As photographers in the digital era, we tend to view our photos on screens, whether it’s on your computer, your tablet or your phone and don’t print them anymore. I, myself, am guilty of this but I am trying to print more work as it is great to touch, feel and look at a printed photograph. When I received an email asking if I would consider a guest post about photographic paper, I was obviously interested! Buying a good printer and doing my own printing is something I’ve been thinking about and this post helps me better understand what goes into choosing paper. So, without any further ado, I give you Joseph. — josh

The world of inkjet printing media has progressed in recent years in line with printer and ink development, allowing photographers to print high quality work using ordinary printers. Printing results often intertwine with choosing the correct type of photographic paper for the job. In this guide to choosing printer photo paper we will talk through your options that are applicable regardless of the photographic paper vendor. 

Structure Of The Paper – There are two common types of base paper that eventually become ‘photo paper’. The budget option known as Normal Base Paper is made on the base of a single sheet of normal printer paper, while the other is made on the base of printer paper pressed between two layers of polyethylene.  Known as PE Base Paper, the latter is more stable and less likely to absorb humidity.  Depending on the precise vendor, Normal Base Paper may allow ink to penetrate pass the coating into the paper, resulting in a cockling effect (wave like patterns on the paper due to ink saturation). On the other hand, PE Coated Base Paper has a barrier in the form of the polyethylene material that helps insure that ink does not penetrate the base. 

When evaluating your options, take a moment to read the description to find out which type of base paper was used.  

Receiving Layer – Both types of base papers are coated with a chemical layer called the Receiving Layer. The quality of the receiving layer is the single most important aspect of ‘quality’ in photo paper. It is the feature that separates mediocre from excellent photographic paper vendors. Common options revolve around Cast Coated and Pore Base receiving layers.  

Cast Coated – Of the two options, cast coated is the cheaper chemical to apply and the one you would often find in budget everyday options. The process involves feeding the paper by way of hot metal rails resulting in the glossy finish. The chemical is effectively carried on the surface of the paper which makes it susceptible to smearing and smuggling. 

Pore Base Coated – Used in professional grade photographic papers, pore based coating is available as Microporous or Nanoporous. While in cast coated paper the ink is absorbed by both the coating and the paper, in pore based coatings, the ink is held within micro or nano pores in the receiving layer chemical. The end result is a type of photo paper with significantly more vibrant colours, better archival properties, instantly dries and is highly stable. 

When evaluating your option, take a close look at the type of receiving layer which is displayed in the paper’s description. Opt for pore base when possible.

Finish Of The Paper – There are really three common options for photo paper, but different vendors use different terminology which makes the job of knowing which is which tricky. These three options are measured on a scale of glossiness or in other words, level of shine. 

Glossy – The most common option is the glossy option which as you have gathered by the name, includes high glare. It is useful in most situations, however viewing the print from certain angles in direct light can prove trickily. For example, images that are to be displayed in galleries will often choose a less shiny finish to improve viewing angle. 

Satin – Different suppliers have their own description for a finish that is satin in all respects. Satin includes a level of gloss, but far less than the glossy option. You will come across satin as ‘semi-gloss’, Pearl and Luster finish though they are all variants of the original satin finish with perhaps a slight difference in texture. 

Matt – The only option with zero glossiness is the matt finish. It makes the paper cheaper to produce resulting in a less expensive option. The lack of any glare is often suitable for printing black and while images, less so when printing full colour images. 

Weight – The last consideration is the weight of the paper measured in GSM.  GSM or grams per square metre – g/m² – is an indication of paper density in m² and despite common belief, it has nothing to do with quality.  GSM is important for the ‘keepsake’ impression effect when you hand the printed photography to someone. Heavier weights, feel heavier to touch and are therefore considered more ‘invested’, though type of base paper and receiving layer will have a far greater impact on quality. Photographic paper weight when printing photos vary from 120gsm used for budget prints like brochure making (when there’s no real ‘keepsake’ value) to 300gsm and even more in the case of fine art papers. 

