“No Man is an Island.”
Posted by Rick Sader on October 27, 2010 at 1:17 pmBeing in business FOR yourself doesn’t mean being in business BY yourself. A recent wall mural project was yet another example of why this is so true.
I was recently contacted by a local architectural firm to produce a wall mural. Over the years, I would occasionally stop in to this firm’s office to give them various print samples used for window graphics, non-slip floor graphics, wall murals, etc. So one day, when one of their clients asked about getting a big wall mural, they thought of Lone Eagle. Nice! So the local architects were my first partner.
Typically, a new mural job involves working with the client to determine what kind of image they have in mind for their space. Then it’s time to hunt down the right stock photography, or hire a photographer, or design the proper vector graphics, or some combination of those. In this case, the client had already picked out the image they wanted from the stock of a local photographer. Luckily, he had shot it using 6×7 medium format film. Whew! So, now I had identified my second partner in this job.
The next step was to get the photographer’s med-format film into the hands of a high-end professional with a drum scanner. In this case, the film was scanned at 11,000 ppi, using the proper bit depth and color mode which then gave me a beautiful digital file to work with. So now my third partner successfully completed his portion of this job.
Now it was my turn. The 10’ x 25’ wall mural was printed in seven ten-foot long strips at 720dpi, 16-pass using a Roland 545ex eco-SOL printer. The media used was Dreamscape’s vinyl wall mural media. The client picked out the “Mystical” texture – good choice. After printing & drying overnight, each panel received two coats of Dreamscape’s Protex3 satin-finish liquid laminate. This gives the prints a beautiful surface finish as well as protection from water, dirt, pollution, smudging, fade, etc. So I guess you could say that my media supplier was my fourth partner since I’ve asked them lots of questions over the years and buy lots of my supplies from them.
My fifth and final partner in this job was the installer. It’s easy to image everything going well up to this point but then turning out terrible if the installation wasn’t right. My partner here was a local wallpaper hanger and he did an outstanding job. Man, this guy knows his stuff. I inspected the mural when he was done & I was impressed that the seams were so smooth and the image lined up so well. Partner #5 rocks!
Here’s a photo of the end result. When the client gets some time, they’ll build a hardwood border around the perimeter to frame it in. When I get some time, I’ll forward the link to this blog post to all of my partners and say “thanks” for a job well done – by ALL of us.
Fine art reproduction is easy… if you know how.
Posted by Rick Sader on April 13, 2009 at 8:14 pmHmm, let’s see. So you just scan someone’s painting and then print it out… is that about it? Well, not quite. There are a number of ‘tricks’ to getting great results efficiently. Let’s go through the process from the beginning.
Fine art reproduction requires a number of steps to be done properly. The first step is the scan. High resolution flatbed scanning is one way to digitize original artwork. The first ‘trick’ is to use high enough resolution so that you’re feeding enough information to Photoshop in the retouching stage and ultimately to the printer in the printing stage. Typically, scans at 300 – 360ppi (pixels per inch) at the full dimensions should suffice. Higher resolution will be required if the artist would like prints larger than the original. The second ‘trick’ is to use the RGB color mode. If you use any other color mode, then the printer will make a conversion that may introduce color shifts. The third ‘trick’, if you’re really meticulous, is to use 16bit color instead of 8bit. This will give very fine gradations in color that may be required for some pieces. The downside is that this results in 2x larger digital file sizes.
The fourth ‘trick’ is to include a grayscale taget within the margin of the scan. This is a small 12-step grayscale piece that allows you to adjust the white point, black point, and neutral gray once you move the image into Photoshop. This step is critical.
Once in Photoshop, the “levels” command makes the white, black,and grayscale adjustments a breeze. As with any fine tuning done to the image, make sure to use adjustment layers. This allows you to tweak the adjustment, change its blending mode and opacity, or delete it without altering the original file…. very handy. These adjustment layers may include things like saturation, hue, levels, curves, etc. If you’re looking at your image on a calibrated monitor (you are calibrating your monitor, aren’t you?) then these adjustments will help you to tweak the digital file so that ultimately the print looks like what you see on your monitor.
ICC profiles for your printer, ink, media, & print resolution are also required to get great results. You may be able to download generic profiles but the best option for high-quality fine art reproduction is to create your own. There are a number of hardware/software systems available. A final step in the retouching process is usually adding a small amount of sharpening. Don’t overdo it.
Now it’s time to print a proof. Usually a small print on the intended media will suffice. This will allow you to check the tone, color accuracy, color saturation, etc. At this point, it’s important to compare your proof to the original under proper lighting. A sneaky, sinister thing called metamerism is lurking in the darkness, waiting to trip you up. Metamerism refers to the fact that a color may look different under different types of lighting. The original and the proof may ‘match’ under the (ugh) flourescent lights in your office but they may be way off under natural sunlight or in the gallery. If you don’t have a 5000K light booth, then just take your prints outside in the natural daylight. At this point, you may need to adjust the saturation, tone, etc. to get a better match.
I recently completed a very successful fine art reproduction job for a local watercolor painter, Dr. William Robinson. Bill is a very talented, self-taught portrait artist. His most recent work was a very cute portrait of his granddaugher, Miranda. All of the steps outlined above were followed in order to translate his original watercolor painting into a digital file that could be printed quickly and accurately onto Epson Somerset Velvet Fine Art Paper using an Epson 9600 inkjet printer. This printer uses the Epson 7-color UltraChrome inkset which will resist fading for many decades. Various sizes were printed according to the client’s wishes. See Bill’s website for more examples of his beautiful work.