Printing and matting photos for a show

[rmargolis]

Hello all:

I have 10 photos accepted by a gallery that has viewing drawers. The photos are to be matted. I will be printing 3 sizes: 9 x 16, 10 x 16 and 12 x 16 inches. I'm using paper that is 13 x 19 inches. On 2 of those sizes, the borders will be different, top to sides. I assume that is standard and acceptable? I plan a 2 inch mat with the photo on attached to the backing with corners.

I'm printing in Lightroom CC. The size of the image in the Print module is slightly different than the size in the Develop module where the photos have been cropped. So the sizes will not be precise. Since the photos will be slightly different and I plan a 2 inch mat, the mats of the 10 photos will be slightly different sizes. Acceptable?

How do photographers handle these little niggly issues?

Thanks for your time and expertise.

[pnodrog]

I am glad to see a common width of 16".

Have you considered putting them all on 20" x 16" mounting board and having the overlaying mats with a constant 2" top and sides and having bottom widths of 5", 4" and 2"? A 5" bottom width may look a bit wide and the 2" does not provide the slightly wider bottom width that tends to be preferred but overall it should look like a reasonably cohesive set.

[davidedric]

Hi,

Different side and top/bottom margins is perfectly acceptable, and their size is a matter of taste. Likewise, whether the bottom margin a should be wider than the top.

I would do things a little differently: I would use a "t mount" rather than corners, and a hinge mount between the top and under matte (using acid free tape throughout). That way the photo will hang freely between the mattes.

Rather than me try and explain more, there are some very helpful free downloadable pdf's here: http://www.diyframing.com/page.cfm/c...graphy-Support

Happy to help more if I can,

Dave

[rmargolis]

Thanks for the reply. I checked in a gallery and found that surprisisngly in an exhibit of great photos by Nicolas Nixox the outer sizes were stardardized but there was some variation in the size of the images and the width of the mats. In photos in the drawers indeed the tops and sides did vary. I'm learning all the time.