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Printing For Profit in Platinum From Digital Negatives - The Concise Guide - Part 6/7

Part 6/7 - Presentation of the fine print.

Spotting and etching.

Spotting is done with just two watercolors, lamp black and burnt sienna (in tubes), mixed together accordingly. Spotting is an art and there is no magic bullet for it. Use a good magnifier. Keep a piece of paper close to test the color on it (I confess that I use the same print I am spotting on, testing the brush along its borders). Mix some brown with a little black. Use a very fine brush, almost dry, you do not want too much pigment make a huge stain on the print. Stay light and 'build-up' the intensity. Basically stay lighter than you think.

I find spotting relaxing but many consider it annoying. Sometimes I serialize the process, I keep all the prints in front of me and starting with the darkest parts I spot all the shadows for example, then all the mid tones and finally the highlights, adding drops of water to the watercolor mix. More difficult is etching with a scalpel the black dots. These come from particles in suspension in the metals. If you have too many, there is something wrong with your mixing technique or with your solutions, try to filter them (also always handle your bottles with care without shaking them).

Keep in mind that you will get some black spots, so better getting used to get rid of them. Use a quality scalpel. Almost every spotting session I change the blade with a new one so buy plenty. Of course you do not want to make a hole in the print, so stay light. Every now and then stop, put a little piece of thin paper on the spot and, with the back of your nail, just stroke gently to push the raised paper fibers down. Use an easy paper such as Crane's, as recommended earlier.

Hand made papers, such as Gampi, have very long fibers, which means that they are very difficult to etch. Some printers use white pigment to cover the spot and then use water colors to bring the now white spot to the correct density. Having tried that with disastrous results, I prefer to etch them out. If you ruin a print, do not throw it away. Keep them for practice, or in the future, you may want to experiment something new. For example right now I am testing a glossy varnish, some time ago I tried toning, hand coloring etc.

Mounting.

Mounting requires first some acid free watercolor paper (45lbs/96gsm) to make the corners. Just get an A4 pad at the local art shop and after cutting some sheets in 1/2" strips fold and cut them to make four simple corners. You will be using acid free tape to stick the corners to the mount board. Here in Europe we have a wonderful acid free tape called PH7 which is self-adhesive and easy to remove with a hair dryer. You do not want to buy the one that you have to wet to become sticky or the very expensive type made of cotton. I cut a 2" piece of tape, then cut it in two strips and apply it over two corners, so with 4" you make the four corners. The mount board is of course a completely personal choice. I use Colormount Museum 100% cotton with an off-white ivory tint, this board matches my prints perfectly.

Should you sell or present your prints mounted and bevel window over matted? Always! Never sell (let alone show to a gallery) a print unmounted. The first reason is because it will look poor and cheap. Second, because you do not know how or where the customer will have it mounted. Third, because the viewer will see the black borders (from the brush strokes) which as already said destroy the dark shadows in the image. I can not believe there are printers who prefer the brushed borders shown - which are parts of the process anyway and not of the actual image - just to show off that the paper is hand coated, hence valuable? I do not see any other reason). Fourth, because you will sign the print itself, but you will also sign and probably number the over mount just below the print, and the verso of the mount will be also signed and possibly have a stamp with pertinent information such as date, title etc. Since we use corners tabbed mounting, the print will be easy to remove from the mount, should this become necessary. The two parts, mount and over mount, will be hinged on one side with the same acid free tape. The mount must not be closed with adhesives or other techniques, so to leave easy access to the print for inspection and removal, should something happen to the mount.

The size of the mount is also important. For transit, presentation, and storage, a print up to 8x10" should be mounted to at least 13x15". This leaves nice borders all around with the advantage of a lower cost (you can make three complete mounts with a full sheet), including a lower postage cost too if you sell mail order.

Personally, if I know that the artwork will be framed and hung, I try to offer it mounted to 16x20" (for an 8x10") because a larger mount greatly enhances the value and aesthetical quality of a print (if I know that a print will be framed I usually print it slightly lighter too). I use a simple Excel spreadsheet to help calculate the borders when mounting. I usually have a PC near my framing area, with both Photoshop and Excel loaded during the mounting session. This way I can quickly check the exact negative (print) size with Photoshop and calculate with Excel the correct borders to cut.

