The Art of Hanging Art

There are not many interiors that cannot be enhanced with some art. Since we are selling photography, in this article we will focus on photographic art; wildlife, nature & western for the home or office.

Imagery of nature can give a relaxing feel to any home or office setting.They say staring at a beautiful scene can actually lower blood pressure! From modern spaces to the rugged lodge, images of nature go equally well . Regional photos can be especially nice for your clients to look at when they are visiting your building. You may want to have ocean waves and whales if your home or building is near the sea whereas you will want Moose and mountains if you live in the Rockies etc.

Enter the photograph on metal (aluminum). Photographs printed on aluminum are great for many reasons. They are lightweight, easy to clean (just a little Windex and paper towel), and are ready to hang, no framing necessary. They also have a 99 year archival life as long as you don’t hang in direct sunlight (not good for most art).  So when decorating a large office space or living area, it’s easier to keep the price down and focus on the images and the right size to fit your space. It’s the same for photographs on canvas, which a lot of people like. We print 99% of our work on aluminum because of the vibrant color and clarity for our color images and the great tones for our black and white and sepia images. Canvas images, because of the medium, tend to print with more muted color, which can work well for certain images, but most of our work we prefer to print on metal or Giclee paper.  It’s just a personal preference.  We finish off each aluminum print with a decorative border, our images look complete and ready to hang, with or without a frame.

When someone is considering buying a piece of wall art, whether it’s a painting or photographic image  on aluminum or canvas, the first thing they should do is determine what size they need for the desired wall space. This is different from the impulse buy of something say 11×14 or under. Most people can find a spot for an image that size or smaller. But when you start considering decorating a large wall in your home or office waiting room or lobby, you need to do a little planning. If your piece is too big or too small, it will look silly and not be effective as an art piece. You want the piece to fit the space , just like you would wear pants or a shirt that fits, so must your art fit the space!

To frame or not to frame…

That is the question! Frames can often enhance a piece, or really tie it to the room. But putting the right frame can be a challenge. Sometimes frames are so ornate, they are art themselves, and may distract from your painting or photograph you put the frame around. And sometimes the color of the frame may not go with the image.  For photography, I use the KISS rule; “Keep it Simple…” I choose barn-wood style, or simple wood frames with just a tiny amount of beading for our images in our home. Classic wood frames work great for both wildlife or landscape. However, when it comes down to it, what frame you choose is a personal choice, so I won’t show you examples, it’s really up to what you like and the style of your own home decor.

24×30 Aluminum print, no border, no frame

24×30 metal print framed, no glass.

Framing something 16×20 or smaller won’t hit your wallet too bad, but if you are going bigger, frames can really add up! Just remember, if you decide to frame your photograph on aluminum, you don’t need the glass! This will save some cash and you won’t have the weight that a large piece of glass adds to your framed print!

Photography sizes

When considering ordering a custom photography print- aluminum, canvas or paper, the list of sizes is often confusing for non- photographers/artists. You may see the image you want comes in 16×20 or 16×24, so what is the difference? The 16×24 will be longer and thinner than the 16×20 size which may fit better in a space like over a mantle where there is a shelf. The 16×20 will have some cropping from the original image. Most photographers leave a little room for cropping in their image. AND some images look better cropped in a bit, some you want every bit of the image to show. Often the photographer will offer both sizes, and will adjust the image to fit the size, but often an image calls for a longer, wider surface, while some images look better in the shorter crop giving a fuller looking picture, even though it’s shorter on the length. Hopefully that helps!

Square images. Back in the days of film, there were cameras that shot square images. If you wanted an 11×14 or 16×20, you were cropping out the top and or bottom of the square image, there was not other way to do it. I owned a few of these cameras and they were wonderful, there’s something about the square image! So now my camera shoots rectangles, but I often change the crop to a square. So what might have been a 16×20 is now a 16×16, or 20×20. If a photographer is showing a square image, they are usually wanting to keep to the square so you can go up or down in size, but the piece will be square. You can always ask if they have a horizontal or vertical rectangular version, they may. Or sometimes the image just looks better square.

How to creatively fill a large space with photography

With today’s technology available, you can print most professional photographs as big as you can imagine. Billboard size is about the limit! Most people won’t need that, but say you have a pretty large waiting area in your new building or a lovely light filled foyer that you want to decorate. Sure, a 30×40 inch photograph of the Grand Teton range in Wyoming, will have some impact! But maybe you want to be more creative than that. Enter our “Image Sets”. This is a great way to be a bit more creative than one 30×40 on each wall.

Image Sets are a number of coordinating images grouped together and hung with some space between them, making your art have a bit more coverage, and at the same time, more style. It’s been done for a long time with paintings, especially with  modern art canvases. But this style has migrated over to photography and we have put our own twist on Image Sets, grouping wildlife images together with matching borders or a mix of wildlife and landscape images designed to hang together. See some examples of image panels and wildlife panels sets below.

DeLisoPhoto loves doing custom orders for home or office. We are happy to consult with you about your space you are looking to choose art for. We do complimentary hanging service on large orders in the local area. If you are far away we can help with some hanging tips by phone, Skype or the like.

Give us a call or send an email with what you are thinking and we can go from there! We have a giant library of nature and wildlife to choose from as well as western/Equine. We are working on getting all that we have up on the website, but it is a lengthy process for sure! We have many of our favorite images up now and more to come!

Cheers!

~River~