Getting a Gallery Wrapped Photo On Canvas is Easy as Pie

When you go to a museum and see those wonderful canvas paintings hanging on the wall, you instantly appreciate the fine art in front of you. Beautiful works of art almost hold something magical, as they pop right out off the wall at you, with a life all their own. You can see every single detail, every stroke, every line – providing a sense of being right there in the painting. It’s easy to see why people say all of the time that a certain painting speaks to them in a wonderful way that they can’t fully explain. These feelings are evoked because of the texture of the canvas and painting itself, as only with a canvas painting can the ink really reach it’s true potential. Over the years, this same feeling has been something that photographs have longed to reach – and now they can, with canvas prints.

Canvas prints have become a beautiful way to take an ordinary photograph and turn it into a museum quality work of art. And, when you create a gallery wrapped picture on canvas, you make it possible for anyone that sees it to feel the same way that they do after seeing a painting in an art gallery. No longer do you have to wonder what it’s like to be a true artist, simply get out that digital camera, point and click your way to awesome canvas prints of your favorite photos.

But many people don’t quite know what gallery wrapping of a canvas print really is. Basically, when your photo is gallery wrapped on a canvas print, it means that the picture is stretched enough so that the photo wraps around the sides of the canvas – giving it an instant 3-D feel.

You can easily create a gallery wrapped canvas print online as well, without spending time driving around to different shops in town. Simply upload your favorite photo to a website and then choose the desired frame and size for your canvas print. The printer will then do the rest of the work, printing the photo on canvas, stretching it onto the frame, and creating a wonderful, unique photograph that looks like a museum quality painting. Suddenly, that single dimensional photo you sent in becomes a pop out, 3-D work of art that makes you feel the same feelings that a hand-painted oil work will. They are beautiful when completed, and can instantly be hung anywhere you desire – plus they will stand up to the test of time.

These beautiful gallery wrapped canvas prints are a wonderful way to share memories, favorite photos, and create a wonderful gift for anyone. Some of the most popular pictures that are sent in to become canvas prints include family members – such as baby pictures, wedding photos, family pictures, family reunions, vacation photos, graduations, and so many other events in our lives that we hold so dear to our hearts. Canvas prints are simply the best way to keep them alive and well in our homes for generations to come.

Ready to get your favorite memory placed on a gallery wrapped canvas print? ZaZa Gallery can help you. We are the leader in producing beautiful, museum quality gallery wrapped canvas prints to help immortalize your favorite photos.

Tags: canvas print, canvas printing, canvas prints, digital art, digital photo on canvas, digital photo to canvas, photo on canvas, photo to canvas, Photography, Photos on canvas, Photos to Canvas, picture on canvas, picture to canvas, print on canvas

Top Reasons Why Canvas Prints are Better than Posters

If you’re a fan of poster art and other large format photograph displays then it’s possible you’ve started to catch wind of the canvas print movement. Although subject to a lot of resistance, mainly from painters upset that photography is cutting in on their favorite medium, canvas printing is picking up a lot of steam, and many former poster lovers have wholeheartedly switched to canvas.

But what real advantage do Canvas Prints have over posters? Certainly not cost. Canvas Prints are a much higher quality product, with more expensive materials, and more labor involved. You’re not going to find a canvas print for the same price that you’ll find an equivalently sized poster. However, we don’t think that matters so much considering what a significantly superior product canvas prints are to posters.

Let’s start with the materials used in making canvas prints. Unlike a poster, canvas prints come with a solid frame. It isn’t a decorative frame like one you would display a photo or poster in, rather the canvas is actually wrapped around it. The end result is a finished product that doesn’t need frame, mat, or glass to display and be protected. The stretcher bar frame is very sturdy, and is extremely easy to hang.

You will often find that the inks used in canvas printing and poster printing are completely different as well. Because paper in itself doesn’t have a long lifespan, most print shops won’t bother using inks rated to last decades either. With canvas, because the whole finished product is rated to last over 100 years without deteriorating, professional print shops will print it with highest quality archival inks. These inks won’t deteriorate or fade, and are UV resistant.

