John Fitzgerald in his modern pro lab on Guernsey

John Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald’s Photographic Services, a medium-sized custom photo laboratory in Guernsey on the Channel Islands, is a progressive member of the photo finishing community. He keeps his lab up-to-date with the latest equipment and software, and follows trends in services. He tells us: “We’re of the mind that, especially with the way the market moves so fast, if you don’t keep up with it you’ll fall behind very rapidly, and eventually drop out, as a lot of labs have done.”

Fujifilm is John Fitzgerald’s preferred solutions provider. John explains: “I favour Fujifilm because they have that personal contact with me. I know various people there, I know what their areas of expertise are, they’re happy for me to phone them up and just chat to them every now and again, about my thoughts and problems, about what I’d like to see, and they see if there are ways they can accommodate me.”

Fujifilm has supplied a number of solutions to Fitzgerald’s recently, to help it develop and innovate in its business. The Guernsey lab is evolving from a traditional photo printer into the modern model, a digital imaging centre. Its new solutions include a Fujifilm Xerox 700 Digital Colour Press for high-end photo book production, a Fujifilm Frontier 770 minilab for high-speed productivity, Fujifilm SmartPix in-store and on-line photo kiosks, Fujifilm Epson large format printers, and a range of new inkjet papers.

Fujifilm Xerox 700 Digital Colour Press
John Fitzgerald first saw the Fujifilm Xerox 700 Digital Colour Press exhibited at PMA 2009 in Las Vegas, and had a hands-on interactive demonstration. The Digital Colour Press uses toner to print at 2400dpi resolution on papers up to 300gsm in weight and up to SRA3 in size, at a rate of 70 pages per minute. It does automatic duplex printing on papers up to 220gsm.

John told us: “I was interested in the machine before the show, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to see one. Because I knew it was going to be there, I made sure I had a good chat with the Fujifilm people, and have a look at it, along with the competing devices that were around, and see what the quality was like. I knew the Fujifilm Xerox 700 was going to be available through Fujifilm UK from chatting with David Hartwell, my Fujifilm rep. I usually bend his ear about what’s happening and what latest products they are producing. So he knew of my interest in this type of printing technology.“

David Hartwell, sales executive for Fujifilm business imaging, recalls: “Because Fitzgerald’s and Fujifilm have such a good working relationship, when John got back from Las Vegas he just rang me up and asked if he could come over from Guernsey to see the our new Digital Colour Press. So he came over to see us, we looked after him, and took him to see the printer at the Xerox offices. John was suitably impressed with the results it could produce. Then it was simply a case of how quickly he could get one installed.”

John Fitzgerald now uses the Fujifilm Xerox 700, in combination with its Light Production Finisher option, to produce high quality photo books, as well as short-run items, such as greeting cards, for the bespoke gift market. The Light Production Finisher is a stacker, stapler and hole-punch that can also collate and fold.

Fitzgerald’s custom laboratory is primarily for professional photographers and trade. John Fitzgerald tells us: “We weren’t doing photo books of this quality on this scale before. We have a small Xerox, the 7760, which came as part of another Fujifilm photo book solution. That’s still doing the work that comes through the SmartPix kiosks. But the Fujifilm Xerox 700 puts us in a completely different league. It enables us to do the higher quality photo books, the ones generated by the professionals’ own software.”

Fitzgerald’s is also a wholesale lab, doing photo sales fulfilment for many UK national newspapers. He prints copies of their published pictures to order for their readers. John is trialling different paper stocks on his Fujifilm Xerox 700 with a view to applying it to this work too. He expects to be offering custom greeting cards and calendars for the newspaper market from the autumn of 2009.

Fujifilm Frontier 770 Digital Minilab
It was because of its work fulfilling photo print orders on behalf of national newspapers that Fitzgerald’s developed a need, in 2008, for the fast Fujifilm Frontier 770 Digital Minilab. The firm needed to complement its existing Fujifilm Frontier 355, to run glossy and lustre paper at the same time, to have a degree of redundancy, and to achieve the throughput rates needed for its newspaper work.

