Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: archival, photography, printer | Themes: Digital Cameras
10. Mounting and Framing
You have created your print. You have used your pigmented-ink printer and printed your picture out on acid-free paper. Now you want to see your history hanging on a wall. All your efforts could be for naught if you poorly mount your photograph.
The last two items to ensure that your picture remains acid free is the mounting board and the mount tissue you use. Both need to be as free of acids as the paper. Unless you plan on doing dozens of pictures yourself, let someone else do this for you. A dry mount press, such as the one you see here, can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Let someone else do this. Your job is to specify what type of mount board you want to use and ensure the mounting service is using acid-free mounting tissue. The tissue is the glue that lies between the print and the board. When heat and pressure are applied to the entire sandwich, your picture will become a permanent part of that entire mount. If you choose this procedure, consider that the cost will be dependent on the size of your print. You will also face choices about whether the print will be mounted flush to the edge of a board or whether it will be placed on an over-size board. Perhaps you’ll choose to have another board mounted around the photo to frame it. These decorative choices don’t lend longevity either, but again, they’ll add style for a fee.
There is also a less expensive alternative back at the art store. Ask for acid-free storage boxes. Lay your prints in the box and interleave them with an acid-free tissue.
Framing a photograph will likely be your last item to consider. A large number of photographs are framed in a simple brushed aluminum or flat-black aluminum frame. This is one aspect to preserving your photographic history that you can take on yourself. Buy the components and grab a screwdriver from the toolbox and follow the assembly instructions.
The Rest Is History
This may look like a daunting task at the start. But with the penchant today for preserving the memories of our daily lives with scrapbooks, social networking/storage sites, or even that old shoebox, you have several options to preserve your personal or family history in photographs.
While you may not be the next Matthew Brady or Ansel Adams, your photographic works are just as important to you. Your grandchildren and even your great-grandchildren deserve to see those historic moments from your lives. Take the time, do it right, and let your history live on. Using pigmented inks, printed on acid-free paper, will create prints designed to last at least 100 years and perhaps longer.
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There are archival class DVD media that have longer warrantied life spans than that mentioned in the article. Taiyo Yuden and TDK offer archive class DVDs' with life span of 70 years which is pretty good don't you think. It is implied that Laser Printers cannot be used for archive class photos, is this really the case?
i would rather see advice on preserving negatives or digital files since we only print when we need it and printing is improving constantly.
This was a really really good article. I remember using Illford photographic paper in college in basic photography. We used an Iris printer for computer graphics printouts. It cost over $50k. I don't know what the shelf life of the prints is. I have them mounted on mat board in a portfolio which is in storage. These days you can make prints that are just as good or better for a lot less money.
You should also mention that when framing a photo it is important to have UV filtering glass, since UV light can fade photos as well.
It would have also been good to include in the article a section about getting the prints done somewhere. For people that will only need to do a small number of photos, the cost of the high end printers/inks might not be worth it. I don't know if places like Wal-Mart offer multiple paper choices, but there are many profession photo printing services available on the internet that give you a range of professional Kodak papers to choose from. These services have the added benefit of using million dollar printing machines which can produce higher quality prints than consumer printers especially if the home user isn't knowledgeable enough to properly calibrate the printer.
Do you have any information on a scalable solution to scan all those photos that you don't have negatives for? I know you can outsource it but since they are irreplaceable I hate mailing them away. Is there a place that you can bring a box of them and they scan them and hand the box back to you?
Very good article. I have a Epson R380 Photo Printer and Epson 4490 Photo Scanner. Both devices work very well for what I use it for. It is a shame that alot of my relatives never kept the negatives as I could have scanned it with my scanner to produce photos for them to keep.
Now these days we all take digital photography for granted. Just point and click. Then take the SD card home to a printer for instant gratification for something that would have taken hours to do. I think doing it the old fashioned way a few times would show true appreciation of photography as it was in the old days.
Case in point, pioneer photographers with monster box size cameras strapped to a donkey on a long trip whereas today we just whip the camera out of our pocket and take a quick snapshot. Boy, times sure have changed! LOL
This should article should have been more prominent on the home page. One of the better written ones this month.
Good article. I would like to second the motion on adding information on getting the prints done by someone else. I am currently using Fotki because they claim to use archival quality inks and paper and I would be interested in seeing how they stack up to other firms. Also, I always thought that you couldn't print your own pictures for cheaper than an outside firm could. There are probably monetary advantages to going with someone else for printing. I think a follow-up article could be very interesting.
You should just go to a real photo lab and have your photos printed if you have any interest in having your prints last a lifetime.
Why give money to the ink cartels? Seriously, they told us 10 years ago our prints would last a lifetime too. Why should we believe them this time around?
Chemistry prints are the way to go.