Print Mounts

[Mike Farley]

Iggy e-mailed me recently asking for advice about print mounts. With his permission, I am copying our correspondence here as it might be of interest to others who are thinking about entering the club's print competitions next season for the first time in the forthcoming season. To fit in with the way the forum works, I'll post Iggy's enquiry and my response in separate posts. Any other opinions are, of course, welcome.

[Mike Farley]

Hello Mike,
With our 6 print competition a year, what is a good size print to enter?
Print sizes I was considering are 12 x 9 and 12 x 8, although I am drawn to the larger 16 x 12 and 15 x 10 inches. Some are offering white margins around the print which I am not sure about.

Just to make life easier, there are pre-cut mounts available on ebay for all the above size prints.
What is your take on the use of such mounts that are usually available in ivory or cream?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Packs-of-10-B ... 415851b707
20 x 16 for image size 16 x 12 or 15 x 10, pack of 10 for £18.50 delivery included.

These pre-cut mount holes are 3mm smaller all round compared to the print.
Is this the standard that you would be cutting your mount holes, or would you be allowing a larger margin of cover, like 4 or 5mm?

I would be grateful for your advice.

At the moment, I am keeping all my options open including starting with mount board ordered through you and cutting my own.

Kind regards,
Iggy

[Mike Farley]

Hi Iggy

There is no straightforward answer to your question as it is an aesthetic decision. Big prints can make the most impact, but sometimes that does not always suit the subject and smaller is better. For example, I have an image of a Harvest Mouse which I might well enter next season, but the creatures are so tiny that a large print does not seem appropriate. Club rules do not specify the maximum size of mount, although 50 cm x 40 cm is recommended as that is usually the size stipulated for inter-club competition and exhibitions. In this instance I could well end up with a small print in a large mount to emphasise the mouse's diminutive dimensions.

For most purposes, I stick to prints which measure 36 cm (around 14") on the longest edge. For me, this seems to be the best compromise between print size and having a reasonably sized border created by the mount. Quite often I cut the window so that along each edge it is 3mm larger than the print, giving a gap between image and mount. Once again whether to do this every time comes down to aesthetics. Which treatment works best for the image? I do not stick to any one ratio between the long and short sides, cropping the image as required by the composition. I am able to do this as I make custom mounts. The print sizes you mention have ratios of either 4:3 or 3:2, so if you have a DSLR and opt for the former, cropping will be inevitable as the DSLR gives a 3:2 image.

The pre-cut mounts are convenient, but work at twice the cost per mount compared to buying mountboard in the club's current offer and making your own. That has to be offset against the cost of mount cutting equipment and the time involved in making your own mounts, of course. The other downsides are having to fit an image to the mount and aesthetics yet again. I usually cut my mounts so that the bottom edge is 15-20% wider than at the top, which gives a better impression. The mounts you mention do not appear to allow this option, which is well known to those who frame images.

[walterconquy]

Dear Iggy, If I were you I would not buy cut mounts you don't know what size your pictures would end up when you have cropped your pictures, not all pictures are conducive to a certain size. Mike is right to make custom mounts.
The only regular size you have to play around with is the 50x40cm one as he says if you want to enter interclub competitions they are the acceptable sizes. You can cut your mounts manually if you are capable with the minimum of output, I did it for years, although I now cut mine with a logan mount cutter which probably costs around £80-90 nowadays, a small one anyway.
A tip I give to people is to give approximately 5mm round the actual image so the picture stands alone with a certain width so your eye is led into the picture. It really is worth doing this if you can afford it. Oh by the way ideally you ought to have a backing, so that the image doesn't bend, ideally again it should be the same size as the front. 14-15" the longest edge for the image. Good luck

[Iggy]

Mike & Wally, Thank you for your comprehensive replies with suggestions on print mounts above.
Tom, Thank you for your demonstration on how to cut mount board cheaply and also the possible use of pre-cut commercial mount boards to enable one to easily take part in CCC print competitions.