When evaluating the most suitable weight for your printings needs, take into account the keepsake element and whether your printer can support this weight without jamming. Printers can normally feed up to 280gsm paper easily were heavier weights should be checked against the printer’s manufacturer guidelines.  

Leave your comment below if you have any questions.  

About the guest poster

Joseph is the MD of PhotoPaperDirect.com, a UK brand of paper products from t-shirt transfer paper to commercial Ilford papers. 

This past Monday, I shot a new photo for my NO MUSIC NO LIFE series. This one was a little extra special because the song could have been my favorite.

For this song, I thought I was take my inspiration from the lyrics of the song instead of the title. In the beginning, Freddy Mercury sings: «Mama, just killed a man. Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he’s dead.»

So that’s what we went for. Julien, my main subject and the person who chose this song was the killer. His friend Sam was the victim. We were lucky enough to have the amazing Ketty as make-up artist who put a bullet in Sam’s head to make the shot more realistic. 

I was assisted by another Geneva photographer: Olivier Borgognon. All together, I think we managed to pull off a great photo! I really love working with a team!

Go to my Facebook profile to see a larger version. Also, feel free to follow me there for regular news and updates.

As far as the lighting goes, this was a 4-lights setup:

> my key light was a gridded beauty dish above Julien’s head
> a light in a strip box to slightly light Sam
> a light in a gridded reflector pointing at Julien’s hand holding the gun
> an SB-900 in a gridded reflector to highlight Sam’s face

Here is a diagram to make it easier to visualize.

You can see more of the make-up and lighting setup in the behind the scenes video.

I hope you enjoyed this and wish you a wonderful day!

Cheers,
josh

Welcome to the last post of AFTER DIMITIRI. After, Russia, Mongolia and China, we flew to North America. We spent a couple of days in Vancouver before heading south to Seattle and picking up our rental car. The US of A is the best country for road trips! We drove from Seattle to Boston via LA, Austin, New Orleans, Florida and up the East coast. In 23 days, we drove a little over 11’00 kilometers, crossed 21 states and had an amazing time!

For some unexplainable reason, I didn’t take many photos in the US. I don’t know if it comes from the feeling of being at home or because my gear was packed in the car and I didn’t want to attract attention by unpacking and repacking it, but the fact is most of my US photos were shot with the iPhone.

I actually took a lot of iPhone pictures from the car while driving across the country and I might make a small book from them, I think it’ll be fun to see them all together in a chronological order.

Anyway, here are some of the most memorable memories from this road trip:

• sleeping in the car on a motel parking lot;
• nearly hitting 2 gigantic elks at 5:30am in Oregon;
• the Pacific Ocean;
• Sedona, Arizona;
• Big Sur;
• In-n-Out burgers;
• cross the border to Mexico, have a virgin margarita and queue for over an hour to cross back to the USA;
• being in NOLA when hurricane Isaac hit ground;
• coming out even at Las Vegas, Nevada;
• Washington, DC;
• driving 12-hours to surprise my Grand-Father with a visit and another 12 hours to get back on track;
• driving into NYC for a couple of hours to share a bagel with some friends and getting a ticket for bad parking — most expensive bagel ever;
• seeing license plates from all 50 states;
• the Grand Canyon;
• Red Wood national park;
• having great weather in Seattle, Washington;
• going on set at Warner Bros. thanks to my cousin;
• Savannah, Georgia;
• being forced to pull over due to a hail storm while driving through Texas;
• barbecue in Texas;
• and last but not least: Los Angeles, California.

Without any further ado, here are some photos from the USA and, as usual, if you want to see bigger versions of these photos, head on over to my Facebook profile. And follow me if you aren’t already!

Welcome to part 3 of our epic trip last summer. After Russia and Mongolia, we spent a month in China. I’ll be honest and admit I really had no desire to visit China. I was kind of influenced by the media, etc.

We’ll I’m glad we went. It’s an incredible country, a huge country, so diverse you can actually notice changes in people’s faces in different regions.

