Canvas Prints

Digital images are great in that you can carry around an endless collection of pictures from vacations, the kids growing up, and special moments that you want to preserve. But how often do these pictures of yours make it off the camera and into a printed photograph? If your anything like me, you have a ton of photos collected up in your digital archive which you’d like to put into the scrapbook, in a frame, or hang on your wall — eventually.

Well, let me add Easy Canvas Prints to your list of options.

I’d actually been introduced to the idea of printing my photo on canvas by one of blogger/FB friends. Mark posted his canvas print in FB in March of this year. I was quite impressed with the end result but wasn’t sure it was the medium for printing all of my favorite pictures from my Daily Photo 2010 project. Cost was my primary consideration as I would want all the photos to be printed consistently.

One thing that I didn’t factor in, however, was that canvas prints do not need to be framed. So if you pay a bit more for the printing, but don’t have to purchase frames, perhaps it really isn’t that much more. What I needed to do before making this decision was do a price comparison and print one photo on canvas to see with my own eyes how the end product looks and feels.

This is where Megan, from BuildASign came in. Megan contacted me several months ago regarding her BuildASign site. I read the email and immediately discounted the offer to have signs, bumper stickers, and any other promotional material for Keeping Pace. Advertising my blog is just not high on my list. A few months later, Megan sent another message. This time, I responded.

The long and the short of it is that I did end up checking out BuildASign and subsequently started up conversations with Megan on print medium for a couple of my Daily Photos. Megan offered me two options: Canvas Prints and Art Prints (which will be discussed in a later post.)

Of the two options, I was most curious about Photo to Canvas prints. Megan referred me to the site and gave instructions specific to handling my order for this review. Creating your Easy Canvas Photo is REALLY easy. The hardest part was choosing just one picture from my favorites – I have many.

After much thought, I selected this photo of me cresting the cables at the top of Half Dome. Of the favorites, this particular photo is special not only for its beauty but also for the significance of the memory pictured. I uploaded my photo, selected a wrap thickness (0.75” vs. 1.5”) and border finish (image wrap, mirror wrap, or colored border wrap). Easy Canvas also offers color effects (black & white and sepia), and retouching.

Shown here is the 8 x 10 canvas print with a 0.75” thick image wrapping. For the photo selected, I think I would be happier with it if I’d printed it on a larger canvas as the wall seems to swallow up the print. Although the thinner thickness allows for framing, standard framing is not an option. If I were to have it framed, custom framing would be required.

As for the quality of the print itself, I really like it. I love how the image wrap starts to draw your eye to the photo from the side, before you’re even in front of it. Like any other photo medium, picture selection, size of print, and display options are so important. Although I am not 100% happy with the end result, I do think that I would be if I’d either chosen a different picture for the 8 x 10 size or paid the extra for a larger canvas print.

If you are preparing to display a photo of your own, please check out Easy Canvas Prints. They are currently offering 20% off all canvas prints with free shipping and, for orders over $60, a free 8×10 canvas.