Frames for my photos help

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guitarman67

guitarman67

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Hi all. I've decided to print some of my photos but have a dilemma with photo frame sizes. So...i already have a number of 10x8 inch prints i did ages ago, and these are housed in wooden frames with no issues. The photos take up the whole of the frame, i.e. no border, which is what i want. I want to replace these photos (my earliest efforts, and not so good) with a number of more recent bird photos that I have cropped to 12x8 inches as i like that size. It seems that I can't find a frame to suit that image size. I thought about cropping to A4 size as there are plenty of frames to fit this size, but my photo lab doesn't print that size.
I know custom framing is a solution, but I paid over $200 for a triptych panoramic image, and as i have around 30 images I'd like to print, the cost is a major consideration. I'd welcome some advice as to what image/frame sizes people here are using. Thanks in advance.
 
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Have you considered metal or acrylic prints? Frames are not necessary. And there are also standout prints that many labs offer. Unless you are set on having frames, these are affordable options that look good and they can be printed in many sizes.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
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Thanks for the replies...much appreciated. As I'm in Australia I'm looking for somewhere here. The acrylic/metal prints are an idea that I'll look into. Meanwhile I have found a lab here that prints in A4 for $3.95. Cheers.
 
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I went over to my local Goodwill and picked up 2 really nice frames for $20 and then had 2 matts cut and antiglare archival type glass cut at Hobby Lobby. I printed enough images in pairs to rotate them through the frames every week.
 
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You could also try www.frameusa.com .

It's normally a good practice to use a mat or spacer even if you are putting it in a frame that looks borderless. The reason is that the photo can stick to the glass and is more susceptible to damage if you lack a spacer of some sort. Prints need room to breath.

Using a mat makes it a lot easier to buy standard frames and custom mat openings. If you have a 12x18 print, you can put it in a 16x24 frame, an 18x24 frame, or trim the print to 12x16 and put it in a 16 x 20 frame. A 16x20 frame can hold a 12x16 print or a 10.5 x 15 print which would give you a native aspect ratio. Whatever you do, It's better to have a limited number of frame styles and sizes with custom mats - not the other way around.
 
There are places online where you can buy precut mats in any size.I found a link below. You mate those with a standard frame. Amazon, hobby stores, etc. You order a backer board with the mat and hinge the backer board to the matboard on the long side then position the work and use linen tape (lineco) to make a hinge mount. Tape on the back of the print making a hinge attached to the backer board. Gravity and the overlapping window of the mat holds the print . Or there are ways to make or buy photo corners or support strips so the work is never touched by adhesive. Depends how archival you want to be. Ask if you want more details how to do this. I cut my own mats but this is a skill in itself.

Standout mounting is a lower cost way to get art on the wall. The sizes are limited, though. The print is adhered to a 1 inch thick lightweight foamboard and the edges are finished with wood veneer. Bay, Whitehouse, I think finerworks and others.

Gallery wrapped canvas is very nice, but pricey. About 1.5 inches thick. Custom sizes and choices from matte to glossy. Either printed directly on the canvas or a print is pressure fused to canvas. The edges can be black or white or they will use a stretched out part of your image as the edge, or you can plan for the edge overlap when you send in the image.

Matboard For Framing | Matboard Picture Matting Supplies

Matboard is the easiest way to frame your pictures and art. Shop our picture matting supplies, custom matboards, and show kits today!
matboardhq.com matboardhq.com
 
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You might also consider a float frame. These sandwich your print between two sheets of glass (or acrylic), allowing the wall behind the frame to show through, "matting" your print. They are available in several colors, including black and white, and are normally not very expensive. Many outfits sell them online. They come in the usual standard sizes (8x10, 11x14, 16,20, etc.), but can accommodate a different size print, depending upon its dimensions. For example, a 14x11 frame would accommodate a 12 x 8 print leaving one inch showing on the left, right and top, two inches on the bottom (professional framers will always advise you to make the lower side of the mat larger, to provide a better balance). You can adjust top and bottom margins a bit for the best visual balance. Float frames have a clean, contemporary look, which I've found to be highly complimentary to photography.

