Spray coating for prints

Having had up several B&W prints in my house while I got them ready for exhibition I noticed the following differences between the inkjet and lighjet prints. The B&W from the Canon 8000ipf is far superior to the lightjet B&W on colour paper.

On the other hand I found myself liking the chemical prints far more. It took a while to work out why but I think now I know. The inkjet prints have the 'print' sitting on top of the paper, the chemical prints have the picture within the paper seemingly.

Why should this make a difference? The idea of almost everything we try to achieve in photography is to give a 2D image the impression of being 3D. To this end we use the composition, lighting, focal length choice, DOF, etc, etc. To my mind the impression is extremely hampered by the look of the ink on the surface. It looks extremely 2D when you can see it lying along a flat plane in a way that having the picture below the surface as in a chemical print does not.

Seems to me that the problem would be solved by having a coating applied to the inkjet print so that it too lies beneath a surface. I know there are some people who are applying a spray coating to their inkjet prints for exactly this reason, does anyone here do it, have anything to suggest. etc?

Hi Ben,
I've tried a number of different coatings on my prints and can give you some feedback. First let me tell you the reason I wanted the coatings is to enhance/deepen the blacks and or colors. If you are getting a 'print' sitting on top of the paper look there may be somethings you can do in the print method to avoid this and perhaps your profiles are not mapping the white and black points properly. I've seen some posts on the luminous landscape forum regarding the canon printers and this.

Now, I often use coatings on my prints. I have tried printshield, lumijet coatings, clearstar coatings all of which are spray coatings. They all work and my preference has been the lumijet because its easier to apply an even coat as the spay comes out in more of a mist than a heavy spray. All these coatings will 'flatten' any bronzing and richen the blacks and colors. Coatings will change the look of the surface however. If you started with glossy then you might have more of a luster. They do make glossy sprays but you have to be very careful not to get runs with these. All sprays need to be used in an area with good ventilation that is dust free for obvious reasons - most are not healthy.

Too other types of coatings that I have tried - museum wax. Museum wax is a thin wax that can be rubbed onto a lot of different things. I doubt it was made with prints in mind, however I have found that a thin coat of this wax lightly rubbed onto the print and then burnished to take off any excess can work really well. This does not work as well with prints on paper with a lot of tooth such as canvas or some of the watercolor and photorags available, however is brilliant with glossy, semi gloss and luster.

The second coating that I have used is a liquid coating from Breathing Color. These are water based and you can wipe them on with a sponge brush or bristle brush with great results - the coating lays down and smoothes out before it dries and is water based so doesn't have too much smell and can be done indoors, unlike the spray coatings.

A long time ago in internet time - the rage was to use a wood finish product called Hydrocote - I never tried it but a lot of photogs swore by it. However this was a pretty nasty chemical coating that required a clean space to apply it that was well ventilated.

With all of the above except the wax, multiple coats will increase the effect. I used to do 3 coats of spray and hope like h*ll that I did not get any dust floating onto my prints before the spray dried.

Now I only use the Breathing color coatings (which come in 3 or 4 finish types) or the wax.
When I get ready for a gallery show, I put a lot of work into the prints but if you want to know the truth once these prints are behind the glass in the frame not of this stuff really shows. Heck, you can't even really tell what kind of paper is used.

Bottom line is you will need to experiment.

Thanks Eric, this is very interesting. I used Hydrocote about ten years ago and while it works, it cracks, flakes and yellows with age (over 5 years) especially if the prints are not in a frame. In a frame they just yellow.
I also used Rejex which is a low friction car wax that is easy to wipe on and off. It waterproofs the print and lasts a few months in the open air, much longer under glass.
Breathing Color sounds interesting. If it's water based, how does it react when water gets on the print? I'm looking for a permanent solution so that when I sell a print it stays waterproof for a long time.

I should add that I'd appreciate any input here.

Nazdar (formerly Lyson) supply a product named Printguard, via their UK distributor Marrutt. Its a polymer resin product which works effectively on most media.

Also, it may be worthwhile scannning through their various material safety datasheets.

Steve Saunders said:

I'm looking for a permanent solution so that when I sell a print it stays waterproof for a long time.

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Depending on the needed level of "waterproof"ness and further display, wouldn't lamination be a better solution?

Bart

John_Nevill said:

Nazdar (formerly Lyson) supply a product named Printguard, via their UK distributor Marrutt. Its a polymer resin product which works effectively on most media.

Also, it may be worthwhile scannning through their various material safety datasheets.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know how long it lasts? Does it have the same colour shift problems as mentioned above? Lamination sounds like an interesting idea if it doesn't create too many reflections by adding yet another layer of film in between the print and your eye. It would have to be acid free/archival as well of course.

Hi, Ben,

Seems to me that the problem would be solved by having a coating applied to the inkjet print so that it too lies beneath a surface.

Click to expand...

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 (and its brethren) will do that on the fly as they print (from a separate tank).