Cheat Sheet Education

The Introduction to Hanging Your Photography on the Wall

Chris Gampat
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08/28/2020
3 Mins read
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Last Updated on 08/30/2020 by Chris Gampat

Hanging your photography isn’t as straightforward as you’d think.

I’m confident most of you have never hung your prints on a wall, let alone printed your photos! It can be a real joy to see your images in-person instead of on a screen. Hanging your photography is a powerful experience that grips onto you. There’s a sense of accomplishment that comes with that–and many longtime shooters only think a photo is finished when it’s printed. We recommend that every photographer buys a printer. Specifically, we recommend a proper photo printer. (For the best deals, wait until after Black Friday when they drop in price. And load up on ink.) Before you add that printer to your cart, though, check out these tips and our cheat sheet.

Various Paper Types

We can’t even begin to list all the different paper types, so we’re instead going to list a few universal truths.

  • Canvas is fantastic for hanging a photo in your home, no matter what. Ensure that the frame you’re stretching it around is sturdy.
  • When hanging your photography on a wall, figure out the best lighting. We’ll talk about that more later.
  • Most paper falls into one of two categories: matte or glossy. Every manufacturer calls their papers different things for marketing reasons, but all photographic printing paper is something between glossy and matte. You’ve also got soft gloss, luster, polished matte, etc.
  • One paper doesn’t do it all, unfortunately. Some paper can do most things very well. But there’s bound to be another paper that can do it best.

Maybe this is why so many people don’t print anymore–hanging your photography is pretty complicated and can be seen as elitist.

Lighting

The light is everything when hanging your photography. Think about all the different rooms in your home. Then, think about the wall colors, how the light comes into the windows, the colors of the curtains, etc. Direct light looks better with matte prints. Indirect light looks better with glossier prints. You have to also figure out if you want a light that’s warmer or cooler on the paper. And consider whether or not the paper has a varnish.

Again, Canvas is typically king here. Printing your photos on canvas gives you the best of many worlds. It’s durable, it’s able to be in any lighting situation, and they arguably look more stately. If you’re printing for a gallery, then you should know that I’ve seldom seen photos printed on canvas. And I’m not sure why. But use canvas if you’re printing at home.

Black and White or Color?

The most basic rule is that when printing your photos, black and white looks better on matte. But that’s not always true. The recent trend of images that have low contrast and high clarity look wonderful on glossy paper. And photos with soft colors are awe-inspiring when printed on matte paper. This makes the decision even more complicated because one type of paper might look good for some images while another makes another set of your pictures sing to the high heavens. If you can purchase a sample pack, then do so. But prints are best seen and experienced in-person. The worst thing is getting excited to hang your photography up on your wall and then get disappointed by the way the print came out.

The Phoblographer’s Cheat Sheets are made with VisMe.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.