 Denise D. Spratt |
Framing Courses I am considering a business that has to do with framing my photos. Does anyone have any framing courses they can recommend? In the Michigan area? I'm thinking that hiring someone to do my framing is going to eat up any profit. Or do you think buying the materials and time involved is costly too?
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Todd Bennett |
Denise, I can't offer any help on the course portion of your question; but, here is a little food for thought. You would really need to do a cost comparison to compare what you would pay to get a print framed and what it would cost you to do it yourself. I doubt very seriously that you will be able to purchase the equipment and materials at the same prices as the frame shops pay simply because they buy in quantity. Then you have to pay yourself for the labor. All this figured in, you might save a few bucks; but, is it really worth it? Not in my opinion. Besides that, I have too many other things to do. I'd rather be out photographing, hunting, flying or what ever and not be stuck somewhere building frames, cutting glass and mats, etc. I tried hanging some wallpaper about 15 years ago. I figured out really quickly that some things are better left to the pros if you catch my drift. On the other hand, if you need another hobby, it might be worth it. LOL
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John G. Clifford Jr |
I have a different opinion. If you are framing a lot of your prints, then you can definitely save money, and get much higher quality, if you do your own custom matting and framing. I frame my own prints. I used to buy frames with mattes, but the problem I ran into is that I wanted what I couldn't buy. Either the matte was the wrong size, or the wrong color. Things came to a head when I wanted to frame some 8x16 panoramas I'd made, and couldn't find ready-made mattes. The price for custom framing? $150 per picture! Ouch! Or, I could have paid $10 for a custom matte. Ouch again! So, I bought a matte cutter kit for $99, and a 30"x40" matte for $10, and a couple of 11x17 frames for $10 each, along with several 11x14 frames (for 8x10 prints) and 8x10 frames (for 5x7 prints). Note that you can buy metal frames online for much less than in most retail shops. I'd buy the matte board locally, as shipping will be expensive compared to the price of the board. I was able to cut the custom mattes and frame them all up... for less than the price of ONE custom framing job. Hint: the bevel you cut makes the inner opening 1/8" less PER SIDE, so I always add 1/16" to the dimension, so the matte overlays the print by just 1/16" of an inch. Hint: make sure the bottom of the blade for the matte cutter extends at least 1/16" below the bottom of the matte (check it by holding the matte cutter up against the edge of the matte to see if the blade does extend that far), otherwise the blade will flex and you won't get a straight cut. Use a backing matte to keep from damaging your cutting board.
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Todd Bennett |
John, Good point except for a contradiction. You stated: "then you can definitely save money, and get much higher quality, if you do your own custom matting and framing." And then you stated later "So, I bought a matte cutter kit for $99, and a 30"x40" matte for $10, and a couple of 11x17 frames for $10 each, along with several 11x14 frames (for 8x10 prints) and 8x10 frames (for 5x7 prints). Maybe I'm missing something; but, where does the custom framing part come into play here when you buy pre-assembled frames? Also, my points were based on buying frame stock, cutting it yourself, glass, etc. Basically setting up a framing shop in your home and doing truly custom matting and framing where you use a different frame each time you frame a picture. I've not seen two seperate pictures of different things that would look good frame the same way each time. Each one needs a different mat, or frame, because of the colors and subjects in the prints and the pictures intended use. Guess this could be another one of those "Which is better, Nikon or Canon" types of questions.
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Denise D. Spratt |
Thank you for your thoughtful responses. You both make great points to my questions. I guess ideally it would be nice to make custom frames for each picture but it would take alot of time and effort. Maybe it would be another hobby I truly don't need yet (my laundry with 7 people keeps me busy enough)! My thinking is I like the idea of putting my frames together as I am a perfectionist. But I wonder if I could buy a very nice frame with glass but cut my own matting. Do you know of any terrific frame shops on-line? I'm also interested in wood frames. I've found some sites that have better prices if you buy ten or more. But what about the quality? Thank you, Denise
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Todd Bennett |
Denise, Basically that is what John is getting at. And his points are very good. Buying frames and matting your pics yourself!
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