How Wide-Format Printing Has Helped a Framing Shop Diversify

Somers, NY is a small Westchester County community about an hour’s commute from Manhattan. Because it is home to a number of artists and residents who appreciate good art, it is an ideal location for Somers Custom Framing, the full-service framing business run by custom-framing specialist Ken Ryan and his artist wife Ginny. Like many well-run framing businesses, the company has diversified in recent years.

Along with expertise in conservation framing, Somers Custom Framing now offers an artful array of graphic design, photo-restoration, and wide-format printing services. For example, in addition to giclee printing, Somers Custom Framing can print photo enlargements on canvas which Ginny Ryan can hand embellish with over-painting or texturing.

The Ryans also run a retail gift shop as well as an art gallery that sells Ginny’s work, original oil paintings by other local artists, plus limited editions, giclees, custom prints, and posters. As they explain on their website, “We provide our clients with top-quality products and services to address all of their personalized decorating needs, from picture framing to mural printing.”

The 13 x 5 ft. photo mural that Somers Custom Framing printed on Photo Tex PSA fabric from LexJet helped restaurant consultant Bonnie Saran set the design stage for the Bollywood Bistro in Fairfax, VA.

Somers Custom Framing has also gotten involved in some retail décor projects. Recently, the Ryans worked with restaurant consultant Bonnie Saran to set the design stage for the new Bollywood Bistro Indian restaurant in Fairfax, VA.  Working with Saran’s ideas, the Ryans created several film-themed murals using stills of some of the best-known stars in Bollywood.

Using their Epson Stylus Pro 9800 wide-format inkjet printer, Ginny printed the murals in panels onto Photo Tex PSA, an inkjet-printable fabric that produces great image quality and is easy to put up and remove. No wall paste is needed and the material is water- and fade-resistant when used with the pigment inks.

The largest mural in the Bollywood Bistro is 13 ft. wide and 5 ft high. “We printed the large scene in strips, which Bonnie hung side-by-side in a seemingly seamless fashion,” explains Ginny Ryan.  Along with the main wall mural, Ginny produced seven additional 97 x 31-in. movie-ticket-themed prints on Photo Tex that decorate the entrance hallway and restaurant interior.

She used other materials from LexJet to print a menu board and window signs with the same Bollywood filmstrip motif as the wall prints.  For example, an Open/Closed sign was printed on a semi-matte photo paper from LexJet and mounted to foamboard with grommets at the top so it could be hung with a chain.

The graphics on the backlit cubes in the bar area of Bollywood Bistro are printed on LexJet 7 Mil Absolute Backlit film.

For the menu board, Ginny used LexJet’s 8 Mil Production Gloss Photo Paper which was then mounted to foamboard for display in the restaurant’s front window.

In addition, Ginny printed backlit graphics that complement the multi-colored lights that hanging from the ceiling from the restaurant. She printed the designs on LexJet’s 7 Mil Absolute™ Backlit film, which was then placed in several lit cubes that decorate the bar area.

The Bollywood Bistro project wasn’t the first store-design art project that Ginny Ryan had produced for Bonnie Saran. Ginny hand-painted a mural for a gift store in Croton Falls, NY and helped produce indoor and outdoor signage for several other restaurant ventures.

“For Bollywood Bistro, Bonnie described her vision to us and we came up with the best printing solution for her ideas,” explains Ginny. Whenever she was unsure which material to use for certain projects, Ginny Ryan called on LexJet account specialist Jennifer Hepner for advice.

“Whenever we have a new product idea, Jennifer is always available to troubleshoot the possible printing material choices with us.” says Ginny. “The wealth of knowledge she has about the materials LexJet offers is invaluable.”

In their gift shop, the Ryans sell custom photo pillows created with inkjet-printable 3P Country Cotton FR from LexJet.

Somers Custom Framing also uses inkjet-printable 3P Country Cotton FR from LexJet to produce three different sizes of photo pillows that they sell in their gift shop. Since launching the pillow designs eight months ago, they have sold more than 200 pillows.

 

 

“Our ability to create, new exciting products using different materials by LexJet is a fantastic asset to the store,” says Ginny Ryan.

You can some of the other products Ginny has created using LexJet materials in the next issue (Vol. 4, No. 9) issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

If you ever happen to be in northeastern Westchester County, stop by Somers Custom Framing and see just how creative they have been in diversifying their services. Westchester Magazine recently named Somers Custom Framing a winner of a Best of Westchester® award in the category: Best Place to Frame (or Buy) Art.

To learn more about some of the ways you can use a wide-format inkjet printer and materials from LexJet to diversify your imaging business, call one of the helpful account specialists at LexJet at 800-453-9538.

