Matte Or Glossy?
The art of paper selection, design, and the power of white space.
The question of paper selection is probably the most difficult decision that participants face in our Introduction To Fine Art Printing workshop. In all seriousness, after the technical things are out of the way this is a torturous process and it should be. Most photographers when undecided and pressed for time to make final prints in that workshop default to glossy. Paper choice is important but that’s only a small part of intimately related decisions to bring out the best in your work. The picture at the top prompted me to focus on how at least half the work comes after a photograph is made, selected, and post-processed. Paper selection is an art that is intertwined with design and presentation when making a final print. The key is to keep all three in mind throughout the process.
We try to keep that decision simple in that intro workshop. There are only two choices, Moab Entrada Natural for the matte and Moab Juniper Baryta for the glossy. Without fail the Juniper seems to be the default choice. Paper selection is not the top priority for that introductory workshop so it’s not surprising that most photographers choose the paper with the most apparent “pop” when comparing two proofs side-by-side.
I propose that photographers addicted to that apparent “pop” of gloss or semi-gloss papers reconsider that default choice. I also propose that in the realm of fine art papers the diversity and range of matte papers far outstrip those of the gloss or semi-gloss varieties. Take a look at our Baryta paper comparisonsas an example of how similar high-quality offerings are. Choices between them fall into what should be considered as fine-tuning. Stay tuned, we’ll be adding a lot of resources to help with choosing papers, design decisions, as well as final presentation.