What rigid print media is best for a photographic exhibition?

Question

I have the opportunity to exhibit some of my photos at a local gallery. Having always printed on photo paper I'm now unsure about which media to choose: acrylic, aluminum or canvas?

The photos should be 30 x 20 cm and must be on a rigid support. There will be about a dozen, with landscapes, portraits and macro in both color and b/w with some HDR. Unfortunately I've never seen the formats listed above except on specialized sites.

Can you tell me which of these is the best for color rendering and brightness? The room assigned to me was the only lights on the ceiling except a wall with spotlights.

Any links to photo printing on acrylic or aluminum would also help.

Answer 1

You forgot to list printing on paper with inkjet or printing with photographic process, and then, what photo paper to use!

My work doesn't work well on canvas. To me, canvas gives a soft feel and that's not what I want for much of my work. This is also true for a lot of inkjets on matte paper.

Printing on photo paper (especially the Kodak metallic Endura paper) gives a vibrant sharp feel. The same is true for printing on aluminum and based on the few acrylics I've seen, true there also.

So, how do you decide? You TEST. Print out some small samples from your lab, use the same shot for each, and see what fits your work best.

Answer 2

Have you considered using photo plotters to print your photos on standard photo paper? A good pigment based photo plotter will do a nice job and can print to papers you are more familiar with. They can then be wet or dry mounted to foam core for gallery display.

Unless you are planning to sell pieces, it probably isn't worth the cost of doing acrylic or metal and may very well not be worth the cost of canvas. Additionally, you may actually get a better overall result with photo papers and foam core mounting.

I would recommend a luster or photo matte finish over a glossy finish as you don't want reflections to be an issue in the gallery (which is more likely if you use something like a glossy photo paper.)

Personally, I think Canon Pro Luster works great, though there are also some very nice art papers available that you can get for a little bit more that may get slightly better results. Any photo paper will likely have better color reproduction than canvas. Canvas is more about the texture and feel than actual print quality.

Answer 3

For pro-looking results, do not use foam board. Use a good exhibition mount board. I use this for both club and personal displays.