Where the light lands: Why the medium matters as much as the image

Print 2 Metal is a proud sponsor of The Landscape Awards 2027

Every landscape photographer knows the long wait for the right light. You scout the location, watch the forecast, get up in the dark and stand in the cold for the ten minutes that make the shot. Then the file goes onto a hard drive, and for many images that's where the story ends.

We think a landscape deserves a better ending than a folder. And we think the surface you choose to print it on changes the picture as much as any decision you made in the field.

Who we are

Print 2 Metal is a Melbourne print studio, founded in 2010 and the first business in Australia to offer true photographic-quality printing onto metal. Everything is made by hand in our Oakleigh South workshop and shipped Australia-wide and overseas.

Owners Marie Cosgrave and Frank Hoekstra ran a Melbourne photo lab for twenty years before turning to metal printing in 2010.

Frank was born in the Netherlands and worked as a photographer in Europe before coming to Australia. That background matters.

It means we treat your file the way we'd want our own images treated — colour management, gamut, black point, before anything is committed to metal.

How a metal print is actually made

The process is dye-sublimation and it works differently to anything printed on paper.

Your image is first printed onto transfer paper using dye-sublimation inks which give us a wide gamut and smooth gradations through skies and water. The transfer sheet is then aligned on a specially coated aluminium panel and pressed at roughly 200°C. Under that heat the dyes turn to gas, pass into the panel's polymer coating, and solidify there as it cools.

The important word is into. The image isn't a layer resting on the surface; it becomes part of the coating. There's nothing to scratch off, peel or wash away, which is why metal prints are handled without gloves, cleaned with a damp cloth and hung without glass.

That last point is worth dwelling on. A framed print behind glazing sits at a slight remove from the viewer, with a reflective layer between them. A metal print has no such barrier.

The light enters the coating and bounces off the aluminium beneath, which is what gives these prints the luminous, lit-from-within quality people notice from across a room. Rich, dimensional blacks and genuine separation in the deep shadows of a rainforest floor or the shoulder of a dune.

Why we use ChromaLuxe

Not all metal panels are the same and the coating is where the difference lives. We use ChromaLuxe exclusively for our indoor metal prints — the panels widely regarded as the benchmark for high-definition metal.

The evidence is independent. Wilhelm Imaging Research, the most respected print permanence lab in the industry, tested ChromaLuxe panels and returned a display permanence rating in the order of 65 years — roughly two to four times the life of the archival photo papers it was tested against. The panels are UV-resistant, waterproof, humidity-proof and highly scratch-resistant. They're made with recycled aluminium and are themselves fully recyclable.

For a competition-winning landscape, that combination means the print you hang this year is the print your grandchildren will look at.

Choosing a surface

We offer six indoor aluminium surfaces, and the choice genuinely changes the image, so it's worth thinking about.

A white base is the one to reach for when accuracy is the priority. The aluminium is coated with a white polymer layer, which stands in for white ink the process doesn't use, and delivers true-to-life colour, contrast and vibrancy.

A clear brushed aluminium base leaves the metal visible wherever your image is light or unprinted, so highlights pick up a metallic sheen. On backlit cloud, wet sand, snow or the surface of water it can be extraordinary. On a portrait or anything needing neutral whites, it isn't the right tool.

Finish matters too. High gloss delivers maximum colour and depth, but like any glossy surface it will show reflections in a room with windows opposite. If the print is destined for a bright space, our semi-gloss and matte options hold the colour while cutting glare. Sample packs are available so you can see this in your own hands rather than on a screen.

Preparing an image for metal

Sizes run up to 1200 x 2400mm as a single panel, in rectangle, square and circular formats, with custom shapes on request. Larger works can be split across panels. We make our own aluminium framing, and offer a range of hanging systems including float mounts that stand the panel off the wall.

A metal print resolves fine detail beautifully — which also means it's honest about noise in a lifted shadow, a halo from over-sharpening, or banding through a gradient sky. Aim for 200 to 300 ppi at final print size, work in Adobe RGB, and send the least-compressed file you have. Scale is rarely the constraint, the file is.

To find out more, visit print2metal.com.