Mounting

**Dabhand16** · 01-07-2006, 19:59

I now find myself in the positon of needing to mount some photographs. The only 'rule' I can think of is that you should leave a bigger margin on the bottom of the picture than the other three sides.

What I really need to know is if there are any general rules for choosing the colour of the mounting card. I know that in some circumstances you might want to break the rules, but if you don't know the rules in the first place......

If there is a light background in a portrait, do you use a white mount, and conversely, if there is a dark background, a black? Do you match the mount to the strongest colour in the shot?

If anyone could offer some advice iI would appreciate it.

**stepheno** · 02-07-2006, 08:34

It's a very long time since I did any mounting and even then I never followed any rules. What you said about coloured background makes sense and about the only thing I really looked at was the size of the margins - verging on larger rather than smaller. Can't offer any more I'm afraid.

***Dave*** · 02-07-2006, 10:18

Hi Graham

Although not being able to advise of sizes, I found this site :- - picturemounts.co.uk

plus some advice here :- Mounting (Matting) and Framing Advice

Hope these Help.

**Dabhand16** · 02-07-2006, 22:15

Thanks for that Guys. I am a member of the 'add lightness and simplicate' (Colin Chapman) brigade. I am not going to display any of these pictures, they are going to be gifts for the family of the latest addition to the family, as featured in the gallery.

I guess I'll stick to white for the moment. I just wanted to see if there were any conventions on the colour of the mounts before I started. The one of Oliver and Mum, with the dark background, I thought looked better with a black mount, but when my Son saw it, he preferred white. I guess, at the end of the day, that is what it comes down to - personal preference.

I'll try some 6 x 4 pictures with coloured mounts in due course and let you know if it works.

***Dave*** · 03-07-2006, 08:55

I've been thinking about printing up some Mono's of local area, get them framed & chuck them up in local post office to see if they would sell. I can't decide between Black or white borders.......let alone all the colours

***Dave*** · 03-07-2006, 09:19

Just had a look at an example shot of yours, Mum & Oliver. Personal thoughts on colours would be to pick out a colour within the shot & use that. So :-

a) colour of shed would conitmue to create larger border aroud main subject
b) colour of olivers shirt, to automatically focus eye to Oliver

I would recommend playing in PS, using eye dropper tool to take a colour from the shot, then use it to expand canvas to see what the border would look like. Good thing is this costs nothing & you can dabble to your hearts content

One last point I have sometimes chosen a border to go with the colour of the wall it's mounted on. That can look quite impressive if the wall is a bold colour & the photo can take it.

MickB · 03-07-2006, 15:01

I did the same as Dave re trying 1st on PC. Basically resized picture to inches I was going to print at, then played with inches expand on canvas to a) get right proportions & b) correct colour.

If printing Matt you can even get away with printing mount on larger print, rather than getting a mount.

**Dabhand16** · 03-07-2006, 20:30

Thanks for the input - plenty of stuff to try out. I did not think of using software to give it a go, but I only have Photoshop Elements 2, not Photoshop. Will I be able to do what you suggest with this software?

While I'm on this subject, and well off the thread, I don't think that I could justify spending around £500 on Photoshop. Are there any other cheaper alternatives, or is Photoshop the one to get?

silkstone · 03-07-2006, 21:33

As a good alternative to Photoshop, try Corel Paint Shop Pro X which does almost as much for a fraction of the price.

You can download a trial version from the Corel site.

Re mounts - just a thought, but have you considered ivory instead of white. I find that white glares at you and can distract from the print. If it's whiter than anything in the pic it can make the pic look grubby or dull. Just my 2p.

**Dabhand16** · 03-07-2006, 22:22

Thanks for that, Silkstone. Valid point about the ivory mount. I had a rake around in my loft and found some black and white card. Just for fun I laid out some pictures using the rule of thumb - dark background, black card, light background, white card.

i thought they looked, well, OK, if not mind-blowing. When my Son saw them (Oliver's Dad) he re-arranged them and it ended up the exact opposite of what I had done! Here is, therefore, yet another 'rule'. Personal preference!

Thanks for the tip about Paint Shop Pro. Amazon are selling for under £45. that's more like it. I'll check it out.

silkstone · 03-07-2006, 23:40

Pleasure.

I've been using PSP for years now. There are some things in PSP X that I don't like as much as PSP 9, especially the browser, but overall I think it does a good job and I've never felt the need for anything more expensive. If you do give it a try, check out the 'Fill Flash' and 'Backlight' filters which are a bit hidden in PSP X but can do wonders in shadow and highlight recovery.

**stepheno** · 04-07-2006, 10:57

I'll have to agree with Silkstone - CS2 is alright if you've got it but it isn't the end of the world if you haven't. PSP does as good a job only differently and it's a h**l of a lot cheaper.

***Dave*** · 04-07-2006, 11:19

Don't forget to look on fleabay. It's obvious the new price ones are copies @ £6, but I'm sure you can find a legite s/h copy in there somewhere.