Picture Perfect?

You all know that I have a background in photography.  While I mainly focused on actually taking photographs, I of course had to present said photographs.  Sometimes to my teachers, sometimes to other students, sometimes to family members, and sometimes to members of the public.

Now a great photograph can become less so if it isn't presented correctly.  For example, taking a great landscape photo and printing it up as a 4x6 and slapping the raw photo down on a table will look all right.  At best.  Take that same image, print it up as a 16x20, surround it with a double matte of complimenting colors, put all of that in a classic simple frame, place that frame on a wall and put the correct light over it and it can suddenly be one of the best images you've ever seen.

Needless to say, I have an appreciation of properly presenting photographs.  I honestly can't stand to see people's family portraits hung up on a wall in a frame without a matte around it.  In my estimation, the more matte, the better.

For example:

I found this family portrait online along with a frame.  A little quick (and dirty) photoshop-fu and you can see what it would look like in a simple frame, and a frame/matte combination.  Sure, the first one is bigger, but the matte helps separate the photo from it's surrounding.  It helps you focus in on the photo itself.  If I were actually putting this photo into a frame/matte combo, I'd probably pick a colored matte to go with it, although the black is certainly striking too.

So during my time at photo school, I had to make my own mattes.  It wasn't too expensive to purchase some matte board and a matte cutting tool.  The problem came in my hand/eye coordination.  I was horrible.  I probably spent close to $100 in getting a single 8x10 matte.  After that experience, I simply went to a local framing store and had them cut me some nice looking mattes.

Ever since then, I've found it completely worth while to have my photos matted when I put them into a frame.

So why do I mention all of this?  Well, for Christmas my brother B got me a University of Michigan panoramic poster.  It shows the Big House in a night game:

I really liked that he got me this poster... but at the same time I was a little pissed off.  You see, I had looked at the very same poster and considered it for him.  My problem was cost.  The poster itself was $29.95.  But I knew that I wouldn't be happy with just the poster.  I'd want it to have a double matte with a nice frame.  Here's the options you can get with the poster along with the costs:

Simple Frame:  $89.95 

 Single Matte and Frame:  $149.99

Double Matte and Frame: $199.99

I wouldn't mind paying $30 for a gift.  But my budget made it so that I couldn't really spend $90 on B.  Even if I could, I'd really rather have at least the simple matte as opposed to just a frame.  It's not as though I'd expect him to hang the poster up on the wall without any framing at all.  It's not exactly huge, but it IS 13.5 inches by 40 inches.

So when I saw that he gave me the poster without a frame, I was excited.  YAY!! A cool poster (yes, for a moment I turned into a 10 year old).  At the same time I was pissed.... BOO!  A gift that will cost me $170.

Last week I finaly got around to getting a frame/matte for the poster.  I looked around online, and realized that the $200 price of the matte/frame combo was discounted.  That makes sense as that company sells a lot of 13.5x40 panoramic posters... they buy these frames and mattes in bulk.  It would cost me at least $200 for someone to make a custom matte and frame.

It was still worth it.  But if I was going to do this, I wanted it done right.  I could probably order it online and make it work, but placing the poster in the mattes and getting them all lined up in the frame isn't easy.  If it's a little bit off, it will look horrible.  So instead of ordering it online, I went to a local framing company.  I of course brought the poster so that they could keep it and give me a finished product.

The woman at the counter was very helpful.  She showed me a variety of frames (simple black for me), several mattes (UofM Maize and Blue please!), and then took a picture of the poster and pulled it into the computer.  There she virtually put the mattes and frame around it so I could see what the finished product would look like.  One nice feature was selecting how big the matte should be... and you know me;  Go Big Or Go Home.  I ended up selecting a nearly six inch matte.  That's six inches between the edge of the poster and the frame on all sides.

Here's roughly what it would look like:

I'd actually want it to go bigger, but honestly at that point the frame dimensions would be roughly 24 inches x 50 inches.  I don't have a lot of wall space, so I stuck with this.

Now, being that I could get a basic frame and double matte online for $200, I figured this would be a little more.  I was willing to pay up to $300.  Hey... it's 50% more, but it's local and a little bigger mattes.  She hit a few keys and showed me the price:

$1124.35

!!!

She reminded me that they had a sale on for about 50% off so it would only be $553.  I kept looking at the screen, waiting for the punchline.

Waiting.    Waiting.         Waiting.          Quick glance at her.         Waiting.                  Waiting.

Realizing that she wasn't joking, I looked up at her and said in a slightly morose voice "Well... I wasn't expecting to pay quite that much.  I could go up to $300, but I'm not paying over five hundred to frame a thirty dollar poster."

She reminded me that it was 100% american made and I had to bite my tongue to not immediately ask "How much for the foreign shit?"

I'm sure she could see that there was no way I was going to pay that much, so she took the mattes down to their smallest possible size (a little smaller than the double matted example above) and quoted me $387.  A simple frame all by itself would cost me $180.

As I said, I want to support my local community and am willing to pay a premium to get something locally... but I had seen FAR less expensive options online.  And this wasn't really a local shop... it was Michael's.  A national chain.

I smiled, picked up my poster and told her I'd think about it.  I'm sure she knew that I wouldn't be back.

15 minutes later I was home in front of my trusty computer and ordering a custom made golden frame for $90... shipped.  It doesn't look as good as it would matted, but it looks just fine.