Gloss Vs Matt Print

[aj101202]

Hi Guys,

 

I was going to get my photo below printed but im not sure what paper type to choose, Matt or Glossy

 

Advice would be much appreciated.

 

Spoiler

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

I think it would look better in gloss with the reflections in the water. Maybe more of a satin if you can get that. 

[daniielrp]

I'd go glossy, the reflections and colours will look great. It'll likely cost a bit more, though I haven't used a printing shop in a while so don't know if glossy is any cheaper these days.

[AkiraDaarkst]

2 hours ago, aj101202 said:

Hi Guys,

 

I was going to get my photo below printed but im not sure what paper type to choose, Matt or Glossy

 

Advice would be much appreciated.

 

  Hide contents

 

I'd do some more editing if I were you before printing.  Look at the noise in the sky, they'll become more prominent in a print.

[.spider.]

Super high gloss paper like Fujiflex

[aj101202]

10 hours ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

I'd do some more editing if I were you before printing.  Look at the noise in the sky, they'll become more prominent in a print.

Thanks, I'll go over the sky with some noise reduction. also the image attached isn't Full Quality only 2MP original is 16MP.

[AkiraDaarkst]

1 hour ago, aj101202 said:

Thanks, I'll go over the sky with some noise reduction. also the image attached isn't Full Quality only 2MP original is 16MP.

As for the paper, or the finish on the paper, it depends.  Your photo looks like it would go well on a glossy finish, however it could easily go well on a satin or silk finish.  Where are you (or whoever will get the print) planning on hanging it?  Is it going to be framed with a glass or resin/plastic panel covering it?  Will there be direct sunlight or artificial lighting (and what kind) shining on it?

 

One thing I would suggest, if the lab or print shop lets you or if the prices are cheap, ask them if they can print out samples of your photo (in smaller size) on various types of paper with different finishes.  Or ask them if they have booklets with sample prints on different types of paper.

 

Personally I'm not a fan of glossy, I find that it scratches easily without something over it to provide protection.  And it also reflects light, so choosing the right spot to hang a glossy print is important.

[aj101202]

2 hours ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

As for the paper, or the finish on the paper, it depends.  Your photo looks like it would go well on a glossy finish, however it could easily go well on a satin or silk finish.  Where are you (or whoever will get the print) planning on hanging it?  Is it going to be framed with a glass or resin/plastic panel covering it?  Will there be direct sunlight or artificial lighting (and what kind) shining on it?

 

One thing I would suggest, if the lab or print shop lets you or if the prices are cheap, ask them if they can print out samples of your photo (in smaller size) on various types of paper with different finishes.  Or ask them if they have booklets with sample prints on different types of paper.

 

Personally I'm not a fan of glossy, I find that it scratches easily without something over it to provide protection.  And it also reflects light, so choosing the right spot to hang a glossy print is important.

I will be hanging it in my bedroom it doesn't  have any direct sunlight on it.there is a window in the room but its not opposite. the light in the room is a LED one the picture frame has Glass. 

[Evanair]

Also remember your glass choice for the frame matters too. If you get a gloss print, be sure to buy some non-glare glass. It'll help to not get a double reflection. 

[xQubeZx]

Just saw this thread and though I could ask the same question. What paper do you guys think would be best to print this image on?

 

[AkiraDaarkst]

7 minutes ago, xQubeZx said:

Just saw this thread and though I could ask the same question. What paper do you guys think would be best to print this image on?

 

Personally I would use a satin finish paper, or something semi-glossy.  Full gloss if I am hanging it indoors away from any windows that could shine direct sunlight on it.

 

I'd edit the photo a bit more though, the colors looks pretty flat.  Looks like a frame grab of a LOG footage (before any color grading) from my cine camera.

[xQubeZx]

19 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

Personally I would use a satin finish paper, or something semi-glossy.  Full gloss if I am hanging it indoors away from any windows that could shine direct sunlight on it.

 

I'd edit the photo a bit more though, the colors looks pretty flat.  Looks like a frame grab of a LOG footage (before any color grading) from my cine camera.

