Mounting/Matting 60" Pano - Need Advice

[BradSmith]

I'm doing my first large panorama on photo paper. It will be about 20X60" image size. Normally I T-hinge mount my smaller images to mat board, then overmat.

Mount Board - At this size, is foamcore the best choice for the mountboard?

Mounting - Is T-hinge mounting still the best way to do this?

Mat - And can I find mat board large enough for an overmat? Largest I've been able to find (in US) is 60" long.

How would you mount/mat/frame this piece? Or ar this size, would you go to canvas?

thanks
Brad

[dgberg]

I would go straight to canvas but again thats what we specialize in. With canvas you can glue the print directly to the 1/4 gatorboard with Miracle Muck. 1/2" is probably a little better but not necessary. After varnishing the print with Glamor II or a varnish of your choice just order a precut frame from American Frame put it together with a screwdriver and you are done.
Mounting on paper with matting and glass or acrylic can be done but alot more to worry about. I will let someone else chime in on other choices for fineart  paper printing and mounting.

[JeffKohn]

I'm doing my first large panorama on photo paper. It will be about 20X60" image size. Normally I T-hinge mount my smaller images to mat board, then overmat.

Mount Board - At this size, is foamcore the best choice for the mountboard?

Mounting - Is T-hinge mounting still the best way to do this?

I think T-Hinging at this size will be problematic. A better approach might be dry-mounting to something stiffer, like gatorboard.

Mat - And can I find mat board large enough for an overmat? Largest I've been able to find (in US) is 60" long.

Even if you can find it, it will be very expensive.

How would you mount/mat/frame this piece? Or ar this size, would you go to canvas?

Canvas is one way to go. I'm not a huge fan of canvas personally, but a lot of people like it, and some think it's more "arty".

If you want to stick with print rather than canvas, one approach I've seen (although only in pictures, not in person), is a "floating" mount such as here: http://redipix.com/FloatingMount.php

[BobFisher]

Gatorboard would be a better choice for the backing.  Stiffer than foamcoare.  

Canvas is an option but it, in my opinion, it depends on the image.  Canvas is 'hot' right now and a lot of people are printing things on it that don't look overly good on canvas.  Choose the media for the image if you haven't printed it already.

Having it dry-mounted is also likely the better option than trying to hinge it.  If you wanted to do it yourself you could use something like Gudy O.  Glass and matte that size is going to be expensive.  So's a frame, for that matter.  The float mount idea is a good bet.  Last problem is protecting it if it's not behind glass.  There's a product I was looking at earlier today, I think at talasonline.com, that was almost like a laminate type of product.  If I can find it again I'll come back and link it.  You can spray it with something like the Premier PrintShield or Moab Desert Varnish which are both UV protectants.

[fdi]

I would strongly consider changing to 52 or 54 so that your matted size is 60 inches. Very little mat board or foamboard is manufactured larger than 40x60. For the most part, mat cutters are not larger than 60 inches either. If you are going to frame, foamcore will be ok, but use 3/16” or 1/4". If you are going to leave it unframed, then you will want to go with something like 1/2 gatorboard. T-hinging can still work, but you will need 3 or 4 hinges instead of 2. Many dry mount presses also only go to 60 inches so you will want to check on that. Another option is roller press to gatorboard. If you stay under 60 inches, you can buy the material yourself and t-hinge. If you don’t t-hinge or you go over 60 you will probably end up using a professional.

Cheers,
Mark

[Paul2660]

Canvas is one option as has been mentioned and pretty well covered.

As for ideas for mounting, you can still consider a dry mount.
You will need a large press, most at this size are 48 x 96 and will get you the size you need.
Adhesive I would consider Bienfang rag mount.  The material is acid free and works very well
since it has a cotton transfer layer and this helps on large prints that tend to bubble.

Material, on one this size I would still consider dry mounting to gator or a similar substance.
If you do use foam core try for 1/2 inch.  

Mats, you can get rag up to 48 x 72 by Crescent.  I can't remember is Crescent selects come this
large or not.  However most computerized mat cutters are designed to work up to a 40 x 60 sheet
so cutting the mat may be the biggest issue.  I don't know of a manual cutter like the Fletcher 2200 (48" and 60")
that will go larger.  You would need at least 68".  

T hinge, I feel will cause you problems with a print this long.  With a T hinge you will still need a mat to cover the
hinge and this takes you back to the same problem with getting a mat that size cut.

I recently worked on several large prints of John McDermott which were printed on Crane Museo Rag.  The
prints were 84" long and about 38" tall on 44" roll paper.  A local firm here did the mount straight to gator.  The
prints were displayed without glass in a deep frame and really looked beautiful.  I was very impressed to see
how much handling the Crane paper could take without a scratch.  

Paul Caldwell

[Steve Ralser]

I had a 17x55 pano mounted on dibond and then laminated.  This makes a spectacular free floating image.

Steve

[Geoff Wittig]

I'm doing my first large panorama on photo paper. It will be about 20X60" image size. Normally I T-hinge mount my smaller images to mat board, then overmat.

Mount Board - At this size, is foamcore the best choice for the mountboard?

