Prints that Win: Temptress

Temptress by Pete Wright

Pete Wright’s photography is all about capturing and producing the tiniest details, from the initial setting all the way through to print. It was Wright’s attention to detail, in addition to his technical expertise, that made Temptress a Sunset Print Award winner at the recent PPA Southeast District competition.

Wright pulled out all the stops for this photo shoot, which he did for a clothier and a jeweler. Both clients gave him free reign to produce images that would make them shine. Wright chose to render the images in his signature style, Film Noir.

“I went to both of my clients and told them what era I was shooting, so they pulled out vintage clothing and jewelry. We had a hair and makeup artist come in and created the look we wanted for the models. Then I went on a hunt for a location and found a music studio that had created a speakeasy bar authentic to the era with the correct lighting and fixtures,” explains Wright. “My lighting style is different because I still shoot in the way they would have shot in the ’20s and ’30s. I don’t use any kind of modern soft boxes. Instead, I use modifiers like Fresnels, Snoots and Barn-Doors that are more appropriate to the era so that the lighting is very dramatic and the shadows very purposeful. And, when you have someone sitting for a photo, they know they can’t move and you pose them exactly the way you want them to so the light falls just right.”

Wright adds that he also rented vintage furniture and appointments, like a crystal decanter from the era, and had the hair and makeup artist and experts from the clothing and jewelry store on hand to make sure everything about the scene was perfectly in place so that he could concentrate on the lighting and capturing the image.

Wright shot the male and female models together and then separately. For Temptress, Wright directed the female model to sit in the chair, pick up the cigar and to “act like she owned the place.” He says it’s important to set the scene for the models so they exude the attitude needed to tell the story the image is meant to portray.

“A lot of the strength of the image was in how it was lit, the confidence in how she was posed and how she came across, and the research that went into finding the right location. As much as I like to take credit for my images, it was a team effort to make sure that all those little things you might overlook are taken care of so you don’t have to worry about it on the back end,” explains Wright. “It was so different than what people are used to seeing. Most of what the judges see at competition is rendered in color. When you don’t miss anything and every decision you make about the shot was thought out the judges notice that.”

Wright adds that the final touch is choosing the right paper to print on, and printing it with master photographer and printer Jeff Bowman. Wright used Sunset Photo eSatin Paper for the final print, and says the paper is especially crucial for his black-and-white prints as it renders true, deep, rich blacks that he can’t get elsewhere.

“Because we do so much black-and-white photography it’s so important for us to use a paper that shows the true black. I see a lot of prints where the blacks are not true black; they’re a little muddy and don’t have the depth and contrast,” says Wright. “Jeff Bowman introduced me to eSatin. I always noticed his images looked so great on that paper. We’ve been printing our competition images together on that paper for six or seven years, and we’ve always had great success. When an image is put under the lights and you use something with a high gloss, it becomes too reflective and almost milky under the lights. If you’re using an art matte paper, especially with black-and-white images, it can come off the printer looking great, but after a few hours, because the ink is still soaking into the fiber of the paper it looks more grey and muted. They’re great for a watercolor or pastel image, but not for the majority of my competition prints.”

Wright adds that another important differentiator for his competition work is that he and Bowman prints it themselves. The ability to control the output, and to re-do the print if necessary, is crucial to his success at competition, he says.

To find out more about the Sunset Print Awardcompetitions where the award is being presented, a portfolio of past winners, and the Sunset inkjet media product line, go to www.sunsetprint.com.

SGIA 2014 Workshops Tackle Color Management, Sublimation and T-Shirts

SGIA Color Management WorkshopThe Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) released its Workshop schedule for 2014, including the return of popular sessions on color management and screen printing, as well as a brand new series on large format dye sublimation.

The Workshops take place at SGIA’s state-of-the-art laboratory, Digital Imaging Lab and classroom facility, located in Fairfax, Va. (a suburb of Washington, D.C.).

Color Management Boot Camp, March 11-13, 2014: Civilians, business owners and production personnel will learn how to set up and maintain a color-managed workflow in a production environment.

Totally T-Shirts! Garment Screen Printing: Basic to Advanced, April 28 through May 2, 2014: This class is ideal for shops that want become professional and profitable garment screen printers, whether you’re new to the screen printing industry or a seasoned professional. Attendees will take an active role in this class by stretching, coating, exposing, and setting up the press, and will leave with a complete understanding of each process.

Operation Sublimation (Mission: Wide-Format), May 13-14, 2014: Learn how to set up and maintain a wide-format dye sublimation workflow in a production environment, whether you’re starting up a business or need to improve your product line. This workshop will cover the specifics of dye-sublimation, including materials, inks and processes to help boost profitability.

Register here, and for more information on these Workshops and other upcoming events at SGIA, visit SGIA.org.

On Target with Inkjet Canvas Reproductions Benefitting Wounded Veterans

Canvas Gallery Wraps
Gallery wrap reproductions by PostNet Norfolk for the UNTIL It Hurts project benefitting Wounded Wear.

