Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com
Monitor test 42
PermaJet Photo Art Silk 290gsm, Portrait Rag 285gsm &MuseumHeritage 310gsm
PermaJet is well known for its extensive and excellent range of photographic inkjet materials covering all tastes and needs. It’s recently revamped its FB range and now it is the turn of the Fine Art collection. Some surfaces went, others got a makeover and there are five new papers. We take a close look at three new papers, Photo Art Silk 290gsm and Portrait Rag 285gsm in PermaJet’s Smooth Fine Art range and MuseumHeritage 310gsm in the Textured Fine Art collection. Test prints were made using an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 with Epson inks using generic profiles downloaded from PermaJet’s website. PermaJet does offer free customprofiles to customers – all you do is download a file from the website, make a print on the paper you want a profile for and send if off to them. A short while later you will get a custom profile. The Epson printer used has photo black and matt black inks – the three papers tried here are designed for use with matt black ink. My test prints were checked using a daylight-balanced light source. A range of images were used – several images are staples of my paper tests so are well known to me – with subject matter from studio still life and portraits to gritty black & white street pictures and HDR shots. Of course, assessing colour reproduction is very much a subjective exercise and there is no substitute for trying the papers out for yourself in your own workflow.
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PhotoArt Silk 290gsm
Specs
Specs Price A4 25 sheets £29.95/£1.18 a sheet, A3 25 sheets £57.95/£2.32 a sheet Availability A4, A3, A3+, A2; 17in, 24in and 44in rolls Weight 290gsm Thickness 0.48mm Base fibre 100% Alpha cellulose Whiteness 103 Coating Single-sided, acid-free smooth silk fine art paper Price A4 25 sheets £28.95/£1.16 a sheet, A3 25 sheets £56.95/£2.28 a sheet Availability A4, A3, A3+, A2; 17in, 24in and 44in rolls Weight 285gsm Thickness 0.51mm Base fibre 100% cotton Whiteness 92 Coating Single-sided, acid-free smooth silk fine art paper Specs Price A4 25 sheets £26.95/£1.08 a sheet, A3 25 sheets £52.95/£2.12 a sheet Availability A4, A3, A3+, A2; 17in, 24in and 44in rolls Weight 310gsm Thickness 0.50mm Base fibre 25% cotton, 75% Alpha cellulose Whiteness 91 Coating Single-sided, acid-free textured fine art paper
This is a smooth-finish paper with a clean white base. Look at the surface obliquely and you barely see any texture. Look again once the image is printed and the ink reveals there is a very delicate texture with a slight sheen. Scratch resistance in day-to-day handling rates highly and it is only when you drag a fingernail across the print that the surface marks. Obviously every care should always be taken to keep fingers off the printed surface but if it does happen by accident, this paper is very tolerant and only very greasy fingers would cause any problem.
My test images look great and Photo Art Silk is receptive to subtle and rich colours giving vibrant, nicely saturated results. Highlight details can look very clean and well defined but the brightest highlights can look very marginallyflat.Blacks,though,have a good depth and if there is detail in the deep shadows these come out nicely. However, personally I found scenes that are predominately low key looked very slightly too heavy when printed on this paper. Images full of midtones and high key shots, though, looked superb and this is a versatile material. dial had been turned down a notch or two, but please bear in mind I was using the generic profile and a custom one is likely to be better. Of course, there is nothing wrong with less strong colours as we all have different tastes and this material is colour realistic while still delivering a good amount of contrast. Black & white shots looked good too and the slight warm base adds a nice touch to the prints. Blacks are deep so not a problem here if gutsy monochromes is your goal, but it is the case that the paper is very good at dealing with the complete mono tonal range. sumptuous. Deep blacks, rich coloursaturationandgoodhandling of more delicate hues show that this material is highly capable and it does suit a wide range of subjects. Initially, I thought it would not suit gritty street pictures but actually the texture doesn’t get in the way and I thought it suited low- key and high-key pictures equally. If anything the texture seems more pronounced with high-key shots. Black & white pictures had tremendous depth with solid blacks, while highlights were well rendered and stayed white. Midtones were handled well too.
Verdict
This is a quality paper that excels with midtone-rich photographs and high- key images. Pictures laden with deep blacks and heavy shadows look less impressive and prints can look too heavy.
Pros Excellent with high-key and midtone-rich pictures, has a lovely tactile feel Cons Slightly less good with low-key, dark images
Portrait Rag 285gsm The unprinted surface texture of Portrait Rag 285gsm is not dissimilar to that of Photo Art Silk 290gsm. You can see and feel a very fine texture and the base is marginally warm off-white. One difference, though, is that on this paper, there is no sheen where the ink sits so the finish is dead matt. No problems with handling and the printed surface proved resilient to normal handling.
Verdict
Portrait Rag is a quality paper that will suit photographers keen on a less strident colour performance. It is well named because portraiture is certainly one area where out-and-out colour saturation is not always the priority.
Print quality is very good on a range of images but inmy test colour rendition was more understated compared with its two sister papers tested here. It was as if the saturation
Pros Prints have a warm bias that works very well for black & white Cons Colours may appear not saturated enough for some tastes
MuseumHeritage 310gsm
This paper belongs to PermaJet’s Textured Fine Art family so you’d expect it to have a more obvious surface finish and that is apparent soon as you take a sheet out of the box. The paper does have a lovely luxurious feel – to be fair, that is the case with all the papers here, but the extra weight makes it more evident with this material. The paper lies flat straight out of the box and I had no problems with headstrike. Physically the printed paper is good at dealing with handling too. Its heft is matched with a fine performance. Print quality is
Verdict
My personal tastes usually veer towards smooth and FB gloss-type finishes, but I have to say I really liked Museum Heritage 310gm. Its textured finish is not too in your face and I thought this material would suit a wide range of subjects.
Pros Lovely texture, good price, great ‘feel’ Cons Not much, maybe too textured for some scenes
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