Prints on metal, canvas, wood?

I know this could probably be on the discussion (talk) side but think it would get more use on this side of the forum. I have just made my first order of prints on both metal & wood. I thought it would be neat to see the different results of the finished product? Hope I didn't start or duplicate a thread. I did search, this is meant to be informative of works best and what doesn't. And to display obviously what should be beautiful works!

I've printer on metal quite a bit, never on wood though. Metal is my favorite medium to sell prints on for sure

For wildlife, for birds anyway, I found that printing on canvas was not a very good solution. I like to capture detail, and when you print on canvas your are literally obliterating that detail.
I was one of a small handful of photographers in a themed mixed media gallery show fairly recently, there was one other guy with some bird photos and he'd chosen to print them all on Canvas. Frankly I found that his work was really damaged by this printing process. It just ended up looking like a gimmick, and the prints lacked the detail that people expect when looking at wildlife shots.

I am sure there are exceptions, where masses of color etc., will make for a nice composition. In fact I saw exactly that sort of exception at another gallery show I was part of. The best work there was this local guy who'd been shooting underwater photos of jellyfish. The lighting and color printed on canvas was in fact spectacular. The least "exotic" species in the show, the most local (read easy to get to) locations, and yet the most artistic "best of show" results.


Metal is a whole different story!
I've not seen any wood prints.

Thanks for the input Jake, I knew the thread could go either way. Was hoping I guess to see shots of the final product hanging on the wall creating a ongoing thread of the final results. I have two in metal & one on wood so I'm hoping they are not a loss, and my PP on my monitor results are the same as the prints.

I always had a difficult time taking a photo of a metal print to show how amazing they look in person, it just never looks as good in a photo. I will say I sharpen pretty aggressively when printing on metal, especially because I mostly print 12x18 and larger when getting a metal print done

Thank you for the input , I will heed to your advice. I think on my prints I had already read that and went a little over what I normally am comfortable with so I hope they pan out.
I know how challenging it is to reduplicate taking a photo of a picture with reflections, lighting ect. But if we get some more to chime in and share shots I'm sure we can all admire some great shots and understand the circumstances they were taken under. This isn't meant to critique but understand what works and or doesn't and just flat share the final result. I know there has to be some beautiful wildlife shots that are unique on these type of materials.

I prefer masonite, with aluminium as a second choice. I used canvas for a couple of digital paintings, years ago, but even for paintings I'd use masonite or aluminium now.

Has anyone played around with printing to acrylic?
I love metal as a personal preference, but I've been wanting to explore the possibilities of acrylic for showcasing wildlife and nature photography.
Just wondering if anyone has tried it out and what their impressions are?

I just saw that my production company offers wood prints; which I'm trying to decide on a couple of images to try out. I recently did some trial prints on metal, though...and WOW!!! Especially for landscapes/waterfalls/​wildflowers, what an amazing medium! They really are stunning.

Canvas would be nice for subdued images and fine art/people type things; but, as Jake said, anything that kind of requires "detail" is going to fall severely flat on canvas.

What finish are most of you guys using for the metal prints? Gloss or sheer? I've got a few prints I'm wanting to do on metal, but can't decide which type to pick even with the sample plates of each from the print shops.

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GoHokiesGo wrote in post #18169090
What finish are most of you guys using for the metal prints? Gloss or sheer? I've got a few prints I'm wanting to do on metal, but can't decide which type to pick even with the sample plates of each from the print shops.

This completely depends on the particular image you are printing. Some images look great on "sheer", as you call it, while others look best on gloss. You really just have to develop a feel for the different mediums and how they look with different types of subject matter printed on them.

Here is an image that I had printed on something called "luminescent", or something like that. The description of that finish said something about how it is a soft look, and "allows the highlights of the aluminum itself to shine through the image". It turned out awesome! If I had printed this particular image on regular gloss it would have looked stupid. Conversely, if I were to print most of my other deer images on "luminescent", they would look stupid. It's just one of those subjective things that you simply need to develop an eye for.

Well shucks - I kind of knew the answer would be that it depends!

That does help though actually - the image you posted has a bit more muted peaceful colors, so I could how having the aluminum show through in the highlights would be very nice. The few that I want to print are brighter shots, so they'd probably benefit from having the highlights brightly colored. Sounds like I need to just print a few and take the leap.