How Photography Careers Evolve: Panorama Expert Dave Orbock

Each year Dave Orbock captures panoramic group portraits of the Senate and House of Delegates of the Maryland State Legislature. For this job, he uses his Holcherama panorama film camera with shift lenses. Full Circle Photo Imaging, http://www.fullcirclephoto.com

Photography enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds often wonder if they have what it takes to “go pro.” The more you learn about the careers of successful photographers, the more you realize that people with a  passion for excellence in photography always find a way to do more of what they love. They have a vision and they pursue it.  For example, let’s look at the career path of Dave Orbock.

Fine-art photographer Dave Orbock specializes in medium and large-format panoramas of cityscapes and landscapes.  He has hiked and photographed National Parks throughout the US and Canada and photographed many US cities and the surrounding countryside. His archives also include images from most of Europe, parts of Latin and South America, Asia, and Africa. Orbock has climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro, hiked the Inca Trail from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, served as a guest lecturer in a cultural exchange program in China, and won first prize at the Paris Conference of the International Association of Panoramic Photographers. 

Because of the quality of his work, Orbock is represented by museums, galleries, and art consultants throughout the U.S. and his images have been purchased by individual collectors, museums, and major corporations.  He sells many photographs to stock agencies and corporate publishers and his prints are displayed in dozens of corporate office buildings, universities, hospitals, hotels, and professional offices.

Judging from this long list of travels and accomplishments, you might assume Dave has spent his entire career as a professional photographer. Not so.

Dave was a dedicated hobbyist who built a thriving photography business on the side while working in an entirely different occupation. Until retiring nine years ago, Dave Orbock was a physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  Now he is engaged in the photography business full-time.

In addition to producing and selling his own photography, he runs Full Circle Photo Imaging, a lab he founded in 1987 in Baltimore, MD. Full Circle not only lets him oversee how his own photography is printed and framed, but it also enables him to help other photographers and artists produce exhibition-quality work.  

Full Circle provides expert assistance in a wide range of services, including scanning, fine-art reproduction, photo restoration, and printing, mounting, laminating and custom-framing of large-format and panorama photographs. 

Camera Equipment: Dave Orbock first became seriously interested in panorama photography in the 1970s when he traveled out west to National Parks such as Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and the Badlands.  He regarded panoramic photography as the only format that would enable him to truly capture the sweeping grandeur of the scenery.  He began showing and selling images in the 1980s. 

The first panorama images Orbock shot were captured with a Kodak Cirkut camera, a rotating camera designed to capture long, continuous exposures on rolls of film that were anywhere from 5 to 16 in. high.  Orbock used a Cirkut model that used film that was 10 in. high and around six feet long. Although the camera captured wonderful images, it was impractical to transport to remote shooting locations. Not only was the camera itself big, but it also required lugging along a heavy tripod and cumbersome canisters for rolls of film that were 10 in. high.

So in 1981, Orbock switched to a Hulcherama, a motorized film camera that could shoot a continuous exposure while rotating 360 degrees. This camera used medium-format 120 or 220 film to create negatives or transparencies 2.25 x 9 inches long. Today, along with the “Hulch,” Orbock uses the Seitz Roundshot panoramic camera which operates much like the Hulcherama.

From a Basement Darkroom to His Own Lab: Like many pro photographers who began as serious hobbyists, Orbock started developing film in a basement darkroom in his home. He bought a small color processor and enlarging equipment that could handle film sizes up to 12 x 15 in. He also rigged a set-up so that his enlarger projected images on an easel over his wife’s washer and dryer and was able to print pictures up to 8 ft. long.

But when he started selling more of his work, he moved his enlarging and processing equipment into two joined row houses in midtown Baltimore and hired a small staff of dedicated professionals to  ensure the utmost in quality when his work was printed and framed.  Operating as Full Circle Photo Imaging, this team offers a wide range of analog and digital printing services to other photographers.

Full Circle can produce black-and-white prints up to 20 inches wide and chromogenic prints up to 30 inches wide from film. Using an Epson Stylus Pro 9800 purchased from LexJet, they can also output photographic prints and art reproductions up to 44 inches wide. Full Circle can also design flyers, cards, and calendars on which photographers and artists can display their images.

Pam Brumbley, who received a BFA in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design, oversees the studio’s digital services and provides personalized consultations on print, scanning, and retouching jobs.  Full Circle also handles many types of framing jobs, primarily on archival materials. In addition to mounting on archival foamboard , the staff, led by Ruth Nuhn, will mount images up to 48 in. wide on any mountable surface.  

Meanwhile, Orbock continues to travel frequently, shoot, and sell more of his own images. He is a charter member of the International Association of Panoramic Photographers (IAPP), which was formed in 1984. The IAPP promotes education and idea-sharing and expands public awareness and appreciation for panoramic photography and immersive imaging.  Full Circle has helped print, mount, and laminate images for some of the IAPP’s exhibitions.

