Use of Personal Art in Home - Photo Canvasses

My photographs on canvasses - water theme.  Lighting in this area is limited so this photo is not as bright as I would like although it does seem I could hang a little straighter/better.

In the fall of 2012, we finished renovating our terrace level (aka basement) and we have been enjoying it ever since - link to renovation story. One of the decisions I had made was to maximize use of "personal art" in this space. Throughout my house, I have very nice pieces bought from varying venues including art galleries and art auctions (and, of course, estate and garage sales). I wanted to incorporate pieces that were more personal in two categories - my own photography work and art work created by friends and people I actually know.

In this posting, I am showing my photographs rendered on canvas that I used near the "foyer" area of this space and providing some tips and techniques of how to make this personal art option work for you.

Foyer area of renovated space.  I did end up placing a lamp on table and choose to place it in front of picture with least detail - not ideal but as workable as I can get it.

I made several decision before starting my search through 1000's of saved photo images to find four photos that would work together.

• Finished canvas size was determined by availability from photo canvas vendors as well as the amount of space that I wanted to cover. I made my decision when I was able to pick up an online 50+% off deal for photo canvasses that included 20X24 - just big enough to work together for the space available and at a good price (about $50 per image - reduced from almost $130).
• Image selection and composition was strongly influenced by my interest in using black and white images to create a more cohesive look. Since none of my photos had been taken in black and white, I had to find ones that could be converted to black and white and retain their interest and power.  I looked for strong value contrasts (lights and darks) and experimented with quite a few before selecting a theme and then the final four.

Once I found my photos I saved them and cropped to correct (20X24) size. This is a critical step because if you don't make adjustments to get to correct size, it will be done once you download to vendor site and corrections (image placement) are harder to make at that time.  It also forecasts how the image would look on canvas.

The other element to consider at this time is photo resolution - you need to make sure the image selected is sufficiently large to create a good image. I always take large resolution photos - at least I have for prior three years. Earlier images tended to be too small for a crisp 20X24 size.

I liked how this set turned out and how it looks on the wall.  For anyone who takes lots of photos, this is a nice personal art solution for the home.  This posting is linked here - Romantic Home