Photographic Papers – film and digital

First of all, it is very important to say that there is a very important difference between the photographic paper used for printing from photographic film and the photographic paper used in digital photography:

Traditional photographic paper is very sensitive to light !

This might sound obvious, but I have heard about some people who bought a pack of traditional photographic paper, between them, and before someone could stop him, one of them started counting them out to the group in a well lit room, suffice to say the paper that he had taken out of the box was exposed and of no use to anyone !

Traditional Photographic Papers

That said, there are different grades of traditional photographic paper, which ranged from fine to course and gloss to matt and with different weights (thicknesses).

These papers must be used in a darkroom where they are first placed upon the enlarger where a negative has been placed in the enlarger head.  The enlarger is used to project and expose the photographic paper to the light through the negative.

Once the paper has been exposed with the necessary time it is put through a series of baths that develop and fix the exposure onto the paper.

This paper is then allowed to dry properly.

Digital (Printer) Photographic Paper

Unlike traditional photographic paper, digital photographic paper is used in photographic and other colour printers.

It is important to set the preferences of the printer to suit the type of paper used:

Setting the wrong paper can cause the printer to print too much ink onto the paper.

Colours also look completely different when printed on plain paper compared to printing on gloss photographic paper.

Like traditional photographic paper, digital photographic paper comes in a number of different sizes and finishes, including:

Sizes

• Traditional photograph sizes (6” x 4”, 7” x 5”, 8” x 6”, 12” x 10”, etc)
  
• Standard European sizes (A6, A5, A4 and A3)
  
• Special sizes (panoramic, banner, etc)

Finishes

• Gloss
  
• Matt
  
• Perl
  
• Semi-gloss
  
• textured
  
• Canvas

Digital photographic paper also comes in a range of different weights, producing traditional photograph like prints, to slightly thicker than normal paper prints.

I have used a selection of papers myself including canvas which gave an almost traditional canvas painting feel to the finished photograph.

The colours, their saturation and hue can be set using photographic editing software and the whole, or selected colours, can be brightened if necessary.