When the International Association of Panoramic Photographers held an exhibition at Prince George’s Community College, Dave Orbock’s team at Full Circle Photo matted and mounted many of the works displayed at the show. They also printed some of the exhibited images. Photo: Full Circle Photo Imaging, http://www.fullcirclephoto.com

Orbock is pleased that interest in panoramic photography is booming. He feels this is due mainly to innovative stitching software that enables photographers with standard DSLRs to combine multiple frames into one continuous image. However, he believes that motorized, rotating cameras are still faster and more efficient for professional jobs – especially when capturing group portraits or images in which the motion of people or objects might require additional editing time during the stitching process.

 You can see examples of Orbock’s images in the gallery on Full Circle Photo’s website: www.fullcirclephoto.com

If you are interested in learning more about panorama photography, visit the website of the IAPP: www.panphoto.com/about.php.

More details about Full Circle Photo Imaging will be published in the next  issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

Book Presents Tips for New Sellers of Art Photography

By Eileen Fritsch

Compared to the number of books that have been published on digital photography and Photoshop, relatively few books have been written on inkjet photo printing. Even fewer guides have been published about how to mat, mount, and frame inkjet prints for display in an exhibition or gallery.

That’s why I was intrigued by a self-published book entitled: The Big Picture: Taking Your Photography to the Next Level. Many of the mounting, framing, and marketing tips featured in the book will be well-known to photography pros who have been selling their work for a long time.

But this book was written by Eric Zachary Ryder, a self-taught photographer in California who recently spent thousands of dollars and hours making the journey from hobbyist to professional photographer. He now sells his work for a solid profit and has a permanent presence in a well-regarded gallery in the Napa Valley and several other venues.  

He admits that he wasted a lot of money because “I didn’t understand the business. I invested in the wrong frames, mats, glass, etc. I also took forays that I shouldn’t have: shortcuts, cheaper materials, and paying someone else to do work that I could have done myself if I’d only known how.”

“It’s funny how you don’t think of ‘production’ when you think of selling your work, but it’s extremely important,” observes Ryder. “It’s not just a matter of simply having nice images; it’s presenting them in a way that is appealing, yet inexpensive to produce.”

Until he was invited to sell his prints in the gift shop of a local winery, he says he hadn’t ever given much thought to issues such as matting, mounting, framing, and marketing.  The information he found from various online sources was confusing at best.

So now that he’s successfully selling his work, Ryder decided to publish the techniques that have worked best for him.  He explains how to mat, mount, and frame 8 x 10 and 16 x 20 prints and discusses topics such as finding your style, creating title cards, pricing your prints, buying print racks, and transporting your work.  The book includes links to sources of the products he has used, including mats, gallery description card holders, art cases, print racks, and shipping tubes.

Ryder says some of the biggest mistakes he made were in choosing the wrong frames and mats: “Getting the whitest mat is critical—at least for my work. But there are a zillion ‘whites’ out there.” Here are a few of his tips on matting the framing: 

Try to standardize on a few print sizes so you can buy mats in volume and at a discount.

Use a mat width (border) that is appropriate for your print size.  “Any prints bigger than 11 x 14 in. should have a mat width of 4-1/2 to 5 in. on all sides,” advises Ryder.  “Prints smaller than 11 x 14 should have a mat width of 2-1/2 in. or less.  I use a 1-1/2 in. mat width for 5 x 7 in. prints, and 2-3/4 in. for 11 x 14-in. prints.”

For black-and-white prints, use black frames with white mats. “When I experimented with other options, the frames looked great, but too many people already had walls full of black-and-white prints with black frames and white mats,” says Ryder. “Adding one of my framed prints to their collection would mess things up.”

Sign the mats—in pencil. “I tried all kinds of things to avoid ruining the clean lines of an unsigned mat,” says Ryder. “ It turns out that people like signatures on the mats. I tried putting a white border on the photo itself and digitally titling and numbering the picture in Photoshop. This wasn’t good for large pictures, because as one client said it looked like a poster.  But I found that it was actually good for 11 x 14-in. prints in a 16 x 20-in. mat.”

Consider using metal frames instead of wood. “Metal frames these days are quite nice, and hold up very well,” says Ryder. “They don’t require any special equipment to assemble and you save quite a bit of money by doing the frames yourself.”

You can view sample pages and a table of contents on Ryder’s website and order it as either a printed book or an e-book.

I don’t know if Ryder ever came to LexJet for advice during his journey from hobbyist to professional. But if he had, a LexJet account specialist could have helped him save time and money. In addition to setting him up with a great pro-model inkjet printer and efficient, cost-effective workflow, LexJet could have shown him some of the products in the Framing Made Easy collection.

LexJet’s community of customers includes hundreds of self-taught photographers who print their own work and sell it at art fairs and galleries.  When a LexJet account specialist learns about something that worked well for one customer, they take note of it and recommend it to other customers who may be facing similar issues.  We also routinely publish artwork-production, display, and marketing tips in LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

To talk to an account specialist, call LexJet at 888-873-7553. Or, subscribe to LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.