Beyond that, once printed, a very special protective sealer is applied to the canvas. This makes the print very malleable so that the ink and canvas won’t crack when it is stretched. Beyond that it makes the print moisture resistant, if not completely water resistant. A professionally done canvas print of museum-quality can be held under running water without any damage. We all know the same can never be said of a poster print, or even a photo paper print. The sealer also goes a great distance in protecting the canvas print from dirt and scratching.

Without a doubt, when it comes to quality and durability canvas prints beat posters hands down. But what about in appearance? There’s no contesting that posters have a classic look to them. They’ve been around forever – Their glossy finish and curling dog-eared edges is as much predictable as it is familiar, and familiarity is often comforting. However, if the quality of the image is your primary focus give canvas serious consideration. I’m not going to lie and try to tell you that canvas is the ideal display surface for images with extremely fine details and sharp edges. For things like that smooth glossy photo paper is still going to be ideal. However, for images with deep rich colors and a softer feel, canvas is perfect.

The texture of the canvas creates extremely tiny areas of light and shadow on the surface of the image that causes very subtle shifts as you change lighting conditions or viewing angle. While this texture is directly responsible for softening edges and ignoring extremely fine details, it also adds to the immense beauty of the product. Colors become much more rich, the image pops off of the surface, and the end result is truly stunning.

If you’re considering giving fine art canvas prints a chance for your next would-be-poster project, I suggest you check out ZaZaGallery.com where you can get a museum-grade 8×10 canvas print for only $25. If you like what you see you can always go bigger.

Tags: Canvas, canvas print, canvas printing, canvas prints, digital photos to canvas, Photography, Photos on canvas, pictures on canvas, print on canvas

What Exactly Are Canvas Prints? Why Should I Buy One?

Canvas prints is the term that has come to describe a process by which a digital photograph is printed onto a canvas medium. What is compelling about this process is the depth and realism that can be achieved with this style of photograph printing. Even though canvas prints retain the vast majority of the smooth, realistic lines in the original photograph, the gentle diffusing of the edges and blending of colors actually adds to the original photo’s beauty.

Canvas is the preferred, traditional medium of oil and acrylic paintings. As such many avoid it as a photograph printing surface because they feel it is unauthentic or presumptuous. That may have been a consensus years ago, but it is no reason to avoid adding to the beauty of your photography now. Canvas printing has been on the rise for several years, and has quietly but securely won its way into the hearts of artists, photographers, and consumers alike.

There’s more than just an aesthetic advantage to printing on canvas, however. For example, have you ever tried printing a paper banner to put on display at an event like a sports game or trade show? I’m sure you discovered that whether you printed it on your home printer, or had it made at a shop, it didn’t last very long. Paper is overly prone to tearing, crinkling, bleeding, and falls apart of a rain drop even looks at it funny.

Canvas is none of those things. It is very heavy and durable. It is exceedingly difficult to tear. Properly printed and sealed canvas can be held under a water faucet and not bleed, weaken, or stretch. It can easily handle a few raindrops. Best of all canvas is heavy, so it won’t blow around in the wind, crinkle, crease, or distort in any way. It is truly the perfect medium for posters and banners, in addition to fine art prints.

Best of all, canvas prints are affordable. Unlike paper photograph prints, canvas doesn’t have to be put in an expensive frame with matte and glass. Even without a frame a well stretched canvas print is considered a finished product, and can be put on display as is. You don’t have to worry overmuch about protecting the canvas either – Just keep it out of heavy moisture areas like bathrooms, and away from prolonged direct sunlight. If you follow these few little suggestions, your canvas print will last for over 100 years without any visible signs of deterioration. That’s over four times as long as traditional photograph prints.