Mounting - Is T-hinge mounting still the best way to do this?

Mat - And can I find mat board large enough for an overmat? Largest I've been able to find (in US) is 60" long.

How would you mount/mat/frame this piece? Or ar this size, would you go to canvas?

thanks
Brad

I've been printing and displaying pano's up to 24x80" for about 4 years now. Something this big is far too fragile and awkward for traditional matting and glass framing, and I really dislike plastic or plexi. Instead I've had consistently excellent results having them laminated onto a rigid board. The laminating adhesive and backing provide a reasonable barrier between the print and the (non-archival) particle board support, and there's another laminate layer on top of the print, so you can clean it off with a damp washcloth. Way tougher than a framed print, and they still look fabulous. The resulting mounted prints are light enough to be handled (carefully!) by one person, and can be easily hung on a couple of screws.

[deanwork]

I've tried that several times. Gloss laminate looks totally plastic and satin or matte looks totally dead.  Lamination destroys color gamut, saturation, and especially dmax. There is no deep black there, just muddy gray. We did side by side tests and it just looks horrible.  I hate lamination it ruines everything I work to achieve. I wish there was a great laminate, I've just never seen one.

I've been printing and displaying pano's up to 24x80" for about 4 years now. Something this big is far too fragile and awkward for traditional matting and glass framing, and I really dislike plastic or plexi. Instead I've had consistently excellent results having them laminated onto a rigid board. The laminating adhesive and backing provide a reasonable barrier between the print and the (non-archival) particle board support, and there's another laminate layer on top of the print, so you can clean it off with a damp washcloth. Way tougher than a framed print, and they still look fabulous. The resulting mounted prints are light enough to be handled (carefully!) by one person, and can be easily hung on a couple of screws.

[Geoff Wittig]

I've tried that several times. Gloss laminate looks totally plastic and satin or matte looks totally dead.  Lamination destroys color gamut, saturation, and especially dmax. There is no deep black there, just muddy gray. We did side by side tests and it just looks horrible.  I hate lamination it ruines everything I work to achieve. I wish there was a great laminate, I've just never seen one.

Hmmm. That's not been my experience. Color saturation has been pretty well preserved, though I'd concede that most of my photographs are not super-saturated. I've been printing mostly on cotton rag matte papers, so the d-max for laminated images is comparable. I can see where if you're printing on something like Harman FB AL and the image depends upon that crazy deep d-max, then lamination won't work for you.

[fike]

I have hinge mounted images in this size range with standard 3/16 foamcore backing and standard matboard.  You can get matboard and foamcore in 4'x8' pieces, but not in every color.  It is generally a special order item.  I prefer using double strength glass on pieces this size. They are very heavy, but the glass adds rigidity that you need.  There aren't many affordable mat cutters in this size, so I use a logan straight edge with the interlocking mat cutter.  Large handi-clamps are good to clamp the straight edge down to the table with the matboard underneath so that nothing moves while I make the long cuts.

Your size is on the outside of the practical limits of framing, but it is definitely doable.

[Randy Carone]

This shot does not show it well but the image is mounted to foamcore and floated behind glass. The image is 9" x 54" so the total frame is just over 60". It was done by a local framer. I believe the back board is white foamcore and the foamcore with the image is raised from the back board by about 1/4". It came out better than I had envisioned. Sorry I can't inspect it to give you more details, but it has been sold. I provided the mounted image and the framing cost me $150-200.

[JohnHeerema]

I recently struggled with mounting a 17" x 132" panorama for a client.
My framer and I tried a few options.

My initial thought was to print on a reasonably tough paper, and dry mount to gator board, which is how I've been mounting panoramas lately. My  client liked the no glass look, and was OK with re-printing the image if it ever got damanged.

The concern that my framer and I had, is that it's awfully easy to introduce subtle ridging when you mount on gator board, because of having to take multiple bites in the dry mount press. It can be minimized by adding an oversize board under the press head, but I find that sometimes it still happens (if anyone has a solution, I'd love to hear about it).

So we laminated a back board out of overlapping layers of mat boards, and figured out a pattern of mats for the front mat which would let us use standard 32" x 40" mat boards.

This didn't turn out as brilliantly as we'd hoped, and so we eventually went with cutting the image into multiple sections, each of which was only 40" wide with mat.

I was surprised to discover that this actually worked out quite well. The client was happy with the look, and I have to say that the multiple frames option was an awful lot easier to handle than one huge frame. It ended up going around a corner in the client's board room.

My next panorama is 24" x 144", and I'm thinking that it's time to give canvas a try.

[BradSmith]

Thanks to everyone for your input.

 Today I went to two places that do custom photo framing - a large color lab (which also frames) and to a custom mounting/framing company that does a lot of large scale images in Los Angeles for artists.  After talking with both of them about my options, they both recommended facemounting the image to plexi, then mounting that piece to a same sized rigid backing piece of my choosing.....sintra, di-bond or aluminum.  Then an inset wooden frame mounted to the back so that the image sandwich floats off from the wall.  The images they both had on display mounted this way looked great.

Have any of you used this method before?