Borders on Photos - yes or no

[Brownbear]

I've noticed that most of the photos presented on this forum are presented without borders. I typically put a white or black border on my photos as I think it is a nice way to present them, ie in a frame just as you would present your photos at a shop or at home.

But perhaps not?

[Colin Southern]

I think a little presentation goes a long way, personally.

[siggi]

At camera club images are viewed with a black background,with this in mind a thin grey border works well on photos with dark areas around the edges to make them stand out.Generally I feel a border tastefully done not to distract from the photo works well

[Manfred M]

I agree with Colin. Images with borders look more finished and help define the image boundary..

I personally stick with simple white borders that have an appropriate width for for the image. I guess that comes from my darkroom days, when borders were part of the process as the easal that held the paper under the enlarger tended to produce borders.

If I go on to frame the image, borders are usually a must, for practical reasons, as it cam provide a method of securing the image to the matt board or in some instances, it provides a bit of extra separation from the matt board (if I leave a bit of the border showing).

What I don't like is borders that are very fancy or unusual colours. I find them distracting as they pull the viewers eyes away from the subject.

[Brocken]

Borders are like picture frames and come in and out of style as tastes change. Asking should we use borders is like asking about the best length for women's skirts: there is no 'correct' answer, but only what is fashionable for a certain look at a certain moment in time.

[Kris V]

I'm sitting on the fence on this one -but mostly I avoid adding borders.
Guess I'm in the minority here!

[Brownbear]

Thank you everyone for your responses... I asked because recently I submitted an article and the publication asked me to remove the borders... personal preference for presentation to maximize white space. After that request and noting that most of photos here are usually presented without borders, I thought that perhaps I should stop with the border thing.

PS with respect to skirt lengths, most any length seems to be fashionable these days.

[FrankMi]

Hi Christina, for the most part I've stopped using borders at CiC as most folks seem to prefer to be able to evaluate and provide feedback without the added distractions of borders and watermarks.

On the other hand, I feel that borders give an image a 'finished' look so I almost always put them on my SmugMug gallery images. For any image that is being sold or publicized, I would go with whatever the customer prefers.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Frank... Good to know.

[Brocken]

... I asked because recently I submitted an article and the publication asked me to remove the borders...

Picture editors very often want to re-size pictures, crop them, re-process them to diminish colour cast introduced by their own processes, and so on, and a border would get in the way, and interfere with edge detection and average value measurements across the image. It's not an aesthetic thing.

[arith]

I use borders in prints to get a range of ratios and because giclee printing to the edge causes runs.

[rpcrowe]

I do like borders but, they can cause problems when the images are used in different ways.

As an example, in a collage, borders can be distracting.

If you are going to make a photo book, borders can often cause problems.

I have had other problems with borders when using them in different ways.

Additionally borders can either add to a image or detract from it. Borders can also make an image seem "darker" or "lighter". Borders can also delineate the edges of the image. This is sometimes needed when an image which has dark edges is posted or printed on a dark background or when images which have light or white edges are posted/printed on light or white backgrounds.

I always use borders when I submit images of our Maltese Rescue Dogs to petfinder.com. Here is a link to the various rescues that we are fostering right now. All of the images posted by American Maltese Rescue are mine and I think that the border makes them stand out better. http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?...tsearch=Search

Additionally, as with Frank, I normally post my images to smugmug with borders...

I tend to save my images both with and without borders so I have the freedom to use them in any way I want...

[Shadowman]

Thank you everyone for your responses... I asked because recently I submitted an article and the publication asked me to remove the borders... personal preference for presentation to maximize white space. After that request and noting that most of photos here are usually presented without borders, I thought that perhaps I should stop with the border thing.

PS with respect to skirt lengths, most any length seems to be fashionable these days.

The presentation format should be spelled out prior to submitting an article or photo. Usually, if the border is required and the participant doesn't comply the submission is rejected.

[Brownbear]

Thanks Richard... I'd adopt all those dogs if I could... And yes, the borders make them stand out better.

[JimFred]

Hi Christina.......I have found that borders are just a matter of taste...most of the time. I present my photos on Flickr with borders sometimes, and get comments both for and against. I especially like borders that are not gaudy and distracting. Simple is best as I see them.

[Daisy Mae]

I'm with Jim on this...generally no borders but sometimes a pic will just look so much better with one that I give in.

[jcuknz]

Another angle to the subject ... are we talking mounted prints or projected images/viewed on a monitor.
There is a difference becuase each is viewed differently. The print is viewed by ambient light where a white border is not 'peak white' as when an image is projected or viewed on a monitor.
'Peak White' as when a careless projectionist removes a slide and lets the projector show its full strength onto a screen in a darkened room is very bad. Similar situation when viewing on a computer .... note here, at least on my monitor, CiC has a dark background which is more restful to the eye.

The point of my message is that large amounts of white are bad and my rule of thumb for a projected image 1024x768 pixels or perhaps 1400x1050 pixels is for the white border to be no more than five pixels on each side,top and bottom. Less and there is a danger that they will dissapear in the projection, more quickly becomes a strain to the viewers eyes.

As for those fancy borders people come up with, large drop shadows ... YUK!

[Andrew1]

I will have to with the "depends on the picture" crowd. An outline of any colour or size contributes to the overall effect. Submissions for judging in our club is limited to plain white, black or grey mats for exactly that reason. Taking it a step further you get into the more formal matting and framing which is a skill unto its own and can make a huge difference in the final results.

[John Morton]

I tend to add a thin black border to my photos (unless I forget to do that).

Once upon a time, in the cut-and-paste days of newspaper layout, PMTs (photomechanical transfers) of photos in newspapers were all given a thin black border using a roll of (generally) 2 point black Letraset tape. You had to find the end of this incredibly thin tape, unroll a section along each edge of a photo, and cut the tape to size with a razor sharp Olfa knife. You needed to pull the tape to get it to go on straight; but if you pulled too much, it would stretch then shrink when cut and be too short. The sticky backing was just wax, so the part where you held it with your fingers usually wasn't sticky any more when you tried to press it in place; and it was also very good at picking up lint and hair and other little nasties which would then show up in every copy of the newspaper that was printed.

Now, I just duplicate a new layer for my finished images and add an inside stroke of black, then merge the layers back together - all done!

I prefer such a thin border around my images, because it adds an element of visual finish to anything that would otherwise be continuing out of the photograph unresolved by the viewer's eye. That being said, I should note that this applies to my own images, used for my own purposes. Border tape was applied to photos AFTER they were sized and placed into their final position within a newspaper: nothing else would be done to the photos, and there wouldn't be any changes made after the PMT was put in place on the page.

For images supplied to others, borders are best left for them to add. Like sharpening, and conversion of RGB images into CMYK, the addition of borders is something that needs to be determined in accordance with other print parameters that the supplier of an image probably has no way of knowing.

[Brownbear]

Thank you John... I will try it out one day.