Video Script

Over the past year, I have attended photographic road shows around the UK, challenging all photographers to bring me their best inkjet print, together with it's digital file, and see if I can beat it! – So far, I have always managed to win! – How do I do it? – I CHEAT!  First, I use a Lyson production inkjet paper, such as 265gsm Pro Photo Satin or 265gsm Pro Photo Gloss, which gives me a great pure white base colour to my prints – Remember, there is no white ink in your printer, so you are relying on the base white of the paper to produce your clean white wedding dresses! – See the comparison between (in this case) an Ilford Smooth Pearl inkjet paper – See how the Lyson professional paper delivers a beautiful pure white.  Many consumer brand inkjet papers show this creamy base, which may prevent you from achieving faithful clean white reproduction which retains highlight detail in even the subtle off-whites as shown in these excellent John Langridge wedding images.. 
Second, our Lyson professional papers and inks produce good rich blacks which show a smooth gradation without any evidence of blocking in around near black areas of the image.  This issue brings down more inkjet prints than any other. We are looking to avoid muddy or milky blacks, so that when we combine our white point ability with a superb black gradation the effect is stunning – See how when we reduce the light levels on this print how we still achieve an excellent punchy image!  The third element to achieving superlative inkjet prints is our use of professional Lyson inks which have been manufactured by Lyson themselves to achieve a better, cleaner, purer set of primary colours – Particularly the yellows, which are clearly cleaner than the muddy yellows of consumer brand inksets!  The pay-off when using a cleaner set of yellows is the improvement in achieving clean pale flesh tones and a more accurate reproduction of subtle hair shading!  Last of all, I always use a Lyson laboratory custom printer profile, the same as you get free of charge with every new Lyson continuous ink system:  This guarantees that your colours are accurate, your densities correct, and most importantly, help you to achieve a smooth gradation of colours throughout the density range, as we used to achieve in the darkroom.  The result:  A truly professional photographic quality print produced with the minimum of work required in Photoshop..
Try the Lyson challenge yourself – Send me your best print, together with the digital image file, let me see if I can improve on it with Lyson professional inks and paper!  You may also apply to us for our demo print as you seed here, printed on our own Epson R2400 – Download this image from our website HERE and print it out yourself using your usual ink and paper combination. Thank you for watching..