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The Water's Fine Tweet This   Forward This

19 April 2013

Stow Lake Stick. We didn't underexpose this until we edited the Raw file.

Last week we took a little walk around Stow Lake doing one-handed curls with our Nikon D300. In our recent Ilford review we showed you a shot of the old stone bridge from that stroll. A little further along, we paused by the edge of the water to take this shot (and switch arms).

We used Aperture Priority mode to set f5.3 with ISO fixed at 400 (an old Tri-X habit that we never regret when we screw a polarizing filter on). That required a shutter speed of 1/2000 second so the wavering of our weary arm wouldn't spoil the capture. Focal length was a modest 95mm. We changed the aspect ratio in Adobe Camera Raw when we dropped the exposure a bit and picked up the Vibrance to bring that blue out. But it's one of those image you don't mind working on for a while.

Thinking about this image a bit, what attract us to it is the water. The greenery and the dead wood are mere props. And water isn't something you want sharp as a tack. Instead, it's the color and tonality that deliver not the detail.

So how would you print this image?

The answer came to us as soon as the question. We want a dye-based printer and a very slick sheet.

The paper first. Moab's Slickrock Metallic Pearl 260 would preserve the metallic look of the water. Lacking that, a glossy or semi-gloss sheet. We'd want to avoid a natural or photo rag that would soak up the ink.

The trouble with Slickrock is, like most modern fine arts papers, it has porous alpha cellulose surface. So while Moab notes it will accept dyes, pigment inks are recommended.

But this image just cries out for the brilliance of dyes. So we're inclined to print it on the Canon Pro-100.

What harm could it do? Just, like all beautiful things, it may go before we tire of it.


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