Need some advice on picture finish...

[Sobrina]

Hi ,
I am currently starting a little business were I do decorative frames with my photographs. I've been doing some research over the past couple of weeks for the best way to keep the colors crisp in my pictures. What I've been told up until now is that I can either finish them with an epoxy finish or get them laminated. Is there also other ways ? Some of my frames is going to be in Washroom so with the humidity I'm not quite sure what to use....

Thanks

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[tirediron]

The best way to keep crisp colours is to print using high-quality inks on to archival-grade paper. I've never heard of applying an expoxy finish to an ink-jet type of image (Might be possible, I've just never heard of it), but it sounds to me more like a technique for oil paintings. I would think however that anything overlayed on the image is going interfere with viewing and laminating, even using high-grade commercial products tends to produce unpleasant sheens in certain lights.

[paigew]

what are you doing? Something like decoupaging on a frame? I would go for an epoxy resin.

[Big Mike]

There are many, many options for mounting/finishing your photos. For higher humidity environments, I'd suggest looking at something like a plexiglass mounting or maybe a metal print. My local lab just started offering images printed onto aluminum. A few other companies have been doing that for years. My lab also has a liquid laminate option, which would work well.

As for 'keeping the colors crisp'...are you talking about maintaining the colors over a long period of time, you are asking about getting crisp colors in the first place?

[Sobrina]

Thanks for answering I'll have to verify with Black's if we can choose different kind of paper and ink.
My decorative frames is a "montage" made with pictures and ornaments (it's not decoupaging). And I was trying to find a way not to use a picture frame with the glass... maybe have it glued on wood... that's wy I was wondering if there was any product I could've used to put on top of the photograph...

[Sobrina]

It would be for maintaining the colors over a long period of time

[Joey_Ricard]

Sobrina, I think I understand what you uare doing and I have done something similar with sports collectables.

I use metallic prints on these without glass over. Although in some cases the the box, had a glass, but it was not airtight nor was the glass against the print, which you don't want to do with metallic anyway.
from Mpix, which I use as a lab
Metallic Photo Paper: Our Metallic Photo Paper features a unique pearlescent surface. It offers highly saturated colors, ultra-bright backgrounds, and will last a lifetime with typical home storage.

[Rephargotohp]

Most labs offer a UV spray coating or laminating if you don't want to use glass. UV looks pretty natutual and some offer either a gloss or a semi gloss/matte sheen. Laminating can look OK, but if you have the image mouted to any backing board , Foam core, Mat board, gator board. If it isn't perfectly smooth, it will highlight any bumps in that board when viewed from the side