For customers visiting the new TimeLine Media proofing website, I try to give lots of options for displaying your photos. For hanging on the wall, I prefer canvas prints compared to framed paper prints. The presentation of the image is very modern. Without the frame or matting, there is no other decoration surrounding the canvas. The wall that the canvas is hanging on becomes the backdrop, helping to pop the image even more. Here is an example of a display of prints in the living room:
These four prints are each 20 x 20 in size. As a recommendation I would not hang any image smaller than 11 x 14 on the wall. Many think that an 8 x 10 is sufficient, but for me, it would be too small to appreciate anywhere but up close. The larger prints allow the images to be a focal point in the room as soon as one enters. On the website, I do offer 8 x 10 canvas prints in case it will hang in a small space, or hallway, or if you want to put a collection of them together against a wall. I would be happy to discuss with you about how displaying your prints as a single or collection would work for your wall space. I enjoy working on a collection like this one in a while.
Additionally, here are some detail images of these prints. They arrive well-packed from the lab to your home ready-to-hang! They are mounted with a wall hanger and bumpers on the back of the print to prevent any damage to paint on your walls.
Canvas wall hanger
Wall bumper on the back of a canvas print
Canvas prints can be made in most popular image sizes, but custom dimensions can be made too! The image is printed directly onto canvas, and is wrapped around a wooden frame. Sometimes the image can be made to wrap around the edge, or it can be wrapped with an edge of black, white or any custom color. These were wrapped on white edges.
For my professional photography career, I have been digital all the way. I am not nostalgic about the hey day of using film when capturing images. In the few times that I have used film, there is not much different in the way that the camera works. With later Nikon SLRs, the mechanics and ergonomics are almost exactly the same without the screen on the back for viewing images, of course. And then there is the ISO button.
One setting that is different on digital SLRs compared to film is the ISO button. This setting relates to the light sensitivity setting of the sensor and what I think what allowed digital photography to surpass film in quality and usability. Here is the reason why. ISO refers to the International Organization of Standards that creates the universal criteria for a variety of measures.
ISO Rating
The lower the ISO number on your camera, the LESS sensitive your sensor is to light (ie 100 or 200) . The higher the ISO number, the MORE light sensitive your sensor is to the light hitting the back of the camera (ie 1600, 3200 and higher). Back in the film days, you used to have to choose your film speed when you were at the store. This corresponds to the ISO setting in digital cameras. They would sell photos for bright daylight which would be ISO 100 or ISO 200, or you would choose an all-around film which would be rated at ISO 400, or you could get action film which usually would be black and white and be rated for 1600 or 3200.
Why would you choose one over the other? In photography there are always trade-offs. In film, it is grain, in digital capture, it is digital noise. As your sensitivity goes up, so does the amount of grain or noise in your image. The lower ISO values give you the cleanest image without little dots of noise that do not accurately have represent the scene. Higher ISO values may introduce noise or grain artifacts, but it is possible for you to capture a sharp image with faster shutter speeds. Sometimes getting ANY image no matter how grainy is better than getting a completely blurry image without any grain. This was important for photo journalists that needed to get sports shots, or images in bad light without added lighting, and still be sharp enough for printing in the newspaper. Here is an example of a photo taken with Kodak T-Max that is ISO 3200:
Yes, there is lots of grain in the image! But considering there was no added flash, and using only the ambient light from lamps in the room, you do get a sharp image, and you can make out the subject. Here is a 100% crop from this frame really showing the grain from the film:
With digital photography changing at a rapid pace, the ability to shoot at higher ISO has become the next technological marking stick. Manufacturers have been making cameras that can shoot at higher and higher sensitivities. The magic in new hardware and software allows for this increased sensitivity without adding much noise to the image. Here is an example from a DSLR at ISO 8000 – almost 2 stops more sensitive than the film images above!
The noise/grain is really minimized. From these developments, it really does not make as much sense to shoot film especially for sports or event photographers. This really changes what kinds of situations I can shoot, and what equipment I need to make good images. All digital cameras have an ISO setting, even the iPhone. You may not be able to control it, but you can go into the data for each of your images and see what was the sensitivity for each.
Camera Settings
At the beach on a bright sunny day, the ISO will be 50 or 100, and the computer in the camera will push the ISO up as it gets dark. With this changing automatically in point and shoot or smartphone cameras, you no longer have to worry about sensor sensitivity, but know that as it gets better, so will the quality of your indoor or lower light photos. Rest assured, the sensors in DSLRS are much larger making them much better, but it shows how much people want better low light photos for what they want to photograph.
There are some constants that survive no matter how much photography evolves. Because of standards organizations, we had film speeds in ASA or ISO that now go by light sensitivity on digital cameras and F-stops for describing aperture openings. The softer “standards” that have survived include cropping dimensions of photos for presentation.
Photo Dimensions
8×10, 5×7 – these dimensions are some of the popular frame sizes that are sold here in the US. When my customers start looking at purchasing photos, these are the sizes that they purchase the most – why? These are the frames that are available in the decorator and craft stores. The problem? Look at the files that are coming out of your camera at this time. If you have a DSLR, the dimensions of the files that it makes are 4×6! This goes back to the days of film. 35mm film was the most popular consumer and small-format professional size of film that was available. For this reason, manufacturers keep the form of the cameras and the lenses the same as film cameras. With this in mind, most sensors have retained this ratio.
What this means is that if you want to have an 8×10 photo that is printed edge to edge, you need to crop your image files. Cropping is much easier in software than after the photos has been printed. It is non destructive, and it can also be used to improve composition of your image. To make an 8×10 image, the original file needs to be cropped down from 4×6 to 4×5 to fit on the page without borders. Here is an example:
The 4×6 crop is more “panoramic” with a long dimension left to right in the frame. This is popular for landscapes and can give a better sense of scale. To fit this image into an 8×10 frame, however, a crop is needed. In trying to keep it close to the original composition, I didn’t move the frame in the software and came up with this:
The frame looks much different to me! Even though printed it would be a “larger” photo, I think it feels more cramped. It doesn’t convey the open space that the photo was taken, it seems like many of the elements are much closer together in the frame – the house in the background with the box in the foreground. Now changing the 8×10 crop to a portrait mode (where the longest size run up and down) the background house is a much smaller part of the images, an the emphasis goes back to the foreground. The best part is that you can change these easily in software until you really find the photo that suits you best.