There are many uses for printed canvas, whether as an art piece, promotional poster, banner, or anything else you can think of. For example, I currently have a 3” wide 8” long unstretched canvas print covering an unsightly door. Not only does it negate the terrible aesthetics of the door, but it inspires conversation whenever I have guests. What else can you think of to put on canvas, or use printed canvas for? Let us know at ZaZaGallery.com and we’ll see if we can bring your imagination to life.

Tags: Canvas, canvas printing, canvas prints, digital photography, Photography, Photos on canvas, pictures on canvas

Selling & Reselling your Photographs

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No matter what kind of photography you do, to make it in this business, you must sell your work. That sounds simple and, in theory, it should be. Photography is all around us and every editor, agent, art director, business and individuals are looking for good quality images to enhance their product. However, how do you get your work out there and sell your photography? Much of it depends on what type of photography you want to do and what other side avenues you can develop for your work.

For the sake of this article, we are going to assume you already have a budding career as some sort of freelance photographer – what type does not really matter as long as you are not working for a newspaper, etc. You own your photos and the copyright is yours to do with as you see fit.

In assuming you are a photographer, we can also assume that you already have a fair amount of good quality images stored up and gathering dust. It is time to go through that pile and see what you can do about making them earn you some extra income.

Stock Photography

Stock agencies abound and although digital cameras have brought out a horde of wannabe photographers, along with the headaches, it has also helped bring huge growth in the industry. Unfortunately, it has also dropped the overall value of stock images so although top producers will always earn a sizeable chunk of money per image, the sales may be less frequent. Always keep your best photos for these agencies but what about the rest

Microstock agencies have sprouted up all over the internet and although they have knocked down the value of stock images considerably, they have opened up a new avenue as well. Many of these images sell for $1 or $2 for a web quality image (72 dpi and under 500 kb) or up to $7 to $30 for a print quality image (300 dpi and 16 mb or more). Commission at Microstock agencies ranges from 25 to 50% depending on what rights you agree to sell (click here to read Photos, Photographers & Copyrights) – the more you give up, the greater the commission.

Microstock agencies are a wonderful place to make residual income from your images that would otherwise be taking up drive space. The sites are easy to use and you can check on the stats of your sales with a bit of browsing.

Like all stock sites, there are requirements that must be met – you must have model and property releases signed, you must remove any logos or name brands from the image and they only accept good quality images that are marketable.

Editorial Photography

There are two ways of selling your images as an editorial photographer. The first is what we normally think of which is the glamorous ‘on assignment’ photojournalist image of photography but it takes a while to develop a relationship with the art director to nab these plum assignments. What most photographers begin with is similar to being your own stock agency but you earn a 100% commission instead of 25 to 40%!

We all have types of photography we enjoy and therefore have a copious amount laying around in our external hard drives. Mine happens to be boats. Big, small, old, new, wood, fiberglass – I have thousands of them sitting around taking up space. Contacting appropriate yachting magazines, wooden boat images to Wooden Boat magazine for example means those images are no longer gathering dust.

Fine Art and Galleries

There is big money in fine art photography. For many photographers, their first ‘showing’ may be hanging their work in a friend’s office or restaurant. Do you know someone that owns or manages an appropriate business? Ask them if you can hold a showing there and offer to give them a commission on anything that sells. This is a great marketing ploy for portrait or studio photographers – people see your work as something special when it is hanging in a business and the chance of residual sales is far greater.

Fine art photography is also a calling, much like being any type of artist and to see real success, it helps to have an agent. Photography agents know how to take your work and market it to the most likely buyers whether it is galleries, magazines, calendars, etc.

Calendar, Postcard and Greeting Card Sales

Although these can be tough industries to crack, they tend to be lucrative and art directors enjoy building relationships with a stable of regular photographers versus taking work in piecemeal.

Many artists also have their own postcards and/or greeting cards printed and then take them around to local businesses to sell. Much like stock photography, this means someone else is handling the individual sales, allowing you more time to actually shoot but with the drawback that what you shoot is dependent on what the market will tolerate.

