Mounting Large/Very Large Prints

flight3

Hi all,
I've been doing a bit of searching (on the forum and google) and haven't really received a good answer, if there is one. But I am looking to print some of my photos that I will hang in my home, as well as in a gallery. I would like to stay away from frames or mounting to something with a border. With that I have two questions:

1. For the gallery photos, I plan on printing out prints at 24x36 inches. Right now I am planning on buying acid free foamcore and dry mounting the prints to that. Does anyone agree with that route or have any other suggestions?

2. I want to print a panoramic photo that is 72x31 inches. Right now I'm thinking about super gluing two pieces of foam core together (to the desired length) and using some strong 3M adhesive tape along the sides to mount the photo to the foamcore. Does anyone have a better idea? Would that even work?

Thank you for any help.

Koru

@flight3

The prints you are talking about are not really that big in the world of professional printing/mounting. Used to work in the industry. Find a commercial shop near you that prints signage. (don't know where you live) there should be plenty if you are in a fairly large urban area.

As for foam core, don't bother gluing. Foam core is manufactured and sold in
48" x 96" sheets. I would personally go with "Gator Foam". It can be acquired in thicker sizes and is more rigid (won't curl as easily) There are other options (like plexi glass) albeit much more expensive. A commercial printer will be able to advise what's available/cost. There are also amazing printers like the Oce Arizona that can print directly on virtually any media (wood, metal, etc.) The Oce equipment is now sold by Canon and costs around a million, so it will have to be a large shop. Canon bought Oce a couple of years ago. Try and find out who has the equipment in your area. Chances are they will have other Ink Jet printers that can do the job for you. Commercial ink jet printers these days are amazing! Good luck!

sevencrossing

I would try a find a printer who is also a framer
I would avoid: super glue / gluing pieces of foam core together
adhesive film ( not tape) can be used, but you need a special roller


if you are going to DIY try 3M adhesive spay

framer

1st I am a full time picture framer. The Gator Foam as koru mentioned, should be a minimum if you are not going to frame the item. FC will more then likely warp over time. Gator Foam can also be bought in different thicknesses I'd advise 1/2inch for best results. There's another product you can request and most shops should be able to get for you is an aluminum coated plastic mounting board from a company named Kool Tack. The adhesive is on the aluminum and sets at 155deg in a heat vac press that almost every shop has. This is used for the highest quality exhibition grade mounting. 24x36 is not big for any shop. As for the 31x72 use 1/2inch Gator Foam have the print drymounted to the board. There are several drymount papers and adhesive coating that can be used with Gator Foam depending on your photo paper type.

As for 3M adhesive spray, good luck. If you are trying to save money 4 thumb tacks works.

For the best framing advise www.thepictureframersgrumble.com


framer

flight3

Thank you for the information. Yes I know the printer can mount it, but I was just trying to save some money by doing it myself. I'll look into gator board, the only reason I didn't choose that at first was because my printer only had one thickness of it and it was pretty thin. I'll talk to different framers in my area and see what they suggest/offer too. Thanks again guys.

Elvishefer

If you move often or plan to move your prints around your house, I'd strongly suggest avoiding investing in mounting on foam core. The corners are so easy to damage, and once damaged, they aren't fixable, and look pretty bad.

flight3

@Elvishefer that is true. I went out talking to framers and printers today and found out that I had gotten gator board mixed up with another material 8-}. I believe I will be using gator board to mount and I found a company that has it but I will have to wait until Tuesday to speak with them.

proudgeek

For whatever it's worth (and I apologize if I'm linking to a non-advertiser in violation of forum rules), I've used these guys in the past. They do nice work.
http://thephotogarden.com/silver-maple-laminations.html

kenadams

I have several pictures printed on canvas and mounted on an internal invisible wooden frame. Excellent quality, great colors, very light. The shop were I have them does all sizes on request.

If you get really close, you see a waffle pattern from the canvas, but that's all. Highly recommended.

proudgeek

My sister has done this with a lot of my images as well. I like the effect. One thing you do have to be careful of is that the canvas has to be stretched over the wooden frame, thereby changing the aspect ratio and potentially hiding some things in the edge of your image. When you send the image, you have to leave a little "play" in it to account for this.

Msmoto

Just a note…. printed by fusing inks into an aluminum sheet, mounted on aluminum frame… this image of my tiger on the wall is taken with my phone, so please forgive… this is in a restaurant where many of us meet up about 7:30 AM each Wednesday…

flight3

@Kenadams and @Proudgeek I've seen many canvas prints (they are really popular in Portland), but I'm just not really into it. @Msmoto I really LOVE aluminum prints, but they are pretty costly. I'm sure I will get couple printed that way in the future though.

ChasCS

From an earlier thread:
But thinking about some very large prints from this D800, mine will be more like 44" x 66", plenty big enough.

This is also pretty cool though... I read about this incredible display late last night.

http://petapixel.com/2013/06/27/how-i-created-a-four-story-tall-print-of-one-of-my-photographs/

What an awesome idea... But who has that kind of space?

Chas

DenverShooter

When I make 24 X 36 prints I put them in frames. 24 X 36 is a standard poster size and you can find frames from a myriad of sources including (but not limited to) Walgreens and Michaels. I usually buy from the local Michaels and wait for the 50% off sales on frames. Nice ones with real glass and wooden frames are $35 on sale.