It’s also a very frustrating country. They answer “yes” to every single question you might ask, they smile at you while trying to rip you off and buying a train ticket is probably harder and more challenging than running a Fortune 500 company!

Still, it is an amazing place, well worth the visit but do not it is extremely hot and humid in the summer! That was probably the toughest part…

Here are the things I remember most:

• the tuk-tuks;
• feeling helpless;
• the Great Wall, it’s beyond your wildest dreams;
• the GINORMOUS crowds;
• the delicious dim sum;
• the spitting, it’s no legend;
• having the wheels of the train changed to fit the Chinese railway;
• the muslim quarter in Xian;
• the humidity;
• the variety of food;
• the terracotta warriors;
• the men wearing their shirts over their bellies;
• riding a tandem bike on top of the wall at Xian;
• the otherworldly mountains around Yangshuo;
• the Bund in Shanghai;
• the engrish signs, they’re no legend either;
• sitting in a train’s hard seat for 14 straight hours;
• the cuteness of pandas;
• the rice terraces in the Yunnan region;
• bustling Hong Kong;

I could go on forever! Same goes for the photos. I originally wanted to select 10 to 15 but it was impossible! I still managed to bring the selection down to 35 pictures.

As usual, if you want to see bigger versions of these photos, head on over to my Facebook profile. And follow me if you aren’t already!

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was really reluctant to go to China and now, I am really happy I did. I can only recommend you visit this country. I know I’ll be going back to visit parts we did not manage to see this time.

Cheers,
josh

Okay, I’ll admit it, my title is a bit dodgy but hey, gotta come up with something, right? So, after yesterday’s «From Russia with love», today, I take you to Mongolia. 

It’s an incredible country, so big, so empty and yet, so mesmerizing and enthralling. We spent two weeks in two different regions: the Gobi Desert and the Arkhangai Province.

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar by train in the early morning, spent the night there and then took a bus to Mandalgovi, the capital of the Gobi desert region.

Here is what stuck with me from the Gobi desert:

• the heat;
• the dust;
• “everywhere”, the answer to the question: «where’s the bathroom?»;
• the emptiness;
• the lack of variety in the food;
• the feeling of being alone in the world;
• the salty tea;
• playing games with sheep bones;
• walking for hours in the desert;
• the kids;
• the rock formations;
• the tech (solar panels, flat screen TVs, cellphones)

Remember, if you want to see bigger versions of these photos, head on over to my Facebook profile. And follow me if you aren’t already! 

After the dryness of the Gobi desert we went back to Ulaanbaatar for a night before taking a new bus to Tsetserleg, the capital of the Arkhangai province. The province is much greener and the weather a bit colder than in the desert.

The things I remember most from that region are:

• the flies;
• the Mongolian horse saddle — NEVER AGAIN!;
• the dry goat cheese;
• the extremely bumpy bus ride;
• the overcrowded bus;
• the flies;
• the difference in food between the Gobi and the province;
• the sheep, goats, yaks and horses;
• the kindness of the last family we stayed with;
• being woken up at 7am to witness a sheep being killed, skinned and emptied;
• did I mention the flies?

Finally, when we got back from the Arkhangai province, we spent a couple of days in Ulaabaatar. This is what stuck with me:

• it’s much bigger than I imagined;
• it floods fast;
• it’s polluted;
• it’s invaded by French people;
• there are no taxis, just people that pick you up on their way;
• it’s modern;
• the monks humming and chanting.

Mongolia is an amazing and beautiful country. They have such a rich cultural background! I loved it and I hope I will be lucky enough to go back some day.

Tune in on Friday to see part three of the trip!

Cheers,
josh

It will soon be a year, on June 11, that Anka and I took off for the journey of a lifetime. We followed Dimitri’s footsteps. If you don’t know or remember who Dimitri is, please feel free to read about him in this post.

Our journey started in Saint Petersburg, Russia and took us to Moscow, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, lake Baïkal and Ulan Ude. That’s nearly 7’000km on the Transsiberian train line.

