I do not shrink wrap them but I do put them in glassine sleeves.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “under the mattte”. Often this matted photo is put directly into a picture frame with glass front which protects it. Other times I’m taking it to my local camera club for judging and just leave it as is. It’s fairly durable, but even if it gets damaged it’s a one off just for the judging and I will replace the photo with a new one

I often do cut my own mats but it is tedious and often not really necessary. Gallery framing is often not symmetrical around the border of the photo/mat as is considered part of the aesthetic. That being said cutting your own mats can add a presentation element such as creating negative space. If you are willing to cut your own mats go for it, but precut mats are preferred by many just because of the ease of use.

Dry mounting is considered ok for open editions, but it is permanent meaning you can’t remove the print from the backing board. The reason for the method I show is it allows the print to be re-matted without damaging the print. This is preferred for most limited edition fine are prints.

@@Craigcolvinphotography Understood perfectly! 🎉

This is a common method for matting fine art prints. The idea is to not permanently damage the print so it could re-matted in the future. There are other matting techniques such as bonding the print to the back mat which are done for cheap prints or ones that aren’t considered fine art.

@@Craigcolvinphotography Gotcha! Thx a lot.

@@Craigcolvinphotography Your videos are awesome. I just subscribed! 🎉

@@Craigcolvinphotography What about the ‘piano hinge’ method I heard from another artist/photographer?

@@silvestersze9968 the piano hinge method is quite good, it just uses more tape and some think the larger surface area of the tape in the print can lead to more damage if the photo is ever remounted. It is the same basic idea as what I showed.

I don’t do anything different with an18x24, it just takes up more desk space. :)

@@CraigColvin understood! Lol. My grail piece arrived today and its 18x24. A screen print signed by Drew Barrymore!

Most of my matted prints are going directly into a frame so I don’t bother with the bottom. If I’m entering a print competition at PPA, WPPI, or local camera club I will sometimes put a small piece of double side tape at the bottom.

@@CraigColvin ok thanks, that makes sense, I may just be bagging them, so one piece of double sided tape should be fine.

I mix them up with whatever book is handy. The book is art of the time in the pinup era. It's an important history in art. It was not considered sexist then, and I don't believe in revisionist history of projecting today's views on the past. But thanks for your viewpoint.

You put the tape and the hinge on the top side. So just take everything I showed and rotate it. You want the mat and the photo to be hanging from the top no matter what orientation.

If you don't have white border between the edge of the mat and the photo, but there is a border around the photo then you can sign in the photo border and cover it up with the mat. If your photos are borderless. Don't do that anymore. :-) It is standard practice to sign the back of the photo in pencil although the pen should work fine as well, and then also sign the back of the mat.

Glad it helped!

You're welcome!

Yes you can. The tape will sometimes pull off the first layer of the mat but because it is hidden by the top mat it’s not an issue