articles/Paper/fotospeed-panorama-paper-page3

Paper Chase - Fotospeed Panorama Paper - part 3 of 1 2 3 4

by Mike McNamee Published 10/04/2015

The Audit Data
We huffed and puffed about including this detailed analysis but the measurements apply equally to normal-format paper sizes and so for completeness we have put them in. Overall the Platinum Baryta is the most accurate result, PF Lustre the least accurate. We did slightly better with the previous PF Lustre when we tested it. A clue to the error source lies in the patch plot. Note that the errors are all in the light, pastel shades which suggests that the huge amount of OBAs is affecting things although this does not explain why the PF Gloss is OK. The paper base is too blue for profiling to correct when using small amounts of ink for the lighter shades. We re-ran the analysis of the recent material and obtained a result within about one hundredth of a point. Then we retrieved the legacy material (yes it's sad but we do keep the samples, right back to 2001!) and checked out the measurements. The older material was much less laden with OBAs, delivering four points less on Fluorescence, six points less on Brightness, and three points less on coolness (the Lab b value) all of which would bias the results in favour of the older material. Overall this is no big deal but we do keep as close an eye on things as we can and anomalies drive us crazy!

Monochrome
The monochrome prints highlighted the differences in base tone with the Smooth Cotton, Platinum Etching and Platinum Baryta wearing a distinctly warm tone by comparison. Again this visual effect was a mimic of the measured parameters.

In all instances we used a Dark tone setting but, based on 4% per setting increment, we have indicated the value most likely to deliver a 50% grey accuracy on luminance value at least. We also plotted the grey ramp densities and the colour shift as the tone shifted from no-ink (base paper) to solid black (mainly ink). Everything was well behaved. Note the tones gradually shifting from base white (the paper base tone) to the final inktone which has less variation and is, in fact, closer to neutral.

Real Prints
We made pans of a dusk scene over the Mersey. As you can see this contains very intense blues. There was little to choose between the prints other than the unbrightened papers looking a little creamier and the blues of the brightened papers were a little more intense. Without side-by-side comparisons this might have been difficult to discern. The lighting quality had an influence. Our 5,500°K booth has little UV and did not show the differences as strongly as natural north daylight. The warm, low-energy bulbs under which the composite images were made also highlighted the differences between the brightened and unbrightened papers (see the monchrome tests). Overall the weakness of the blacks in the art papers hardly affected the 'view' of the print at all. In all the comparisons the Smooth Pearl occupied the middle ground, to be expected as its measured parameters were always middle ground also.

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• Paper Chase - Fotospeed Panorama Paper page 3
  
• Paper Chase - Fotospeed Panorama Paper page 4
  

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