Photobloc Blog – Canvas Prints

Archive for August, 2009

August Bank Holiday is upon us once again, but what will you do?

Some will go holidaying abroad and some in the UK. You may prefer quite, peacful walks in your own area. You may even plan to be visiting friends or having friends stay. There are no-end of barbeques and parties to attend.

It makes no difference which sort of break you have as long as you enjoy yourselves, because that is exactly what the August Bank Holiday is all about, relaxing and letting off steam.

But remember to take loads of photographs of where ever you go or what ever you do because then you can select the best and have them turned into canvas prints. Either for your selves or for those special friends and family as reminders of this great summer break.

So get snapping and enjoy!

Does your favourite picture have red eye?

Don’t despair for we can quite often remedy this before we print to canvas so your picture can still become one of your canvas prints without the red eye to distract from the overall effect of the picture.

Red eye is caused by reflection of light on the eye’s pupil when taking the photograph, it only occurs when the light catches the eye at certain angles.

In certain animals a similar effect can be found only there the eye turns green, likewise we can often remedy this as well. Some computer packages have editing tool to do this automatically but for the best results let our experts do it for you using a variety of tools and computer design techniques.

When working on your images always “save as” rather than save until you are sure that what you have done is correct, that way the original will always still be there to go back to if you need to.

Often the original download is corrupted by editing or saved in the wrong format, if the above advise is followed this can be overcome.

Often images submitted for canvas printing are in low resolution format and therefore not usable, reversion to the original high resolution version is therefore essential if we are to complete your order and successfully print on canvas your chosen image.

Whilst canvas prints are popular they are only as good as the information contained in the image submitted, it is therefore important to maintain the highest possible resolution of image when you are editing them.

It doesn’t matter whether it is a canvas photo or a canvas print of an original drawing that you are ordering, the same basic rules apply.

I recently attended a large, multi-period re-enactment show and saw some of the best action shots imaginable taking place right in front of my eyes.

From the splendour of Imperial Roman Legionaries to Napoleonic Guardsmen performing thier drill, the colourful costumes and equipment made for some of the best opportunities to print on canvas.

The Gentlemen Duelling in the 17th and 18th Century display gave such fluid movements and real action shots just begging to become canvas photos.

The large number of World War Two fighting vehicles were likewise both diverse and impressive, close-up images capturing the flavour of bygone days contrasting well with the Living History Camps dotted around the site. These varied from Romans with thier leather tents, Vikings and Saxons with thier canvas shelters to English and American Civil War encampments with thier lines of soldiers tents and accompanied cook-houses.

All-in-all a great day out resulting in some wonderful action shots for canvas pictures.

I recently visited the pontcysyllte viaduct near Langollen with friends and marvelled at the early engineering as well as the incredible views from the centre as it passes over Glen Ceiriog, a view just made for capturing on canvas print.

The Ceiriog river twists rapidly beneath, writhing between stands of trees whilst the local houses climb the steep sides of the Vale forming both Trevor and Froncysyllte through which tumble narrow lanes.

The other side of Froncysyllte you climb steeply and then meander down a leafy lane past another ancient view worthy of capturing as a canvas photo, Offa’s Dyke.

Then past Chirk Castle, its dark stone walls in complete contrast to the bright blue sky formed my third view of the day.

Left down to Chirk itself brought us back to the canal, through two spectacular Tunnels before arriving back at the viaduct just as the sun was setting.

All in all a journey well worth taking and some unusual views to print on canvas.

There are many different formats that you can save your images in and like-wise sources to get images from or to create them.

As a rule mobile phone cameras will only produce a low resolution thumbnail which is generally too small to reproduce as a canvas print.

Digital cameras usually have a sliding setting which will allow you to take many images without downloading, but they will be fairly low resolution and so therefore won’t allow much enlargement without subsequent loss of quality. However if you set this to the opposite end, although you won’t be able to take as many images before downloading they will be of the highest resolution and therefore able to be enlarged and as a print on canvas.

Internet downloads are generally tiny images at low resolution intended for you to see what the images is before buying it and therefore are again too small for canvas printing. There are a few sites that will allow the downloading of larger format images for free. As a general rule of thumb, if the image is at least 5Mb when open and a fairly large image area they should be alright for most canvas print sizes.

If in doubt, you can always submit your images to our Image Check Team for verification of suitability and advice on best formats etc before placing your order for a canvas print or canvas photo.

Our canvas prints are all mounted on 4mm MDF front boards with 3mm MDF backboards.
These are then mounted in solid wooden frames thus giving our canvas printing that unmistakable sturdy finish unlike many of our competitors.

With the canvas photos wrapped around the whole frame and front board you get no unsightly staples showing along the sides.

Alternativly we can wrap the canvas pictures around the front board and then mount that inside the solid frame for a different finish.

Which ever finish you choose for your canvas photos, you will find that ours are solid and dependable.

I recently saw some stunning photographs printed on paper, but whilst the image was sharp the flat surface didn’t bring the piece to life.
Having seen the same images as canvas prints it was surprising to see the difference that the textured surface made to the overall effect.
I think it was the tactile result of the canvas photo that gave it that feeling of substance far beyond that of a plain paper surface that made me appreciate the artwork.

When you get your images ready to print on canvas, there are several finishes available for the edge.
Firstly, do you want the canvas print wrapped around the whole frame, or do you want your canvas prints to be wrapped around the front board only and the frame to show?
If you choose to wrap the canvas photo, do you want the sides to be printed in solid black, solid white or as a gallery wrap, that is to have sections cloned from each edge, flipped into reverse and then stretched back over the sides as reflections.
If you choose to have the frame showing, do you want it to be nearly black (a matt stain that allows some of the natural wood grain to show through), toscana (a rich, dark brown glossy finish) or pine (a rich, transparent golden finish).
How ever you choose to have the edges treated for your canvas printing, we can assure you a great piece of wall art will result!

There are many ways in which we can alter your image before we print on canvas.
One of the more popular, especially with wedding photos on canvas is spot colour.
This is where we convert your canvas photo to black and white, and then bring back certain elements into colour before going to canvas printing.