Print It and Frame It

[c.cloudwalker]

The framing part... ugh, the first time I had stuff framed for a show, I thought 'durnit, I'm in the wrong business!' It's pricey.

I guess I'm one of the oddballs in the digital age. I do have thousands of unwashed images, but those I tend to process out fully end up at least as a 4x6, 4x5, or 5x7, or alternatively, in a photobook. My walls are covered with mine and other photographers' photos, and when it's just for myself, discount frames from the art stores do the job.

Yes, it is expensive. My first show, I felt lucky because I sold enough to pay for the framing materials. Labor was mine so that was kind of free.

Another great way to get really cheap frames (but sometimes beautiful ones) is at auctions. People kept wondering why I was buying so much cheesy art work but I never paid more than a couple bucks for them. Sometimes got a box lot with a dozen frames or more for that little money.

Of course, it helps if you cut your own mats so that you don't worry about frame sizes

 

[Alpha]

Even printing is expensive. Ever had a large Ilfochrome printed? Ever had a LightJet print mounted onto plexi? Makes you think long and hard about which shots are actually good enough to go to the print shop.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I am my own print shop (darkroom) for my personal work so the cost is not that bad.

I don't get the plexi mounted print thing. Doesn't sound very good for conservation.

 

[ann]

gosh, but then i don't know Bill Gates. His loss

i do al my own printing and framing. And yes it can get expensive especially when hanging for a show. I tend to put most of my images in an archival box for storage, altho, i have a house full of framed photos, none are mine.

Most prints are mounted to the same outer size so it is easy to break down metal frames and put them back when some one wants to display them, etc.

I have been told by my vendor that fewer people print their digital images, which isn't a surprise, just note how many people have gone out of the business, but they tend to take more photos.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

gosh, but then i don't know Bill Gates. His loss

:thumbup:

 

[tango943]

It would make me sad to think so but I'm just an old fart. Lol.

 

[Storky1980]

This is something i was thinking about a few weeks ago as i was going through the countless photo albums my mum and dad have stashed in a cupboard of me and brother growing up, all the holidays and vacations, school occasions etc, nobody in my family is a photographer per-say, but there must be thousands of very treasured photographs there.
It made me decide then that i will buy a printer and photographic paper, it may be expensive and it may not be the best prints but i just miss having the phyicality of these things.

On top of that, i also decided i am going (try) to get 1 per month enlarged and either framed or on a canvas. some i may hang, others probably not but if nothing else i think it may improve my confidence as a photographer.