floatframe.jpeg
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guitarman67 said:
Hi all. I've decided to print some of my photos but have a dilemma with photo frame sizes. So...i already have a number of 10x8 inch prints i did ages ago, and these are housed in wooden frames with no issues. The photos take up the whole of the frame, i.e. no border, which is what i want. I want to replace these photos (my earliest efforts, and not so good) with a number of more recent bird photos that I have cropped to 12x8 inches as i like that size. It seems that I can't find a frame to suit that image size. I thought about cropping to A4 size as there are plenty of frames to fit this size, but my photo lab doesn't print that size.
I know custom framing is a solution, but I paid over $200 for a triptych panoramic image, and as i have around 30 images I'd like to print, the cost is a major consideration. I'd welcome some advice as to what image/frame sizes people here are using. Thanks in advance.
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It’s all a matter of personal taste of course, but I prefer free-floating images printed on either metal or wood panels, without a frame. When mounted properly on a wall, they draws the eye to the images themselves, without the distraction of surrounding frames. Most of my printed photos are on flat board mounts, with black beveled edges (a nice way to finish them), then mounted on 1/2” backing to “float” them off the wall a bit. Not only is it a nice way to mount photos, but it saves on the expense of quality frames.
 
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BirdDogDad said:
You might also consider a float frame. These sandwich your print between two sheets of glass (or acrylic), allowing the wall behind the frame to show through, "matting" your print. They are available in several colors, including black and white, and are normally not very expensive. Many outfits sell them online. They come in the usual standard sizes (8x10, 11x14, 16,20, etc.), but can accommodate a different size print, depending upon its dimensions. For example, a 14x11 frame would accommodate a 12 x 8 print leaving one inch showing on the left, right and top, two inches on the bottom (professional framers will always advise you to make the lower side of the mat larger, to provide a better balance). You can adjust top and bottom margins a bit for the best visual balance. Float frames have a clean, contemporary look, which I've found to be highly complimentary to photography.

View attachment 56271
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I think it's a matter of how "archival" one wants it to be. Pressing the face against the acrylic could have the downside of "foxing." No idea why they call it that. The picture can eventually discolor. Which is fine if it is not intended to last forever.

This is far afield of the topic but a float frame is also possible by passing linen tape through a slit in the rear mounting board and attaching it to the back of the photo, but in this case the print is not held flat in any way. Cool for deckled edges and/or where the heavyweight fine art paper is the star of the show.
 
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BirdDogDad said:
You might also consider a float frame. These sandwich your print between two sheets of glass (or acrylic), allowing the wall behind the frame to show through, "matting" your print. They are available in several colors, including black and white, and are normally not very expensive. Many outfits sell them online. They come in the usual standard sizes (8x10, 11x14, 16,20, etc.), but can accommodate a different size print, depending upon its dimensions. For example, a 14x11 frame would accommodate a 12 x 8 print leaving one inch showing on the left, right and top, two inches on the bottom (professional framers will always advise you to make the lower side of the mat larger, to provide a better balance). You can adjust top and bottom margins a bit for the best visual balance. Float frames have a clean, contemporary look, which I've found to be highly complimentary to photography.
Click to expand...
Actually the convention has changed and there is no longer a recommendation to make the mat opening off center.

I heard a discussion about that a few years ago. Apparently it came from the idea that for an image hanging high on a wall with a thick frame molding, the picture was leaning out from the top. The viewer could see the top part of the mat, but the bottom of the mat was blocked by the frame. Off-center matting with extra room at the bottom helped balance the view.

As I mentioned, that is no longer the style. You may see it occasionally as some people hang onto older ideas, but the current approach is to have all mat borders equal or to have the top/bottom equal and the left/right equal. As suggested, you can adjust or round the mat borders as needed so that the opening looks okay. The larger the print, the larger the mat border would normally be.

A similar style is floating an image inside a mat rather than with the mat overlapping the image. This lets the viewer see all the photo borders including the image title and signature of the artist. Or it can be mounted with the photo borders trimmed off to make it a borderless print. I see both matted prints with borders and matted prints that are borderless with a float mount and mat. I've seen both in museum exhibits including a Group 64 exhibit.
 