Art and T-shirt Sites

This is a fun way to see your work on something other then a wall or in a magazine. Many photographers have their own ‘storefronts’ through inexpensive online markets such as Café Press. These sites allow you to upload your photography and then put it onto items to sell, meanwhile the site does all the hard work. These sites allow for customization of your store and complete control over what your images will look like. How much money you make from these sites depends heavily on how much effort you put into the site.

There are many ways as a photographer to augment your regular income. The more you allow other people to handle the sales, the more time you will have to shoot. Residual income from any of these sources will help you through the slow times or put the money into a special account for buying new equipment – whatever it takes to stay in the business and be a success!

Author Ann lockley
Copyright ©2008 picturephotosoncanvas.com

Tags: how to sell photos, photo copyrights, Photography, Photography Business, photography sales, selling photography, selling photos

How to Earn a Living as an Editorial Photographer – Part One & Two

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Historically, editorial photography is the catch name for photography that accompanies articles within the magazine or, in the case of fashion or photojournalism pieces, is the article.

Magazine sales are in the toilet with newsstand sales down 6.3% in the first half of 2008 compared to the precious year. Because the income from the newsstands is higher per issue then with subscription sales, publishers use this data to establish their bell curve and to decide future changes within the magazine. It will be interesting to see what marketing ploys and lay-offs there are in the next year if this trend continues.

As an Editorial photographer or wannabe Editorial photographer, this does not bode well. With the numbers of photographers increasing, steady work is becoming harder and harder to find. Often amateurs try to muscle in on the work and substantially undercut bids from professional photographers, adversely affecting the availability of magazine work. Digital photography has become almost too easy and too available to the consumer and many of the people hired by magazines do not have the background or knowledge to pull off the job meanwhile the magazine is left with subpar images. This lowers the overall impact of the magazine and sales decline farther. Ansel Adams said it best many years before digital photography was even a consideration:
‘I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term — meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching — there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.’
Ansel Adams
1902 – 1984
So how do you earn a living wage from editorial photography? You must be an exceptional photographer but with one other key element – you also must be a knowledgeable and intelligent businessperson.

Let me backtrack a bit and so everyone understands the value of professional photographer’s images. How you perceive your work is as equally important as how you capture each image.

Photography is an art form before it is anything else. It communicates much like a painting or sculpture and it is has the same kind of value to the artist. It also has a value much like a story, a song or a book for the writer. In our digital world, each photograph has a value that is hard to understand but these are all creative works that have a worth greater then what most people understand. Think of the old joke with art and that it is worth more once the artist is dead? Photography is the same. The images a photographer stores whether in film or digital are more valuable then anything else they own and not only should be treated as such including bequeathing them in a will so that family and friends continue to benefit financially after the photographer’s death (for more on The Photographer’s Will, click here). A photographer’s collection of images has more potential value then anything else they bequeath their family.

Are we in the right mindset about photography now? Rarely are images time-sensitive since photographers stop time with each click of the shutter. But what does this have to do with earning a living as an editorial photographer? Absolutely everything.

What I did was put a value to your work. Every time you step out your front door with your camera, consider how you are going to earn a living from the images you are about to take.

Say a yachting magazine hires you to shoot a series of images to accompany an article on a particular new sailboat out on the water for a lovely day of sailing. They will pay you per image as well as pay your expenses for the shoot. This is an ideal opportunity to earn a ton of money. Not only do you have the money from the initial shoot, you have the opportunity to sell images of the boat to the manufacturer for future use and you can shoot the crew sailing the boat for other magazines. Now look around you, there are products all over the boat that some company manufactured and that company would love to have some images of their item in use on a gorgeous sunny day by a crew of professional sailors and on a brand new sailboat. Look at the clothes the sailors are wearing – any of those name brand? Have the sailors sign a modeling waiver and you can sell their images over and over again (click here for information on Selling & Reselling your Photographs). Look around you at the other boats out of the water – give you any ideas? What about the landscape? Or when you are at the marina waiting for the crew to get the boat underway?