I’m not going to go into too many details here as we are preparing something with texts and more photos but here is what struck me in Russia:

• the white nights, incredibly beautiful;
• how hard it is to meet people but how kind and generous they are once they know you;
• borsch: the beetroot soup;
• the drawing of the bridges;
• the heat;
• the language and alphabet;
• buying train tickets on russian only machines;
• the long but fun train rides;
• the monotonous yet very interesting landscapes;
• the quietness and energy around lake Baïkal;
• the size of the country;
• always having to pay for public restrooms;
• the churches;
• the cultural diversity.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from Russia. I don’t want to show too many because, as I have mentioned, we are preparing something.

If you do want to see bigger versions of these photos, head on over to my Facebook profile. And follow me if you aren’t already! 

I hope you enjoyed these!

Cheers,
josh

This past Friday, I was happily going through my RSS feeds when I came upon an article speaking of the ‘Instagram Act’. It obviously caught my eye and intrigued me so I went on and read it.

Since I’ve read about it, I’ve been searching, reading, documenting myself to decide wether I should be afraid or really afraid of it.

What’s the Instagram Act?

The Instagram Act is the name commonly given to the UK’s new Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act. The full text for this act won’t be published until Thursday, May 9 but its copyright provisions worry the artistic community who claim that legislation on orphan works and extended collective licensing will threaten their livelihoods.

Simply put, anybody can, after a diligent search for the author, use an image for commercial purposes without the author’s authorization. Furthermore, they can claim the rights to the image and sub-license to their will. 

I will update this post with the act’s text once it is published.

What does it mean?

It means that if you have an image out there, somewhere, on the internet and that there’s no way to link it back to you (ie. stripped metadata, no watermark, etc.) anybody can use it, make money off of it and there’s nothing you can do about it! I’m a nervous wreck just writing this!

Let’s take a simple and real example: my «Communication Problems» image.

I took this picture a few years ago, during my 365 – 1 photo a day project. Like all the other pictures from the same project, I uploaded it to Flickr. It was uploaded as an “all rights reserved” image but that did not stop literally hundreds of bloggers using it on their blogs. At least, some of them (too little of them) credited me. But credits don’t pay the bills!

Anyway, this same image could be used by a wireless carrier. Their copy could say something like: «Enough of bad coverage and dropped calls?» Well the Instagram Act would allow them to use this image if, after a diligent search — please define diligent search — they can’t link it back to me. The metadata has obviously been stripped and I don’t watermark my images thus making this image an orphan.

What can we do?

Unfortunately, I don’t see many solutions to this enormous problem. I only see two:

1. Watermark your images to death and make them ugly as hell!
2. Stop sharing your photos on the web. No more website, Facebook, Instagram, etc. 

Both solutions are a bit drastic but what else can we do to protect our livelihood?

What do you think?

You’ve probably figured by now that I’m not too happy about this new act and I’m a bit afraid even feel threatened by it.

How about you? Are you worried about your work being used against your will? Are you afraid or do you embrace the possible exposure?

Cheers,
josh

A while back, I posted that I would start accepting guest posts on my blog. I think it’s a nice way to share my space with people who don’t necessarily have a place to speak their mind or tell a story. So here is roughly what I am expecting.

Depending on how this goes, I will publish one guest post per week.

Content

Your post must be on one of four topics:

• photography (business, news, gear, how-to, etc)
• the art world (artists, exhibitions, etc)
• social media (strategy, tips, etc)
• short stories (if you feel inspired by one of my photos and would like to write a short story)

Your post cannot be an advertisement for your product or the equivalent of a sponsored post.

Guidelines

• your post must be original work and not previously published on the web.
• you agree not to publish it anywhere else, including your own blog or website. You may, however, post a brief “tease” or summary on your site that links to the post.
• you may provide up to three byline links: one for your blog or website, one for your bio or About page, and one for your Twitter or Facebook.
• your post should be at least 500 words long.

