Wide Format Imaging

When finishing digital prints of fine art and photography, correct techniques and materials are essential. They can mean the difference between a work of art that looks great for decades, and one as ephemeral as a sand castle sculpted along a shoreline.

Fine artists and photographers moving into the wide-format market assuredly want to achieve the former result, not the latter. And in that effort, many would be well advised to seek the advice and insight of professionals specializing in limited editions.

Common Mistakes According to R. Mac Holbert, operations manager and co-founder of Manhattan Beach, CA-based Nash Editions, generally recognized as the world's first digital print-making facility focusing solely on photography, many finishing mistakes are committed.

One of the most prevalent is trying to use laminates on inappropriate paper types. Attempting to place a plastic lamination on the surface of a matt paper usually meets with abject failure, Holbert says. Failing to mount digital prints, especially in wide-format, is another commonly-seen blunder. If a 30-by-40-inch print is placed in a matt and frame, the result is frequently rippling or drooping. And this is not just a problem with digital prints, but with traditional chromogenic prints as well.

"It's not a matter of the technology used, but the size," Holbert comments.

Another error he sees with regularity is surface mounting prints onto Plexiglas. This violates most of the curatorial guidelines in the proper handling of fine art, because the result is a permanent piece that can only exist as a surface print. By contrast, with a proper curatorial approach to framing, prints can be around for a century or more.