Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta - hands on

[Ed Richards]

Just got the box of Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta 325 GSM that I ordered back when it was first announced. Looks like a glossier version of Fine Art Pearl. Very visible texture. Takes ink better than Pearl, in that there is no bronzing, but unless you are looking at the print dead on, all you see is surface reflection. Dead on, it is nice, and slightly whiter paper than Harman Gloss, but the texture and the off angle reflectance make it a loser for me. I will stick with Harman Glossy FB.

[Tim Hyde]

Have you seen it behind glass or plexi? I wonder if the surface reflection you speak of disappears. I had high hopes for this paper.

[Ed Richards]

Tim,

I also had high hopes, and was pretty surprised at how much texture the paper has. To me, when the box says glossy, it means no texture. This has more obvious texture than Innova FB glossy. Since I have a box to burn, I will test to see if it has better shadow detail than Innova.

It might look OK behind glass, and hanging on the wall you would mostly be seeing it straight on. The only advantage I can see over Harman is that it is a little cheaper, so for me, why worry about whether it will be behind glass when I can use a paper that does not have the problem.

YMMV - I really hate the look of papers like silver rag, so if you not mind a little texture, this might be good for you.

[John Brady]

We have been inundated with new papers, yeah! All of these papers seem to produce fantastic results, but like most things photographic it is very subjective and will suit some peoples work more then others.

If you want to try a new paper that is glossy, super smooth and has great d-max, take a look at lexjet sunset elite. I have been very happy with it for my work, ymmv.

I tried to like the Harman gloss but it was to warm and comes out of my 7800 looking lumpy.

I am still interested in seeing results on the new epson exhibition paper.

Sorry, don't want to high jack this thread.
jb

[Ed Richards]

I only shoot black and white, and I use the Epson AWB mode, so I cannot tell you anything about how these work with color.

John,

Warm? Looks a little green to me, but I find it looks great as long as I do not have any bright white paper on the same table.:-)

[Tim Hyde]

One of the reasons I had high hopes is Baryta's handling qualities due to its wieght (325gsm) . When you print over 24" on lighter paper one needs to back or front mount the image rather than simply mat to avoid a wavy photo later on. I imagined that I could get away without mounting of larger pieces with this paper, though it was going be an experiment for sure.

[Ted Harris]

I am currently running print after print on both the z3100 and the ipf 6100 from all of the major paper manufacturers offering a Baryta based inkjet paper. So far, I have been running the harman and the Ilford and will start running the Hahnemuhle shortly. All this for an exhaustive article in the March issue of View Camera. I can tell you that the Harman is the smoothest of them all in terms of texture and possibly the glossiest. Beyond that it seems to be a matter of taste and approrpriateness for a particular image.

[Ed Richards]

Thanks Ted! You just saved me the cost of a box of Ilford.