If you've spent money to hire a professional photographer to photograph your family or wedding don't just post the photos on Facebook and be done with it. Do those photos the justice they deserve and display them. Now don't get me wrong, I love Facebook! When I lived 12 hours away from family it was how I shared my life, and photos of my children, with the people I care about. But, how often do you see your photos once you've posted them? After the initial liking and commenting you probably rarely if ever look at them again. I say we need to get back to putting these special images on our walls and in our homes again. Where we can see them and be moved by them everyday. If you've created a collection with me you'll already be receiving at least one art piece whether that be a Gallery Wrap, Wall Print, or Album so that's a good start. When most people start buying prints they usually think, ok I'll get some 5x7's maybe some 8x10's of the ones I really like. But trust me when I say that an 8x10 all alone on the wall is going to look strange. Or don't trust me, here's an example. Above is the same bedroom with an 8x10 above the bed and a 24x36 (the largest size we offer) I think its pretty clear which one makes the room look more finished. But one big print isn't for everyone and its definitely not all you can do with your photos. here are two more easy examples of visually interesting ways to display your photos as art. But, if you've spent any time on pinterest lately (I know I have) you've come across the wall collage. Here's an example of one in my mom's living room and one I whipped up. The collage is my favorite way to display photos and I encourage everyone to have one in their home, but I know it can be intimidating if you've never even displayed art pieces in your home to jump to this. But trust me, its easier than it looks. First, gather the photos and other pieces of art you want to display. Try to have a variety of sizes. You can have everything in matching frames or for a more eclectic look go for frames of different types and colors. Lay your photos in their frames and anything else you want to hang on the floor on top of some butcher paper. You can move things around and see how they look without putting holes in your walls. The collage looks the most cohesive when everything is around two inches apart. Too much space and things start to look like they aren't meant to be together. Once you've found a layout you like use a pencil to outline all of your pieces on the butcher paper. Then you can pin the entire piece of paper to the wall and you have a nice template for where to put your nails. Once the nails are in you can just pull the paper down and hang your photos. You can also think outside the box when it comes to the location of your collage. Hang one in a corner! or maybe don't hang them at all. Put them on shelves! If you bought an album as your art piece the same principle applies, put those things where you and visitors to your home can see them! Of course, that involves a lot less work than hanging canvases and wall prints. Simply put it on your coffee table, allow yourself and visitors to flip through it whenever they want. All albums sold by Karah Couch Photography are high quality and archival, they can stand up to use so don't be afraid to use them. And one last but extremely important reason to display your photos, the dirty little secret of technology, digital files are not forever! You can lose them, more easily than you think. First there's corruption, every time you transfer a file from one thing to the other (say from your computer to a thumb drive) it can be corrupted and become unusable. Then there's hard drive crashes, all your photos are safely stored on your computer and then poof they're gone. Then there's just the inevitable march of time. You may have your photos perfectly intact on a CD or thumb drive but find yourself without any machine that can open it. Its like if you had a movie library stocked full of betamax, it would't do you much good. So please, print your photos and display them so you can see them forever and maybe even pass them down to your children one day. |
AuthorKarah Couch is a Maternity, Newborn, and Family photographer and mother of Seven year old twins and a rambunctious Four year old Archives
May 2022
Categories
All
|