Really large prints

Can anyone recommend a printlab that can do pro quality printing of

(either or both) digital and Ilfochrome prints? I am looking for

Printing 20" x 30" or larger. Anyone familiar with the galleries of

Thomas Mangelson (images of nature) has seen his 35mm prints at

36"x60" and 60" panoramas. Does anyone know who does his printing?

A number of places will do prints from digital on Epsons 7600 and 9600. In the San Francisco area, I know www.thedarkroom.com and www.claypsoinc.com will do them. I've only dealt a bit with The Dark Room, and only for processing, so I can't actually recommend them for prints, but I've been very satisfied with their film processing.

 

If you're considering many of those prints, it's quickly worth buying your own printer (based on the 36x60 price at The Dark Room, it's cheaper to buy and use your own 9600 by the time you do about 30 prints, based on $194 per print vs $5000 plus $1.15 per square foot).

In my opinion the best way to very large prints is via a Lightjet laser printer. Westcoast Imaging (www.westcoastimaging.com)are acknowledged experts in this area, and they could advise what sizes are feasible starting from a 35mm (or whatever) basis.

 

Very large Ilfochromes will be hard to find basically because they don't work from 35mm or MF originals. To get really big prints you need a drum scan to draw every bit of useful information from the original, and the smaller your startpoint the more this is true. Even if you bought a big Epson yourself you'd need to go down this route. Also don't underestimate the skill set you'll need to make large prints well.

 

I've seen Mangelson's prints and the thing that struck me was that many of them were printed on super-glossy paper, which gave virtually a mirror finish. Personally it's not an approach I like very much, not least because it means that the prints when hung pick up a lot of reflections. You can overcome this to a degree with products like Denglass but we're talking expensive on top of a photographic process that isn't cheap. I much preferred the (presumably older) prints on normal gloss paper which also looked much more natural.

At the other end of the scale, price-wise, you could try www.bpdphotech.com. A 30" x 20" custom-printed Ilfochrome will only set you back about $50 and $100-ish buys you a 40" x 30" print.

Check out http://www.whcc.com/output_thrifty.html

White House Custom color is very good.

Curiously, Mangelsen's gallery folks are sworn to secrecy, but the folks who do the printing (Hance Partners, in Arizona) advertise on their web site that they do all of his work. Cryptically, they say something about using "digital techniques" as part of creating Ilfochromes out of Mangelsen's 35mm images. [Grain control, anyone?]

 

Finding a good 'chrome printer is getting harder and harder, though I understand there are still some out there. Good luck.