[jatrax]

One thing on metal prints that is not always obvious is that there are several 'finishes'. The bare metal allows the aluminum to show through and in my opinion looks ghastly with color photos. I've never tried it with a black & white though. I generally use the white gloss undercoating which gives the resulting image a very glossy and detailed look. There are also several matte style finishes that reduce the reflections if being displayed where that is an issue.

[MSL]

One thing on metal prints that is not always obvious is that there are several 'finishes'. The bare metal allows the aluminum to show through and in my opinion looks ghastly with color photos

Really useful advice. Thanks.

Here is a quick and dirty cell phot picture showing the result. Of course it doesn't do justice to the print, but still.

Thanks for sharing. Gives me an idea of what is possible or worthwhile to try.

[bdery]

The bare metal allows the aluminum to show through and in my opinion looks ghastly with color photos. I've never tried it with a black & white though.

My point exactly. My own print is a B&W and it looks fabulous (if I do say so myself) with the metal visible through the print. With a colour image, it would skew the colour balance because white wouldn't be white.

[jatrax]

With a colour image, it would skew the colour balance because white wouldn't be white.

Agreed. I have a small metal print of Wizard Island in Crater Lake Oregon that was done on bare metal in error. It is ghastly as the only color is the blue of the water and a bit of green here and there. That soured me completely on bare metal and I have never tried it again.
I have a friend who also does his work on metal and he has several black and white images that look very nice on the bare metal. And sell well at shows. When we had shows............

[bdery]

I have a friend who also does his work on metal and he has several black and white images that look very nice on the bare metal. And sell well at shows. When we had shows............

I have seen some decent metal prints of coloured images, but it needs to have no white at all.

With B&W it takes a magical feel.

[jatrax]

but it needs to have no white at all.

Yes, my Crater Lake image did not look good with all the snow showing as bare aluminum.

[MSL]

I have a friend who also does his work on metal and he has several black and white images that look very nice on the bare metal.

Does this friend show images online? I'd be curious to see what was printed.
Thanks for the additional notes about metal and bare or coated. Just one more thing to think about.

[jatrax]

Here is his website: Shop Photography Art | Vldn Taylor Photography I did a quick look and don't really see any B&W though. Not sure why he didn't put them up there,

[MSL]

Here is his website: Shop Photography Art | Vldn Taylor Photography I did a quick look and don't really see any B&W though. Not sure why he didn't put them up there,

Thanks so much. I'll take a look and maybe contact him about the B&W stuff if I don't find any.
I saw a few that were mostly B&W, but even so from the discussion above wouldn't work on bare metal. For all his prints he seems to offer only high gloss or semi gloss metal.

[emalvick]

One thing on metal prints that is not always obvious is that there are several 'finishes'. The bare metal allows the aluminum to show through and in my opinion looks ghastly with color photos. I've never tried it with a black & white though. I generally use the white gloss undercoating which gives the resulting image a very glossy and detailed look. There are also several matte style finishes that reduce the reflections if being displayed where that is an issue.

This was what I was trying to get at earlier. I find that the bare metal can be ok in color but isn't always great in black and white.

I printed a few photos out a while back for my work office. I had some photos I took of the Northern Lights in Iceland that were awesome with the metal shining through. It made the lights look like they were right there glowing. I do think it is gimmicky overall as I remember seeing a gallery full of color metal prints like this and thinking it looked a bit cheesy.

For a black and white I did, I went with the white to preserve the detail and contrast in the image. In all cases, I had bought 4x6 samples of the images (or croppings to test the dpi) to see how all the finishes looked.

What I've determined is that the metal showing through works best when you are dealing with a generally darker (like a night shot) with very high contrast or highlights. The white base works better for daylight images that are brighter where most of the details are at the higher levels and most likely to be lost with the metal showing through.

In all cases, I've liked the glossy better. A matte finish seems to limit the wow factor, and I'd rather just go with a canvas or standard print at that point.

[MSL]

@emalvick thanks so much. Lots of good points well summarized. I'm also thinking about getting a couple of sets of samples (one for a b&w and one for a color image) before I dive too deep into printing.