John Fitzgerald told us: “The newspaper work is very fast. We download it each morning and we have to have it all printed and packed by eleven o’clock, to go out in the post that day. So we’re only looking at a three hour turn-around. At our busiest time of year we need to print and pack maybe 1,500 prints in less than two hours. So we needed the Frontier 770.”

Crystal Archive Professional Paper Type DP-II
Fitzgerald’s uses Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Paper Type DP-II for all its RA4 process. The paper is optimised for digital exposure. It has the substantial base support that professional’s expect, giving a long-lasting product. And its whiter base colour and deeper shadows yield increased dynamic range.

John Fitzgerald says: “I like the quality and the handling. It doesn’t damage easily. And I like the look of it, not over-saturated or too contrasty. It has a professional look and feel. It’s a very nice paper.”

He also uses the Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Paper Type DP-II for prints up to thirty inches wide produced on his Durst Theta system.

Fujifilm Epson Stylus Pro printers and Fujifilm Professional Inkjet Paper
Fitzgerald’s also make large format inkjet prints, including fine art reproductions. These are output on the Fujifilm Epson Stylus Pro 9900 and 7800 printers, on a range of Fujifilm papers. John tells us: “We use the Museum Rough, the Fine Art Rag, the Canvas papers, and of course the Baryte, as well as normal Silk. The most popular is the Museum Rough.”

He continues: “One of our customers is the museum here on Guernsey. They’re starting to introduce all their artwork online for people to buy copies of, and Museum Rough is their favoured paper. We printed various styles of their art, whether photographic or watercolour or whatever medium, on various papers, and let them decide which one they preferred.”

Fitzgerald’s use a Fujifilm Colour Hunter RIP to print this colour-critical fine art work on Fujifilm Epson large format printers. John says: “Using the Fujifilm Colour Hunter RIP is the only way I trust to run inkjets. I’ve tried running them directly from a computer and hated it. With the Colour Hunter you can just pop images straight in and rely on the Fujifilm profiles.”

Fujifilm SmartPix photo kiosks
Another area in which Fitzgerald’s is driving forward is kiosks. The lab has added two new Fujifilm SmartPix kiosks, and the Fujifilm online kiosk, in addition to a Fujifilm unit they already had.

Fujifilm SmartPix photo kiosks enable an outlet to sell much more than just standard 6x4in prints. They present compelling options to the self-service customer to easily choose up-sells to higher margin products, including photo books, posters, calendars, canvases and a wide range of gifts. Online, the virtual SmartPix kiosk lets the lab’s customers make these choices from home.

John Fitzgerald told us about price movements on kiosk products: “We did go through a phase of dropping our kiosk prices right down to try and compete with the PhotoBoxes and SnapFishes of this world. But since then we’ve put them up, and not seen any difference in numbers of prints coming through. That shows the public don’t choose cheap price over quality.”

Fujifilm solutions
John Fitzgerald’s own analysis of how Fujifilm solutions have enabled him to preserve margin while photo finishing has undergone rapid and exciting change is this: the corporation’s products provided the automation, productivity, first-time hit rate and added value that he needs. He says: “Our gross margin is probably lower than it used to be. But our production is much higher to compensate. In the old days of film we could often test everything twice then reprint it all. These days it’s all very high first time results. And a lot less time spent on the orders. The bulk orders basically fly through, and that’s it. We don’t even get to see the photographs, apart from when we take them out and pack them up. And we’re moving toward more value added and higher margin products, produced, for instance, on the Fujifilm Xerox 700 system.”

Fujifilm enabling the modern digital imaging centre
Fitzgerald’s Photographic Services is an example of how Fujifilm solutions can enable medium-size pro labs to cost-effectively provide many of the facilities offered by larger ones, and also stay ahead of the innovation curve. Fitzgerald’s is a modern lab for modern times, a comprehensive digital imaging centre, embracing the convergence of photo finishing and press printing, and the digital and online revolutions.

