How I made a large metal print myself | Dye Sublimation Printing for photography | Epson F570
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- Making a large metal print has been a dream of mine for a long time. And I finally have all the equipment necessary at work to make it happen!
I show you every step of the process, even overcoming a few mistakes that will cause major problems if they're not addressed.
This photograph is part of my Print of the Month program. Find out more about the prints here: brentbergherm....
Be sure to get on the email list so you can get the story behind each Print of the Month photograph. brentbergherm....
All about the printer from Epson: epson.com/For-...
Great lesson!
I have the F570 and use the Edge Rip Software, unfortunately it is only for windows so i work on my mac and print from my pc. But the software has all the color coding for the printer in it.
I have spent a lot of $$ in material learning. I had a lot of problems with the higher temps, always inconsistent results using the same Chromaluxe brand panels. I had a lot of issues with the edges looking incomplete or the blacks were still green (needs to cook longer - black is the last color to sublimate).
What I found is lower and slower and dont go super crazy with the pressure. I use a medium/firm pressure - it clamps down very snug but dont have to put all my weight to get it to go. I put a white cotton pillowcase double layer (no seams over the print - it will mark it). between my top platen and the paper. This allows any moisture to be released that shouldnt be there and helps balance the pressure. This made a huge difference in the surface quality of the print. I set the temp to 350 degrees. With the lower temp, the ink has a longer time to properly bond to the material. And I do 6 minutes (up to 80sq/in) or 6:30 over 80sq/in. Low and slow.
Right away - my jaw dropped at how good the print came out and the results are consistent. The low and slow recipe was found deep in the Chromaluxe website. Its what they recommend for gallery quality prints. Because it has time to bond/cure properly the colors are true, vibrant and lush.
After its cool, I will wipe it down with a scratch-less (not sure what else to call it) cleaner (tv cleaner) to remove any residue or marks from the print paper. It also helps buff out the surface to remove any marks from the pillow case. I look at it way to close when it is done. Im my own worst critic.
Just my 2cents worth. I wish I had that space to work in :D
Awesome, this is great to know. Thanks!!
Excellent print will like some more to enjoy
Thank you! I plan to do more this summer.
Hey you came up in my search! I'm looking for a printer lol. Neat you all can do metal printing now!!!!
Thank you! Glad to have you here :)
Great lesson...Thank You!
Great! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the vid.
This was exactly the video I needed! Thanks for the thorough walkthrough and acknowledgement of the problems. When I first saw the initial image I thought immediately. "He needs to shim it in the corners" and that's exactly what you did. I actually worked in composite vaccuum bag and autoclave processing for years and it was nice to see a lot of the same principles apply from that. Excited to start doing this on my own this year as it was a goal I had set for myself. Just finished building a little workshop shed/studio in my backyard and this is what's going in there next! Cheers.
loved the little cough very informative thank you for your transparency
Awesome, thanks for watching. I'm glad it was helpful!
Amazing and inspirational Artwork.
Thank you, I appreciate the very kind comment :)
Muito obrigado por compartilhar sua experiência, sou de Goiânia Brasil e vou ingressar na sublimação.
Any alternative to the epson paper roll? It is weird that this 24" paper is not widely available in Asia.
I recently bought the same Hix Swingman 25 you have and I've been very happy with it. I also have the Epson F570 so I'm glad to see this same combo. I have been experimenting with chromaluxe myself and am considering trying my hand at custom designing aluminum cutouts and applying either subliglaze or possibly sublivista product.
By the way, did you try reducing the platen pressure on these larger prints? I wonder if the pressure is a little too high and that's why you're seeing some ghosting on the edges. I have only tried 11x14 size so far, but I am getting pretty stunning results at pressure 2 and 1:20. It looks like your solution of building up the edges works though.
Hey, this is awesome! :) I've been wanting to do custom substrates, but am so busy with school being in session and all... With the pressure, I figured I needed more since I was getting zero contact at the edges, that and the paper build up made it all perfect. I've seen others flip it upside down so the paper is on the bottom of the platten, where the high density foam is. I've not tested that option and don't think it'll work since I need to build up the material on the bottom anyway. That will give uneven pressure on the paper if it's on the bottom. This issue goes away when I do an 11x14 or so panel. I've also done the MDF boards and they work perfectly too.