Editing

• I may, if needed, copyedit your post for grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. If I make substantive changes (which is unlikely), I will email the post back to you for your approval before posting.
• I may provide a short introduction or conclusion to your post to provide context or the rationale as to why I think the post is important. I will make sure that my comments are set off from yours stylistically, so that my readers are clear that these are mine and not yours.

Disclaimer

I understand the work that it takes to write a blog post. However, the fact that you have written a post and submitted it to me does not obligate me to publish it. The only guest posts I will publish are those that in my sole judgment add value to my readers.

Furthermore, if I do not approve your guest post, I will not explain why I did not approve it or provide any detail. Frankly, that would take more time than I can afford.

Submissions

If your post meets the above guidelines:

• Please email it to me for consideration.
• Please include a one to two-sentence byline that includes what you do, along with your blog address and your Twitter and/or Facebook address.
• Please include the size of your readership: number of blog readers, Facebook friends or fans, and Twitter followers.
• Please confirm that you are willing to engage with my readers in the comments about your post.
• Please include the post in the body of the e-mail. DO NOT include it as an attachment. Also, please do not include HTML coding.

If I reject your post, you are obviously free to do whatever you want with it, including publishing it elsewhere.

Now things are up to you!

Cheers,
josh

I’m really excited to present the second image of my new series: No Music No Life. This series mixes photography and behind the scenes videos. I ask my subject what their favorite song is and then, try to represent that song in a single image. I also shoot some behind the scenes footage, including an interview of my subject, and present it to you with the chosen song as background music.

So last Friday, I met up with Christine at the Librairie Jullien in Geneva’s Old Town. Her song is the beautiful french song from the 40s «Les Feuilles Mortes» by Yves Montand. Literally, “les feuilles mortes” are dead leaves (or autumn leaves). But in french a “feuille” is not only a leaf but also a sheet of paper. So instead of going for the obvious, we decided to shoot this in a library with a whole lot (188!) of old letters Christine has kept over the years. These letters — and maybe the books some day — are or might be dead leaves…

Regarding the shoot, I had originally planned for a different location but that fell through at the last minute. So I posted a message on Facebook asking if anyone knew about a cool location. A few minutes later, I had several location possibilities. The same went on when I posted looking for an old school typewriter. After posting a message, I received an SMS from an old neighbor telling me I can borrow hers anytime. I love social media and this sense of community!

I lit the set with 4 lights. My main light was a gridded beauty dish (I’m really liking this modifier!). I had a stripbox below the beauty dish that acted as a fill. It helped me highlight the typewriter and separate it from Christine’s legs. I also had an SB-900 laying on the ground behind books to make the shovel pop and a last one in the bookshelf to light the letters on the ground. Here’s the lighting diagram to make things easier to understand.

We had a lot of fun shooting and I have to thank Christine for putting up with keeping that typewriter on her lap for the length of the shoot. It was extremely HEAVY! 

Anyway, enough chatting, here is the behind the scenes video as well as the final image.

Cheers,
josh

Last week, I announced a cRAZY challenge would be held during this morning’s Creative Morning event. This month’s theme is «The Future». So the Geneva chapter staff and myself asked everyone to travel to the future and come back with an object.

For this shoot, I decided to go with a simple 2-lights setup: one lighting the backdrop, the other in a gridded beauty dish lighting the subject’s face. To contrast with the future I wanted bright, snappy black and white photos.

Here is the diagram for this shoot:

Regarding the objects, some participants actually had some pretty cool ideas. One woman came with tiny doll shoes. She said she went to the future and as we were so preoccupied with our carbon footprint, etc. we decided to shrink ourselves. So she is holding shoes from our futur miniature selves. COOL, RIGHT?! Another participant came with his son and is clearly playing the emotional card. I loved this session and I will probably do something with Creative Mornings again in the near future!

Also, please go to Creative Mornings Geneva’s facebook page and vote for your favorite photo. The winner will receive a «Faces of Geneva» book!

Anyway, enough chit-chat, here are the photos!

Cheers,
josh