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EricBowles said:
You may see it occasionally as some people hang onto older ideas, but the current approach is to have all mat borders equal or to have the top/bottom equal and the left/right equal.
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I believe Eric is insinuating that I am old. Unfortunately, he is correct.
bleirer said:
I think it's a matter of how "archival" one wants it to be. Pressing the face against the acrylic could have the downside of "foxing." No idea why they call it that. The picture can eventually discolor. Which is fine if it is not intended to last forever.
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This is true. I used to ensure that I specified archival mounting materials. Now, because I am in fact old, "archival" is relative.

For those interested, a good discussion on bottom-weighting mats can be found here: https://www.framedestination.com/blog/resources/bottom-weighting-and-the-golden-mean
Just a matter of personal preference.
 
EricBowles said:
Actually the convention has changed and there is no longer a recommendation to make the mat opening off center.

I heard a discussion about that a few years ago. Apparently it came from the idea that for an image hanging high on a wall with a thick frame molding, the picture was leaning out from the top. The viewer could see the top part of the mat, but the bottom of the mat was blocked by the frame. Off-center matting with extra room at the bottom helped balance the view.

As I mentioned, that is no longer the style. You may see it occasionally as some people hang onto older ideas, but the current approach is to have all mat borders equal or to have the top/bottom equal and the left/right equal. As suggested, you can adjust or round the mat borders as needed so that the opening looks okay. The larger the print, the larger the mat border would normally be.

A similar style is floating an image inside a mat rather than with the mat overlapping the image. This lets the viewer see all the photo borders including the image title and signature of the artist. Or it can be mounted with the photo borders trimmed off to make it a borderless print. I see both matted prints with borders and matted prints that are borderless with a float mount and mat. I've seen both in museum exhibits including a Group 64 exhibit.
Click to expand...

When I was taking photography back in the day, we were told that it left room for the artist signature on the mat. Also not the current practice since the mat could get separated from the work with reframing.
 
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Lots of good info...thank you. The point Eric raised about the photo sticking to the glass eventuated yesterday when I removed a photo from a frame that's been on the hallway wall since 2003 and indeed it was stuck to the glass. I have the original file so no real damage, but all my other photos, including recent ones may suffer the same fate in years to come. Maybe I need to frame less prints properly as opposed to many prints badly. Cheers.
 
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bleirer said:
When I was taking photography back in the day, we were told that it left room for the artist signature on the mat. Also not the current practice since the mat could get separated from the work with reframing.
Click to expand...
The current practice is to sign both the mat and the border of the mounted photo underneath for just that reason.
 
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Thanks everyone for the replies/info. I now have it sorted. Today I found frames with wooden borders at a local store : 12x16 inch with 8x12 opening and have started mounting my 12x8 prints. There were three border colours to choose from: black, oak and brown. The black and oak were priced at $21, but the brown (which I like more) were on special for $1.50 each, so I purchased 12. :)

​

 
guitarman67 said:
Thanks everyone for the replies/info. I now have it sorted. Today I found frames with wooden borders at a local store : 12x16 inch with 8x12 opening and have started mounting my 12x8 prints. There were three border colours to choose from: black, oak and brown. The black and oak were priced at $21, but the brown (which I like more) were on special for $1.50 each, so I purchased 12.
Click to expand...

What a deal! I'm assuming the mat opening is more like 7.5 x 11.5? This is the usual even if it is labeled 8x12, but not always, to allow the mat to hold down the edges of a 8x12. If not something can be adjusted, print size increased a little for example.
 
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Hi Bill. Yes, the opening is slightly less than 12x8. I've only mounted 3 photos so far, more to do. However, the procedure I'm doing is to place the photo on top of the mat opening and applying a small strip of acid free tape in each corner to secure the photo, making sure though that the photo is positioned correctly when looked at from the front. I guess even with this method the photo is still close to the glass and as mentioned previously by Eric maybe could end up sticking to the glass? time will tell.
 
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Here's another option for future reference: http://diypictureframing.us/clipframes
Their Clip Frames are simple, clean, designed for borderless display. 12 x 18 size, $4.86 each, quantity discounts available. Also have a look at their Profile 375, a simple, modular system for use with or without a mat. 12 x 18, $5.37 each including glazing. Huge number of sizes. Certainly not gallery quality, but much better than some of the pathetic imports I've seen in the discount stores.
 
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