A New And Very Special Paper
Moab’s new Slickrock Silver Pro 300
What this paper is
I’ll state one thing first: Still images do this paper no justice. Moving images can barely represent experiencing this unique paper in person. I’ll break down its properties as best I can, but to understand what this material is and what it does, please switch on your techno-photography brain while I explain.
To wrap your head around what this paper is, first understand that papers have a base characteristic and then they have a surface characteristic. The surface character is divided roughly into glossy or matte. Generally, glossy surfaces tend to reflect light sources more or less directly based on the degree of “glossiness”. Matte surfaces tend to more or less completely diffuse light sources. This paper has a glossy surface but has very little to do with understanding what this material is.
Let’s get down to what makes this paper completely different from any other matte or glossy surface paper: the base. All other papers have a white base of varying degrees of brightness/whiteness, but they are all white or very close to it. What is white? Simply put, white completely diffuses the light that it reflects; that’s what white does as compared to silver. What is silver? It’s not gray; silver as a color isn’t a color; it really means that it directly reflects whatever is in front of it rather than completely diffusing it.
The base of this paper is silver; that’s in the name: Slickrock Silver Pro 300. The base of it is a mirror. Specifically, it is a mirror that is roughed up a bit as not to reflect super-sharp edges of what is in front of it. This is why still images do it no justice. It’s like taking a picture of a mirror with no context.
How it renders images
This material is not a magic trick. This is absolutely not going to make you love a photograph you don’t already love. This is a material that might elevate a photograph you already love to another level. Slickrock Silver Pro 300 might also completely revise how you look at a photograph to be completely new compared to it rendered on a more conventional paper.
It has characteristics of other glossy papers, great dynamic range, super-black blacks, bright highlights, super-sharp, and saturated color. It does all that just more everything. Its rendering seems in motion when in person. Dark areas go really dark, then when you move, they are revealed with amazing contrast. Highlights go from normal to blazing the same way.
This paper will not rescue images that have poor rendering of either highlights or shadows. It will not tolerate areas of over-baked highlights; instead, it will probably make them more apparent. In a word, this paper is dramatic and will surprise you in both good ways and disappointing ways.
Understanding how to use it.
In my testing and opinion, Slickrock Silver Pro 300 excels at rendering photos with detailed dark/light, dark/light patterns. That’s almost automatic. Beyond that, it’s hard to say what pictures might work very well on this material.
I’ve been testing and working with Slickrock Silver Pro 300 for months as Moab has been developing it and revising it. I have many unexpected failures and amazing surprises while working with the paper. I have dozens of ideas in terms of deploying it effectively in my own work as well as other people’s work.
Here are a few things on my mind:
It could be fantastic as a “one-off” print that is the icon of a gallery show.
There are definitely bodies of work you may already have where most of the pictures not only work but are transformed and reimagined. Even the individual images that don’t scream “print me on that metal, mirror paper” will work when shown with pictures that do scream out for the rendering.
Don’t try to force-fit pictures that just don’t work at all. Especially in a current body of work where a lot of them do. Just cull them for this particular rendering.
If a picture looks great on other paper but just doesn’t work on Slickrock Silver, it’s not a matter of different post-processing that will fix it. That’s not saying that a tiny bit of adjustment won’t optimize your results. I am saying that if there’s nothing that speaks to you on your first test, move on.
Stay tuned, I have much more to say about using this unique paper coming. I’m thinking we’ll also have some giveaways and contests that I hope will help all of you to learn how you might deploy the paper with your own work. I have certainly been surprised and elated at some of my own discoveries.
Moab Slickrock Silver Pro 300 is available on rolls immediately and will be available in various sheet sizes in September 2026.