Photography News Issue 35

Photography News | Issue 35 | absolutephoto.com

42 First tests

Ilford Galerie Prestige papers From£23

Ilford’s connection with photography goes back over a century and its current range boasts an extensive collection of inkjet papers to suit all tastes. Our selection comprises three popular finishes, gloss, smooth matt and a textured finish chosen from the 18 finishes currently available in the Galerie Prestige collection. It is a trio of distinct finishes that cater for a diverse range of tastes. For the test, we printed a selection of images using an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer with Epson inks, together with generic profiles downloaded from the support section of the Ilford website.

Printer settings recommended by Ilford on the support page were also used. As usual, bespoke profiling and testing with your own printer will help you obtain the best possible results. Prints, having been allowed a few hours to dry fully, were examined in daylight and with a Color Confidence Grafilite natural light viewing lamp.

ilford.com

Ilford Galerie Prestige Gold Fibre Gloss 310gsm

Ilford Galerie Prestige Cotton Artist Textured 310gsm

Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Cotton Rag 310gsm

Weight

310gsm

Opacity

>98%

Media type

Media type 100% cotton rag Availability

Baryta

Availability A4, letter 21.6x27.9cm, A3+, A2, 43.2x55.9cm, roll sizes: 43.2cmx12m, 61cmx12m, 111.8cmx12m, 127cmx12m Prices

A4, letter 21.6x27.9cm, A3+, A2, 43.2x55.9cm, roll sizes: 43.2cmx12m, 61cmx12m, 111.8cmx12m, 127cmx12m Prices

A4, letter 21.6x27.9cm, A3+, A2, 43.2x55.9cm roll sizes: 43.2cmx15m, 61cmx15m, 111.8cmx15m, 127cmx15m Prices

A4 25 sheet pack £24.61, 99p per sheet A3+ 25 sheet pack £63.01, £2.52 per sheet

A4 25 sheet pack £23.95, 96p per sheet A3+ 25 sheet pack £56.56, £2.33 per sheet

A4 25 sheet pack £22.82, 92p per sheet A3+ 25 sheet pack £58.26, £2.33 per sheet

There is much to like about this paper. It delivers excellent results especially with nicely saturated colour scenes that it reproduces accurately without any impact loss. As I mentioned, I thought Gold Fibre Gloss was better with colour images than mono ones but maybe that is an indication of how good it is with colours as opposed to the material being less able with monochrome shots. Definitely worth using whether or not you like your colours bright and rich. Overall A generally impressive baryta paper with a luxurious finish Pros Excellent colour saturation with plenty of punch Cons Marginally less good in a relative sense with mono images This paper is a recent arrival in the range and will undoubtedly appeal to those who want their prints to have a smooth, relatively delicate sheen rather than a strident gloss. The finish of this inkjet material is equivalent to the look of air-dried fibre-based papers in the wet darkroom. Its 310gsm base means this paper has a lovely heft to it too and it lies completely flat corner to corner out of the box so head strike is not going to be an issue. The base is also gently warm. As with any gloss-type finish paper, handle it by the edges only to avoid leaving any finger grease on the surface. My test pictures turned out very well on this paper. I thought it did really well with richly saturated colour images, which I reckoned looked better than the black & white images. The mono prints were very good, but the colour shots had an extra zing that made them leap off the paper. Saturated images came out very well but more delicate shots worked well too. That said, in both cases contrast levels were high, whites stayed white and didn’t drift into pale grey and blacks had plenty of depth. Tonal gradation was good too. Verdict

I’ll confess that I prefer smooth finishes generally, but I was impressed with Cotton Artist Textured and I’d certainly be happy to use it when the image suits. I think this is because the material produces crisp images with plenty of snap which I personally prefer, but of course this is a subjective view. It works really well for black & white images too – the depth of black is lovely. All in all, I’d be happy to recommend Cotton Artist Textured. It’s a fine, very capable material. Overall If you want a quality textured paper, you’ve got to try this Pros Impressive contrast and colour saturation, lovely feel Cons The contrast and saturation levels might be too much This is the most obviously textured of our trio and that’s evident even from the front if there’s any side-lighting. Obviously it depends on your tastes but images featuring expanses of even mid-tones might not suit this paper because the watercolour texture is even more evident. I tried a variety of shots including a couple of graphic scenics and they worked nicely. In terms of print quality, no complaints at all. Actually laying out our test prints from the three surfaces shows excellent consistency in the way colours, contrast and tonal gradations are reproduced. Put another way, there’s a ‘family’ look to the images despite them being on different surfaces. Textured surfaces can result in images that lack impact particularly in terms of contrast, but that is certainly not the case with this material. Direct comparison with the surfaces tested here reveals that the purity of highlights, the depth of blacks and saturation were on a par with the gloss finish. I thought that was very impressive. It does mean, of course, if you want a more delicate look to your images, you might want to try another surface in the Galerie Prestige range. Verdict

Straight out of the box, the A3+ sheets I used were completely flat so head strike was not going to be a problem. Its finish is well described by its name, it is a flat smooth paper without tooth and it has a faint rustle when you run finger over the surface. It has the same weight as its the two other papers featured in this test so feels very good in the hand and rates highly in the haptic factor – you can’t help but be impressed with the feel of the final print. When it comes to image quality, Smooth Cotton Rag delivers from the very top drawer. I outputted a range of images on it, from urban scenes and landscapes to portraits and wedding pictures, and I didn’t reject any of them in terms of overall look. In fact, the wedding the shots I printed looked so good – colour and monochromes – I mounted and gave them to the happy couple as presents. The paper just seemed to deliver a great look regardless of content and that seems a very positive sign to me. The prints didn’t jar but delivered what was on screen with satisfyingly high levels of contrast, saturation and smooth tones.

Verdict

I liked this paper – a lot. It is very user- and picture-friendly and while it is true I only used the best part of a 25-sheet A3+ pack for this review, I didn’t get any reject prints at all in respect of colour or mono reproduction. Smooth Cotton Rag seemed not just tolerant of a wide variety of content, but it seemed to add an extra intangible something to the result that was very pleasing. I can highly recommended this paper if you want a matt finish that is a great all-rounder and will suit many different subjects.

Overall A lovely matt finish paper with a touch of class Pros Smooth matt finish, high haptic values Cons Nothing to fault