Gallery wraps 101

[PSA DC-9-30]

I have never had one of these done, but am interested in trying a few to see how they might look on my walls (particularly in my office at work). I know the old dogma that any photo needs a mat of sufficient size and a frame to set it off from a wall, however I think that some wraps that have strong colors or contrast (if grayscale) can look quite good.

In any case, I am looking for post-processing tips and any general guidelines for having one of these done.

Also, where are some good places send this type of business ( I want to upload my file and receive my wrap in the mail. )

Thanks,
Kevin

[kikashi]

Where are you? I can recommend an excellent shop in England.

Jeremy

[langier]

Sound's like you were a Pacific Southwest DC-9 pilot!

If you are stateside, wraps can be done cheaply at Costco, if you fit into one of 9 sizes and take what you get, go to Simply Canvas and hand off the file for any size, several depths of wraps, and many styles or even West Coast Images here in California for some pretty nice custom wraps.

A few years back, I went to a presentation by Bill Aktinson and he showed and discussed his canvas wraps and I saw the potential. I now do both flat and wrapped canvas for my work and a select cliental.

For wrapping the canvas, there's a few approaches to the edges, simple wrap the edge and hope you have room on the edge not to put an important part of the image on the side, add a background for the edge of the stretchers, say black, enlarged ghosted image, or mirrored.

Collage on white is another approach that looks nice or even a soft vignette if it's an etherial high-key portrait.

I usually will prep the image to the stretcher face size, say 16x10 or 20x30, mirror the edges, blur and darken them and that will usually work. Sometimes the edges need a little work so that a head near the edge is eliminated from the side.

The thing that has saved me a lot of post has been Perfect Resize which has adjustable settings for wraps. It does in a few seconds which took about 5-10 minutes by hand. However, find out from your lab how best to prepare your images to fit their workflow before going out and buying more software. They may simply be able to take your master file and take it from there.

[Don Libby]

Hi Kevin,  I've been offering gallery wraps on most my landscape work for years and have never had a complaint nor client decide afterwards to have one framed.  I feel the gallery wrap helps add another dimension to the image that a flat matted image behind glass doesn't.

While I do all my own work (printing on a Epson 9900 and wrapping) I believe Bay Photo can help you get what you're looking for.

Regarding post-processing, you'll process the image much the same you would paper however when it comes time to stretch you need to add to the image to take into account the stretcher width.  This is easy.  Say you have a 30x20 image.  What I do is bump the image up to say 30.15x20.12 then enlarge the canvas size by 4" (2" all the way around) giving a finished size of 34.15x24.15.  Add a mirror effect on the new canvas area which will serve as the side border.  Print the image, protect it then stretch it on the stretcher bars. 

You'll need a printer capable of printing on canvas or just have Bay Photo do it for you.

Regarding stretching:  There's basically 2-ways, the old wooden stretcher bars (Dick Blick or Michaels) or take a look at Breathing Colors as they are offering a newer, easier method of gallery wraps of not only traditional canvas but paper as well.  I use the old wood stretcher method and like it.  A good friend of mine Ken Doo in Carmel has been using the Breathing Color method with success.

Either way you go a well done gallery wrap is a piece of art.

Don 

[mrenters]

Regarding post-processing, you'll process the image much the same you would paper however when it comes time to stretch you need to add to the image to take into account the stretcher width.  This is easy.  Say you have a 30x20 image.  What I do is bump the image up to say 30.15x20.12 then enlarge the canvas size by 4" (2" all the way around) giving a finished size of 34.15x24.15.  Add a mirror effect on the new canvas area which will serve as the side border.  Print the image, protect it then stretch it on the stretcher bars. 

I've you're looking for a script to automate the mirroring part, I've written one you can download for free.

http://www.teckelworks.com/photography/tools/index.html

Martin

[Don Libby]

Thanks for the offer Martin.  I've played around with scripting the process but in the end I'd much prefer to do it myself.  Goes to being totally anal about my work and in general I feel it just gives me much better control over the finished product.

Cheers

Don

[Kerry L]

In any case, I am looking for post-processing tips and any general guidelines for having one of these done.

Also, where are some good places send this type of business ( I want to upload my file and receive my wrap in the mail. )

Thanks,
Kevin

In the latest Camera to Print & Screen video, Andrew Collett discusses his post processing techniques, file handling and canvas printing. There is lots of basic information and well worth viewing.