For more information on Fujifilm’s solutions, email minilabs@fuji.co.uk or call +44 (0)1234 572 144 today.

Fujifilm Epson 11880 GreenBox large format printer at Farnells Photographic

David Farnell has chosen the FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox system for Farnell Photographic Laboratory’s new digital print service. Farnell, who has been printing since 1978, chose the 64″ FUJIFILM solution for his Lake District pro lab based on the quality of its prints on FUJIFILM papers.

“It was the quality of work on the new papers that finally convinced me,” Farnell said. He had evaluated 11880 prints on FUJIFILM Fine Art Fibre Baryte paper. “Prior to that I’d been reluctant to offer digital prints because I had concerns about black and white quality, skin tones, and longevity. These are not a problem now.”

The installation of the 64″ FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox printer was done by specialists from FUJIFILM Photofinishing UK, who also provided the training and a follow-up post-installation visit, just to make-good. Farnell was reassured to be working with a corporation with a heritage in professional laboratories and fine art photo printing.

Farnell has also been gratified to find the new prints have gone down well with established clients, even traditionalists who are quite conservative. “It gives them something new to offer their customers,” he said, “and they want that.”

“We used to do Lambda prints up to 60″x30 but now we can do much bigger, in-house, with confidence” Farnell said.

His new 64″ FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox has enabled him not only to offer digital prints, but also to follow the trend for larger print sizes. “We used to do Lambda prints up to 60″x30″,”Farnell said, “but now we can do much bigger, in-house, with confidence.”

The FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox also wins out against traditional kit on costs. “The service contracts on some of our legacy kit had meant we couldn’t justify extra machines to provide redundancy and backup,” Farnell said. “But the cost in down-time and call-out charges would have been unaffordable if something went wrong. The FUJIFILM system doesn’t have those costs, and it means we have another digital unit we can move jobs onto when something else fails.”

For more information on FUJIFILM’s GreenBox large format photo printing solutions, email greenbox@fuji.co.uk or call Peter Hayward, Commercial Manager of FUJIFILM UK Photofinishing, on +44 (0)1234 572 135.

Fujifilm UK have expanded their range of professional inkjet media, with additions that include a popular new satin finish canvas type, and an outstanding genuine fibre base gloss baryte. The new papers are available now from all main Fujifilm stockists.

The Satin Canvas 350gsm is one of two new canvases introduced by Fujifilm UK. Satin has become the canvas finish most favoured by US consumers, a trend the UK is expected to follow.

The other new Fujifilm canvas is Fine Art Natural Canvas 290gsm, a single-weave natural matt.

But the big news in Fine Art must be that two completely new baryte type papers have joined the Fujifilm range of large format print media. The extensively tested new papers are available in gloss and matt, the base paper is genuine fibre based baryte media.

Artist Nic Gaunt used the new Fujifilm Fine Art Fibre Baryte Gloss 310gsm for each of the 42 large format prints in his “The Rotunda Project – 21 Stories” international touring exhibition.

“My printers and gallery both said this new paper’s fantastic,” Nic said, “It’s so good it seems a shame to put it behind glass. The framers had so much respect for it, they took extra care in the dry mounting, to make sure they didn’t spoil it. I don’t think it’s that good, I think it’s better than that! I’ve waited so long for a paper of traditional quality to come along, and now I’ve got something that beats it!”

“My printers and gallery both said this new paper’s fantastic,” Nic Gaunt said, “It’s so good it seems a shame to put it behind glass. The framers had so much respect for it, they took extra care in the dry mounting, to make sure they didn’t spoil it. I don’t think it’s that good, I think it’s better than that! I’ve waited so long for a paper of traditional quality to come along, and now I’ve got something that beats it!”

The new Fujifilm baryte papers have a premium look and feel, wide dynamic range, luminous neutral whites, and hold deep, rich blacks. They even have the scent of traditional baryte papers! And they give exceptional, museum standard, archival life.

