Dave's Photo Blogg
Edit Blogg
Edit To Do
Dec 2006 Purchased Logan 525 Mat Cutter at Newcastle Art Centre for £33.50? This is 24inches long, which is quite adequate for small and medium frames. For larger cutouts, I reckon you could still use this cutter, just slide the ruler further along the cutting line, part way through the cut. Will update when I've tried it.
Dec 2006 Purchased A2 Mount Board from Newcastle Art Centre for £1.99?
Dec 2007 Ordered prints from Loxley (online)
One 18x12" print of Dunstanburgh Castle (two images on one page) for £4
Two 14x11" prints of Tyne Bridge (black one) for £3 each
£3 for Post and Packing. VAT ontop
Jan 2007 Purchased A1 sized coloured Mount Board at Wards (near Fed Brewery) for £3.50 each (normal price).
Jan 2007 Woolworths Sale had Pine and Beach frames for £2.50 and £6?
Jan 2007 Loxley prints arrived.
Framed Dunstanburgh Castle picture with burgundy mount board. Cutting the board with my new cutter was quite straight forward, just need to be careful with measurements and push blade all way through board. See some hints and tips below. Mounted picture looks great, although varnished pine frame may not be best colour.
Jan 2007 Framed Tyne Bridge picture, with blue/grey mount board. The frame was a cheap pine frame, £2.50 in Woolworths sale. I painted it black with some Acrylic paint, slightly watered down and took 3 coats. I messed up the first attempt at the mount, because I got my measurements wrong. Got some more mount board from Wards and got it right.
Jan 2007 Purchased A1 size plastic carrier/protector at HobbyCraft in Team Valley, for £9.99. I can put all my mountboard bits in here to protect them.
Jan 2007 Purchased picture hanging kit, comprising 3m of steel wire, 6 eyes and couple of brass hooks, £2.25 from HobbyCraft.
Jan 2007 Purchased more frames at Woolworths sale
29 x 13" narrow pine frame for £15 (full price)
29 x 12" wide beech frame for £7.50 (half price)
Two 19 x 11" wide beech frames for £4 each (half price)
Jan 2007 Sent off 7 pictures to Loxley (online) for printing
Two 8x14" prints at £2 each (these are Millenium Bridge in darkness)
Two 8x10" prints at £1.20 each (these are St Mary's Lighthouse for John)
Two 14x10" prints at £2.60 each (these are St Mary's Lighthouse for Carol)
A 28x8" print at £4.60 (this is large Dunstanburgh Castle for concervatory)
£3 for Postage and Packing.
7Feb2007 Framed one of my St Mary's Lighthouse pictures for John, in 13" x 11" thin pine frame, with Deep Cream mount. See picture on my Photo Gallery
Aug 2007 Found "That's Bang-on" on Pink Lane are cheaper (and more convenient) that Loxley. A3 print for £5.
Cheap Inkjet Photo Paper
This section has been moved to this post in my WordPress Blog.
Lab Photo Printing
2006 Prices of online labs:
foto.com 6x4" for 6p each, or 1p for > 100 prints.
photobox.com 6x4" for 10p each.
Bonusprint 6x4" for 10p each, or 7p for > 100, or 5p for > 250 prints.
Bonusprint 6x4.5" for 12p each, or 9p for > 100, or 7p for > 250 prints.
Loxley Colour pricey for 6x4" prints, but they offer huge range of print sizes at cheap price, see below.
2006 Prices of prints in shops in North East
Costco 6x4" for 9.4p each, or 4.7p for > 100, or 3.5p for > 200 prints.
Tesco 5p
Alnwick Photo Shop - 6x4" for 20p each (for > 25 prints).
Thats Bang-on (Pink Lane) - A3 for £5
Boots
Wards
Tesco
Other purchase prices
Creame 10"x8" mount with 7"x5" aperture, £1.50 at Alnwick Photo Shop.
10"x8" glass clip frame £1 at Woolworths.
12"x9" glass clip frame £1.50 at Woolworths.
Loxley Colour (www.loxleycolour.com)
Loxley have an online ordering system (ROES) which offers a huge range of paper sizes at reasonable cost. Here are a few of the paper sizes I've used and prices (prior to Feb 2007):
8x14" prints at £2 each
8x10" prints at £1.20 each
14x10" prints at £2.60 each
28x8" print at £4.60
Postage was £3.00, but since Feb 2007 this is now £3.50
[Note, these prices exclude VAT]
Cutting Mount Board
Use glass or back board from frame as a template to cut the mat initially. Measure the print exactly to decide how big the mount aperture should be. It can be helpful to use spare mount board to see how much border around the image you want to show.
Calculate the measurements to place the aperture dead centre. Then move it up 2mm. This give a slightly wider mount along the bottom of the picture, which is supposed to be good practice.
Measure and draw pensil lines on back of the board. Only measure from two edges of the card. Mark a line for the edge of the aperture, then measure from that line. This avoid
Once you've drawn the aperture, measure it all again, including the borders.
Put mount board on a pile of newspaper or a spare piece of board. The material underneath should be at least as soft as the mount board itself.
Line up the cutting ruler with the pensil line. It doesn't cut exactly along the ruler edge, so allow helf or a whole mm gap between the line and the ruler edge (regardless of what it says in the cutter instructions).
Line up cutter as instructions indicate and push blade through board. The blade has a stopper, so you can't push it too far.
Gently slide the cutter along the ruler in a single movement, up to the mark at the top.
I tend to cut both long edges first, then do the short sides, but I don't know if this is better than going round clockwise or anticlockwise.
Gently lift up the board and the middle should fall out. If it doesn't, check if any cuts didn't make it right through the board. If this is the case, repeat the cut on that side as best you can, but this can be difficult.
Gloss Paper vs Matt
Gloss
High Res
Reds and Oranges show well (too well?)
Poor blues/greens
Colours can appear a little dull
Matt
Crisp looking result, with good detail
Good for greens and blues
Poor red and black
Bright colours and whites
Greens can bleed
Blacks can become green over time