Last December I started on a small quest to find better ecological alternative inkjet printing papers for my use here in the US, which the Moab papers that are partly manufactured in Moab, Utah, were one of the finalist. To keep my printing costs in line, my practice is to use a middle grade inkjet paper as a ‘proofing’ paper to tweak and test my images and reserving the more expensive 100% cotton Rag paper for the final print for exhibition and sale.
I purchase a box of the Moab Lasal Exhibition Luster, a 300gm paper as one alternative to current Hahnemuehle Photo Pearl manufactured in Germany. Both papers are Resin Coated (RC) Alpha Celulose, while the Lasal is 100% Alpha Celulose (meaning derived from wood). Neither are actually great for recycling due to the RC coating. Since it’s my purpose to use the resulting prints for doing book comps and as reference prints, very little of the paper is intended to go into the waste bin. Thus, with recycling as a eco-green consideration, it has a low waste impact for my artistic practice, same as the Hahnemuehle.
I have been printing some of my Anthropogenic Crisis series on the Moab Lasal as a part of my print evaluation. I am not using the custom ICC profile from Moab, but one I made with my X-Rite i1 Studio. I have also created my own color profile for the Moab Juniper, which is their Baryta Rag, their top of the line luster paper that is 100% Rag, which would be my go-to for a exhibition and sales print.
So far so good, I have a couple of troublesome photographs that easily go out-of-gamut in both the reds and blues as test images, while the photo above stays with-in gamut for most to my print profiles. The white and black points for both the Moab Lasal and the H. Photo Pearl look very similar, while I note that the H. Photo Pearl has more out-of-gamut areas than the Lasal with my troublesome images; a bonus point for the Lasal.
I am still working on the overall eco-green evaluation of this Moab inkjet paper, but while I am based in the US, having a US based paper with a resulting lower carbon footprint than the H. Photo Pearl is another bonus point for Lasal. Here in southern California, it seems that a lot of the local colleges and schools recommend the H. Photo Pearl to their students. Maybe because the H. Photo Pearl comes in 25 sheet boxes versus the Lasal in 50 sheet boxes, thus an overall low price point for someone on a tight budget. I have priced the Lasal in a 250 sheet box and the price per sheet drops under 0.90, but that is also a $200+ purchase with local CA taxes.
At this point, I think I have found a very promising ‘local’ alternative to the Hahnemuehle inkjet papers. Score a point for the environment.
Best regards,
Doug
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Workshops and Portfolio Reviews
Southeast Center for Photography (SEC4P): Creative PhotoBook workshop (Sold Out), a virtual event on Zoom; January 22 & 23 and 29 & 30, 2022, 10am – 1pm, EST (3 hour session each day, with a week between the weekend sessions to work your book-dummy).
Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP): Exposure Weekend, virtual portfolio reviews, which I am one of the many portfolio reviewers available, January 27 – 30th, 2022, details here.
Medium Photo: Developing a Creative Photo Book, a virtual (Zoom) workshop I will be leading again in conjunction with Medium Photo on: March 5th & 6th and then March 12th & 13th, 2022, from 9am to noon, PST. More details and sign-up available now at Medium Photo.
Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC): Developing a Creative Photo Book, a virtual (Zoom) workshop I will be leading on Saturday & Sunday, May 14th & 15th and then Saturday & Sunday 21st and 22nd, 2022, from 1pm to 4pm Mountain Time (MT). Registration is open with discounts for members.
Singular Images 