Denver Shooter

flight3

@ChasCS I saw that awhile back! pretty cool stuff, maybe if I moved into a place with a long stairwell :P @DenverShooter thats a good note on waiting on sales at Michaels. I'm just really a fan of the frameless look. Anywho the company I spoke with is bit too pricey, so I am thinking of getting gatorboard from Uline. They have a carton of 5 sheets which is exactly how many I need.

ChasCS

I was only referring to it as an example of what I consider an actual very large print. ;-)

Looking forward to seeing some of your pics...

Chas

bland

I wish to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge on this.

I never have my pictures printed and mounted, after following this thread I went and had some done.

I ended up going to a frame shop like Framer has, best decision I ever made. My 24 x 36 was under $50 and my 12 x 18's were all under $20 each.

They were all dry mounted, custom frames, paper back frames and hangers mounted properly. The glass was good quality and the selection of frames (which they build) was out standing. The framer also discussed and helped me on whats best for different type pictures and etc, total professionalism. Along with what type print works best for hanging, referring to my choice of silver metallic prints, which he highly approved of for the type of pictures I brought in.

Point being, there's a huge difference between Hobbie Lobby and a real frame shop, such as Framer has.

flight3

I would also like to thank everyone for their help and very good information. I just hung my photos this morning, and they will be up all month. What I did was print my photos from a local printer who does a lot of prints for nearby stores and schools, then bought gator board from Uline and had it all dry mounted and trimmed at Dick Blick (which did a fantastic job for a great price by the way =D> ).

All in all I'm sure that if I hadn't gotten all of your help, the photos would not have turned out as well. So thank you! :-h Here is a photo of 2 of the 5 photos:



Next time I might try printing from a lab such as WHCC to see how that goes.

corasmith

HI Guys, I too made a panoramic frame but instead of making it the traditional way I decided to give it a little trendy look, this was not completely my idea but I got a little inspiration from the support team and designers of arttoframe, well I contacted them for reference but a great art work was born instead. I took three different frame sizes and took out a print out of an amazing panoramic picture, got it framed and hung it together on my wall, now it looks like a panoramic modern art. Here's a pic of my wall, you'll get a better idea by seeing it.

sevencrossing

corasmith very nice tryptic
It avoids stitching. which can be a problem on sea scapes

Photobug

Excellent photo corasmith.
Welcome to NRF from one member to another.

FreezeAction

I've printed a lot on both fine art and canvas papers as well as high end photo papers. It seems to me after large format printing for about 11 years now each image needs to be paired with the media that shows the story the best. My local camera/frame shop will dry mount up to a 48x96" print for me with any media. I don't like stretching canvas if I can get out of it and the canvas prints I've seen my shop dry mount look good. They have 1/2" gator foam. One thing I've got to find out is whether or not the dry mount sheet will serve also as an archival barrier to block any acid damage from the gator foam. I don't think it is acid free but could be wrong on that one. I could gesso coat the gator foam but then the dry mount sheet many not hold well. I just don't know all the answers but the above accepted answer was a good one.

framer

I've printed a lot on both fine art and canvas papers as well as high end photo papers. It seems to me after large format printing for about 11 years now each image needs to be paired with the media that shows the story the best. My local camera/frame shop will dry mount up to a 48x96" print for me with any media. I don't like stretching canvas if I can get out of it and the canvas prints I've seen my shop dry mount look good. They have 1/2" gator foam. One thing I've got to find out is whether or not the dry mount sheet will serve also as an archival barrier to block any acid damage from the gator foam. I don't think it is acid free but could be wrong on that one. I could gesso coat the gator foam but then the dry mount sheet many not hold well. I just don't know all the answers but the above accepted answer was a good one.

IMHO Gator board is neutral and most drymount tissues will block acid migration. Acid damage from the backside of on unframed print should never be an issue. 99% of acid damage comes from the bevel cuts in cheap paper matting or unfinished wood moulding placed on the paper. The mount is more than likely to fail in places after 20 years and noticeable fading to occur. At 50 years I'd be shocked if both have not happened. With out a sealed package air pollution can effect the surface as well. The reality is many of us won't care in 50 years as we will have deteriorated to dust. If you want your images for all future generations put them in digital form and if the next generation wants them they will copy them to the next storage medium every 20 years or so. I gave my 80 YO dad a Nikon Coolscan 2000 when I got a 9000. Over a year he scanned 5000+ family slides and copied them to CD's. I then copied them to DVD's then HD's and finally a USB flash drive. Maybe the grandkids will put them in a cloud. Now I found photos were he set the camera on timer mode and took selfie's of him and my mother making out on a sofa in my grandparents house 1942. I shall assume he carried those photo's to war. I'm sure I did worse and the grand kids I'll not want to know.......

Sorry to frankenthread...

framer

sevencrossing

If you want your images for all future generations put them in digital form and if the next generation wants them they will copy them to the next storage medium every 20 years or so. I

I recently visited Bristol records office. They had no way of reading their old floppy disks
The archivist, simply did not have the resources to keep copying the old digital media
She had no problems finding and showing me, black and white prints that were over 100 years old

framer

Nobody say's buracrates are smart, when upgrading to newer systems, data needs to be copied over. Then you have other issues to access it but having the database file helps big time. Getting data off old floppies is not all that difficult.

framer

sevencrossing

Nobody say's buracrates are smart,

Bristol's archivist is not a bureaucrat, far from it

She just likes tried and tested methods
I once visited her during a power cut, her filing system still worked perfectly
she had no problem in finding a well preserved original document from 1699