Framing and Matting Photos

Mark from Paul's Photo gave us a few tips and tricks for framing and matting photos back in 3/2017, they are so useful I wanted to share again (I've combined and changed a couple of posts into one handy update) ~

My favorite tip that makes so much sense is to only buy black or white frames in standard sizes - you do not have to match the frames and mats to your wall color, or furniture, or style! Most photos will look good in either black or white, and limiting your color palette keeps things simple and cohesive. 

There are so many customized shapes and sizes to mat and frame your pictures if you go to a frame store, but if you stick with standard sizes (8x10, 11x14, 16x20, etc.) you only have to buy your frames once - when you want to change the picture you only need to get a new mat that fits your new photo and pop it into your existing frame. That'll save tons of money and is such a great idea that never occurred to me - every time I want to put a new picture up I go get a new frame! 

Another great tip is to hinge mat your photos - hinge matting is just taping the 2 mat boards together along the top edge only, and instead of taping all 4 sides of the photo to the mat (which is how I've always done it), you only need to tape the top edge and let gravity do the rest. 

• Print your picture. For this demonstration Mark 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. In this case his photo is 1" larger that the opening in the mat so only 1" of the photo's border will be covered - when printing your photo you need to figure out what size photo you'll need that fits the mat and frame. For example - if I have an 8x10 frame I probably wouldn't want to print the picture 8x10 or the mat might cover too much of the photo. The exception I guess would be if the image on the 8x10 photo is small and in the center, so my 8x10 mat opening would not be covering the image. Make sense? 

• When choosing the mat - since you've chosen standard size frames it's easy to find mats that fit - your biggest decision is how wide you want the opening or window of the mat to be based on how much of the photo you want covered.  

• Mats come in two pieces - the top window piece has the opening where your photo will show and the bottom is solid, the photo goes between them like a sandwich. To create the hinge mat, lay the top mat on your picture and pick them both up together. Hold them up 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).

hold the photo and top piece of mat towards
a bright light to help you see where the photo
should go in the mat

lay them down on your work surface making
sure to keep the photo exactly where you want
it in the mat, tape the top of the photo to the mat

• Lay the mat backing board next to the top mat, lining up the edges. Tape the two boards together at the top only creating 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.

tape the top edges of the mats together (on the wrong side)

Now you're ready to put it in your frame - easy!

Choosing what color mat to buy is just like with the frames - Mark recommends sticking with black or white. Once again, he says not to match the mat to your room, or your furniture (or your hair...funny guy), that 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!

These cool tips come to you from Mark Comon at Paul's Photo (remember when I took the creative photo classes? 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

He made a short video on how to create the hinged mat - click here to watch him in action.

Tips for Framing Your Photos and Prints

Here is the follow up to yesterday's post (click here to see it) about how Mark easily mats his photos and prints - watch this video for good tips on how to simply frame your prints and photos once you have matted them. In a nutshell, just like your mats should be black or white so should your frames. You do not have to match the frames and mats to your wall color, or furniture, or style! Buy the frame once in a standard size and never have to buy it again - just change out the mat and photo.

 Another thing he said that never occurred to me is that people will spend thousands to go on vacation, another thousand on camera equipment - but they balk at spending money on printing. matting, and framing their special photos. That was an epiphany of sorts for me, I've never looked at it like that. Thanks Mark!

After being inspired by these posts from Mark I made a gallery wall that I'm so happy with - I'll share that tomorrow! And it was easy!

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

Photo Class: Landscapes

This week in photo class the topic was "landscapes" which I mistakenly thought meant taking pictures of hills and trees - nope, it was more about paying attention to the landscape or environment you move through (both internal and external) and looking for themes that come up, repeated shapes or objects, things that remind you of your past, how light shifts, etc. As usual we were to create 20 photographs getting at different ideas we noticed, and were given a few categories to fill such as one image depicting or representing "home", one image referring to our past, and one image that is visually abstract.  There was also an alternate assignment given if we'd rather - to create a series of photos that went together (like a car collection, water towers, industrial buildings, etc.) instead of filling in the random categories.

