[Pavel]

Craig, I think you are onto something there. B&W photos tend to have high contrast and a lot of detail and having a good deap lack is important. This is I beleive where glossy shines. Portraits are often less contrasty and have a narrower colour range cose to the center of any gamut and so they do well on matte, which I think has narrower gamut range. This is the advice I also got from another photographer. I beleive I get more "out of gamut range" when I use matte paper than when I set on glossy during softproofing.

KeithAlanK wrote:
Does it take a certain paper type to make a photo pass or fail?
I agree, that paper selection in itself may not make a photograph pass or fail and I understand your message that I should focus my attention on taking better photos. However, I see photography as a series of steps, many of which may not be in themselves absolutely critical, but these various "near misses" put together degrade the image. And so I do pay attention to paper selection too, even though I may have more serious deficiencies. Hopefuly over time I will improve on issues big and small.

Matthew, thanks for detailed response.

My aim when I print is always to frame. I have been warned about using the gloss, as this supposedly causes too much reflection. Looking at Epson semigloss (?) luster? is it the same thing? photos, the photos looked like posters and it turned me off. Matthew am I wrong about that? Do your photos on Epson luster have a feel of posters? Also the paper has low gsm and it felt insubstantial. However you and others and looking at my photos convinced me clearly that matte paper is not well suited to some of my photos, and as glossy is not recomeneded for framing because of the glare problem, luster may have to be it. I will check out Harman, if Vistek has a sample. I talked to Christine? in Vistek, that seems to be the guru on papers in Vistek and she recommended Moab, once it was clear that I want a decent quality but not necessarily the best (the German brand starting with H - whatever it is).

Keith Alan, I do not know what paper printer combination you use, but with Epson Matte and Inkpress fine art matte and using Epson #87 pigments I see absolutely no gloss whatsoever, regardless of the angle of lighting. I am more concerned about the blacks which are not true blacks and what I suspect is somewhat narrow gammut, although the colours do come out quite saturated.

My overall message than is:
Try semigloss/luster/pearl/satin (are these synonyms?) when the contrast/detail/gammut is too lage for matte. This I think is the main issue for me.
Beware of colour shifts with glossy with B&W (but Craig has no problem?)
Select a brand. I think I will go to Vistek. They have samples, some with photos on them with different paper. I will pick something and give it a go. If you guys have any other ideas, please let me know. I really appreciate that you took time to help me out.

Pavel