No need to mention, of course, that you will be using a pencil (never inks) to sign and date your prints, as well as the mount. If you want to write more details such as print name and your own details, do not use adhesive stickers on the back of the mount, they will become yellow and detach after a relatively short time and should be avoided. If you do not have a stamp (with alcohol based ink which dries immediately) just use a pencil.

Each print should have its own Certificate of Authenticity. In it you will give details about the materials, medium, date, editioning and any other pertinent information such as guarantee or details about yourself if you want to. Something simple like this maybe:

Luca Paradisi Fine Art Photography in Platinum/Palladium

June 8, 2009

Frank Linn
221 Jane Street
Newton, MA 02461
United States

Title: After Sunset
Negative: 2004
Print: 2009
Edition: No. 11 of 24
Paper: platinum/palladium metals on Cranes Crest natural watercolor acid free paper
Mount: Colormount series 200, museum standards cotton board

Archival prints are guaranteed for life. Reproduction of the images is not permitted.

...followed by your signature, web site etc.

Many photographers I know also attach a separate document with a short resume about themselves, past exhibitions etc. I have also seen others including a short note to explain the process.

When you are finished with mounting, you can finally sign, date and number (if you are editioning) your artwork. Final touches (after a thorough final inspection) are a sheet of acid free paper or some other vellum above the print (under the bevel window) to further protect it, and clear polystyrene to wrap it up for safe transit and the "gift" look. When I ship, I use 3mm MDF sheet boards cut to size to wrap the mounted prints, they work very well even when shipping overseas, and your customers will receive a good impression even before looking at the artwork itself. (Tip: cut 1cm strips of foam core and fit them all around the print. If the package contains more prints or a framed print just cut more strip and stack them). My personal statistics: when mounted to 13x15" the risk of damage, wherever you ship, is almost nil. When mounted to 16x20", I have had some slight damage (bent corners etc.) a few times over several years, so not bad. With dimensions larger than that, I tried once two 24x28" prints and they got damaged badly, so I now stick to smaller prints for on line sales.

Final thought about mounting and presenting: sadly, beautiful prints ruined by a poor presentation, cheap mount board or bad cutting technique are not so rare. I have seen prints corner mounted with cheap plastic tabs and even prints taped directly on the corners with common clear tape. I have also received prints wrapped in used cardboard with washing soap adverts on it. The same care used when photographing and printing should be applied to the final stages of the process too.

Framing.

Covering framing in detail would go beyond the scope of this article, I can, however, offer some advice. First, many artists prefer to leave the framing part to the local framer, thinking it is something of a science, or that they need special equipment. I would advise against that for the same reasons mentioned when mounting. It is not true that you have to invest heavily in materials for framing. I use only two different aluminum frames (dark brown and black in a very simple and minimalist finish). These can be purchased normally pre-cut from framing suppliers (to cut aluminum moldings requires industrial machinery) and minimum quantities are usually quite low. The only thing you have to do is calculate how many meters you need depending on your chosen dimensions, in my case for example these are 13x15" and 16x20".

Aluminum frames such as Nielsen's look good, suit perfectly art prints, and of course are acid free and eternal. Assembling the frame with the supplied hardware takes only a few minutes. To finish the frame I use 5mm foam core for the back panel, and acrylic, which has the advantage of being shatter proof for safe transit and easier to handle and cut than glass (although more expensive and prone to scratches but then again it does not have the horrible greenish tint of glass). An utility knife and a screwdriver are the only tools you need to frame.

If you get a price list from a framing supplier you will notice that the final price of a 16x20" frame is less than you may think (about $5/6 per meter - you need two meters to make a 16x20" frame - plus a sheet of backing board and another of acrylic, so less than $15 for a complete frame) and a good opportunity to make some further profit on the sale of the print, let alone the advantage of doing the job yourself in minutes.

Part 7/7 will discuss selling your work and final words.

About the Author

Luca Paradisi has been an internationally collected artist and fine art printmaker for many years. For more fine art photography inspiration you can visit his web site at www.artblackandwhite.com where he shows his work which includes landscapes, still life, abstracts, and architectural.

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