holy fade!

I have a canon S820 printing to Red River Ultra Satin Pro Paper. Yesterday I happened to leave one of my prints near the window where it was exposed to sunlight. A few hours later I discovered, much to my horror, that wherever sunlight had touched the photo it had turned it into a faded red haze. Aigh!! What is going on here?! Are inkjet prints really this sensitive to UV light? I was told that my prints would have a lifetime of 20 years – not 3 hours.

I tried to do a search for UV fade on this forum and was overwhelmed by the number of responses. So i figure it must be a common problem with printers. I am curious to know if anyone else has had this same 'Red Haze' problem when printing to Red River paper using the S820. And.. what can I do to prevent it, besides keeping my pictures in a box where no one can see them?

Hi James,

We're in the process of conducting some fade tests. My printer
is an HP 10s. On Red River Ultra Pro Glossy, the estimated permanence
is 6 months! We will commence testing some papers with Canon
printers in a few days.

Bill

James Cooper said:

I have a canon S820 printing to Red River Ultra Satin Pro Paper.
Yesterday I happened to leave one of my prints near the window
where it was exposed to sunlight. A few hours later I discovered,
much to my horror, that wherever sunlight had touched the photo it
had turned it into a faded red haze. Aigh!! What is going on here?!
Are inkjet prints really this sensitive to UV light? I was told
that my prints would have a lifetime of 20 years – not 3 hours.

I tried to do a search for UV fade on this forum and was
overwhelmed by the number of responses. So i figure it must be a
common problem with printers. I am curious to know if anyone else
has had this same 'Red Haze' problem when printing to Red River
paper using the S820. And.. what can I do to prevent it, besides
keeping my pictures in a box where no one can see them?

Click to expand...

--
Bill

James Cooper said:

I have a canon S820 printing to Red River Ultra Satin Pro Paper.
Yesterday I happened to leave one of my prints near the window
where it was exposed to sunlight. A few hours later I discovered,
much to my horror, that wherever sunlight had touched the photo it
had turned it into a faded red haze. Aigh!! What is going on here?!
Are inkjet prints really this sensitive to UV light? I was told
that my prints would have a lifetime of 20 years ? not 3 hours.

I tried to do a search for UV fade on this forum and was
overwhelmed by the number of responses. So i figure it must be a
common problem with printers. I am curious to know if anyone else
has had this same 'Red Haze' problem when printing to Red River
paper using the S820. And.. what can I do to prevent it, besides
keeping my pictures in a box where no one can see them?

Click to expand...

Guess this is normal for most inkjet printers. What you can do is to place the pictures behind a sheet of glass/plastic. It's actually the UV light that causes the colour fade. Only Epson's pigment ink printers are resistant to UV.

Hmm, James,

I think they don't label their paper as 'RED River' for no reasons.

Jokes aside, I think the paper is to be blamed here.

You see, inks are only part (half?) the equation when it comes to longevity, or light fastness.

Canon inks are not particularly known for its archival properties. Further the 20+ years are controlled museum-kept conditions. If you look into your search further, you will come across a link that points you to the PCWORLD.com article that talks about longevity comparison with the present crop of printers in the market.

They quoted Canon inks using Canon PPP to be whopping 38 years. But there's a catch. You MUST have it in controlled 45 lux (DIM!!) illumination under certain atomspheric conditions.

Going by postulation, and assuming linearity, we are expecting prints under glass (i.e. properly framed), using Canon inks and PPP to last between 4.5 - 9 years display, under normal room conditions of between 180 - 360 lux.

James Cooper said:

I have a canon S820 printing to Red River Ultra Satin Pro Paper.
Yesterday I happened to leave one of my prints near the window
where it was exposed to sunlight. A few hours later I discovered,
much to my horror, that wherever sunlight had touched the photo it
had turned it into a faded red haze. Aigh!! What is going on here?!
Are inkjet prints really this sensitive to UV light? I was told
that my prints would have a lifetime of 20 years – not 3 hours.

I tried to do a search for UV fade on this forum and was
overwhelmed by the number of responses. So i figure it must be a
common problem with printers. I am curious to know if anyone else
has had this same 'Red Haze' problem when printing to Red River
paper using the S820. And.. what can I do to prevent it, besides
keeping my pictures in a box where no one can see them?

Click to expand...

--
Fotografer

Anyone ever left a print from the lab sitting in the sun? Try it.

I think I narrowed down what causes the quick change to unprotected prints in my office.

I couldn't figure out why prints in plastic sleeves (no special sleeves) in the exact same spot exhibited no shift at all and exposed prints shift dramatically within a month. Looking around there is a air conditioning vent on the ceiling that blows directly down on where the prints were hanging. Not a dramatic flow of air (I can't see the pictures moving) but you can feel a slight movement of air above where they are. This vent blows cold air in the summer and heat in the winter (well most of the time anyway, sometimes I think they are trying to save too much money on heating).

But anyway, I think the fading is related to this constant flow of air across the pictures. Maybe some pollutants in the system, who knows. It is the only thing I can see that could be causing the dramatic shift to the unprotected prints. I looked for this after your post yesterday regarding airflow and the Ilford papers.

Talk about confusing the issue even more!
--

http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

PS. What are you doing wasting time reading what I write anyway. Get off the Internet and go out and have some fun!

Yeah, you are right WP, Ilford does mention nanoporous papers not liking the eivironment to be well ventilated. So I guess framing such prints are the only way to go...

WP said:

I think I narrowed down what causes the quick change to unprotected
prints in my office.

I couldn't figure out why prints in plastic sleeves (no special
sleeves) in the exact same spot exhibited no shift at all and
exposed prints shift dramatically within a month. Looking around
there is a air conditioning vent on the ceiling that blows directly
down on where the prints were hanging. Not a dramatic flow of air
(I can't see the pictures moving) but you can feel a slight
movement of air above where they are. This vent blows cold air in
the summer and heat in the winter (well most of the time anyway,
sometimes I think they are trying to save too much money on
heating).

But anyway, I think the fading is related to this constant flow of
air across the pictures. Maybe some pollutants in the system, who
knows. It is the only thing I can see that could be causing the
dramatic shift to the unprotected prints. I looked for this after
your post yesterday regarding airflow and the Ilford papers.

Talk about confusing the issue even more!

Click to expand...

--
Fotografer

I have (accidentally). Even the cheapest Agfa paper will not fade within three hours of exposure.

There is something wrong with the Red River papers. That's all. That plus the fact that it's near the window and air circulation is very rapid, and nanopapers just hate air circulation (thus framing them for display with glass is the only way to go)...

Bobby C. said:

Anyone ever left a print from the lab sitting in the sun? Try it.

Click to expand...

--
Fotografer