Graham Diprose, Lead Tutor in Photography in Graphic Design, LCC, and colleague Jeff Robins, researched with Mike Seaborne, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London, before choosing Fujifilm Fine Art Fibre Baryte as the archival medium for both new and digitally restored Victorian images in their ambitious “…in the footsteps of Henry Taunt” project, when they knew it was to be placed in English Heritage’s National Monuments Record archive.

“We carefully researched a number of alternatives,” Graham said, “but we chose Fujifilm Fine Art Fibre Baryte over digital storage, and any other paper, for its exceptional archival life. Wilhelm Imaging Research data indicated that only with Fujifilm Fine Art Fibre Baryte could we be confident of being able to send digital photographic images 300 years or more into the future.”

Fujifilm Fine Art Fibre Baryte Gloss 310gsm and Fujifilm Fine Art Fibre Baryte Matt BW 310gsm are available now, in cut sheets and rolls, from dealers of Fujifilm professional large format inkjet media.

For more information, email greenbox@fuji.co.uk or call Peter Hayward, Commercial Manager of Fujifilm UK Photofinishing, on +44 (0)1234 572 135.

Photographers Graham Diprose and Jeff Robins from London College of Communication, have worked for the past ten years to revisit and recreate images from Victorian Henry Taunt’s ‘New Map of the River Thames’ (1885). When it was agreed that their digital photographs would be taken into English Heritage’s National Monument Record archive, they became concerned that Taunt’s silver based prints from 130 years ago might have a longer life than their new digital images. With the help of Fujifilm and HP, they have now been successful in re-printing over 60 pairs of ‘then and now’ ink-jet images of the Thames, which, thanks to advances in digital technology, and should last for at least another 300 years. 30 of these pairs of stunning new shots and restored images of some of Taunt’s finest photographs were launched at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley in October 2007 and are presently on a national tour. They can be presently be seen at Abingdon Museum until the end of February 2009.

Graham, lead tutor in photography in the School of Graphic Design at LCC, and professional photographer Jeff embarked on their ambitious project to recreate Taunt’s series of images taken alongside the River Thames in 1999. Graham says: “Henry Taunt’s early use of ‘wet collodion’ on location made him a cutting edge landscape photographer for his time and we have always admired his work. When we began this project we were using the highest resolution Phase One digital camera backs available in the UK, so we have much in common with his pioneering spirit”.

“Having visited over 100 of Taunt’s ‘tripod spots’ between Thames Head Spring and Westminster, we then searched the archives of English Heritage’s NMR, Oxfordshire Studies and River and Rowing Museum. While these organisiations are responsible for protecting Taunt’s original prints, Jeff and I decided to use digital technology to retouch and restore his images, so that the remarkable detail could be seen and distractions of any damage could be removed. Taunt shot over 50,000 images in his lifetime and 13,000 can still be seen on English Heritage’s Viewfinder website. We felt that he had been grossly under-rated or neglected by comparison with other photographers of the era, such as Frances Frith and hope this project will rectify that.”

Graham and Jeff were helped in their extensive research into the best way to preserve Taunt’s restored photographs and their new images by Mike Seaborne, Senior Curator of photographs at the Museum of London. “One of our biggest concerns was considerable risk of loss when images are only stored as data, however good the archive. Thankfully, Mike knew of some research by the Wilhelm Institute which suggested that Fujifilm’s Baryte 300gsm media in conjunction with an HP Designjet Z3100 large format printer would produce superior quality images that could last for more than 300 years. Once again, Jeff and Graham were keen to use the most advanced technology available for this project and so approached the two companies to see if they could help.”

They were in luck. HP provided them with a loan of the Designjet Z3100 printer and Fujifilm provided them with a supply of 300gsm Baryte paper to help with their exhibition output and prints for archive. Offering a spectrum of unique features, the HP Designjet Z3100, which is being marketed by Fujifilm, delivers extreme high-end colour and superb quality results, all beautifully rendered with accurate detail and efficient processing print after print after print. Available in 24” and 44” models, it boasts a host of unique benefits, including a built-in Eye-One spectrophotometer from X-Rite for automatic colour adjustment and easy ICC profiling – a world first for this class of printer.

