Here's an example. I had a pretty newborn baby girl come in just before we closed for the holidays. Her parents came in right after we re-opened to place their order. We went through the images, then got to talking about image sizes and wall space. And they just got it. They understood that bigger spaces, more often than not, need bigger images to look balanced. The dad fell in love with one image of his little girl, and ordered a 20x30 size print (this is just smaller than your average size poster). You can see it here, and the size comparison to an armchair in my living room (yes, the chair is ugly, but that's beside the point. LOL).
You can see that the size of this image works for the space of the wall (even though it's not hung up). It would look nice framed above the chair here, because the size of the print fits the space it would hang in.
Now, we also did a small wall collection of 3 lovely images of baby girl and her parents. We had them printed in black and white, and they are gorgeous. That's them propped on the back of a standard sized couch below. This is an example of image sizes that just don't work for the wall they are on. Care to take a guess at the sizes of the prints?
You might be thinking, maybe a 10x13 and a couple of 8x10s. Nope. The middle print is a 16x20, which some consider huge (side note: 16x20 prints/canvas are the smallest single-image prints I hang in the studio. Those who have been here can see how they work better than the smaller prints). The two side images are 11x14 in size. They look tiny, right? That's because these are really too small for this space. Now, the clients have a space in mind that this collection will work with, and that's great that they know where they can place them at this size. For a wall this size, though, these images should go quite a bit bigger, so they don't look like postage stamps that you have to squint to see.
If you're ever in doubt about what sizes go up on the wall, there's a simple little thing to remember. 8x10 and smaller size prints are typically good desk or table top sizes. 10x13 and 11x14 prints can be the odd ducks - depending on where they'll go, they can hang as a small group (usually in a small narrow space, such as between a door frame and a wall corner) or they can also work well in a well-thought out collection that fits a larger space. Anything larger should be considered a wall print, because, well, that's pretty much the only place they're going to fit. :)
We give out a decorating guide to clients that come in for a session. In fact, this guide goes home with them the day of the session, so that it can be looked over before they come in to order. It talks about the print size issue (and measuring the spaces where you are considering hanging images before coming to order), as well as working with the decor in your home (ie color print vs. black & white, frame styles, etc), so that everything works together and your images look like treasured art pieces instead of, well, postage stamps stuck on the wall that you have to squint to see! We also walk our clients through sizing in their ordering session as well, from everything to what image works best for a wallet to what sizes work well together for a wall collection in a specific size space. We don't just want to hand you your portraits, wish you well, and send you on your merry way. We want you to be able to look at the images on your wall for months or years to come and think about how great they look. We want you to be as proud of your images hanging on your wall as we are to create them for you. For an investment such as this, you shouldn't settle for anything less from your photographer.
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