Framing a photograph means choosing moulding, mount and size so the print hangs as archival wall art. This guide is the process. To buy framed photography, open the Photography collection and preview finishes on any product page.
| 772 works · 264 artists · 6 sizes · from £52.50 | |
| Most represented | Lee Frost, 39 works |
|---|---|
| Shape of the collection | landscape 120 · portrait 52 · square 37 |
Framing a photograph is a different job from framing a painting. A photographic image has no physical surface to reward standing close to — no brushwork, no texture — so everything the frame does is about giving the image air and keeping the eye inside it. Four decisions change how it looks on the wall: mount, moulding, glazing and size.
The mount does most of the work
A mount is the bevel-cut, acid-free card border between the print and the frame. On a photograph it matters more than on almost anything else, because a photographic image usually runs edge to edge with detail and needs somewhere to stop. Without one the image collides with the moulding and the eye slides straight off the picture into the wall.
Mount width here follows the size tier, so a larger print automatically gets a wider border. If you are between two sizes, take the larger: the wider mount also holds the paper further from the glazing, which matters in any room where temperature and humidity move.
Mount colour, cooler than you think
Seven mount colours are available — White, Snow White, Fresh Linen, Warm Sand, French Grey, Olive and Black. For photography the split is simple. Monochrome work wants a cool white, Snow White or White, because a warm cream border puts a colour cast into an image that has none. Colour work with warm tones takes Fresh Linen or Warm Sand comfortably. French Grey is the answer for a high-key image on a white wall, where a white mount disappears into the paint and the frame loses its structure. Black suits dark, dramatic work and very little else.
Moulding: slim, unless the room argues
Four profiles. Classic is the clean gallery profile at about 2 cm and is right for most photographs. Deep Classic is the same face width but deeper, which gives a photograph presence without adding decoration. Venice, an ornate dual-tone at about 3 cm, and Swoop, a sculpted edge at about 3.5 cm, are decorative profiles — they suit a period room and they compete with a documentary image.
On colour: black keeps a monochrome photograph graphic and contained. Oak and Natural warm a colour image and sit better in a room with timber in it. White works on a white wall only if the image has enough contrast to hold its own edge.
The glazing is glass, except on Large and Extra Large
Standard frames are finished with 1.5 mm float glass. On Large and Extra Large pieces we use 2 mm acrylic instead — at that size glass is a real risk in transit, and acrylic arrives intact. Non-reflective museum-standard glass is available on request.
What the glazing does not do is stop reflections. Any glazed photograph with a dark ground — night work, studio black, long exposures — behaves partly like a mirror, so check where your lamps and windows sit before you fix anything. This is the most common disappointment with framed photography and it is a hanging-position problem rather than a framing one.
Size against the furniture, not the wall
Four tiers, portrait dimensions: Small 40 × 55 cm, Medium 48 × 65 cm, Large 60 × 80 cm, Extra Large 70 × 100 cm, with landscape and square equivalents. Framed and mounted those come out at roughly 53 × 68, 63 × 80, 78 × 98 and 90 × 120 cm.
Choose against what sits below the picture rather than against the wall as a whole. A single work above a sofa or sideboard wants to span about two thirds of that furniture's width, which puts most sitting rooms at Large or Extra Large and most hallways and studies at Small or Medium.
Every work in the Photography collection previews in the moulding, mount and size you choose on its product page, and view in your room will hold it against a photograph of your own wall. Full specifications are on framing and sizes. Framed pieces are made to order — five to eight business days, UK mainland delivery.