(simple lines and form)

We studied the work of 9 photographers who are known for their specific series, ranging from cultural iconography (old signs, retro buildings) to abstract or all blurry, simple lines and colors, and abandoned places (buildings or objects). I decided to combine the assignments and took photos that inspired me from each of the 9 photographers work - so they didn't all go together other than that they represented all of the artists we studied. 

(abstract/meditation)

What was really fun about that was I got to take pictures of many different styles and objects - which I normally wouldn't do. We just shoot what we are interested in, right? So even though I'm not big on blurry impressions it was interesting to figure out how to make a cool blurry photo, and I've never thought about taking pictures of industrial buildings but I did and it turned out great. 

(power plant)

Because I was searching for different things than I would normally take photos of I ended up walking down many back alleys, the back side of buildings, out of the way places where I wouldn't normally go - Sarge loved it! He got to receive and leave "messages" in all kinds of fun new places.

(cultural iconography)

(abandoned places)

So this week maybe challenge yourself to move through your environment with intention. Pay attention to interesting things around you that you might not have noticed before - buildings, cool doors and stairways, things that remind you of your past...and explore the back sides of stores or buildings just to see some different things - it was a fun week!  

creativephotoacadamy.com for info on classes at Pauls Photo, Torrance, CA

Creative Photo Class: Portraits

Week 3 in our creative photo class was centered on taking portraits, which was a little harder than I thought it was going to be.We were supposed to work on more than just snapping someone's picture - we thought about how we wanted them to pose, what feeling or emotion we wanted to capture, and not necessarily take what is considered to be a "correct" formal portrait - be creative of course. 

There were, as usual, a few categories that we tried to fill, ranging from the subject "looking at the viewer" to one shot "not physically including your subject" - for that one we should get to know our subject enough to know what they like or what's important to them and photograph that in some way. We could either approach random people and ask if we could take their picture, or use someone we know - but we needed to get 20 photographs that had different ideas and emotional tones.

For my project I did ask a few random people and got some good shots, but then for the bulk of the photos I used my friend Athena (who is a natural performer, a dance teacher, and not at all shy haha) as my "muse". We went to a local little zen garden and the first thing she said was "ok, how do you want me to pose"... I had no idea! It's hard to pose someone - I told her do whatever she wanted haha and fortunately got some good shots. For the one that she wasn't physically in the shot I took a cool picture of her new glasses laying on the floor in the dance studio.

Think about taking portraits of people, actually having them pose and not just in a "smile and say cheese" kind of way. And if you see someone interesting (like my pic of the meat guy in a mask at the grocery store) or doing something cool maybe ask if you can take their picture - it was kind of fun asking strangers if I could take theirs and no one said no. They did tell Dave no a few times, but they are strangers so who cares if they refuse - all you can do is ask :)

meat guy at the grocery store - love this picture!

As long as the subject is looking at you it's not considered a candid snapshot - so this picture of Dave and Ed counts as a portrait.


check out creativephotoacademy.com for class info if you're interested.

Self Portraits

Week 2 of our creative photo class at Paul's Photo focused on taking self portraits - these are different then taking "selfies" in that we used timers and tripods (or in my case my homemade jerry-rigged camera holder which consists of my mini clipboard and a chopstick) to teach us about telling stories with photographs, how to set up shots with ourselves in the frame (and not our arms reaching out!), also how to photograph people in general. The thought is that by taking the time to figure out how to pose ourselves for the best shots - we are being our own guinea pigs so to speak - we will have a better understanding and sensitivity about photographing other people. Once again we received a homework assignment to fill a bunch of categories with photos of ourselves and we were encouraged to use props, reflections, and get creative about different ways to depict ourselves - some of the categories we didn't even have to be in the shot...I liked those the best. Setting the timer and then running to get in place to get my shot over and over again was exhausting! Try taking pics of yourself without doing a typical holding-out-your-arm selfie, it was challenging and fun to think of ways to take my own photo.

I decided to do a theme for my self portraits, so every one was based around shoes in some way. Here are some examples:

showing my face in a reflection

showing a feeling - I was going for "peaceful"

showing myself in my environment, I love how this shadow
makes Sarge look huge!

(check out creativephotoacademy.com for more info on taking classes if you're interested!)