I have tried to bring out the colors but imo it turned out worse. You could get the raw if you wanna give it a shot but I did not succed that well

[mama_fluxus]

On 11/17/2016 at 10:03 AM, xQubeZx said:

I have tried to bring out the colors but imo it turned out worse. You could get the raw if you wanna give it a shot but I did not succed that well

I'm weird but I like the flat minimal colors. Great picture!

[xQubeZx]

2 minutes ago, mama_fluxus said:

I'm weird but I like the flat minimal colors. Great picture!

Thank You  I donno but it turned out best that way though imo as with more colors it just looked fake and oversaturated

[AkiraDaarkst]

On 11/17/2016 at 4:03 PM, xQubeZx said:

I have tried to bring out the colors but imo it turned out worse. You could get the raw if you wanna give it a shot but I did not succed that well

Sure send me the raw file. Let's see what can be done.

[xQubeZx]

2 hours ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

Sure send me the raw file. Let's see what can be done.

Okey, here is a link. I will give it a try again too then as it was some month ago I did the original edit and I have improved slighty in my editing skills since then I think. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o36fatgpu5aumz6/DSC02749.ARW?dl=0

 

[AkiraDaarkst]

42 minutes ago, xQubeZx said:

 

How about this?

 

In LR,

1. Lens profile correction was automatically applied
2. Increased exposure a tiny bit.
3. Increased Contrast quite a bit
4. Decreased Highlights drastically
5. Increased Shadows drastically
6. Cropped image to try to be as close to your crop, for better comparison
7. Added first graduated filter, top-down, with middle line around the horizon
8. Exposure decreased a bit more in the graduated filter
9. Dehaze increased a tiny bit
10. Added second graduated filter, bottom-up, middle line around the horizen
11. Increased contrast drastically
12. Used an Adjustment Brush, with Auto Mask checked painted around the shadowed/dark areas of the kayaker
13. With feather and flow at 100, brush size around 15
14. Brought up the shadows to 100.
15. Sent the image to Dfine 2 for a bit of noise cleaning

If the blue is still too much, you can always drop the blue saturation in the Color in the HSL/Color/B&W panel.

 

 

This photo would've turned out better if you had used a polarizing filter.  It would help in reducing the water surface glare.

[AkiraDaarkst]

Regardless of how much I enhanced the blue of the sky and water, the main difference between your edit and mine is the kayaker.

 

The most interesting element in your photo is supposed to be the kayaker.  He's the key element that should be drawing the attention of the viewer.  In my version, what I primarily focused on was trying to make him more noticeable.  Relying on the capability of your RAW file I tried bringing him out of the dark shadows.

[xQubeZx]

11 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

Regardless of how much I enhanced the blue of the sky and water, the main difference between your edit and mine is the kayaker.

 

The most interesting element in your photo is supposed to be the kayaker.  He's the key element that should be drawing the attention of the viewer.  In my version, what I primarily focused on was trying to make him more noticeable.  Relying on the capability of your RAW file I tried bringing him out of the dark shadows.

Yea I don't think I ever used a brush to bring out the shadows and rise the exposure on him. Mostly changed the main part, used some gradial filters slightly and then used Color Effex for the contrast part as I preffer the "Dynamic Contrast" I re did the edit I had done some hour ago but this time I did focus a bit more on the kajaker which made it turn out a bit better with that sticking out a bit more. 

[AkiraDaarkst]

23 hours ago, xQubeZx said:

Yea I don't think I ever used a brush to bring out the shadows and rise the exposure on him. Mostly changed the main part, used some gradial filters slightly and then used Color Effex for the contrast part as I preffer the "Dynamic Contrast" I re did the edit I had done some hour ago but this time I did focus a bit more on the kajaker which made it turn out a bit better with that sticking out a bit more. 

The adjustment brush is very useful and I use it quite a lot, with a tablet.

 

Here's another version, I was looking at the photo again and realized that the overall blue tone of the image didn't really go well with the fact that it looks like a bright sunny day for the kayaker.  So I took the photo to Photoshop and using some layers, layer masks and the apply image function to get something a bit more in theme with a sunny day though I did use a sepia tone.  I wasn't really going for perfection, this is just to give you an idea of what you can do.

 

[.spider.]

Slightly warmer tone in the foreground and less contrast in the background for enhanced perceived depth.

Reduced luminance of blue.

Shadows not too strong pulled up