david_a._wong Posted October 29, 2004 Share Posted October 29, 2004 Hello all, I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but as I'm shooting with a MF I'll take a shot here. I recently had some large panoramics (30"x50") professionally mounted. A dry/heat process was used as I was told this was the preferred method for the best results. When you look at the photographs in even light they look fine. However, once the photographs are hung on the walls and are hit with ceiling lights, some "texturing" is quite noticable. Its tough to describe what it looks like. Basically, if you look at the reflection of a light off the photograph, the light has a "halo" of sorts. Question: Is this a normal result of having a photograph mounted? Question: Is there a method to avoid this? Thanks. David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zac williams www.williams Posted October 29, 2004 Share Posted October 29, 2004 I have had very limited experience with dry mounting, but I'm curious as to what type of background substrate was used. I've seen this sort of texturing on softer materials such as foamcore and gatorboard. Masonite seems to be the ideal backing. I usually spraymount as needed generally because I'm mounting for portfolios or client boards. I have had good results also using a laminate over photographs that I'm mounting and not framing. A lustre laminate is nice as it does not reflect, but is smooth. Of course you wouldn't want to laminate a fine art print or anything of value. Sorry I'm not of more assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanj Posted October 29, 2004 Share Posted October 29, 2004 I'm interested in this as well. I'll be having 4 of my panos dry mounted onto 1/2" gator on Monday. I was told that addition of the UV protective laminate would visibly "degrade" the image. Did you have them apply a protective laminate to the photograph? I decided to forgo the UV laminate and mount the photos (12"x36") in matte finish for the best possible detail retention. This "halo" that you are describing may be un-even "reticulation" of the UV laminate when its applied. I've seen the same thing for several display prints at the printer to be convinced of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_a._wong Posted October 30, 2004 Author Share Posted October 30, 2004 No, no UV laminate was added. And it is also on 1/2" gatorboard. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dermot_conlan4 Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 I used to work as a mounter/ finnisher and in the early days (late 70's early 80's) we used a heating method. A certain combo of heat and pressure was used depening on the size of the print...trial and error to figure out the time and temp. Over the print I laid release paper about 1" wider than the print and over that a 1/2" foam to protect the print from the heated paltten. Now lots of things can go wrong here, relaese paper overused, sponge foam overused uneven heat ,uneven substraight etc. In the 90's "Cold" mounting was more popular and in my opinion better, more surfaces could be mounted to and I worked with 48"X96" prints regularly... so your prints are not considered that big. The mounting part is not too bad but when you had to laminate that's a bitch as is mouning to plexi-glass. The life of a mounter can be hell it's easy to piss off the printers when you screw up a print. It could have been uneven heat the rollers used these days do double duty you can heat them up or use cold and at times you get uneven temps in the roller, but it's a tough one to call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_cook Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 I've done a fair amount of dry-mounting of my own prints. Not at the professional level, but quite a few nonetheless. One thing I learned early is not to mount directly to Fomcore or Gatorboard. I mount to an acid-free 10pt board. It's nice and smooth and makes a great substrate for the photo. Then that is sandwiched with Fomcore on the bottom and window mats on the top and put into the frame. If mounted diretly to Fomcore, I found that I had some humidity problems and general "uneven" look to the mounted print. Of course, traditional dry-mounting using a heat activated tissue is not suitable for any of the new materials used in digital printers. Cold mounting, using a vacuum frame is the way to go. But all that is pretty expensive, especially for large size materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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