As long as you do not sign your rights away (click here for more information on Photos, Photographers & Copyrights), these are all your images that you own and can sell to as places as you like. Want to earn a living wage from your editorial photography? Think outside the box and make each shoot count financially. Top Editorial photographers do not do work-for-hire or sell the rights to their images – they know and protect the value of their work as well as the future income from each image. They shoot for the client first but always shoot for future projects, stock, or books.

And when most of us think ‘magazine’, we think consumer magazine but editorial photography also covers trade magazines, annual reports, web sites, marketing and business identity items, etc. Do not limit yourself to working with only what you see on the newsstands or you will be very hungry indeed.

Now you are beginning to think like a pro.

Next, stand back and look at your business. Do you have an accountant? If you don’t, get one and make sure they are capable of working with income from a variety of countries, understand how to work with a freelance individual and the how to accurately account for your equipment. Have them explain to you what is a business right off and what is not and the value of collecting receipts. What about leasing equipment or a vehicle, hiring staff and subcontractors? All of this is vital in business and many good accountants will save you money and headache in the end.

Editorial Photography and magazine work wanes with the seasons. Normally December is a quiet month for editorial photographers so use that time to fill in other forms of work. Or, think ahead a year and spend your first December photographing images to sell to magazines for the following calendar year. Most magazines work four to six months in advance so start contacting art editors in the July and August – the other notoriously difficult time to drum up sufficient work. Keep post-production work for slow times and volunteer to assist wedding photographers – it is a great learning experience and you are helping them out at the same time.

Income varies from month to month for self-employed people, especially when you are still establishing your business. Make up a monthly budget so you know what you need to make and then establish a means by which to earn at least that amount. When money comes in, take ten percent right off the top and invest it wisely for your retirement.

Take another ten percent and put it away for the times when money is lean. I prefer an investment fund such as a money market account as they may earn a lower percentage per month but you can draw on it at any time without penalty.

Lastly, take five percent of what you earn and put it in a separate fund for purchasing new equipment and continuing education. Photography is an ever-evolving technology these days and having the funds with which to upgrade is critical to stay competitive. And take my word for it, buying new glass or a new Mac system is an expensive proposition if you have not put some pennies away every month.

The most important part of being any type of professional photographer is practice. And I don’t mean just shooting for the sake of shooting but getting out there and shooting events, objects, landscapes, people, dogs – anything but do it regularly but also pick difficult working conditions or parameters. Once a week, grab a photo from a magazine that is a particularly challenging image either because of the complexity of the image itself or the conditions the photographer was working under to capture the image and try to replicate it.

If you want to make money as a photographer, you have to be a serious photographer – this is the big leagues folks. Competition has never been higher for the plum jobs and guaranteed there is always somebody ready to jump in if you drop the ball. To develop a relationship with a photo editor or art director, you need to be consistently excellent. Never be lazy, always come to a shoot prepared for every eventuality and always meet deadlines – you will get called back if you give everything you got each and every time you shoot for that magazine!

Author Anne lockly
Copyright ©2008 picturephotosoncanvas.com

Tags: editorial photographer, Photography, Photography Business

Photography: 10 amazing HDR Images some photo real & Surreal

This Photo was taken in a little town called Inverness in Marin county Ca. We have printed it on canvas several times and  It looks great. If you view the image in the larger form there you can read on the front of the boat where it say Point Reyes

Taken in the Tetons national Park this is a crop of a much larger image. The portion you see here makes up the center of the panorama. The larger image was created from twenty five exposures.
We plan on printing the first canvas print of next week  in an 18 Inch x 6 foot 4 inch art piece and in the future in a 30 inch x 14 foot.

This is  Yosemite on the right is Bridalveil falls. This picture was taken the day the storm set California on fire.

This image was Sonoma Ca. The mustard is in bloom

Glaicer Point

this Vineyard was taken at BR Cohn Winery.