Fujifilm’s 300gsm Baryte paper offers a digital alternative for fibre based silver hailde prints and offers stunning results for black and white or sepia toned images thanks to its high density rating (d-max). When used in conjunction with the HP Designjet Z3100 printer and vivera pigment inks it produces results with a permanence that, according to tests carried out by the Wilhelm Institute, will outlast traditional film prints. Three years ago, digital photographs were only expected to last for around 30 years, with the lifespan of traditional images estimated to be 90 years, so the findings are expected to mark a significant turning point for those still using conventional photography methods.

Graham continues: “Both the printer and the paper have been pivotal to our project. While the process was long, the results that we have been able to achieve with the Designjet and the Baryte paper have been amazing and have the ‘look and feel’ of traditionally made C-type colour prints but with a much longer life.
We were also able to use the system to print our captions and 8ft x 2ft banners for the exhibition, using ‘In Design’, again with perfectly controlled colour management”.

“Large enough to accommodate the 24” paper that we were using, with the added benefits of efficient processing, amazing colour depth and detail, the HP Designjet printer has helped us to create some truly impressive images. One of its key advantages is that it can switch quickly between black and white and colour with no need to change the inks. It also produces a continuous tone that stays true when using black and white inks, which achieved perfect results when trying to achieve maximum depth and detail, particularly in the shadows. Combined with the quality of the Fujifilm Baryte paper, which offered a superb level of reproduction and sharpness, we were able to produce a collection of beautiful prints that will help Taunt’s work, and our project, live on for a very long time.”

“The workflow also gave us complete confidence in our colour management for proofing and checking the book of the project ‘River Thames Revisited …in the footsteps of Henry Taunt’. This was published by Frances Lincoln in October 2007 and is one of their very first ‘digital photography only’ books that was to be printed in China. Jeff and I are delighted that the photographs in the book and exhibition both match exactly and are precisely how we intended them to be reproduced”. The project has appeared on ITV Meridian and in January 2007 was a topic discussed with John McCarthy in BBC Radio 4’s Excess Baggage programme.

“We understand that this project is a ’first’ in terms of living photographers having their digital images and prints taken into archive by English Heritage National Monuments Record, and are confident that our collaboration with Fuji and HP has given the project images the very best possible chance of being enjoyed by scholars of photography, Victoriana or the River Thames in 250 years from now”. Peter Hayward at Fujifilm said: “We are delighted to have been able to assist Graham and Jeff with this groundbreaking project. Their work clearly demonstrates the merits and capabilities of the HPZ300 when used with this type of paper and proves just how far technology has come in recent years.”

For more information on the HP Designjet Z3100 large format inkjet printer or Fujifilm’s extensive range of media please contact the Photofinishing team on 01234 572 057.

Notes:

• Henry W Taunt was a Victorian photographer who worked out of premises in Oxford between 1860-1922. His main interests were Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, the River Thames, customs and local history. He produced the first guide book to the Thames in 1872 using photographs and maps and had a huge influence on the Victorians, sparking their interest in the Thames and leisure activity. As well as being a landscape and architectural photographer, Taunt was a keen observer of human nature, recording the activities of ordinary people at work and play. Books such as “Three Men in a Boat” or “The Wind in the Willows” might never have been written or have been as successful, were it not for Henry Taunt.

• Graham and Jeff’s images are published alongside those of Henry Taunt in a new book entitled ‘The River Thames Revisited: In the Footsteps of Henry Taunt’, (Frances Lincoln Limited). An exhibition of their work, in association with English Heritage, launched at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley in October and is at Abingdon Museum Museum until 28th February 2009. Their prints have been be presented to English Heritage NMR, Oxfordshire Studies and River & Rowing Museum, Henley to be added to their permanent collection and archived in perpetuity.

• For further information on the Wilhelm Institute please visit www.wilhelm-research.com

• Further details of the project and touring exhibition can be found on the project website
www.henrytaunt-footsteps.co.uk