Digital BW, The Print

I also have a custom framing shop and many of my photog clients insist 
on white mats and black frames. Clean simple, blah, blah.
To me it is boring and expected. The clients pick up the work, pleased 
and say thank you and no big deal.
When I am able to talk someone out of the expected white mats - usually 
something ( my preference) in shades of gray. Light gray, mottled gray, 
kona or espresso for warmer prints, luna gray or moon stone colors for 
cooler prints, light gray with a darker gray inner margin for double 
matting.
YOu get the idea.

When these clients pick up their work they are often effusive with the 
praise for how well the prints stand out.
Not saying that white mats black frames cant be effective of beautiful. 
The way our eyes/mind have developed, the eye is naturally drawn to 
light ie. the lighter areas of the frame package. If the mat is lighter 
than the subject of point of interest in the photo, then the white mat 
can be competition for your subject.

Just as a test go to your local frame shop and ask them if you can play 
with the mat samples: choose 4-5 white mats, the range of grays and 
then a few blacks and actually lay them on the corner of your print. As 
long as folks are up front with me about what they are doing I will 
always try to educate them about the beauty of not working in white all 
the time. Also I can't imagine trying to pick a mat from a sample in a 
catalog instead of actually comparing the sample against the print.

Something that is new in framing too, is visualization software which 
allows them to take a picture of your art and display it on (usually a 
large one) onscreen showing the whole effect of different colors of 
matting ( and frame)  against your print, instead of just the one 
corner and leaving the rest to the imagination. I will have one soon 
just need to save a little more money. Should make things easier on 
everyone.
Best and good luck,
Jerry

http://www.jerryhadamphoto.com



On May 12, 2006, at 7:42 AM, 
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Subject: Re: Mat question
>
> Black mats remind me of 1970's ad layouts pasted up.
> If you go to any museum or gallery, the majority of black and white
> prints are matted with either white or off-white (many shades of
> egg). Not that there are any rules, it is totally up to the artist/
> framer.
> Mark