Sonoma

This Is a very rare perspective of Half-Dome

Bodega Bay

Pagoni Winery in Sonoma

Please Leave a Comment All Feed Back Welcome

Tags: canvas print, HDR, photo on canvas, Photography, picture on canvas, print canvas, surreal, tone mapped

Canvas Prints: Cafe Strategy

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Many Photographers and artists alike have have looked in to exhibiting their work in cafes. This strategy can be an excellent tool in our arsenal but there are a few things to remember if we want it to be effective.

One thing I have found is that if the cafe you wish to exhibit your art in is a hopping place, the owners or manager will want something that will enhance the atmosphere of their establishment. This is one of the reasons that canvas prints can really give you a competitive edge. At present it is very novel for photographers to offer their work on canvas, and for painters its a great Idea because they can offer limited edition canvas prints at affordable prices.

If you go in to a cafe and they either don’t have art on the wall because no one has aproched them or don’t have a waiting list for you to show your art in their cafe, then you probably don’t want to hang your art in there because it might not be worth the effort.

In one of the cafes I exhibited in I used art pieces on opposite sides of the price spectrum so that I could capture a larger market. The larger Pieces caught the attention of my audience and allowed me to cater to those with larger walls and budgets. The smaller pieces allowed every one the opportunity to walk out with a cherished canvas at an affordable price. I have tested out many ways of showing the price and artist information. The thing that has worked the best for me may shock you. Its not an author biography next to the art piece.

The best I have ever done in a cafe happened when I put a 5 inch white string dangling down with a 1 and a half by two and a half white tag attached to it that had the artist info, Price, website, and phone number. Its as if that hanging tag was calling out to people and as there curiosity built they became impelled to reach out their hand and grab the tag to look at it. This involved a physical ligament with the art. I truly believe this is a gem of knowledge about this venue. Not every cafe owner likes to have price tags hanging like this so sometimes you may have to compromise.

The last cafe was in the bay area. I used three canvas panels to make up one image. bellow you can see two of these. I had a lot of people purchased art from the exposure I received from these large images. Some who saw the canvas prints contracted custom work with me, others visited my website as a result and purchased art.
All and all I sold a lot of canvas and I am still receiving referrals from the the art I had exhibited there even though the art has not been there for six months. Below are a few images of the exhibit. The large images are 3 feet by 4 feet

Click on Image to view larger

Click on Image to view larger

The easel below has three 8×10 images that we had displayed in other areas. we always sell a lot of these.

Click Image to view larger

Tags: Business, Canvas, canvas prints, Gallery wrapped, Grow, Photography, Photography Business, Photos on canvas, pictures on canvas, Prints

Picture Photos on Canvas: Using a Mirror Wrap.

Picture Photos on Canvas: Using a Mirror Wrap.
Often times I will get a phone call from a customer and they will ask me if their image will be clipped when we wrap it. I have come to understand that most of the canvas printing companies out there need a one to two and a half inch margin of the customers image in order to wrap it around the side and finally to the back of the stretcher bar where it is stapled. Often times this will result in some ones arm getting clipped out of the picture or some ones foot or hand or some other feature that is important to the customer.

Our standard is to mirror the out side edge so there is no clipping of the image. If you do not want a mirrored image we are happy to accommodate you Just let us know otherwise in the notes section of your order or call us.One of the reasons why canvas printing companies do not offer this feature as their standard is because the editing for this is more time consuming. Below in the first image you will see a mirrored un-stretched canvas in the second image you will see stretched and finished.

To see larger click image

To see larger click image

I would like to note that our example images above are for an 8×10 inch Gallery Wrapped canvas. In the first examples above we shows how we mirror the image so that no clipping occurs when we stretch the canvas. In the second image on the right hand side of the image you can see how the canvas wraps around the side nicely.

Tags: Canvas, Gallery, Mirror, photo, Photography, Photos on canvas, picture, pictures on canvas, Prints, wrapped