How To Museum Hinge Mat Your Photos

Mark showed me the easy way he mats photos and I want to share it with you guys - this is such a great idea! He made a video but I'm having trouble getting it to post here, check the blog Facebook page if you want to watch him in action. I'll break it down for you though - basically instead of taping all 4 corners of the photo to the back of the mat (like I've always done to get it to stay in place) he only tapes the top edge using blue painter tape. The tape easily peels off of the photo when you want to change it out, and just taping the top edge allows gravity to do the rest of the work creating a smooth hanging photo. You can then pop it easily into the frame of your choice. Love it - and was so inspired that I went and made myself a whole gallery wall this weekend!

Another tip is to choose either a white or black mat for all of your photos. Only those two colors - Mark says not to match the mat to your room, or your furniture (or your hair...funny guy), that a simple white or black goes with everything, coordinates with everything, will make your photo stand out, and that the simple act of matting your photo will make it look so much better!

1) print out your picture so it will fit in a standard size mat and frame - there are so many crazy/detailed/customized ways to mat your pictures if you go to a frame store, but sticking with a simple mat in a standard size lets you only have to buy your frames once, when you want to change them you just get a new mat and picture and pop it into your existing frame. That'll save tons of money and is such a great idea that's never occurred to me - every time I want to put a new picture up I go get a new frame! Check back later this week for more tips and info on framing. For this demonstration he printed his picture on 13"x19" paper, and is using an archival quality no-acid white mat that is 16"x20" overall with a 12"x18" opening.
2) then choose your mat - there are different widths available for how much of the picture gets covered. Again, this example is a 12"x18" opening, pick the opening size based on how you want your picture to look once matted.

3) lay the mat on your picture and pick them both up together holding it towards a bright light source so you are looking thru the back of the picture. This way you can easily see where the picture should go in the mat. Get it exactly where you want it, carefully lay them down on a surface and tape the top edge of the picture to the mat using blue painters tape (or archival linen hinging tape if you are hanging in a gallery or long term).

4) line up the edge of the mat backing board with the picture and window mat you just taped, then tape the two boards together. This creates a hinged mat, the window mat and picture in the front with the solid mat backing board sandwiching the picture. Because you've only taped the top edge of the picture gravity is allowing it to hang flat without buckling like it tends to do if you tape all of the edges.

Now you're ready to put it in the standard size frame of your choosing - easy!

These cool tips come to you from Mark Comon at Paul's Photo (remember when I took the creative photo classes there last year? Click here to see one of those posts) - check them out online and get inspired with tons of ideas or classes! These are super creative and helpful people - thanks for the blog post Mark! paulsphoto.com, creativephotoacademy.com