just because it's new, doesn't mean that it's good.

For example, we recently heard very good things about Pictorico Professional Photo Gallery Hi-Gloss White film. The claim was that this media allowed you to accomplish a super-glossy look from an inkjet printer. Because the gloss look on Epson printers has been thwarted by visually displeasing bronzing we were excited to see what could be accomplished with the Hi-Gloss White film. So, we hunkered down, profiled the paper, and made some test prints. What did we see? Well, the paper rendered the image fine -- no strange color casts or odd densities -- but it wasn't any more glossy than Epson's Premium Glossy Photo Paper. In fact, there was more bronzing on the Hi-Gloss White film! The new K3 inks have definitely helped Premium Glossy overcome some of the problems it had with the original Ultrachrome inks, and as a result it is a better gloss option than the Hi-Gloss White film. So we decided not to offer the Pictorico.

While this procedure is well and good for a studio that is trying to serve its clients, it is much more difficult to enact for an individual artist. The endless options with all of their slight differences and personalities become tiring to look at, not to mention expensive to produce. Once you start chasing a paper, printer or profile, there's really no telling how deep the rabbit hole goes. The size of our staff gives us a greater ability to chase down these options but they are hard won rewards. For the individual photographer this process can easily snowball, usurping the creative energy that is so needed to continue to do what you love to do.

It's very easy to feel like you NEED to try the new thing. Every new paper/printer/profile has a certain amount of hype around it, and not heeding to that hype can make you feel out of touch and irrelevant. It is our goal to keep you well informed thus bolstering your confidence to make whatever creative choices you want to make. By committing ourselves to "taste testing" the papers we offer, we hope to offer you a road map that will help you decide where you want to go.

So here's my advice: if you like your current printing options, stick with them. When new things come out, order a sample. Don't be afraid to try new things, but don't be forced, either. Your artistic integrity has little to do with the paper you choose and much more to do with the visual stories you tell.