A Follow Up On Hahnemuhle Bamboo Fine Art Paper

People have been asking me about what I think of the Hahnemuhle bamboo paper I recently wrote about (see my 2-4-08 posting) For example, an e-mail today reads:

I read on your blog that you are excited about using the Bamboo paper by Hahnemuhle; do you print your own prints and have you used it as yet? What printer do you use, we have an Epson 3800 and am interested in knowing if the bamboo paper will be successful with it. Thank you. Susan and Neil

http://www.thesilvermansphotography.com

I thought I would use this opportunity to answer the Silverman's questions and review my experience with the paper. I am currently printing with an Epson 7800. I have made about 15 color prints, mostly portraits and a few landscapes, on 8.5x11 paper. The weight and look of the paper is handsome and has a warm, slightly yellow tone. The paper in my experience prints deceptively dark. I am using the Bamboo profile off the Hahnemuhle website along with the settings that they list including printing at 1440 dpi. I mention dark for several reasons, with one being that I find that I need to raise my brightness and contrast levels for the final prints by about 10% to achieve the luminosity that I want. In addition, I proof under daylight balanced (5200-5400) tubes on white walls and find that unless I use additional work lights, that the prints read really dark. For example, I showed my wife some prints from a series of portraits, and the whole time she complained at how dark they were until I held them under direct light, and then the prints kind of glowed and looked great. This may be the "spiritual" quality the manufacturers are talking about. I have printing on photo rag bright white paper and so this may also have something to do with the way my eyes reads the prints. Recently I have also been having some trouble with the 7800 not wanting to load the paper (I have to guide it gently) and it has been getting caught in the printer (which has to to with the way the paper slightly curls, which in all fairness is an issue for many of the heavy rags, which I usually "work" a little before I load in the printer) I like the paper, both for its quality and what it stands for environmentally. My personal aesthetic currently gravitates towards the bright white papers that I am used to working with, though I plan to keep the bamboo paper on hand for special and unique projects.