@@BrentBerghermPhotography I think this is an interesting discussion. Pressure being relatively the same is key in my opinion. If you have areas of high and low pressure you could see transfer issues as well as for temperature uniformity. It would be interesting to see if you are getting cold spots in the corners. You can use an IR laser temp gauge to determine temperature uniformity and also look into the use of "plastiguage" (availaible at Auto Zone) for measuring Pressure uniformity. Plastigauge will squeeze out differently for different pressures and is used for measuring extremely small gaps when installing Connecting Rods to a crankshaft. In this case you would be measuring small gaps at the corners relative to the middle and show where you need more or less shim. Just my thoughts as an inexperienced printing guy with a mechanical engineering degree.
Could you please tell me where you get you sublimation sign blanks?
Thanks in advance. 😊
Hi Brent, I just wanted to ask you, how to get a nice glossy photo after sublimation, I see you had the same issue as I did on my own image, if you see it at 17;00 min some metallic dots are there. How do I get rid of them? Somebody says more than 3 min press and 380dgr temperature. Did you try it? Thanks
As best I can tell, the "dots" you're seeing at 17:00 is one of two things. Either the fading I mentioned do to uneven pressure (keep watching, I fixed the uneven pressure issue), or you're seeing the texture of the material and it's noticeable due to the lighting I'm using and the fact that the print quality degraded due to the uneven pressure.
To get a more glossy photo you'll need to start with the glossy materials. The material I'm using in this video has a noticeable "textured" surface. I'm not entirely crazy about it, but it does fight the mirror-like reflections you can get with the glossy surface.I still want to try a lustre or matte surface as well.
@@BrentBerghermPhotography Amazing Brent. I hope u do more tests :) I like your video. Great work and keep going :). Thanks again for replying.
Little note on the printer for those who want to get into the hobby - you don't teeechnically need an expensive surecolor for this. Like, while it is nice to have the additional colour accuracy, etc, people also use standard inkjet printers for this(you can find others on YT showing this), what you really need is the proper ink and transfer paper for it, which also works in refillable printers like the Epson EcoTank models, which are like an order of magnituted less expensive. Only downside is the sizes usually run a bit smaller(the ET18100 runs A3+, which is 13 by 19 inches afair) but if you're fine with that or know how to stitch them together or want to get creative with comic-style panel subdivisions, then these cheaper consumer printers are usually more than fine.
Yes, I've looked in to converting a standard printer to DyeSub, but I decided our machines aren't the right ones for conversion. If I'd had an older 24" printer I'd have probably done that route. But anyway, it certainly is a good option for many!
Can I ask if I have a large sublimation printer, but my heat press isn’t large enough, would I be able to use my smaller heat press and do it in sections?
I have thought of that but haven't tested it out yet. So I'm unsure. I would think that if you secured it very well to the substrate you'd be fine, but it's possible that different cooking times will adjust the dye application to a noticeable degree. As yet I'm just unsure. I plan to test it with a textile first which is probably going to be super problematic since the substrate is flexible. But rigid substrates are expensive and I don't have the budget for that right now.@@meejay100
@@BrentBerghermPhotography i actually have a small metal print. I will test it on that first. I recently purchased a small heat press before realising that I would like to do a large metal print! Thank you for taking your time to reply.
Oh yeah, the bigger the better! :)@@meejay100
Great Video. What kind of paper and ink do you use for print on paper ?
Thanks for watching! I'm using the Epson branded transfer paper for dye sublimation and the epson inks specifically formulated for this printer.
Hi, where I can buy any size metal blanks, can you please help??
currently my preferred vendors are heat press nation and IT supplies. But anyone that sells Dye Sub materials should suffice.
How do you install that mount on the wall?
Hello! You need one of these (linked at the end). It's a "black shadow mount for sublimation" that sticks to the back of the metal print.
www.heatpressnation.com/products/chromaluxe-black-shadow-mount-for-sublimation-photo-panels-4-x-4-5-pack?_pos=2&_sid=d83b70d5f&_ss=r
Great video. Serious hobbyists in the process of making my own metal prints. Been looking at the Epson F570. Are you happy with the results? And if you don’t mind me asking, what brand metal panels are you using?
I'm not the one you're asking but I also have the Epson F570. I have had it for a few weeks so far and I am very happy with the quality and ease of use. I have tried Chromaluxe matte and gloss panels with stunning results, although I prefer the gloss.
