Has anyone shot for Duratrans?

Baldy

Our entryway is kinda dark and a little bit ghetto, so I'm hoping to save it with a jaw-dropping 72x60 print from Leping Zha:



Seems to me this one and the dark location call for a backlit lightbox display... So that seems to mean Duratrans:

http://www.dpi-sf.com/duratrans.htm?gclid=CNbG4LjAwZUCFQ0xawodmzv6Qw

DPi in San Francisco has a 72-inch Lightjet (Leping doesn't like inkjet prints of his work). The digital file is from a very high quality scan of medium format film.

Does anyone have experience with Duratrans? I understand backlit translucent displays show grain more than reflective prints do. And that the printer needs to know about the illumination to get the exposure right.

Leping suggested we try a smaller print, so I ordered a test tonight. Would love to hear your thoughts.

InsuredDisaster

I love that shot.

DJ-S1

Baldy, Rabia does duratrans graphics all the time for work. It's Photoshop/Illustrator stuff not photographs, but she may have some insight for you.

ziggy53

Baldy wrote:

Our entryway is kinda dark and a little bit ghetto, so I'm hoping to save it with a jaw-dropping 72x60 print from Leping Zha:



Seems to me this one and the dark location call for a backlit lightbox display... So that seems to mean Duratrans:

http://www.dpi-sf.com/duratrans.htm?gclid=CNbG4LjAwZUCFQ0xawodmzv6Qw

DPi in San Francisco has a 72-inch Lightjet (Leping doesn't like inkjet prints of his work). The digital file is from a very high quality scan of medium format film.

Does anyone have experience with Duratrans? I understand backlit translucent displays show grain more than reflective prints do. And that the printer needs to know about the illumination to get the exposure right.

Leping suggested we try a smaller print, so I ordered a test tonight. Would love to hear your thoughts.

I used to produce images for my previous employer and sometimes new products were displayed at the hardware shows using a Duratrans and lightbox. I don't recall that there were any special considerations except that the printer always wanted 16 bit TIFFs, I presume so that they could make the final adjustments to the process.

We used DisplayCraft out of Rockford, IL and I was always pretty impressed with their work. I don't think they have an office there anymore but I think the parent organization is on the Net. You could probably give them a call.

http://www.displaycraft.com/sales/sales_graphic_guidelines_g_s.html

Baldy

Okay, cool. I'll drop Rabia a line. For those who don't know who she is, I am sorry for you:



I read that Duraclear passes more light but you need to diffuse the light more with the lightbox, and then I guess there's Fujitrans too. Duratrans is by Kodak. I was leaning that way because DPi will print Duratrans up to 72" wide and it seems to be the most popular/available material from vendors.

Doing a search on Duratrans doesn't turn up many results in the photo forums...

Jane B.

You brought back memories! It won't help with your current project; but back in the 1950's the car dealership where my father sold had a display that was a light box on the wall. It took plastic sheets that were the size of a large desk blotter. If fact, we used some from a previous year on our desk at home which had been rescued from a flood and refinished but had raised grain. The plastic smoothed the top for writing.
Jane B.

DiGrin

inkjet backlit print instead of Duratrans
Baldy, that photo is beautiful. If you want to save some money, I suggest you go for an inkjet produced duratrans instead of the photographically produced ones.... I ordered inkjet duratrans from backlitprint.com recently and was very happy, I didn't notice any difference from the duratrans I had before. I don't know if they'd do the large sizes though...

Baldy

DiGrin wrote:

Baldy, that photo is beautiful. If you want to save some money, I suggest you go for an inkjet produced duratrans instead of the photographically produced ones.... I ordered inkjet duratrans from backlitprint.com recently and was very happy, I didn't notice any difference from the duratrans I had before. I don't know if they'd do the large sizes though...

Interesting. I'll try them.

We got our first lightbox and two duratrans prints (both photographic) and this one turned out very well:



It's an LED lightbox, which isn't as bright but uses far less electricity.

I got the Duratrans from Blue River Digital.

worldburger

Baldy wrote:

Interesting. I'll try them.

We got our first lightbox and two duratrans prints (both photographic) and this one turned out very well:



It's an LED lightbox, which isn't as bright but uses far less electricity.

I got the Duratrans from Blue River Digital.

Hey Baldy (or anyone else for that matter),

Did you end up trying Backlitprint.com? The claims on their website are pretty promising ("Our process yields a higher quality result according to our tests for a lot less money.") Not that it doesn't exist, but I've yet to see nice/deep shadows in an inkjet backlit. I'd be curious how it held up to a lamda print backlit.

I'm on the fence whether I should go the commercial printer route or attempt to massage something decent out of my Epson 7900.

Any thoughts/suggestions?
David