Amanda Crow, who owns a PostNet store in Norfolk, Va., knows the value of teamwork. She’s part of a team dedicated to honoring the 74 Naval Special Warfare members who have fallen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as another team helping out Purple Heart recipients called Wounded Wear.

Wounded Wear provides free clothing and modifications for combat-wounded warriors while raising awareness about their sacrifice. PostNet Norfolk does Wounded Wear’s printing and graphic design and brought the print shop’s expertise to a joint fundraising program featuring art reproductions on canvas and archival paper.

The artwork was created by Dave Hall, a retired Navy SEAL sniper and Ellwood T. Risk, an artist based in Los Angeles. Hall set up a target 911 yards away on 9/11 2012 and fired a shot to the target for each fallen SEAL teammate. Risk took that target and combined it with newspaper clippings to create a 50″ x 73″ piece of artwork.

That artwork was then auctioned off at a benefit for the Navy SEAL Foundation and Wounded Wear called Toast to the Heroes. The artwork was sold to local philanthropist and business owner Todd Grubbs for $18,000.

Printing Canvas
The canvas reproductions of UNTIL It Hurts were printed on LexJet Sunset Reserve Bright Matte Canvas on PostNet’s new Canon iPF9400 inkjet printer from LexJet.

As if that wasn’t enough, Grubbs began looking for ways to provide a steady income stream to Wounded Wear through the artwork. Enter Amanda Crow, who would provide printed art reproductions that would be sold through the Wounded Wear website.

“We wanted to reproduce the artwork, and because it’s art we wanted it done right; it’s not just a poster,” says Crow.

In order to get the printing just right, Crow starting doing research on the most effective and efficient way to do it.

She spoke with Chris Shigley, her customer specialist at LexJet, who provided a plethora of resources and advice on materials, print settings and workflow.

The first order of business was a new printer that could handle the 50-inch width she required. Shigley was able to tie in all the available rebates, promotions and bundle packages for a Canon iPF9400 60-inch inkjet printer that fit Crow’s budget.

“Chris got me an amazing deal on the Canon printer. I never could have done this project without Chris. Or, if I could have done it, it would have taken a lot more time. Chris was great about getting me the information I needed,” says Crow. “In addition to videos on how to use the Sunset Stretcher Bars for our canvas prints and setting up our printer, Chris even sent us videos on how to use the Photoshop driver to print at a higher resolution.”

Coating and Wrapping Canvas
After printing, PostNet’s Amanda Crow applied Sunset Satin Coating and then wrapped the canvas onto Sunset Stretcher Bars.

Crow would reproduce the artwork, entitled UNTIL It HURTS, on LexJet Sunset Reserve Bright Matte Canvas wrapped onto LexJet Sunset Pro Stretcher Bars and finished with LexJet Sunset Satin Coating. Framed reproductions are printed on LexJet Sunset Hot Press Rag 310g.

“The stretcher bars are similar to what we were using before, but you couldn’t get custom sizes like you can with the Sunset Stretcher Bars, and I can get them right away from LexJet,” says Crow. “Plus, the bars that go in the sides that keep the canvas taught are actually screwed in; the other ones we were using before don’t have those. We would see problems where the canvas started to sag and I had to beat the bars back in; the Sunset Stretcher Bars alleviate that issue.”

Crow adds that she had a laptop by her side to watch the how-to videos while she wrapped the canvas onto the Sunset Stretcher Bars. “I’m glad we had the videos and that such a valuable resource is available from LexJet. If I can find the information, rather than calling someone to walk me through it, I would rather have that video or blog resource. I think the videos are amazing. They’re very professional, and I know that making a good video is difficult,” she adds.

Now that Crow has an efficient production process in place, the orders are taken directly from the Wounded Wear website, they wrap the canvas, finish it with Sunset Satin Coating and ship them out. Crow says the print quality “has been amazing;” so good, in fact, that you can see where the names of each fallen Navy SEAL were penciled in, even though they’re faint on the original.

“As soon as we made the prints live, people started purchasing them. The Facebook page has been up for three or four weeks; we have 1,800 likes and we’ve sold 22 prints,” says Crow. “We also sent some prints out to the artist to sign and those will be auctioned off as signed limited edition prints.”

For more information and to help the cause:

UNTIL It Hurts Facebook Page

Wounded Wear

Navy SEAL Foundation

Sunset Stretcher Bars Demonstration on YouTube

LexJet’s YouTube Site

Canvas Wrap Guide

Making an Impression, Leaving a Trail at Muddy Feet Graphics

Advertising with bus graphics

Muddy feet certainly do leave an impression and the muddier the feet the more impressions you leave. That’s Todd Dofflemyer’s philosophy, figuratively speaking of course, where the mud his company gets its feet dirty with is the diversity of products it offers its customers.

Dofflemyer, owner of Muddy Feet Graphics in Harrisonburg, Va., has an extensive history in the commercial printing world; he was instrumental in bringing one of the world’s largest commercial printers into the digital world from analog back in the 1980s. When he struck out on his own less than two years ago, he combined his experience in innovation with a studious view of trends in the graphics market that has helped Muddy Feet Graphics grow quickly in a short time.

