Canvas Mounts

I work in a large photo lab and one of the services offered is mounting
of photos on canvas. This is a popular request among our portrait
photography clients.

We use Kodak Endura paper for all prints. In order to canvas mount this
paper we must strip off the backing. This is to insure that the texture
of the canvas is impressed into the paper.

For years this was done with minimal problems, however, for the past
several months the backing does not peel off as a whole anymore. It
constantly breaks off into small pieces and causes damage to the paper
when attempting to remove them.

Calls to Kodak are of no help as they declare the paper backing is not
meant to be stripped.

Are any other darkroom/labs experiencing this problem? Any suggestions?

"wishful thinker" wrote in message
...
I work in a large photo lab and one of the services offered is mounting
of photos on canvas. This is a popular request among our portrait
photography clients.

We use Kodak Endura paper for all prints. In order to canvas mount this
paper we must strip off the backing. This is to insure that the texture
of the canvas is impressed into the paper.

For years this was done with minimal problems, however, for the past
several months the backing does not peel off as a whole anymore. It
constantly breaks off into small pieces and causes damage to the paper
when attempting to remove them.

Calls to Kodak are of no help as they declare the paper backing is not
meant to be stripped.

Are any other darkroom/labs experiencing this problem? Any suggestions?


I haven't done this for a while, so Kodak may have made a change that
precludes this method...
Start peeling a corner. Wrap the material around a dowel, about a half or
three-quarter inch diameter, and roll the back off the print.
Please let me know if this still works, as I plan to start offering canvas
mounted prints!

The answer you got from Kodak is the answer you will always
get if you try to use any of their materials in a way not
ordained by the "Holy See" in Rochester. Probably why their
market share keeps shrinking. Talk to your sales rep and
point out the volume of paper you purchase every year and
explain that the response you got from the TSR's was not
helpful. (You do have a TSR? I hope? Calling the 800-
number is usually less productive for "big lab" issues.)

This isn't a Kodak bash exactly; they have been very helpful
and supportive when I have questions that are inside their
scope of support and they will replace defective materials
with cheer and alacrity (and only three batches of damaged
goods in 30 years-one box of paper, one "brick" of Tmax400
120 and 2 packages of Dektol). [In the interests of equal
time I also had a batch of Ilford Multigrade Rapid that was
defective, the paper substrate turned a lovely shade of
brown six months or so after the prints were made. The
material had already been replaced by a newer designation
and was only used by me for proof sheets so I did not pursue
a replacement but I'm sure Ilford would have done the right
thing, too.]

I'm no longer working for a color lab but I seem to recall
getting my hands on a 3M material ages ago that was made to
strip (I know it's long gone) yet another victim of the
shrinking darkroom market.

Talk to a Fuji professional rep, see if you can get some
samples of their paper to evaluate.

darkroommike

wishful thinker wrote:
I work in a large photo lab and one of the services offered is mounting
of photos on canvas. This is a popular request among our portrait
photography clients.

We use Kodak Endura paper for all prints. In order to canvas mount this
paper we must strip off the backing. This is to insure that the texture
of the canvas is impressed into the paper.

For years this was done with minimal problems, however, for the past
several months the backing does not peel off as a whole anymore. It
constantly breaks off into small pieces and causes damage to the paper
when attempting to remove them.

Calls to Kodak are of no help as they declare the paper backing is not
meant to be stripped.

Are any other darkroom/labs experiencing this problem? Any suggestions?