Three photo considerations for the best wedding art

Your special day and its memories deserve to be shared in the best way possible and that’s just what our wedding prints do. My favourite part about our wedding prints is that even though they follow the same formats, each individual print is so unique and tells its own story. 

With that being said, text is text, but the photo is what makes it a great print vs a show stopping print. While I come from a design and communications background, each project is so different and now that these two products have been in our shop for months now, I wanted to share some tips when it comes to picking your photo for a print. Based on these products, I have identified three considerations to help you choose your photo that will make for the best possible print: 1) Photo orientation, 2) Image Size, 3) Image Content. 

Photo Orientation

To landscape or to portrait? Landscape style photos are longer in width than height, while portrait style photos are longer in height than width. When it comes to our prints, our wedding vow art is landscape style while our wedding song art is portrait style and my recommendation for photos is to follow suit depending on the type of print you choose. 

By choosing a corresponding style photo to the print type, I can minimize any photo sizing alterations that need to take place to make that photo work within the different dimensions.

Imagine buying a dress that is a little too short and you feel like you are constantly pulling it down to a length that feels comfortable; using this example because I am 5’10 and recently bought a dress online that was a “mini” and it was NOT for me. Moral of the story, it’s not the same and that goes for photos too.

While I don’t stretch or expand the photo dimensions, I am able to scale the photo as needed; however, a landscape photo is not meant to be a portrait photo and vice versa. The elements, focal points and other aspects that make your photo so spectacular, don't always transfer well when that photo style is changed. 

So…if you choose a wedding vow art print, my suggestion is to submit a landscape style photo. If you choose a wedding song art print, my suggestion is to submit a portrait style photo. 

Image Size

Bless grandma. She more than likely took 250 photos at your wedding and while she may have gotten some great angles, image size and quality is key for printing especially in a large format like our wedding prints. 

When it comes to photos, quality is determined within the resolution. Resolution is measured by dpi ( dots per inch) meaning the number of dots per inch that a printer deposits on to the piece of paper. For digital formats, a resolution of 72 dpi will be great because it allows your computer to load the photo faster without compromising quality; however, when it comes to printing, a higher resolution of 300 dpi is best to make sure your photo is printing in the best possible quality. 

While I totally appreciate that not everyone has access to software to make resolution changes, any photos that come from your wedding photographer should be in a print resolution format (300 dpi) that will serve well for your wedding print. 

So… try to submit photos from your wedding photographer for your wedding print. Please avoid submitting screenshots, photos from table disposable cameras, zoomed in iPhone photos, etc. 

Image Content

Each wedding print is done in black and white for two reasons, 1) I LOVE the vibe it gives, 2) the text and images work much better together in black and white. That being said, when there are a lot of light shades within the photos, it can be harder to overlay your text. When I refer to lights, I don’t mean the general brightness of your photo (we want lively, great quality images), but I am talking about light colours in the photo. 

For example, if 75% of your photo encompasses your white dress and the background of a white tent, it is harder to overlay text in a clear, vibrant way. So… consider photos that you not only love, but that also have great contrast between light and dark elements. 

I hope these considerations help you choose the best photo for your wedding prints. When you make your order, feel free to submit a note with it to request a draft review before I print your art. We are always happy to take you along the design train and incorporate any feedback as you see fit. You can shop wedding prints as part of our wedding collection on our website. Happy wedding!