Advertising with fleet graphics on vehicles
Muddy Feet Graphics used Simple Flo Wrap Vinyl, laminated with Simple Flo Wrap Gloss UV Laminate for an easy and ecomonical fleet project.

“We call ourselves a graphics company and not a sign company since we can put a logo on just about anything,” says Dofflemyer. That’s why printing t-shirts is an important component of Muddy Feet Graphics’ business. Though it represents only about 20 percent of the company’s production, it feeds the large-format graphics and sign side of the business and vice-versa.

Muddy Feet Graphics does not screen print, but instead goes direct-to-shirt with an AnaJet direct-to-garment inkjet printer. This process allows short, on-demand, custom runs that t-shirt printing has been trending toward over the past few years.

“I’d rather find a hundred people who need ten shirts, rather than ten people who need 100. People don’t want to keep a lot of inventory and potentially waste shirts, so we can customize their order so they don’t keep as much in stock,” says Dofflemyer. “When someone comes in to pick up a banner they see us making t-shirts and vice-versa, so the more things you have that are similar but not the same, the more opportunity you have.”

Another area where Muddy Feet Graphics is making inroads thanks to its logo-on-everything approach is vehicle graphics. Vehicle wraps have been slower to arrive on the scene in Virginia than hot spots like California and Florida, but once local customers saw the advertising value of it, more jobs began to roll into the shop.

“If it’s $2,500 for a vehicle wrap and you spread it across four years, the average lifetime of a fleet vehicle, it comes out to about $50 per month. Then, compare that cost and the overall effectiveness of a moving billboard to other media with less visibility and the price is easier for the customer to accept,” explains Dofflemyer.

Another trend that Dofflemyer has noticed and responded to is the more temporary nature of the requests that come through the door. For a recent bus wrap, Muddy Feet Graphics used a removable vinyl for the body of the bus and LexJet Simple Perforated Window Vinyl (60/40) for the windows.

“We used a removable vinyl for the bus project since the message will change regularly, and we used the LexJet window perf because we were having problems with the other window perf we were using.

Printing wall murals for bedrooms
Todd Dofflemyer, owner of Muddy Feet Graphics, says he's found the perfect wall mural material in LexJet Simple WallCal (6 Mil).

No matter how long I let it sit it was transferring to the unprinted area of the window perf and we found the LexJet material applies easier and I don’t have a problem with the ink drying,” explains Dofflemyer. “Now it seems that everybody wants a message that’s tailored to today that could change tomorrow.

You used to see a lot more metal real estate signs, for instance, but you’re seeing more step stakes. In this economy, that house will sit there for awhile so they want to change the message a lot. Everybody needs to be more aggressive so that message needs to change more.”

And that’s good news for everyone in the large format graphics market. Additionally, Dofflemyer has noticed that clients are including a QR bar code on more of their printed pieces to take advantage of smart phone technology. A banner can serve a dual purpose of getting a quick look-at-me message with a QR code that takes the curious to a website with more in-depth information.

“Digital graphics can be distributed in all kinds of ways and we’re finding that more and more of them are simply avenues to your phone,” says Dofflemyer.

With its focus on blending printed and purely digital technologies and being ever cognizant of what its customer base needs as progress makes its forward march, Muddy Feet Graphics is poised to make good on its tagline: Make an Impression, Leave a Trail.

Winner of iPad Drawing Has Big Plans for New Printer

Keith Fabry Inc., Richmond, Va., was one of five companies picked randomly to win a free iPad 2 with Wi-Fi and 3G in LexJet’s first-quarter printer promotion where everyone who bought a 42-inch or wider printer from LexJet received a $200 gift certificate and were entered into the drawing.

Inkjet printing photo metallic Canon printerOperations manager Ricky Shannon says the promotion was perfectly timed since the company was looking for a printer with which to attack the fine art reproduction market. Since its inception in 1958, Keith Fabry Inc. has always seized opportunity. The company was founded to focus on reprographics and when plotting went full color, Keith Fabry went full bore into that market.

Keith Fabry still does blueprint work, but the majority of its work is now concentrated on high-quality, full-color output with a 4×8 flatbed, a low-solvent printer and an older aqueous printer. It was time to upgrade and seize opportunity once again so the company bought a 44-in. wide Canon iPF8300 to make it happen.

“We’ve had the printer installed for a week or so and have printed some work on Sunset Hot Press Rag and Sunset Photo Metallic Paper. The prints look great and with the printer’s ability to do edge to edge printing and back trim to the print is a big plus for our workflow,” says Shannon. “That machine will mainly be a fine art and photo machine, as well as some high end museum work, and we’ll offer high-end Sunset photo and fine art papers on it. We’ve toyed with this market before, but didn’t have the proper hardware to pull it off. It’s a small investment for what you can re-sell prints. We expect it will pay for itself very soon.”

We’ll stay in touch with Keith Fabry and profile some of the more interesting projects the company prints in the future. Other winners of the iPad drawing included Banko Beverage Company, Dave Zerbe Studio, Wine & Beverage Merchants of W.V., and Mears Photography.