Love your photos from your latest Family Photography session but not sure which photos to enlarge and frame? I’m sharing the guidelines I developed for myself to take away the analysis paralysis and help you know which ones are going to look best on your walls that you’ll want to keep up long term!
Anyone else have analysis paralysis when it comes to printing photos for their home? Yeah?
I don’t think I am the only one!
That is, I used to, until I developed some guidelines for myself and figured out what sorts of photos I wanted to print for my walls and which ones for small frames. Now? Easy breezy (for the most part!), and I’m going to share my tips with you so you can leave analysis paralysis behind you and start enjoying your family photos in the best way!
First, please note that there are many decorating approaches, and these are just my opinions. I’m certainly not an interior decorator, just a mom who loves making her house into a home (and trying to put compositional and artistic skills to use!).
What to do for the statement piece?
Somewhere along the line, I realized I didn’t like the photos I was putting on my walls. Was it because they were too big or too small? The wrong shape for their space? Outdated as our kids grew? The coloring? I always just picked my favorite images so that was strange because I did love the photos, just not…. like that.
And let’s be real: getting large canvas or framed prints is expensive and not something you want to be swapping out every year. Even a consumer grade backed print from MPIX or canvas from smallwoodhome will cost a few hundred!
What I eventually worked up to was that I really just didn’t like having giant portraits of our faces on our walls. While this can look stunning in some homes, I think it’s a very modern and trendy look (aka not timeless). My home was built in 1923 and is full of antique details that just didn’t mesh well with that look, nor what I wanted. I wanted *art* for my walls, not portraits. But Family Photography IS art, so why the disconnect?
Family Photography is art…
…and family photos are near and dear to my heart. They’re still what I want on my walls primarily. Once I realized that photos for wall art needed to look more like a landscape piece and use our portrait “looking at the camera” photos for smaller frames, my walls started to be more of what I wanted. Timeless, sentimental, and decorative.
When choosing photos for a statement piece, I think it’s best to use a photo that is primarily a landscape image, with lots of calming negative space, with a smaller subject. Art that just happens to have your family in it.
I have this group of photos framed, and see how these photos are almost of an anonymous woman with her children at the ocean? Imagine how differently this arrangement would feel with photos of my family and I staring at the camera… we’re watching youuuuuuu vibes.
Let’s frame those smiles
Don’t leave out the smiling images, though! There’s not much else that compares to the joy of seeing my kids’ smiles. Let’s not let those images live on your computer hard drive, either. Smiling, direct facing images are so precious printed and framed in smaller frames. Either sitting on shelves, or as smaller pieces for a gallery wall… just here and there! Put them where you see them every day! I often thrift interesting and often antique frames for these images around my home.
Let’s go through a few examples!
Here are a few images examples of my work that I think would make excellent statement pieces! Use these types of images as your core and build out with smaller prints of the camera-aware photos in other places around the room or in your home.
Using this method has kept me from wanting to swap out my art every few months from it never looking quite right. Family photography is art! You just have to know which photos to select! Don’t underestimate how important dreamy locations in beautiful sunset lighting are going to be key for getting those ideal pulled back landscape shots.
I’m always here to help, even through your printing process. I want you to be able to enjoy your photos forever. Not live on your hard drive. In your hands, on your walls, where you walk and live every day!
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