I'm a long-time fan of Ilford's glossy digital silver gelatin fiber based baryta paper. I've been selling these silver gelatin prints on my website for years and they are stunning. In case you aren't familiar, these are real fiber-based silver gelatin prints like would have been made in the traditional darkroom, but made from a digital file. A digital printer exposes the light sensitive paper, which is then processed in the same wet chemistry as a darkroom.
And up until recently, there has been only one surface to choose from: glossy. Here you can see the baryta surface, and the degree of shine. It's not super shiny, but it's definitely glossy paper.
While I (and my clients) have loved these prints, I have wished many times that there was a matte offering. Here is a darkroom print I made on Ilford's classic matte fiber paper last year. I love the silky smooth surface, and look -- absolutely zero shine. I mean none!
The reason I have a preference for matte papers is because I don't like a shiny paper in the picture frame. Depending on how the client hangs the print, it can add unsightly reflections, in addition to the reflections already happening on the glass.
So, here is a digital print on Ilford's new matte surface digital silver gelatin paper. Again, you can see there is absolutely no glare.
Here are two 8x10s side by side, on the left is glossy, on the right is matte. My initial reaction is that both papers seem to be running a little dark. I've printed this image several times and the midtones seem too dark here. But anyways, let's compare
As is usually the case with matte papers, there's less contrast on the extremes. The blacks aren't as dense and dark as they are on the glossy print. The glossy print also seems to present more detail . . . it's sharper. This is pretty much the same outcome I would expect, based on experience with inkjet papers, which offer the same results.
Even though I like the matte paper, I think I'll continue to offer the glossy surface on my website for now. What do you think? Do you prefer the richer and sharper gloss? Or the softer, subtler, and less shiny matte?
