framing & mounting

im interested in starting to mount & frame my work for myself and for clients. i will be using quite a

standard thin, dark wood frame. im unsure about the color of the mount to use. i have noticed that the

standard for photography mounting is PURE WHITE. im debating using a creamy mount. is this acceptable,

or does pure white tend to be the standard in photography? i know it is a personal choice... but just

wondering if pure white is what is normally used for photography.. both for color and B&W. thank you!

...and is there a standard width for the mount? will 3cm do for a 12*16inch image?

I like white but I've seen lots of other options used. I think it really is your choice to make. Besides, some photographs look better on colored mats.

 

I just printed & mounted a 12x18 inch print and used a 1.5 inch mat border, and thought that looked good. That's more like 4cm, but 3cm would be fine too.

I use white matting for B&W work, color for most color prints. It's outdoor work, mostly landscape and old barns/buildings, and my color mats are usually dark maroon or dark green. Mat widths range anywhere from 3cm to 9cm, depending on how the image is cropped and how it fits in the 16X20 frame.

 

One thought about "pure white" vs. "creamy white": I tried creamy white matting on some sepia toned prints, and in the studio I thought they looked great. When I delivered them to my gallery yesterday, I changed my mind. In the gallery lighting, the mats look more dirty than creamy. Of course, it just could be that I've been staring at the damn things for too long.......

I am the owner of a picture frame company that caters to photographers. Mat color in picture framing is very subjective. Bright white and a slight off white are both very popular in photo framing and the average person is unlikely to notice the difference in most cases. When I say off-white I am referring to a white that is half way between the brightest white and what would normally be called a cream color. Bainbridge has such a white alphamat and they actually call it ?photo white?. One guide that is often useful is to avoid having a mat that is significantly brighter white than those of the image. In general, if you have high contrast images with saturated colors a bright white will work well. If you have soft pastel colors, low saturation B&W and/or sepia then an off white may look a little better. I took a look at your gallery, and with your style I would suggest a mat color such as Bainbridge Photo White (8559). You have a couple that would be ok with bright, and a couple that would be ok with more of a cream, but most would work well with photo white. On a couple of your very low key B&Ws you might also consider a black mat where the white bevel will outline the imageOn the border I would suggest 2.2 to 6.6 cm (2-3 inches). If you are going to display at a gallery or studio with large walls I would consider going even larger but I am speaking from an American perspective and the style may be different in your country.

i mount and frame my photographsmyself. i tried the creamy mats once, but i don't like

them. as said above, they look more dirty than creamy. i order my blank mats from redimat

and cut the windows with a logan mat cuter. i print full frame with a black border and now i

leave 1 to 1.5cm space between the black border and the mat window. i have only once used

black mat, on a color photograph. it looks good, but i like white much better for my mostly

b&w work.