Artwork quality

I currently work with 35mm digital technology, my camera of choice is the Canon 5D which produces the quality I need for the size of prints I produce. All the lenses I use are very high optical quality Canon lenses. All my artwork is produced by myself using the best equipment available to produce the results, I have full control of the complete colour process.

All my work is recent, simply because the quality of my previous work is nowhere close to what I desire. I am self taught and I look at the best American photographers for inspiration and technique. In the old days I spent many years with the colour process and producing my own colour prints using the chemical method, however I believe the quality of chemical processing is now behind modern printing systems, also of course modern printers are much friendlier to the environment.

My techniques and my website are created with inspiration from Alain Briot's marketing
approach to fine Art photography. You can learn Alain's approach
through his tutorial CD's and DVDs that are available at this link:
http://beautiful-landscape.com/Articles-CD.html

photographic paper

Having evaluated papers from several manufacturers I presently use exclusively Hahnemühle digital fine art photoline papers. I choose the texture of the paper based on the photograph to be printed. I do not use glossy paper, gloss papers remove the depth and some detail of these fine images. If you have a liking for gloss I recommend you to use standard picture frame glass with my prints which should give a similar effect.

viewing my artwork

Like any piece of artwork it should be positioned away from direct sunlight. Artwork printed on these modern photo art papers can be viewed in various lighting conditions and we can then enjoy the benefits of observing the subtle colour changes within these lovely textured papers.

lifetime

There are many discussions regarding longitivity of photographic paper, one thing is for sure that the modern printer inks and papers should outlast our own lifetime. To ensure added protection all my prints are coated with Hahnemühle Protective Spray. This odorless spray seals the printed surface and protects from dirt, fingerprints and moisture. It increases the water-resistance of prints and protects them from fading caused by UV rays. It also does not turn yellow, it is completely transparent and has no influence whatsoever on the original colours of my prints.

calibrated system

My print process starts with ensuring that my monitor and printer papers are correctly calibrated. This calibration ensures colour consistancy through the process by using custom profiles for my monitor and each paper type. These profiles embedded in the PC allow the colours to be corrected to known calibrated colour destinations; Adobe Photoshop to allow me to manipulate the RAW camera file, and the printer to print the correct colours which I see on my monitor using the proofing feature in Photoshop.

This shows how I produce my mounted and framed artwork. It will be a useful guide if you have either purchased my artwork with mountboard included or just the print itself.

mount board

It is very important to use a high quality mountboard, all my artwork is created with high quality board made from 100% purified alpha cellulose; 1.4mm thick with a white centre and having a pH of 7.7, with good light and colourfastness it conforms to Fine Art Trade Guild standard level. This example shows the visible aging difference of the acid free outer mount board which I use, and the inner mount which is a typical low grade non-archival mount board.

backing board and mounting materials

Again it is important to use backing board with acid-free surface papers to prevent acids attacking the artwork.

To minimise any risk of any contamination to my artwork I do not glue the artwork to the backing board. The front mount board and backing board are attached using acid free tape, since the photographic paper I use is circa 300 gsm the surrounding front mount board and archive photo corners provide full support for the print without the need for direct gluing and subsequently preventing any contamination.

If you have purchased a ready mounted unframed print you can easily change the mount board if you so desire, but please follow my method I have desscribed to you.

frames

Frames are a personal taste, the high quality photographic papers I use show differently under different types of glass. To fully demonstrate the texture of these papers I prefer to use Acrylic sheet or Museum grade glass which both drammatically reduce the UV light and show off the artwork best under various light conditions. I either use Halbe ready made frames or specialist made frames from my local frame shop in Ravensburg.

Also avoid hanging your artwork using string or cords, it always looks better when the frame rests properly on the wall and does not lean forward.

Copyright

Please observe that the contents and photographs are copyright protected and belong to the artist Peter Farrer.

Most images are digitally signed and can easily be traced back to the owner if used without permission.

This digital signature can affect the quality of some of the images shown here on my website, but images for printing are not digitally signed to allow perfect quality artwork to be produced.