You’ve heard about them, you’ve seen a few, but you’re still wondering what it’s all about.

Metal prints are exploding on the art scene and consumers are loving it!  Images printed on aluminum are modern, stylish and impactful and add a higher perceived value than flat prints.

So what’s the deal with metal prints?

I want to help you understand the differences in your choices.

The home version of metal prints

The craft version of metal prints is done with an ink jet printer.  Ink is printed on either a transfer paper or on an aluminum sheet.  (Not to be confused with metallic ink jet papers.)  The paper sheets are adhered to aluminum (or other materials) with heat.  The aluminum sheets are specially prepared to receive the ink.  The aluminum sheets are fragile being only from .005” up to .025” thick and should be mounted to another material to create a rigid piece.  This method compatible with most ink jet printers and while inexpensive is prone to fading.  This is a great option for craft projects.  There are strict size limitations based on the printer’s abilities and limited purchase options.

Dye Sublimation or Infused Metal Prints

This technology starts when a high-resolution full-color mirror image is printed on specialized transfer paper – sometimes called a carrier sheet.  This carrier is then is carefully aligned and heat infused with a specially coated aluminum sheet.  Through heat and pressure the inks are vaporized and drawn into the coating on the metal. When the transfer process is completed, the metal print is allowed to cool and the dyes are now locked into the coating.

The coating is applied in different surface textures and a choice of opaque white, or clear that allows the metal to show through. Currently Reed provides you with four choices of finished surfaces: white matte and white gloss as well as clear matte, and clear gloss. The white metal print options are the most popular as they look like most like a normal photograph.  Clear allows the metal to show through in the highlights for a distinct and eye catching effect.

The metal print coatings are quite durable, resistant to moisture and abrasion, making them an excellent choice for humid or high traffic areas. They are also more fade-resistant than ink jet prints and can be easily cleaned with non-ammonia glass cleaner. They can be used outside but should be kept out of direct sun light.

Dye sublimation by many accounts is considered an improvement over traditional ink-jet printing as it has higher saturation and contrast with a much richer black, and no visible dots.

This is a great print for the artist looking for quality, speed and affordability. Approximately 1/16”;  we have sizes available up to 48”x96”.

Finally, the metal product with the highest sharpness is called a Contemporary Metal Print.

This is a photographic print created by exposing latent image photo-sensitive polyester media to laser light, and then developing in a photo chemical bath. The print is archivally mounted to a rigid 1/8” thick aluminum plate using cold press adhesive and an amazing and eye grabbing glossy laminate that improves contrast, apparent sharpness and color that looks very high-end.

Because the media is polyester and not paper it is not prone to peeling like large paper prints can. Being a photographic process using lasers, there are no visible dots in the final print.

With the high level or sharpness and amazing visual depth, the contemporary is the ideal option for artists and their buyers with discriminating tastes.  Rigid 1/8″ thick aluminum available in dimensions up to 48″x96″

If you have further questions the group of talented artists at Reed will be glad to assist you.  We know how to collaborate with you and see your visions become reality.

Today we at Reed say goodbye to our old friend E6. When the E6 slide film process was introduced, the ground-breaking technology brought amazing real-life color and contrast to an already booming sector of photographers. Decades later the advent of digital capture technology, through its instant gratification, led to a rapid decline in the interest in slide film.

Just a few years back, the demise of the Kodachrome process was a clear indicator of things to come. The momentum behind the growth of digital capture was strong and the with lure of shooting quantities of images with no cost to develop them, the decline of film as a medium was inevitable.

With all the opportunities that digital brings to the table, it has its drawbacks and expenses too. Software, storage, migration of files as storage technology changes, obsolescence of file formats, and the list goes on. Transparency has the benefits of easy storage, it’s inherently archival and easy to view. No file format changes, no technology changes, no expensive software and no paying an assistant for hours of post capture digital time. This of course meant the photographer had to get it right the first time with no tools like photoshop to save the day. It was an era of bring your skills to the set and the camera or go home.

Digital has certainly changed the way we creatives do business, and it has increased competition as excellence in image quality has become more approachable with the addition of advanced editing tools. We now have more creative minds in our industry than ever before, and they’re stretching beyond the previous limits of the medium to bring amazing images to our world.

Progress means leaving the old behind and moving into the new. There are always trade-offs with change. The smartphone instantly connects us like never before, but we spend more time on social media and less time pursuing our dreams. The automobile brings great mobility at increased speed over the horse drawn carriage. But with it also comes environmental issues. We truly are a culture of instant gratification and film just doesn’t fit that model.

We’ve been watching a renewed interest in film photography blossom as today’s generation of students begin to embrace the old-school processes. But for E6 processing at Reed, it’s just too little and too late.

We intend to keep running our dip and dunk professional C-41 color neg film and B&W film lines as long as there is enough interest in those artistic mediums. At one time, we had one of the very best E6 lines in the nation. We were proud that Kodak and chosen us to be the very first regional participant in their acclaimed Q-Lab system – requiring tolerances twice as tight as professional standards. Tolerances which we easily met and exceeded. Unfortunately, our E6 volumes have been just too low to keep the 72 gallon developer tanks in-check and the product quality was suffering.

We would rather turn it off than deliver a product to you that doesn’t meet our standards. It’s been a good run, and a big part of the foundation on which we originally built our business and our national reputation.

As we flip the power switch for the very last time today, we say “Farewell old friend”.