I just hung a show & sat back to look at the images on the wall. Most looked fine. A couple of them didn't look as good on the wall as they do in my own display area. The lighting is different. I had printed these images to match the 35-50 watt quartz halogen spots I use to highlight images and in the museum gallery they are in now, they were too dark. I re-printed the main offender, changing paper also. Changed from Ilford Multigrade IV Fibre to Forte Elegance. Then printed a bit lighter for the softer lighting and selenium toned the Forte to the reddish bronze, way past the 'purple black' I tend to look for with the Ilford. With the gallery walls color this lighter, warmer version of the same print works much better. The question is simple: Do you print for the display conditions or print as you want & then hope for the best, even if the display lighting does not show your image to best advantage?

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), October 01, 1997

Answers

response to display

I use 120W GE Miser bulbs in track lights on an adjustable toggle switch. My dry print viewing begins at EV9 (on a gray card) and then I begin decreasing the light output. If the print dies, I try to reprint it (usually I let it sit for awhile). But I do not show it.

A friend who is a nationally reknowned photographer told me a story of how he was printing a print for a client assuming they were going to hang it in a dimly lit dining room. He visited their house sometime after delivery and was surprised and aghast that they had hung it on a beautifully lit mantle in their living room.

-- Doug McSpadden (mcspadden @mcn.net), October 09, 1997.