You've got that great picture, now what to do with it? Frame it, and put it where everyone can enjoy. But to get the most out of your image, there's a few things you need to know about standard frame sizes.

The framing market is in a sad condition, and it's been that way for decades. It began with the popularity of large format cameras which shot negatives the size of an 8x10. Medium format cameras that shot 4x5 negatives were also popular for portraits. The problem is these cameras produced images in a format different than every single consumer camera and 35mm camera today. Because of the formats these cameras shot in, the industry created frames to fit their images, i.e. 4x5, 8x10, 11x14, 5x7, etc. But with the popularity of 35mm cameras, which shoot in a different format, the frame sizes never changed to adapt with them. Bottom line, images from your 35mm camera can't be enlarged to fit in a standard, off-the-shelf frame, forcing you and me to use expensive custom framing to frame our images. Generally, you can not make an 8x12 print straight from your digital camera and buy and off-the-shelf frame for it.

Here's an illustration of the problem. We established the standard frame sizes. Now consider the actual frame size of any 35mm camera or consumer digital camera: in a Nikon D200 it's 18.5mm x 23.6mm, which when multiplied by the same factor roughly translates to the standard 35mm format of 2x3. Well, 2x3 does not fit the format of the standard off-the-shelf frame size, does it? Let's take a look. When you double the dimensions, which is done to acheive the next up frame size, you get 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc. No matter which factor you multiply by, as long as you multiply each dimension by the same number, you'll come out with another frame size, i.e. 6x9 (2*3 x 3*3), 13x19 (2*6.5 x 3*6.5); 11x14 is not a true frame size for images from a 35mm or consumer digicam (2*5.5 x 3*5.5=11x16.5). Remember, we are multiplying the base format of 2x3, which does not come out the same as the 8x10 or 4x5 camera format.

So what, the true format of your images is 8x12 instead of 8x10. What does it mean? It means that you can't make an 8x12 print of your favorite shot and go to Wal-Mart to buy a frame for it without cutting off two inches. Yikes! Is the framing market really that stupid? Yes! If you go to Walgreens and make prints of your images, they will come out fine. You could make a 4x6 or 8x12, for example. But even though these are the true image sizes from your camera, it's not the frame size of the framing world. Remember, the framing world hasn't adapted to the 35mm format. All its frames are still made for the ancient format of 8x10 (4x5, 16x20). Either you have to physically cut the sides of the print, or you have to crop the image in an image editing program, like Photoshop or the kiosk at a print-mart.

There's no way around it. Prints from a 35mm camera just won't fit in standard frames. You have to crop, or you have to go with custom framing. When you crop, you'll only be changing the width of the picture. Your image editing program should have rulers as guides for measuring. If it doesn't, find one that does or find out how to turn on that option. When you crop, make sure you only reduce the width by the appropriate amount. For example, if you're cropping for an 8x10 frame, crop only two inches off the width. Don't mess with the height. If you don't want to lose any information from your images (I certainly don't), then custom framing is the best option. A custom framer will frame just about anything. It will cost you significantly more than buying a frame off the shelf, but if you want to preserve the true image that you worked so hard to achieve, it's the best option.

You may be saying, wait a minute, I've seen 4x6 frames. You're right. The 4x6 frame is one of the few frame sizes available off the shelf that actually fits the format of 35mm cameras. But 4x6 is not very big for displaying your passion for photography. To go much bigger, you usually have to sacrifice some image real estate or go with custom framing. Digital printing is becoming hugely popular. Let's hope the framing industry catches up soon and starts creating frames for the true sizes of our images. That said, custom framing will always be useful and will probably never go away, but for those times when we don't want that elaborate work, there should be off-the-shelf options available.

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