Yes, very happy with the results. Print dialog box info is slightly different than other printers I've used but easy enough to figure out. And the quality is excellent. I've not been able to compare it to a 6 or greater inkset printer, but I purposely chose this pic to test out how it handles holding shadow detail and it did wonderfully. I've had other prints hold highlight details where i thought sure it'd fall apart so I knew I was good on that. But I'd yet to try deep shadow details and it did supremely well. I use cromaluxe at this time. I also have used mugs and other smaller items from other manufacturers. I use our smaller 170 for those items though. It's basically the same printer but letter sized.
@@emrybhey there. I concur, most of my results thus far have been phenomenal!! However, I’m hitting some issues with larger prints which contain heavy blacks. I just made the discovery last night that the paper I printed seemed to be over saturated with ink causing the paper to be wavy and not being able to dry entirely flat. I’m assuming this is causing the image to result in a black and green pattern almost matching the ink waviness. Hope that makes sense. Either way, I think I need to back off on the color/ink settings. Still new to this so trying to figure it out. I’m printing high quality 12pass, 300dpi, no color compensation since I’m editing my images in Lightroom. Using epson paper with epson ink as well. Little long winded, enjoying the journey of figuring things out. I’ve felt every mistake thus far has created better results every press I do.
Hello,
Thank you for this video.
I followed all your instruction but still having issues sorting the heat press.
The heat press i got has Celsius alone and not Fahrenheit. What temperature do you recommend and for how long?
hello, thanks for watching and for asking! A out 200 degrees Celsius should do it (my range of success is between 385 and 400ºF and 200ºC is towards the higher end of that). You’ll need at least 90 seconds. It kind of depends on your material. If it’s really thin like a lens cloth you can probably get away with 60-90 seconds. But for the panels you’ll need at least 90. Possibly 120. I hope this helps! Let me know :)
@@BrentBerghermPhotography Thank you for taking the time to explain.
The panel is composite aluminum (white gloss background on one side. Its made of two aluminum sheets with Teflon in between)
We tried it at 375FR for 180 seconds. Upon removing the aluminum got soft and the image just transferred but without gloss and color.
It sounds like you have a material that is not made for dye sublimation. That material sounds like DiBond, or a DiBond-like material. Unless you purchased it from a place that advertises it as a dye sublimation blank you will have troubles. I buy from ITsupplies out of Illinois or Coastal Business out of Missouri I think it is. Heatpressnation also sells tons of dye sub materials.
Additionally, if you do textiles you don't need to buy a "dye sub" blank. Any polyester material will work. I''ve got a bright yellow shirt to test that I bought at Wal-Mart. What material is often best so you can have full color capabilities. I've printed to many a lens cloth with much success. Just bought them from Amazon or Wal-Mart @@khaffiatali1102
@@BrentBerghermPhotography you are a blessing thank you. I will source the correct aluminum panels. Last question my friend. Do we have to mirror the image before printing for dye sublimation?
Great video. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching! I can't wait to get another done where I print an image on a shirt :)
Hello, great video! May I ask where did you buy your panel from please?
Thanks for watching! Yes, I got it from either ITSupplies or HeatPressNation. They both have great options and some overlap in products, but also a bit of unique offerings too. Each metal panel is about $50 so it's not cheap to play around with :)
Where do you get the metal blanks?
Either heat press nation or it supplies.
What textile , no purpose rigid ?
I admit my testing is limited at this point, however, when I compared the two I got results I liked better when using textile over rigid. It's a bit deeper in density, even if a tiny amount, and it was closer to the results I was looking for. As I do more testing I'll update my thoughts on this, but for now I've had great results with the textile profile.
we print wedding photos in the epson f570 and the colors looks like green tones, any advise to fix the problem.?
Gr8 video ...may I know which sublimation paper you are using
Thanks for watching. I use Epson sublimation paper.
@@BrentBerghermPhotography do you get continuous color tone without any grains
Yes, beautifully photographic reproductions are totally possible here. And I'm loving the quality of this print on my wall :) @@tarun_6864
@@BrentBerghermPhotography excellent 👏
Hi , what paper do you use to print on?
I use the epson sublimation transfer paper.
@@BrentBerghermPhotography thank you sir
@@Eternal5-r8i Happy to help! :)
Is it possible to link the materials?