Laminating A3+ photos

peterhill

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I'm just trying to work out how to laminate my photos. I have just bought an Epson surecolour SC-P600. Not bought any paper yet. If I buy A3+ paper will I be able to laminate the photos without a roller laminator or should I just buy standard A3 size paper and laminating pouches ? It seems that standard laminators only take up to A3 size. Also, do I need to laminate anyway if the paper is glossy? 

Thanks in advance, Peter 

Summer

Welcome @peterhill

If you put the word "laminating" into the Search field at the top right of this page, you will be able to discover answers to your questions reading the threads that become available from past conversations on DMP. 

I tried the glossy paper bit instead of laminating and ruined a nice glossy photo straight away. 

I want to get back to laminating my own photos but for now I use an online company.  They develop my photo from tiffs I upload to them.  I suppose they would take jpegs as well. They have a large selection of papers, sizes, and some types of lamination to choose from--including glossy, which I love. 

Summer

tgarney

I take my jpegs to the local print shop and have them print, then laminate them for me. I figure it saved about $700 in equipment that I could not afford to purchase.

Boudicca

Hi Peter, if I need to work from a photo that’s  bigger than A3, I print out the photo in sections, laminate them then tape them all together. I’ve also seen on here that some people use a spray on the photo that helps protect it rather than laminating. I think @EstherH wrote somewhere on a thread about it.

tassieguy

You can also just use a scrap of clear plastic placed over the bit of the photo you are trying to match.  When it gets covered by small paint swatches you just toss it and get another bit.  I guess everyone has bits of clear plastic laying around and it saves the cost of laminating, the cost of paper towels and the time spent on all that wiping down. Works for me.

Roxy

Hi @peterhill - what @Boudicca said. Except I don't even bother taping the sections together as I tend to paint section by section anyway. I bought a cheap A4 laminator (less than $20AU) and cheap A4 sleeves (also about $20, for a pack of 100), so minimal cost doing it that way. I print my photos at a local office supply store - fuji process, excellent qualty, and dirt cheap at 5c / 6x4 print, and only a bit more expensive if I need to go bigger. I gave up on home printing. I have an Epson printer and its good quality, but the inks keep evaporating (via the continual head cleaning cycle) before I use them, and at about $150AU for a replacement set its just not economical. I had a canon printer before that, and it was worse. And don't get me started on the time I wasted fiddling around with bulk ink and syringes. Sorry. Printer rant over.

Edit: Ooops thats 10c/print, not 5c/print.

MichaelD

I had to stop using my cheap laminator and cheap sleeves because it was chewing the photos.
I tend to use a sheet of clear perspex which works fine for me, though I've been working more in size A4 and under, I guess you could just move the plastic around as tassieguy suggests.

PaulB

It would be interesting to just slide the photo under a glass palette.

Summer

PaulB said:

It would be interesting to just slide the photo under a glass palette.

When using this method, there might be coloring in the glass itself that has to be dealt with.  I usually  see oranges and blues.  

Summer

@Roxy

Your printer rant motivated me to get rid of mine this morning for the same reasons.  I was considering giving it another go, but I believe enough time and money has been wasted.

Summer

peterhill

Thanks for the insight everyone, I've bought a roll of clear film with a sticky backing, 0.5M X 1M, also the local print shop laminates for £2.20 each for A3 size. I like the idea of perspex too, I'm going to investigate and see if I can get some thin clear perspex and reuse it .....I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks again for the help 

Intothevoid

peterhill said:

Thanks for the insight everyone, I've bought a roll of clear film with a sticky backing, 0.5M X 1M, also the local print shop laminates for £2.20 each for A3 size. I like the idea of perspex too, I'm going to investigate and see if I can get some thin clear perspex and reuse it .....I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks again for the help 

Hi Peter,
How did you get on with this?
I'm in the UK too, can you tell me where you got the supplies? Thanks.

peterhill

Hi intothevoid, I bought the clear film from Cass Art in Birmingham, they have an online store also. I haven't actually laminated anything yet as I'm still experimenting with the camera and lightroom/Photoshop. I will let you know as soon as I try laminating

clare19

For anyone else in the UK interested in printing yourself and not spending a fortune. I bought a laminator on Amazon for around £30 that does all sizes under A3 and comes with a paper trimmer and I went for the Apex thinnest pouches. I already had an inexpensive HP printer with instant ink plan so that covers printing.

The cheapest budget photo paper called HP everyday has worked a treat. My crappy printer prints a decent photo with this paper. 

It was by far cheaper for me to do it myself than pay £7 a go each time. Gives room for trial and error! 

PaulB

@clare19, just so you know, the need to print and laminate is a temporary one. Soon you'll be judging colors without the need for lamination of a color checker. It takes quite a few paintings to train your eye, but you won't need it forever.

This should be a factor in deciding whether to buy equipment.

CJD

I used clear packing tape and just stuck some strips to the prints. This way is really cheap!

Paul is right though too - after mastering the DMP method and doing 15-20 paintings it's a good idea to stop color matching and learn how to match colours by eye

clare19

@PaulB I do hope you are right! 😁 Just for fun while waiting for my paint I used the colour checker app, Sip, on my Mac to check the colours on the still life I’ll be working on. I never would have picked the right colours. Hunter Green it says - all I see is black! 

Even if I only use the laminator a handful of times it works out cheaper for me to buy it. 

peterhill

We'll I tried the clear film on a roll from Cass Art but it was a waste of time. Loads of bubbles that I couldn't get out. So I went to the local print shop and he laminated two A3 size prints for £5. I'll stick with this and see how I progress. Hopefully as Paul B says, the laminating is a temporary need 

dencal

Clare19

Caution required. Not easily possible to match paint with reflective light with Mac colour using transmissive light. The contrast ratios make this difficult. 

Not impossible, but it takes some time to make the mental adjustment to the dull and narrow paint range and to translate to the wide bright value range in nature and on monitors.

Turning down the contrast and brightness of the Mac may help.

Best advice is to colour match with the correct lighting setup and a simple still life of your choice.

Denis

clare19

@peterhill glad you found an easy solution. Sounds like it’s more cost effective for you to get it done in the print shop.

Good luck with your painting! 

Intothevoid

I just bought a big roll (50cm x 10M = 20inch x 33ft) of adhesive backed plastic for covering books and maps for £10 ($12.50) and it even comes with a gridded backing so you can line up your prints perfectly.
Well worth considering rather than laminating.