Dry mounting, pre-cut matts, workflow questions.

[Ian Grant]

Do you use the exact same printing dimensions every time?

Many people do particularly for exhibitions etc, the only variation being if images are shot with different format camera. It make matting much easier and gives a more consistent feel to a finished body of work.

This also brings up the question of whether you print full frame or crop which is another topic.

Ian

[PKM-25]

Good stuff, keep it coming!

[fdi]

A great reference book is "The Mounting and Laminating Handbook" by Chris Paschke. She is a well recognized expert and consulting on artwork mounting for the custom framing industry and has been consulted by manufacturers of mounting and equipment supplies. You can purchase the book on her website here:

http://www.designsinkart.com/book.htm

Cheers,
Mark

[ROL]

Waaayy too much work for me. That's why I use pre-cut overmats sized to float the print in the window. I don't have to measure anything. I don't have to cut any mat board. Well worth the money to have them cut for me.

Good for you, nothing wrong with overmatting. Glad to hear you can afford to have others do the work for you – many cannot. Why even bother to make photographs at all? It seems it would be easiest for you to invest fully in the work of others, print, mat, and frame.

Some prefer to offer fully artist derived works for reasons other than ease of production.

[artonpaper]

My several cents, serious collectors prefer unmounted prints. Having said that, I've noticed George Tice still dry mounts his gelatin silver prints. I used to mount and float the trimmed print in a 4-ply matte. Now I don't mount, and cut the window to the image size, leaving the white borders intact and under the matte. I came to this conclusion after attending a talk about archival consideration years ago. My work with the Estate of Andre Kertesz has confirmed this. For you it may be an esthetic consideration, but practically, prints tend to yellow form the edges over time. Trimming the edges means the yellowing will start in the image area. In the end, however, I say do what you like, just be sure to consider your choices carefully (as apparently you are doing).

Also I want to reiterate what Vaughn said, I've never had tissue bleed around the edges.

One more thing. In putting squares in vertical mattes. there's an interesting formula for that. Here is a jpeg of the procedure that was given to me a while back. I'd be glad to explain it if anyone is interested.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16205118/dougs_spec%27s200.jpg

[PKM-25]

So what is your particular workflow going from a curly fiber print to storage for sale?

My several cents, serious collectors prefer unmounted prints. Having said that, I've noticed George Tice still dry mounts his gelatin silver prints. I used to mount and float the trimmed print in a 4-ply matte. Now I don't mount, and cut the window to the image size, leaving the white borders intact and under the matte. I came to this conclusion after attending a talk about archival consideration years ago. My work with the Estate of Andre Kertesz has confirmed this. For you it may be an esthetic consideration, but practically, prints tend to yellow form the edges over time. Trimming the edges means the yellowing will start in the image area. In the end, however, I say do what you like, just be sure to consider your choices carefully (as apparently you are doing).

Also I want to reiterate what Vaughn said, I've never had tissue bleed around the edges.

One more thing. In putting squares in vertical mattes. there's an interesting formula for that. Here is a jpeg of the procedure that was given to me a while back. I'd be glad to explain it if anyone is interested.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16205118/dougs_spec%27s200.jpg

[fdi]

Good for you, nothing wrong with overmatting. Glad to hear you can afford to have others do the work for you – many cannot.

Most online DIY frame supply companies (including mine) give very steep discounts at qty 10-25 for precut mat board. Even if you are buying uncut mat board locally without paying shipping the cost difference is not that great. If you factor in the cost of your time you may find it costs you more money to cut it yourself. Of course if every print you make is a different custom size and you cant take advantage of qty discounts on precut then yes it makes sense to buy the sheets where you can get the qty discount. Best price point on full sheets will be box qty which is normally 25 for 4-ply and 12 for 8-ply.

Cheers,
Mark

[artonpaper]

If a print is really curly, say like Ilford Multigrade, I put it under weight, like art books, for days. I may even spritz them on the back with a bit of water to dampen them prior to that. If you weight them early on they usually flatten enough so that they behave under a matte. Adox and Bergger, the papers I'm using currently, seem less inclined to curl. The thinking regarding mattes v mounting, is, if a matte gets soiled or damaged, it can be easily replaced. Not if a mount suffers some damage. I think choosing a good paper, keeping wash temps reasonable and wet time short, and using whatever means you have to flatten your prints soon after processing should do the trick. Ages ago, there was a lab in NYC, I think it was called Scope, and they were custom B&W printers. Their prints were flat as a board. They did all of the above, and they said, they used Ilford Galleria, a graded paper. That's when a little light went on, and I realized some papers behave better that others.