Although I am rather busy with other ongoing projects and hobbies, I am keen to partake in all CCC activities that include the print competitions. This obviously takes much more "work" and planning compared to the DPI competitions and new comers do obviously need help and support to get going.

For my first year coming, I have sorted out some images that lend themselves for printing in either the 3:4 or the 3:2 format after some minimal cropping. In August, the intention is to print a dozen or more images with a commercial company such as DS Colour Labs used by some CCC members that have rather low charges (12x8in - £0.60; 12x9 - £0.65; or 15x10in - £0.95; 16x12 - £1.15) to see how they turn out. For these images, I could therefore use pre-cut commercial mount boards in an emergency just to get my prints entered in the competition. However, I am hoping to cut my own mount board depending on when the first print competition is. I will not be buying a colour printer!

At the moment, when composing an image on my camera screen or view finder, I try to fill the frame with my subject matter, zooming in or out as necessary, thus needing little or no cropping of the final image. Images are just processed briefly in Photoshop.
As I progress, I guess I will start to use different size images, possibly cropped after printing (?) if I want to continue using DSCL.
Since joining, CCC I have shot some images in raw on my recent US trips but they are rather large files that requires more external drives.

Following Mike's recent tutorial at the CCC, I am even considering purchasing Lightroom 6 having been pleasantly surprised at the low price at both PCWorld and Amazon of just £109.99. I was under the impression that it would cost £500!
ADOBE Photoshop Lightroom 6 Product code: 112385 Licence - 1 user - Lifetime licence
Operating system - Windows: 7, 8, 10, OS X 10.7 onwards
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 5-pdt.html

Further suggestions and advice would be gratefully received. And more tutorials at the CCC too.

Regards,
Iggy

[Mike Farley]

...... the intention is to print a dozen or more images with a commercial company such as DS Colour Labs used by some CCC members ......

You could try ProAm, which is another company used by club members and has good quality at reasonable prices. They also support the club's annual exhibition by advertising in the catalogue, which helps with the costs of staging the event. In return, I always encourage people to give them their custom whenever possible.

http://www.proamimaging.com/

At the moment, when composing an image on my camera screen or view finder, I try to fill the frame with my subject matter, zooming in or out as necessary, thus needing little or no cropping of the final image.

Getting it right in camera is the best option, although circumstances do not always allow for it.

Following Mike's recent tutorial at the CCC, I am even considering purchasing Lightroom 6 having been pleasantly surprised at the low price at both PCWorld and Amazon of just £109.99. I was under the impression that it would cost £500!

The program is good value for what it does and often further processing in Photoshop is not necessary, as I explained in my presentation. Pairing it with Photoshop Elements provides the most used functionality at reasonable cost. Given that PS Elements basic functions have not changed since version 9, you are unlikely to need to upgrade it when Adobe does the annual update.

[Peter Boughton]

At the moment, when composing an image on my camera screen or view finder, I try to fill the frame with my subject matter, zooming in or out as necessary, thus needing little or no cropping of the final image.

Getting it right in camera is the best option, although circumstances do not always allow for it.

Getting it right where it's easiest is the best option. (And that varies between photographers and types of image.)

I much prefer deliberately giving more space around, since cropping during post is quick and easy.
If I crop fully in-camera but don't get the image level, that means cloning in new corners after rotating, which is more effort.
(Of course, my current camera does has a level indicator built-in, but I do have to remember to turn it on and align, so it's fine for relaxed landscape shots but not always the easiest route when timing is critical.)

[Mike Farley]

Your current camera also has a lot of megapixels, so you can safely discard a few in post. Most of my images involve a crop - there are very few where I do not tidy things up a bit.

By default these days, I invariably introduce a subtle vignette into my images as this helps guide the eye to the subject. Together with judicious cropping, that might just reduce the need to sort out the corners, although I reckon if you can see the vignette then I have probably overdone it.