Has anyone had a photo printed on metal? Not metalic paper. An actual sheet of metal. If you have, do you have any idea of the archival qualities of a print like that? Do you know of any on-line labs that will do that kind of printing? Thanks!
The place to check for that kind of thing is probably places which make plaques and trophies. From what I've seen, it's either a laser-etching process or done with silkscreen and special ink.
Now I was at a seminar of a guy that used PS and a regular printer to make his negatives - open the image in PS, make it a negative (its an option in some menu...invert selection or something) and then print that out. He usees photo paper, but it MUST be blank on the back - no paper company logos! He uses regular B&W photo paper and just makes a contact print and then develops as a normal old black and white print. So if you can get an emulsion on the metal you should be able to do the same thing.
Now I was at a seminar of a guy that used PS and a regular printer to make his negatives - open the image in PS, make it a negative (its an option in some menu...invert selection or something) and then print that out. He usees photo paper, but it MUST be blank on the back - no paper company logos! He uses regular B&W photo paper and just makes a contact print and then develops as a normal old black and white print. So if you can get an emulsion on the metal you should be able to do the same thing.
They used to make transparency sheets for overhead projectors that you could use in an inkjet printer to make a negative as you describe. Don't know how sharp it will be though.
