Sometimes, when I'm out shooting with my medium format camera, I'll look at a scene and think, "Is this special enough to be printed?" If the answer is no, I might grab the shot with my 35mm camera instead, or just let the moment pass. It's funny, though, how different a photo can look once I get the scans back from the lab. What I thought was a definite "hell yes" can suddenly become a "meh".. In the end, there aren't that many pictures I consider truly worthy of a large print, but it's a creative goal I've been working towards. When I do decide to print, I want the best possible result. I figured out early on that a huge part of that final quality comes down to choosing the right paper. Before I got serious about photography, this was something I never even considered. Now, it's obvious that different papers serve different purposes and can completely change the mood of an image. Diving into the world of photo papers is a real rabbit hole. There are so many kinds, each with its own unique properties. To start my investigation, I used fineartprint.no and uploaded a photo I felt was a decent candidate. The main goal here wasn't to decide if this specific image was worth printing large, but rather to compare various paper types and see how they stacked up against the original digital scan. Their webshop has a fantastic feature that lets you order an A4 test pack with your image printed on a wide array of papers. Using their own paper guide, combined with some reading on photography forums and blogs, I narrowed my selection down to these seven contenders:

• Matte Papers (Smooth Surface)
  • Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gsm
  • Awagami Bamboo 170g
  • Awagami Mitsumata Double Layered
• Matte Papers (Textured Surface)
  • Hahnemühle Museum Etching 350 gsm
  • Awagami Kozo Thick White
• Semi-Matte & Glossy Papers
  • Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta
  • Hahnemühle Bamboo Gloss Baryta

When I sat down to review them, I tried my best not to be biased by what I'd read online, though that's easier said than done. To be honest, I wasn't completely blown away by any of the prints at first glance. The colors on paper looked quite different from my computer screen or phone, which is probably common I guess.

But again, this test was about the paper, not perfecting this one image. I chose this photo because it has decent contrast and a nice color palette. While it's not the most colorful image ever, but its strength absolutely comes from its colors. In black and white, this photo would be pretty uninteresting, so accurate color rendition is key. With that in mind, here are my notes on each paper.

My Impressions of the Papers

I've split my thoughts into two categories. The papers that didn't like and the ones that stood out as strong contenders.

The Papers I Liked Less

Awagami Mitsumata Double Layered

For me, this paper felt a bit too thin and delicate. It has a very distinct structure with long, visible fibers, which was a bit distracting. I also found that the shadow areas became too dark, losing some detail. It is also not sharp at all, and it feels like in the dark parts the image become to blurry. Decent colors and contrast though.

Awagami Kozo Thick White

The colors on this one felt a bit muddy. The image appeared less sharp than on other papers, and the final result strayed the furthest from my original digital file. However it is matte which I like, but the paper itself has some visible texture.

Hahnemühle Bamboo Gloss Baryta

This one is quite nice in some ways. The colors are incredibly vibrant, and the image looks exceptionally sharp. The contrast is fantastic, and the paper feels nice and solid. However, the paper has a subtle surface structure and it is glossy, which means it catches a lot of glare depending on the lighting. Under some light conditions it feels like the blacks become too dark sometimes.

The Four Papers I Liked the Most

Awagami Bamboo 170g

I found this paper to be very similar to the classic Hahnemühle Photo Rag just from the first impression. It's a matte paper that feels thick and solid, and it produced very pleasing and realistic colors. Side-by-side, I'd say the Photo Rag is more vibrant. This has less contrast as well.

Hahnemühle Museum Etching 350 gsm

This paper is really thick at 350 gsm, looks sharp, is matte but has some visible texture. On an A4 print, the texture can sometimes be annoying but in other cases look nice. Interestingly, the darker parts of the image appeared a bit brighter here, revealing more detail in the shadows compared to some others. When I look at the scan the shadows are not that dark so in that sense it might be more realistic.

Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta

This is another relatively thick paper, that produces a sharp looking image and has a glossy finish. The contrast is decent, and the blacks are deep and rich. Colors are not that vibrant compared to other papers.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gsm

I felt it delivered vibrant yet accurate colors. It is a matte paper with sharp details in both the darker and brighter parts of the image. The paper itself is quite smooth with minimal texture, but still feels nice and solid.

Final scores

To make my final comparison a bit more objective, I created a weighted scoring table. I rated each paper from 1-10 across four criteria. Each criterion is weighted based on what I personally find most important in a print.

• Color Fidelity (35%): How accurately and vividly the paper reproduces color tones and hues.
• Contrast & Tonal Range (30%): The depth between highlights and shadows, affecting overall image punch.
• Black Density / DMAX (10%): The richness of deep blacks and subtle shadow detail. Maybe more important for monochrome prints, but I chose to weight it some here as well.
• Overall Impression (25%): The combined aesthetic impact, including surface reflectivity, texture, and the print’s tactile and visual presence.

Here are the results:

Summary

Looking at the criteria and evaluating each image I ended up with Hahnemühle providing some of the best papers in my opinion. Both the Photo Rag 308 and Museum Etching are two papers I would really consider. Next step now is maybe to try and get some samples of a couple of images that could be candidates for printing large, using the two paper types that I liked the most and see how they look. Also evaluating paper types for black and white would be interesting as well and maybe different results?