Luminous Print Techniques

[Synthetik]

One fun thing about Maui is that there's a pretty heavy concentration of art galleries in a small area in the tourist district in Lahainia. We were checking out some of the Lahaina art galleries yesterday, and one thing that really caught our eyes was the quality of the prints at the Peter Lik gallery.  When we first walked in there we were convinced that there was some kind of back-lighting associated with the prints (like they were printed on transparent film with a back light behind them).  Which apparently is not the case, but they certainly look like that (at least when viewed in the gallery setting with the kind of lighting setup there). 

So i was curious if anyone had any comments on techniques to use to achieve this kind of look in digital art prints. My take after talking to some of the people at the gallery and doing some on-line searching is that something like a LightJet is used to make the prints on Fuji photo paper.  And that another big part of the luminous effect is that the prints themselves are laminated or bound to some kind of acrylic surface on the front of the print.

Whether you like the subject matter of the artwork (with it's intense use of saturated color) or not, there's no denying that the underlying technical process involved in putting together the prints themselves is really outstanding.  So i thought a discussion on getting a better handle on how to achieve that kind of luminosity in a digital print would be of interest to people. 

So if anyone has any comments speak up. 

[Paul Perlow]

John,

I found a number of different approaches for luminous prints:

I did a Google on luminous photography finishes and found a link that mentioned epoxy resin finishes. There was a class given on the technique at LENS FACTORY Gallery last May.

Here is the link

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42559

Another direction

Prints on aluminum:

http://www.imagewizards.net/products/


Here's another direction about using paper with metallic coating

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43530

[Synthetik]

Are there any service bureaus you are aware of that provide the epoxy resin finishes?

[Paul Perlow]

I think it's a process you do yourself.

Here's several links

http://www.artresin.com/

http://www.resinjob.com/'

[Victor Ingrassia]

Very luminous-y!
quite an image: http://tinyurl.com/2d9mbt4

[liveart]

John

For my show this past weekend I had my SA works printed directly on to plexi using u-v curable "inks". I printed each image in the reverse on the back side of the plexi then fused the two pieces together. I then painted a reflective backing of my own making on the back of the second image.

UV curable inks are really paints by any definition as the pigment is encapsulated in an acrylic co-polymer. The printer uses variable droplet sizes but generally down in the pico-liter range. The result is that what would be a tiny droplet on paper is a tiny bead (ball) on the plexi. In full light the images are nearly iridescent (minus the metmerism) you might describe these as luminous. The reception to the works was very good.

I also printed on stainless steel and copper with less brilliant results, but I blame the print house (a different one from the plexi people) which did not follow my directions and tried to cut corners while still charging full price.. live and learn

I have discussed this process here before and even offered to have a printer custom built for anyone interested (about $35k depending on size of the bed-- normally these printers sell for about $75-150k). I would also undertake coordinating custom prints for those interested price is about $20-30/sq foot including the plexi. If we get enough prints together we might get the price down a bit. Glass is even better but of course heavier and more prone to breakage.

[Synthetik]

SOunds interesting. If you could post a few photos that would be great.

Do you print onto a transfer sheet and then apply that transfer sheet to the plexi or directly onto the plexi? What printer were you using for this?

[Thorrific]

wow sounds really cool, can you post photos of your show?

[liveart]

John: no transfer process the "paint" is printed directly on the plexi. Thor, I didn't take pics. But maybe my daughter did.. I will ask.

Photos do not show the true luminosity of the works, but I will try..

[Paul Perlow]

MIchael,
Where is the show? I would like to see the real deal.

[liveart]

paul, thanks it was just a weekend arts festival over now. If I do another I will let you know.