Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

Up until now I have printed all my photos one what I refer to as 'ordinary' injet photo papers; matte, semi and glossy.
I started reading up on papers and wow, there are so many varieties out there.

I thought I would start with something simple like, B&W landscapes and city scapes. Any suggestions? Products, etc. I found the Red River Web site.

Currently I have a Canon MG series printer that uses five cartridges.

Thanks in advance.

mrpentaxk5ii

I have used Red River paper often, I will be printing a wedding photo for my wife, taken at her son's wedding, I have a 13x19 inch custom frame to set it up with. I will be printing on RedRiver Artic Polar Satin. I have used other satin paper from RedRiver but this is the first time I will be using this one. I use a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MKii printer. Here is the problem with printers such as the one's that we use, the one that I use works great for color, but because it only has one black ink, it's not the best for B&W photos. The better B&W printers have at least two shades of black and a grey to get better B&W tones. You would be better off having your B&W photos done in a shop that prints B&W

Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

Thanks pentax.
My printer does have two blacks on my photos that I have printed don't look bad at all.
I have a wedding anniversary coming up and wanting to do something. So, maybe I will do color.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Better inkjet photo paper supply houses often carry swatch books or sample packs that they sell at nominal cost (or give away to better customers).

Be sure you download the ICC profiles for your new papers and your specific printer, and install them in your operating system. Read the paper supplier's instructions.

Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

Thank you Burk

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Go to the Red River site and order some of the sample packs then try them. I did one picture on several different papers and found some I liked better than my favorite/standard "Canon Pro Luster" for certain types of images. For B&W you might look at the various Fine Art papers esp the matte or textured papers.
Look here: http://www.redrivercatalog.com/samples/ try the "Inkjet Photo & Fine Art Sampler" pack and the two add on samplers. Pick a favorite image and try it on multiple papers. Warning, I found the ones I liked the best also tend to be the expensive papers. But if you reserve them for only special prints (display in your home, gifts, contest entry etc) you can continue to do regular prints on your old stand by - for me that is Canon's Pro Luster.
I ordered two of each sample kit so I could try more images. Then I tried the wide format sampler kit since I use the Canon Pro-100.
Here is the image I used for one of my major tests and really liked the results on Polar Pearl Metallic and Blanco Matte Canvas (real canvas). Two almost complete opposite paper types. And yes, use their ICC Profiles.

(Download)

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Two suggestions:

Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper - excellent art paper with semi gloss finish
Hahnemuhle Bamboo - incredibly creamy and fine textured paper that will enhance your prints.

whwiden

Ilford mono silk or gold fibre silk, Canson rag photographique or aquarrelle 210 wt. But use ICC profiles.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Nice!

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

"My printer does have two blacks on my photos that I have printed don't look bad at all."

I'm not familiar with MG series printers, but many printers that are personal non-photo printers do have two blacks, but one is usually reserved for B&W text and the other is used in photo/color printing.

As far as papers, Red River Palo Duro SoftGloss is a nice surface and handles B&W well.

A big problem with dye ink printers and B&W printing is that some papers will give color casts to the print depending on the lighting type. Some papers whave optical brighteners added which react to ultraviolet light and make the image look brighter. Depending on the frequency content of the lighting the color cast results. For B&W you want a paper with no OBAs. Red River Palo Duro SoftGloss has no OBAs.

whwiden

Does that paper receive any kind of archival rating? Red river prices look attractive.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

I don’t know about any rating. Best to contact Red River directly.

Spiney Loc: Reading, PA

Hi, if you do a search there was a very lengthy thread on this same subject just last week. It may be in the Printing forum. It was about 7 pages long. Covered all papers, ink, & printer combinations. Good luck